Tech Tips: Hit The Road

When portable Macs need a little attention

What does the switch on the back of my PowerBook 100 do?
My PowerBook's battery doesn't last long - Is there anything I can do?
My PowerBook won't recognise my external hard drive/CD drive?

[Q]: What does the switch on the back of my PowerBook 100 do?
[A]: The PowerBook 100 allows a persistent RAM disk to be setup and used (e.g. to boot from) but to do this the machine needs some level of power. The switch on the back of the machine TOTALLY switches the machine off and using it wipes not only the RAM disk but also the PRAM settings. You can probably guess that this switch needs to be used with extreme care.

[Q]: My PowerBook's battery doesn't last long - Is there anything I can do?
[A]: Given the age of 68K PowerBooks, the battery will no doubt have given up long ago but there are some things that you can try. Firstly, use the Apple Battery Reconditioner - this will take a few hours but might do the job. The only other idea is to throw the battery in the freezer (making sure that it won't get wet) - this can sometimes get things going again. At the end of the day though you're probably going to have to buy a new battery or remain wired to the mains supply.

[Q]: My PowerBook won't recognise my external hard drive/CD drive?
[A]: If your PowerBook came with a HDI-30 connector then it should be able to spot it. The big issue in this case is SCSI termination as most PowerBooks don't terminate the SCSI bus - they insist that the devices do it themselves. Of course the usual SCSI rules apply (unique IDs etc.) and if all else fails, make sure that your machine isn't trying to operate in SCSI Disk Mode.

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Site Last Updated: 11/04/2009 11:26:21