Highs And Lows Of Buying A £3 Mac...

[Dronecatcher]

I don't usually go for spares/repairs Macs on ebay but last week I took a chance on a Powerbook Titanium for £3.20. The seller reported that he had no charger to verify whether it was working and checking his profile, he clearly wasn't a computer dealer/trader, so I thought it was a genuine reason.

So upon arrival I attached a power supply - green light, so it's taking power, turned it on….no chime…but screen lights up and it boots into Tiger and the power changes to amber so it's charging the battery. All good so far.
So, the big reveal - what would About This Mac say? Wow - 800Mhz DVI model, 512Mb RAM and Airport!
For some reason though, there was no sound through the speakers although the headphone worked.
I set about installing Tiger and noticed that the battery was charging at a steady rate indicating it was good…even though I don't think the Powerbook had been turned on in 10 years.

Post install and after zapping the PRAM and resetting the PMU a few disappointments were ahead…

Airport - I can see a handful of my neighbours networks but it refuses to see mine, I have a WPA network and a hidden unencrypted one only turned on occasionally for older devices but it fails to see them.
I opened it up to check the Airport card antenna wasn't loose but it's all fine, I've had the laptop right next to my router but still no signal, also tried a mobile hotspot from my phone - nothing.
As a comparison, my G3 iBook has the exact same Airport card and connects fine.

EDIT: Faulty Airport card was the problem - swapped it out and now connecting fine.

Still no sound through the speakers - so I guess that's hardware, not really a problem as I always use headphones anyway.

Now, onto that battery. It took around 3 hours to get to 100% which I took as a good sign and everything in the Power details looked good, reporting a cycle count of 151. Running from the battery, the power meter indicated around 4 hours worth of life but dipped once I was doing something processor intensive, not too bad then.
But after about one hour, the Powerbook went to sleep with the battery exhausted…OK, maybe it needs to recalibrate?
Same again, 3 hours to charge, 100% estimating about 4 hours life, dies after one hour - doh!

I've wiped Tiger and made it a OS9 native machine for now and I can't really grumble at all for £3 with a battery that old lasting a hour is more than expected…it can be a spare for what I've got arriving next week - a 1Ghz Titanium

 

[swamprock]

I had an bad Airport card that did the same thing as yours. A replacement did the trick.

 

[Dronecatcher]

I had an bad Airport card that did the same thing as yours. A replacement did the trick.

I might swap cards later then...just thrown off by it seeing other networks but not mine.

 

[AphoticD]

Great score! Another addition to the collection

You can't argue with the price.

 

[CooperBox]

Great buy for £3. The memory stick's probably worth more than that!
And it's not tatty & flaked around the edges (or doesn't appear to be from the photos) like most TiBooks that turn up.

 

[Dronecatcher]

And it's not tatty & flaked around the edges (or doesn't appear to be from the photos) like most TiBooks that turn up.

Yes, it's not bad - paint has come off at the hinges but at least they're intact.

 

[eyoungren]

I might swap cards later then...just thrown off by it seeing other networks but not mine.

Are you running one of the newer 5Ghz networks?

If so, that's probably the reason. I may be wrong, but I think the original Airport Cards only detect on the 2.5Ghz bands.

 

[Dronecatcher]

If so, that's probably the reason. I may be wrong, but I think the original Airport Cards only detect on the 2.5Ghz bands.

No, I'm still on 2.5Ghz....
But @swamprock was absolutely right - changed the Airport card and we're back in business
[doublepost=1510499519][/doublepost]

Great score! Another addition to the collection

Just need to assign it legitimate duties now...I fear it might get pushed to the side once the 1Ghz 'Book turns up

 

[CooperBox]

Just need to assign it legitimate duties now...I fear it might get pushed to the side once the 1Ghz 'Book turns up

I think there's little doubt, it will. And if you eventually decide to install an SSD, which will it go in........?

 

[Dronecatcher]

And if you eventually decide to install an SSD, which will it go in........?

Yeah, I think you know the answer to that one....

 

[benwild_33]

I opened this thread and thought hey I recognise this, I was the £3 bid but wasn't interested in going higher without knowing it worked. Good to see it went to a good home. My 17" PB battery is similar, takes ages to charge but dies before 0%. I'm hoping a few charge cycles will fix it. The dead PRAM battery doesn't help when the battery does run out.

 

[Dronecatcher]

Update : I've added Tiger back ontop of the OS9 install so I can dual boot and I noticed it seemed to be a little quicker.
First install of Tiger gave a Geekbench of 406, now I've replaced the Airport card and re-installed Tiger Geekbench is 511. How bizarre...
[doublepost=1510514805][/doublepost]

I opened this thread and thought hey I recognise this, I was the £3 bid but wasn't interested in going higher without knowing it worked. Good to see it went to a good home. My 17" PB battery is similar, takes ages to charge but dies before 0%. I'm hoping a few charge cycles will fix it. The dead PRAM battery doesn't help when the battery does run out.

I don't normally bother but I thought it was worth a shot at that price. Old Batteries are a law unto themselves - my G3 iBook tells me it has 25 hours life on a full charge I'm prepared to forgive as it lasts about 2.5 hours.

 

[weckart]

Pretty much all of my spares & repairs have yielded up working batteries in contrast with working laptops.

 

[Dronecatcher]

Update: 720P h264 playback in Mplayer running the CPU at 80% with hard frame drop...not too shabby for a 800Mhz G4...hello 1Mb L3 cache

 

[AphoticD]

My final rev 867 TiBook also packs quite a punch (especially now with SSD). The design was advanced for it’s time.

I could be mistaken but wasn’t the TiBook essentially a desktop CPU design in a portable case? The Albooks got the lower consumption, lower cache, but faster bus + clock speeds.

 

[benwild_33]

I just won an auction on an A1001 very similar to this. I know it powers up and it comes with a power adaptor, the case looks pretty good condition although the LCD will need replacing. Really looking forwards to getting it though.

 

[647156]

EDIT: Faulty Airport card was the problem - swapped it out and now connecting fine.

Your WiFi doesn't run on channel 12 or 13 by any chance does it? If so, if you happen to have a US-spec AirPort Card your network won't be detected while others will show up fine. Just curious if it was that

 

[Dronecatcher]

Your WiFi doesn't run on channel 12 or 13 by any chance does it? If so, if you happen to have a US-spec AirPort Card your network won't be detected while others will show up fine. Just curious if it was that

That's very interesting, yes I am on Ch 13 (cleanest one away from neighbours) - I'll check this later - cheers

 

[weckart]

Most AirPort cards I see in the UK seem to be Dutch judging from the writing on them.

 

[Dronecatcher]

Your WiFi doesn't run on channel 12 or 13 by any chance does it?

Switched channel and tried it in my Quicksilver - still no luck. Thanks for the info though - useful to look out for that in the future.

 

[swamprock]

I just won an auction on an A1001 very similar to this. I know it powers up and it comes with a power adaptor, the case looks pretty good condition although the LCD will need replacing. Really looking forwards to getting it though.

Any of the TiBook displays will work, but if you want the higher resolution, look for an A1001 or A1025 display. The older ones will kick down to 1152x768 on the newer machines.