Resurrecting Pismo Powerbook

[Alan Wardroper]

Trying to resurrect a friend's old Pismo Powerbook (man, I remember when these things were top of the line blow your socks off machines).
Looks like the CMOS battery died and it stopped booting, so they shelved it for a while.
I just replaced the CMOS battery and there's life in it yet -- got it booted.
But...the main battery seems to be dead...only lights up one light, doesn't seem to want to charge, machine won't always boot with the battery in it requiring power manager reset to get it booted. Then it resets the date to 1904.

I've heard there's an apple utility to reset the battery but it won't run on a Pismo? Any other option?
I'm loathe to keep telling thee folks to buy new bits for their old Mac without knowing for sure if it'll help.
Anyone ever replaced the charging board? I've heard that can go bad and sometimes fix the battery charge issues.
But as it's been sitting uncharged for months (years?) I'm guessing it's actually the battery.     

I also can't believe the idiots at the Apple Store (you know, the Mac Geniuses) couldn't diagnose a dead PRAM battery and instead sold them a new power supply...which of course didn't work.

Any ideas?

[Deano]

I don't think I can help you (much) but maybe you can help me 

I've just been given a Pismo which will not boot. It has been dormant for over a year and the lithium battery is deaded like Blueboottle. I'd like to try the CMOS battery change to see if it will work -- where is this thing located?

I also have (or my son has) a Pismo which _will boot_. Its lithium battery is stone dead  but it runs off the mains power OK. hth

Its display and keyboard have had a hard life. I intend to cannibalize the pair of them and with joss get a serviceable machine out of the wreckage.

TIA

[yiwai]

FYI,
http://www.wegenermedia.com/pismolombpram.htm

Too expensive at Akibakan:
http://www.akibakan.com/100001akibakan/shop/product/detail.do?shopId=100001&pfid=BCAK0002659&sku=BCAK0002659A&pdListCf01=sub_menu.html&pdListCf02=&pdListCf03=&pdListCf04=&pdListCf05=header_tab_mac.html&pdListCf06=&pdListCf07=&pdListCf08=&pdListCf09=&pdListCf10=

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=612184
http://repair4laptop.org/disassembly_apple.html

Y

[Alan Wardroper]

To check and see if it's the CMOS battery, unplug, pop open the keyboard (slide the two tabs at the top down and the keyboard should pop up), remove the CD/DVD drive (or whatever's in the right hand bay; use the little lever on the front corner). You'll see a thin (red/white) braided cable plugging into the motherboard and the CMOS battery. Carefully pop that connector out of the motherboard and see if the machine will start with the AC plugged in (I'd remove that dead main battery too for good measure, just run it on AC). If it boots, then replace the CMOS battery. If it doesn't...could be one of a bunch of more complicated things that might make it not worth fixing.
   
This page has details, but really pulls the machine apart before removing thebattery -- it's not necessary.

Keyboard:


Battery:

[Deano]

Thanks Alan (and yiwai whoever you are) -- that's handy info. Now all I need is some time (and patience) to have a crack at this project.

Cheers