Lombard Powerbook 400 - D E A D - ?

[Charlie]

Hi,
Im new to macs. I got a second hand powerbook recently. The Lombard bronze keyboard jobby. Now i had trouble with it for a while and then it said "cache problem" . It wont work correctly and after a bit of research i found out that the cache memory fails on the processor daughterboard after 3 or 4 years. Is it worth me getting an upgrade card (they seem abit unreliable from what i have read) or strip the machine and sell the parts off? I paid £275 for the machine and got an external scsi cd burner with it. (16x).
Any suggestions?
Cheers Charlie.

[Powerbook G5]

Well I have a Lombard that I've used since it came one on May of 1999 and it's still working flawlessly. If you like your PowerBook and you're willing to spring for the upgrade card, go for it. It's a pretty nice machine and it's been extremely reliable for me, I'm sorry to hear you've had mixed blessings with yours.

[powerbookmedic]

The cache problem is a problem on all of the G3 Lombard and Pismo processor cards...even the upgrades. Upgrade companies normally use the stock processors for upgrading, so it doesn't get rid of the problems inherent in the processors. Furthermore, the upgrades for the Lombard aren't all that stable, and many have heat problems. I'd probably reccomend getting a replacement 400mhz processor, but make sure the revision is a Lonestar 3.1...the 2.1 is the series that is plagued with problems.

-Bradley

[Powerbook G5]

Is this a big issue? I've used my Lombard as my main computer pretty intensively for well over 4 years an never had a single problem with this, nor have I ever heard of it being a problem. :confused:

[powerbookmedic]

It's a very big issue, probably one of the biggest Lombard problems. Is mainly affected the Lombard processors which are Revision 2.1...the 3.1 processors rarely have problems....to check which revision you have there is a program out there called PPC checker... (OS9)...Do a search on Google to find it. If you haven't had problems in 4 years, then it's likely your processor is ok, but then again the cache can fail at the drop of a hat.

-Bradley

[Powerbook G5]

It says it's a Lonestar Rev 2.2 Copper G3

[powerbookmedic]

The 2.2 series is rather problematic. I'd watch it. If the unit starts behaving badly with frequent freezes and you start to get cache errors then you know what's going on.

-Bradley

[Powerbook G5]

Well, considering it's been over 4 years and I've never had an error message and I cannot even remember when it's ever crashed, I'd have to say I've been pretty lucky. I'm surprised to hear of this being such an issue since I've met a few people on these forums who have a Lombard without any problems, as well. Ah well, I'm set on getting a new PowerBook once the unbelievable happens and they are updated (sometime around the next ice age I believe), so 4 1/2 years of faithful service have given me quite the appreciation for this machine. It's even been through 3 hurricanes and many rather abusive roommates. Not to mention a dog who seems to enjoy jumping up onto the table and walking across the keyboard.

[Charlie]

Thanks Powerbookmedic,
do you know where i can get a replacement Lonestar 3.1 card?
Is it availiable from apple?
Btw does anyone know how much the lombard is worth as spares? Im still not sure what to do with it. The 400mhz replacment card sounds better than the 500mhz upgrade option. From what ive read these 500mhz cards seem unstable and get very hot.
Cheers Charlie.:confused:

[powerbookmedic]

You can order the card from us. If you do, just make sure to email us that you'd like the 3.1 card. The Lombard 400 with dead cache is probably worth around $300-$400... We also buy broken units if you're looking to sell.

-Bradley

[xpormac]

:eek:

[Charlie]

Thanxs Bradley,
the only problem is that im in the UK. Could you tell me how much the 3.1 card costs?
Cheers Charlie.

[powerbookmedic]

We sell them for $219.95. We ship to the UK. If you're going to buy, make sure you email us first to make sure we've got a 3.1 in stock. We sell out pretty quickly.

-Bradley

[Charlie]

Thats great,
thanks for your help.
Cheers Charlie.

[Charlie]

Btw,
i`ve had a proper look at your site now and i must say its the best mac spares site ive seen. Good one.:)

[powerbookmedic]

Thanks for the feedback. We designed the site for the powerbook community with the customer in mind. All feedback, positive and negative has been taken into consideration in improving the site. Thanks again.

-Bradley

[Gus]

Went to your site, but it looke like you've reached your bandwisth limit for the month. I'll check back again later.

Regards,
Gus

[powerbookmedic]

We're back online. We were only offline for about 15 minutes. There have been some articles posted online about our site, and that spiked our bandwidth over our 15GB limit...We've upgraded our systems to allow for the peak demand.

-Bradley