Grr... Freakin' wallstreet

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Last seen: 15 years 1 month ago
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Grr... Freakin' wallstreet

A long time ago, my wallstreet stopped working. Just wouldn't boot. I was almost sure it was the PRAM battery, but didn't bother with it. Well, I'm ready to resurrect it, got a PRAM battery from a friend of mine that WAS an apple tech (he moved on to car stuff). Boots fine. OSX 10.2 (the only OSX I've bought, ever) installed fine. 10.3+ I am pretty sure won't install on this thing anyways.

If my mac tech friend wasn't out of town for training, I'd ask him, I'm sure he knows the answers. I figured I'd drop a line to you guys once again since you've been very helpful in the past.

I have A few problems:

1) White washed out screen of death. Change the brightness or anything and the screen goes totally washed out. I've googled and used the search here at AF and read a few suggestions. All of them I've read so far should start with "Once upon a time..." because they seem to be fairy tales. Pinching the frame, downloading an app to change the brightness, etc. None of that works. Given the fact that MacResQ's PBook work order submission form has an option for displays that are "Totally White or very Light", I'm going to assume that there's a known fix for this (extremely common) issue somewhere.

2) OSX 10.2 works fine. I thought I'd try to fix the display issue by doing software update. I remember that 10.2.8 broke my wallstreet ages ago, but I couldn't remember how. I took the low road and went with 10.2.5 that I was able to download after searching Apple's site for a bit. That caused bit corruption at the bottom of my screen but otherwise it worked. The white screen crap didn't get fixed. I went ahead and used software update to pull down 10.2.8. Now only the mute button, keyboard, and power button work. Mouse = dead. PCMCIA Eject buttons = dead. Volume and brightness buttons = dead.

So... Is there anything I can do from the terminal that would fix my mouse and other stuff? or is there a way to back-patch OSX to 10.2.5 or to 10.2.0 which I had installed before. Without using the mouse. I don't mind re-installing, the only thing I've done to this thing so far is installed the ioxperts driver for my Wifi card.

And is there a real working fix for the ultra-contrast white screen issue?

Thanx in adv.

--ax0n

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Last seen: 10 years 6 months ago
Joined: Sep 16 2004 - 02:44
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what model wallstreet is this

what model wallstreet is this? the original 12'' screen with 233mhz and no L2?
or one of the later ones?

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Joined: Feb 10 2004 - 21:41
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PDQ

It's the evil bottom of the line PDQ however I did have a 250MHz proc that I swiped out of one of an incomplete 14" LCD Wallstreet I bought from flojoe back in the day. I fried that CPU Board though when assembling it with improper screws. It was too long and shorted out one of the SMTs on the board. I think it's fixable though.

For the time being, however, it's a bottom of the line 233 "PDQ" version with a 192MB of RAM which is barely enough to get OSX off the ground, but I'll take OSX over 9 any day.

Any help is appreciated.

Tiger G5 Kid's picture
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Joined: Dec 20 2003 - 10:38
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PRAM Battery?

My wallstreet is now dead again - did the PRAM battery fix your problem?
I need to find a torx screwdriver to open the thing - what size is needed?

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Replacing the PRAM did make i

Replacing the PRAM did make it boot but now I get the white screen problem, which I never remember having before.

A T-10 Torx will pretty much take the entire wallstreet apart. There's some tight spaces where a bit-adapter screwdriver won't work... So I suggest getting an actual T-10 driver from an auto parts store, that doesn't use bits.

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T8, actually

Many sources, but Sears has 'em and there are Sears everywhere across the USA.

dan k

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Dead for sure.

I just tried with a T10, and i stripped the heads off the screws. So I decided to rip open the case with a screwdriver, which tore apart half of the power supply board, which has no chance of being replaced ever. Watch for my new video, 'Death of a Powerbook', coming in June. It involves pitchforks. And drops from three stories.

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???

I toasted my power board and got a new one on eBay cheap as could be. like $18 after shipping, not more than a year ago.

Sounds like the screws were ultra tight. I took mine apart with a T8 because it's the only long-handled Torx I had, but when I got the screws out I checked against my security torx bit set. Lo and behold, the T-10 was a perfect fit. Someone was he-manning when they put your wallstreet back together!

Jon
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Nice to see that the WS is bo

Nice to see that the WS is booting again. Sucks to see it's developed other problems. I'm guessing that you've quadruple checked the display/inverter cables? I have no other ideas, but a loose cable can cause havok... At least your fastest lappy is no longer your issue-prone WS. Wink

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