520 conversion to color

I believe so. Since they were all based off the same motherboard (and the CPU is socketed), I believe it's the exact same board. The Display cable must also be the same.

I seem to remember seeing a 540 go to a 540c via a simple LCD swap.

btw, I love my 540c, except for the dead batteries.

-digital

yea i'd like to see the battey in this one work too. it can sleep on battery power, but can't run on it. hopefully an overnight charge will fix that.

of course, i don't have any way of getting my files to floppies ot type on it, but it seems like it would be great for that.

alright since i'm confident that i can switch the screen, i want to know how in hell to get the intelligent battery update program to bloody work. it's a bin file, and i can't find any program to decompress it that isn't saved as a bin file. i cant even get stuffit to download.

The 500 series PBs use so-called 'intelligent' batteries, which contain a microprocessor power-manager. However, if the stored energy drops below a level that can maintain the microprocessor's memory, the battery no longer remembers that it is intelligent. This, rather than chemistry, is the cause of much PB 5x0 trouble. With old, flat M1906 batteries the most likely response from the IBR app. is that you should return the battery to Apple (for disposal) because the battery manager's memory is corrupt. This is not a useful result from the effort of finding a current source of StuffIt 4 or 5, which, given the current ownership of Aladdin/Allume, is quite some effort.

It is possible, but not certain, that you can overcome this unhelpful response from IBR by repeated attempts to recharge a battery in the PB, usually by not inserting the battery before you have started the Intelligent Battery Recondition application and after the app. has mentioned that there is no battery in the right-hand bay.

Much more effective, however, but still not certain, is to use the application EMMpathy from VST Power Systems to kickstart the microprocessor, or, if you can find one, VST's SmartCharger 500. As a last resort, new (higher-capacity in mAh) batteries are available. In Australia they can be had for AUD85-90. Your mileage may vary. Alternatively, you can try to re-cell the batteries yourself.

i did try that once i got the app working (found a program for windows that would allow me to write mac format floppies). the computer did show the charge symbol for awhile, then it showed full....after a minute of charging. the battery can maintain the comptuer in sleep for a few minutes, so it still has to be working. ill see if i can try the vst program.

still waiting to see if the owner want's me to swap screens.

The VST program also gives a useful battery specification listing. However, the usual reason for battery degradation with time is the growth of short-circuiting metallic filaments through the insulator/divider between the electrodes. It may take a dozen or more charge-discharge cycles to remove enough of these to begin to get a reasonable charge retention, and even then a battery may not support operation for more than 15-20min. Some people have claimed that externally short-circuiting the terminals of a partially-charged battery can burn off the internal dendrites, but if that is not done with great care it is just as likely to do the same with your eyebrows. A related technique is to charge a large-capacity polarized capacitor to (say) about 12VDC, and then to dump its charge into the battery. Even more so than shorting the battery terminals, this technique has the potential (pun intended) to take your head off as well as your eyebrows.

On the other hand, if the battery tries to emulate a toaster after 10-20 minutes on charge, you have only the choice between chucking it away or recelling it, because it is too far gone with internal short-circuits to be rescuable.

de

if i do anything, it will be through software. i also deal with the batteries in my wallstreet going out, and those ones will definitely explode if i do anything stupid. i have emmpathy on my dell, and am trying to get it in the correct format. so far, my virtual mac cannot properly read the file, but i plan to get it working soon. no one at apple knows what a powerbook 500 is, i'm sure, so there's no point in taking it there.

if i do anything, it will be through software. i also deal with the batteries in my wallstreet going out, and those ones will definitely explode if i do anything stupid. i have emmpathy on my dell, and am trying to get it in the correct format. so far, my virtual mac cannot properly read the file, but i plan to get it working soon. no one at apple knows what a powerbook 500 is, i'm sure, so there's no point in taking it there.