A 'New' PowerBook 5300cs

[CooperBox]

I recently picked up a PowerBook 5300cs, and (given their sad reputation) before some irreverent wag asks if it was from a trash can - it wasn't. I paid around $10 for this piece of interesting Apple vintage.

There's a fair bit of literature around about some of Apples 'failures', which makes for fascinating reading, and which I guess in my case, added to the intrigue. (I even have a boxed, near-mint example of the QuickTake 100) for similar related reasons.
The summary given by LowEndMac also makes interesting reading. So far, with the exception of the internal mouse tongue, I've seen very few 5300 'dropping's.

So not surprisingly, I set myself the task of finding a 'decent 5300' - which may be an oxymoron in itself!
A few pics follow:

I'd been told verbally by the seller, that the exterior condition was very good (that to me was a high priority), that it was functional, always booted to OS, (although occasionally to a poor pixelated resolution screen), so obviously needed some care & attention - often a challenge I find hard to resist. So this PowerBook sounded like it met my criteria.
In the car park where the 10€ and the PowerBook changed hands, during start-up trials, each time it booted correctly to a clear screen, so there was clearly still some life left in the old girl.
Back home, I immediately attacked her with a #9Torx, and found that the probably original main battery had been left in, with some slight leakage, leading to fortunately only superficial oxydation just to the internal connection. This was easily cleaned off. The PRAM battery - no doubt long expired - fortunately was adequately protected and showed no signs of leakage (next photo).....

One issue that will keep me occupied in finding a solution, is the mouse mechanism. It was barely functional, the reason for which was obvious. The plastic 'tongue' had fractured as shown here......

I'll attempt an epoxy repair, but even if successful will only be temporary, until I can replace that complete sub-assembly. Shown below:

No doubt I'll find a few more issues along the way, which I guess is all part of the fun.

I'd be very interested to hear if anyone can suggest another PowerBook of similar vintage which shares common parts - especially the mouse mechanism. If so this may make it easier to source spares.
And harking back to oxymorons, and a report by a certain Riccardo Mori 'In defence of the Powerbook 5300, I guess one could say that this was an 'awfully good' Powerbook in it's day. And in the same vein, I find I have a 'cool passion' for this PowerBook; in fact I'm quite 'cheerfully pessimistic' about my find!

 

[weckart]

I think the 5300 was the high end counterpart to the greyscale 190. They share the same case so should potentially share a number of the same internal components. Having said that, you are more likely to run into a 5300 than a 190. I have four 5300s and one 190, only one of which is in any way functional. The main batteries were very leaky.

 

[MacTech68]

If the case plastics were replaced with the 'revised' type, the shield in the battery bay should show a black date-stamp top and bottom. I've lost count of the number of these I sent back to Apple for a full re-casing.

Yes, the PB 190 mouse button actuator would be the same part, but, as a temporary repair, get a piece of flat transparent plastic from a blister pack and cut it to fit over the entire flat portion of the actuator. Smooth out the original repair glue, for a flat surface to join. Then glue the actuator together, using the blister pack plastic as a band-aid/doubler/strengthener to stop it coming apart. I've used that method on PB190/5300s and PowerBook 100 mouse button actuators with great success.

Be gentle with the power socket, these were never secure enough for rough handling and may need resoldering/replacement. The originals pins were too short and barely came thru the PCB. Replaced sockets have longer pins.

It does sound like you've researched these and probably have a handle on their history of brittle plastics.

 

[chrfr]

I think the 5300 was the high end counterpart to the greyscale 190. They share the same case so should potentially share a number of the same internal components. Having said that, you are more likely to run into a 5300 than a 190. I have four 5300s and one 190, only one of which is in any way functional. The main batteries were very leaky.

Apple also sold the 190cs which had the same display as this 5300cs. It's a really low quality passive-matrix screen but they were a lot cheaper than the 5300c. I sure was glad to be rid of that 190cs, it was really a dog.

 

[CooperBox]

Apple also sold the 190cs which had the same display as this 5300cs. It's a really low quality passive-matrix screen but they were a lot cheaper than the 5300c. I sure was glad to be rid of that 190cs, it was really a dog.

As a dog lover, that would have suited me fine.........
[doublepost=1456937609][/doublepost]

If the case plastics were replaced with the 'revised' type, the shield in the battery bay should show a black date-stamp top and bottom. I've lost count of the number of these I sent back to Apple for a full re-casing.

Yes, the PB 190 mouse button actuator would be the same part, but, as a temporary repair, get a piece of flat transparent plastic from a blister pack and cut it to fit over the entire flat portion of the actuator. Smooth out the original repair glue, for a flat surface to join. Then glue the actuator together, using the blister pack plastic as a band-aid/doubler/strengthener to stop it coming apart. I've used that method on PB190/5300s and PowerBook 100 mouse button actuators with great success.

Be gentle with the power socket, these were never secure enough for rough handling and may need resoldering/replacement. The originals pins were too short and barely came thru the PCB. Replaced sockets have longer pins.

It does sound like you've researched these and probably have a handle on their history of brittle plastics.

Many thanks for all your comments. I'll try the repair you suggested over the weekend.

 

[CooperBox]

Hi,
Could someone please advise where I can find a tear-down guide for the 5300cs. As there's nothing on iFixit, was wondering if there's a source for this, and eventually other early PoweBooks. I have no real problem 'following my nose' during a first disassembly, but would be valuable to have an official guide.
I also appreciate that with the brittle plastic of these, the saying 'if it ain't broke, why fixit' could be a good enough reason not to delve too deeply. But I'm as inquisitive as I am cautious to check out the inner workings of this old girl.

 

[Ih8reno]

Does this work?

https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Macintosh_Powerbook_5300cs

 

[647156]

The official Service Source manual is probably worth having too, try a Google search for the following query, the PDF should come up at/near the top

"service source" 190 5300

 

[MikeatOSX]

http://tim.id.au/laptops/apple/powerbook/powerbook_190.5300.pdf

 

[MacTech68]

Can't offer any better than the last three posts

 

[CooperBox]

Can't offer any better than the last three posts

Marvellous. Thanks a lot! Looks like I'll be busy this weekend (and in PowerBook heaven)........

 

[CooperBox]

If the case plastics were replaced with the 'revised' type, the shield in the battery bay should show a black date-stamp top and bottom. I've lost count of the number of these I sent back to Apple for a full re-casing.

Yes, the PB 190 mouse button actuator would be the same part, but, as a temporary repair, get a piece of flat transparent plastic from a blister pack and cut it to fit over the entire flat portion of the actuator. Smooth out the original repair glue, for a flat surface to join. Then glue the actuator together, using the blister pack plastic as a band-aid/doubler/strengthener to stop it coming apart. I've used that method on PB190/5300s and PowerBook 100 mouse button actuators with great success.

Be gentle with the power socket, these were never secure enough for rough handling and may need resoldering/replacement. The originals pins were too short and barely came thru the PCB. Replaced sockets have longer pins.

It does sound like you've researched these and probably have a handle on their history of brittle plastics.

It's been an interesting afternoon with this PB5300cs. Good news, and not so good.......
Firstly, the mouse button actuator repair you indicated worked like magic!
I started by re-attaching the broken part using a 'special plastics' super-glue, claimed to be effective even with notoriously difficult PE & PP plastics. And this Loctite product certainly was, which resulted in a solid bond. Then using your suggestion of adding a strengthener, I found 2 blister packs. One was 0.20mm (0.008") in thickness, the other 0.034mm (0.013"). I used the thicker of the two. When cut to size this was bonded to the actuator button using the same super-glue product.

When re-assembled, the mouse button actuator worked a treat! So again, many thanks for your valuable tips.

Secondly, the not-so-good news.
Prior to tear-down today, I powered it up which resulted in OS booting ok, but the screen displaying vertical lines. (The seller had mentioned something similar, which I'd not experienced until now). Same thing after re-connecting the power supply and rebooting.
Reading through some older posts and suggestions, I gave it a hearty whack! But no change.
Removed the battery and powered up ok, but same vertical lines present. I've just left it powered on for an hour, and no change. Screen shots follow:



Your comment on the power socket was interesting. On applying some very slight pressure to the connecting plug, power was lost and shut down occurred. Same on 2nd attempt. Each reboot successful with same vertical lines on screen. So there could well be the problem you state with original socket pins too short and barely penetrating the PCB. But would this affect the image, or is there perhaps a caps problem?
Additional words of wisdom always welcome.

 

[havokalien]

inverter board has some caps that may be suspect, but also the cable could be suspect, either the connection to the MB or at the hinge.

 

[MacTech68]

The power socket problem shouldn't affect the screen in that way.

As havokalien says, the display cable could be suspect, either at the connector to the motherboard or, a tear at the hinge.

However, it could be corrosion near the motherboard connector (unlikely) or a bad capacitor or two in the display itself - I'm aware that some early PowerBook 100 & 100 series machines suffer this way. Looking at the photos, it seems like there are two separate faults. One causes the vertical banding, the other affects only the bottom half of the screen.

Perhaps the only troubleshooting you can perform (without known good replacement modules) would be to carefully change the position of the display (as one normally would do in normal use) and see if the problem changes at all. If it does, it's probably a break in the cable or worn-thru insulation on the cable near the hinge.

The other thing you could try is to slightly wiggle the connector where it plugs onto the motherboard.

NOTE: Be careful with the display cable. They can snag and/or tear easily.

 

[CooperBox]

Thanks to both for your comments. I'll put them to the test within the next few days.

 

[CooperBox]

It wasn't until the weekend that I found the time to pursue this problem further. I decided to completely disassemble the Powerbook.
With all components removed, they were individually cleaned, and inspected for any signs of distress. There was no evidence of leaking/bulging capacitors on the motherboard or elsewhere, or obvious damage to wiring, breaks in the screen cables & elsewhere, sockets etc. The motherboard had fortunately escaped contamination from the adjacent slight battery leakage.
A few disassembly photos follow:-






Great care was taken during the re-assembly process.
On completion, the very same vertical line pattern was present on the screen as shown by post #12 (second & third photos). There being no change to this even when rocking the display through fully open to closed position.
Even the power socket appeared to be securely fastened to the PCB, further eliminating the probability of that being a problem area.
Seeing this was no more than a pocket-money purchase (a mere $10), I'm not too disappointed at it not being totally serviceable, and have at least the satisfaction of knowing a lot more about the internals of this model than when I started, and observing that design-wise, the 5300 really did leave a great deal to be desired. As many have recently pointed out, it's the difference between night & day when compared to a Pismo, and also a 540c - which I'm currently refurbishing.
I'll now wait until another functional 5300cs comes along to provide a source for spares. It still looks however an attractive model amongst my Powerbook collection, which is progressing nicely.

 

[Silminator]

I recently picked up a PowerBook 5300cs, and (given their sad reputation) before some irreverent wag asks if it was from a trash can - it wasn't. I paid around $10 for this piece of interesting Apple vintage.

There's a fair bit of literature around about some of Apples 'failures', which makes for fascinating reading, and which I guess in my case, added to the intrigue. (I even have a boxed, near-mint example of the QuickTake 100) for similar related reasons.
The summary given by LowEndMac also makes interesting reading. So far, with the exception of the internal mouse tongue, I've seen very few 5300 'dropping's.

So not surprisingly, I set myself the task of finding a 'decent 5300' - which may be an oxymoron in itself!
A few pics follow:

View attachment 619298
View attachment 619299

I'd been told verbally by the seller, that the exterior condition was very good (that to me was a high priority), that it was functional, always booted to OS, (although occasionally to a poor pixelated resolution screen), so obviously needed some care & attention - often a challenge I find hard to resist. So this PowerBook sounded like it met my criteria.
In the car park where the 10€ and the PowerBook changed hands, during start-up trials, each time it booted correctly to a clear screen, so there was clearly still some life left in the old girl.
Back home, I immediately attacked her with a #9Torx, and found that the probably original main battery had been left in, with some slight leakage, leading to fortunately only superficial oxydation just to the internal connection. This was easily cleaned off. The PRAM battery - no doubt long expired - fortunately was adequately protected and showed no signs of leakage (next photo).....

View attachment 619311

One issue that will keep me occupied in finding a solution, is the mouse mechanism. It was barely functional, the reason for which was obvious. The plastic 'tongue' had fractured as shown here......

View attachment 619312

I'll attempt an epoxy repair, but even if successful will only be temporary, until I can replace that complete sub-assembly. Shown below: View attachment 619313

No doubt I'll find a few more issues along the way, which I guess is all part of the fun.

I'd be very interested to hear if anyone can suggest another PowerBook of similar vintage which shares common parts - especially the mouse mechanism. If so this may make it easier to source spares.
And harking back to oxymorons, and a report by a certain Riccardo Mori 'In defence of the Powerbook 5300, I guess one could say that this was an 'awfully good' Powerbook in it's day. And in the same vein, I find I have a 'cool passion' for this PowerBook; in fact I'm quite 'cheerfully pessimistic' about my find!

I've just purchased one. The seller says it works and is in perfect condition. Can't wait to get it!

 

[weckart]

I've just purchased one. The seller says it works and is in perfect condition. Can't wait to get it!

Just be very careful with the power cable. It fits into the socket but with no real solid attachment and if you so much as look at it, it falls out. The only fix was to cannibalise a standard 3.5mm barrel socket from a suitable donor Mac laptop and replace the flimsy socket on the 5300.

 

[za9ra22]

I've just purchased one. The seller says it works and is in perfect condition. Can't wait to get it!

I hope it was as good as it sounds when you got it!!

I recently got a 190 in working condition, and I have used it regularly since it arrived. The footprint of this model is so perfect for my needs and use that I thought I'd look for a 5300 too, not realizing (then) how rare working ones are. I saw an untested one that looked in pretty good condition and bought it.

It seems to work perfectly once booted using the 190 PSU. It does have the 'AA' marking on the serial number sticker, which I believe indicates it went through the refurbishment program, so has the 'improved' casing, and it certainly is in very good physical condition - not even any battery leakage.

These laptops deserved their awful reputation for disintegrating and cracking plastics, and some very dubious design choices, but a good working one is a thing to behold!