Powerbook 100

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Powerbook 100

Hey,
I picked up a Powerbook 100 on eBay, including floppy drive and adapter, for $9.99 buy it now. It has the ? floppy on boot, but it *may* just need a system folder. Anyway, what do I need to know about this system? Is the external floppy 1.44MB or 800k? What OS should I use? Any general tips?

Thanks,
Kyle-

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It depends

I think there was an option for either the 800k or the 1.44. from what MacTracker says, It can use 7.5.5, but if it is only 800k, good luck finding the floppies for it. the thing features a 68000 CPU at 16MHz, I really don't know what you are gonna run on it, as it can only hold 8MBs Ram total. Also, better hope the HD works, and if it doesn't be prepared to find a SCSI Laptop HD. You just "Might" be able to get an external SCSI Drive attached to it with a CD-Rom. You will need a HDI-30 Block to do it.

and most likely, the battery will be shot. as it is Lead Acid, and those things are not able to be refurbished.

The system originally came with 7.0.1 on it, but used an enabler to work with it (i think). To know, you would have to have the disks for it. Hope you have some floppies...

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Re: It depends

I think there was an option for either the 800k or the 1.44.

Can anybody corroborate this? I could have sworn 1.44 was standard. Even the Mac Portable had a 1.44 MB drive as standard.

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PB 100 floppy

Hey,

Mine is also 1.44MB. The PB 100 will also take 6.0.8L which is what I have in mine with 8MB. I've never seen an 800k external floppy drive.

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Well it came today. It is in

Well it came today. It is in excellent physical condition. It looks like it has had minimal use. However, the hard drive makes some groaning noises and SCSIProbe 4.3 cannot see it - it flashes "Bus Unterminated" on the top. Any ideas what that means? I'm not too keen on opening this sucker up - yet. So we'll see.

I did make a System 7.1 OS disk for it.

Kyle-

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Looks like . . .

. . . you're going in to replace that hard drive. If it's any consolation, the PB100 is one of the easiest laptops to open and play with. If you need the service manual, PM me.

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Well, about 20 minutes after

Well, about 20 minutes after I posted that, I opened it up. Nothing changed really... except now, the lines that appear on the screen when the floppy is accessed are more noticeable... its a slight "flicker" as the floppy is read...

The drive makes a three second click-accessing type noise - almost like the head is kind of "stuck".

Anyway, I forgot the model number off the hard drive - it was 40 MB. Would you know the number? Its Conner something...

Thanks,
Kyle-

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Doesn't matter . . .

Hey,

It doesn't matter if you put in a different hard drive. It doesn't have to be a Conner. All that matters is that it be the same type and size.

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Clarity

Hey,

My previous post might not be as clear as I might like. When I said "same type and size," I meant SCSI and the physical size of the drive not its MB capacity.

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