Cheapo PowerBook 12" Is it worth it?

[dawnraid]

Hi Im thinking about getting an old 12" powerbook, I saw this on New Zealand's equivalent of Ebay (called trade me)
I saw this auction, im not made of money at the moment ,but does anyone think they know what could be wrong with it or if it would be expensive to fix? it sounds like maybe the HD is stuffed?
Link to the auction here...

 

[andy.barron]

looks more like system problem (software).

 

[dawnraid]

yeh thats what im hoping, any one else, what sought of issues does the 12" powerbook suffer?

 

[fatcat23]

This could have something to do with the cooling, The laptop would just shut its self off to protect it from melting/burning. It could be a fryed component inside that is generating the extra heat. I've seen this problem alot with PC's both desktops and laptops. Easier fix on desktops, if it was a laptop I would just take a 9 iron to it, have fun and relieve some stress. Lol.

It looks like the seller cared for the laptop and it's in good shape but it might need a new logic board, or cpu. Or like stated before, it could just be a software problem. To much risk involved for me, not worth it. If you could inspect it before you bought it, that might be different story.

If you couldn't fix it, do you know how to open it up to sell for parts. Would you want to do this. How much experience do you have with hardware?

Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

 

[dawnraid]

Yeah thanks for that, I cant inspect it before hand, but I figured if I bought it and it was something more costly to replace (like a logic board) then I could just re-list the item and get back hopefully most of what I paid for it. I wouldn't really know how to salvage useable parts from it.

 

[fatcat23]

hmm.... considering it's still at a good price (182) it would be a great deal if it was a cheap fix. Even if you couldn't fix it, you could probably sell it without taking to big of a hit, like you said. Sounds like you want to do, so go for it. You could have some fun fixing it, lol, doing some learning. check ifixit.com once you get it for some mac hardware instructions.

Good luck.

 

[dawnraid]

hmm.... considering it's still at a good price (182) it would be a great deal if it was a cheap fix. Even if you couldn't fix it, you could probably sell it without taking to big of a hit, like you said. Sounds like you want to do, so go for it. You could have some fun fixing it, lol, doing some learning. check ifixit.com once you get it for some mac hardware instructions.

Good luck.

Yeah thanks, everything i can find out about the hanging grey screen seem's to suggest a corrupted install, which is an easy fix, but this is what worries me the seller just added this at the bottom "It gets stuck on a grey screen. There is also a funny black line above the apple logo"

any ideas ?