Stratamesh
New Member
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- Apr 12, 2025
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I just found this PowerBook 180, and it looks good and comes with a lot of stuffs. Should I bid/offer on it?
PowerBook Listing
PowerBook Listing
| VCF West | Aug 01 - 02 2025, | CHM, Mountain View, CA |
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The South Found this PowerBook 180, Good deal?
- Thread starter Stratamesh
- Start date
Covers: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and West Viriginia.
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GiGaBiTe
Veteran Member
Only if you understand you're buying a ticking time bomb. This machine was very obviously not restored, and all of these machines go VERY bad from capacitor failure. If you don't have the skillset required to restore and preserve this machine, be prepared to pay at least the the value of the machine again in paying someone else to restore it.
It is not a matter of if this machine will die, it is when this machine will die. The power supplies are also ticking time bombs that can kill the machine from overvoltage. They have the same problems with failing capacitors that can cause the supply to drift wildly out of spec and destroy the laptop. These power bricks are not easy to repair because they're ultrasonically welded together, and are hard to break open in a way that they can be sealed again after repairing them.
The battery packs used in these machines have all gone bad by now, and very often leak and destroy the machine from the inside out. I reverse engineered the battery pack a few years ago and made a 3D model that can be printed to make new battery packs, but it is not a simple process to build these packs up.
It is not a matter of if this machine will die, it is when this machine will die. The power supplies are also ticking time bombs that can kill the machine from overvoltage. They have the same problems with failing capacitors that can cause the supply to drift wildly out of spec and destroy the laptop. These power bricks are not easy to repair because they're ultrasonically welded together, and are hard to break open in a way that they can be sealed again after repairing them.
The battery packs used in these machines have all gone bad by now, and very often leak and destroy the machine from the inside out. I reverse engineered the battery pack a few years ago and made a 3D model that can be printed to make new battery packs, but it is not a simple process to build these packs up.
Are we looking at the same listing? Charger and battery are standard, the modern case has no value nor any connection to Apple, and the "replacement trackball" is just that - a ball that you'll probably never need to replace. There is nothing else included.
Also, the seller assumes that the hard disk might be damaged. Mind you, that is not an easy fix. 2.5" SCSI - good luck replacing that. Moreover, these have self-destructing TFT panels. For a working machine, 200 bucks are allright, but for this, no.
Somehow I've got the feeling Stratamesh is actually the seller anyway and this was just advertisement for the auction.
NeXT
Veteran Member
If they are, they are doing a lousy job. Since the original post (to whom they have not signed back in since April 17) the auction ended with no bids so OP's question was answered methinks. 
$200? No.
$150? No.
$100? Turn it on and leave it for 20 minutes. It has an Active Matrix display which looks really nice but is prone to tunnel vision.
It's been relisted five times since then with still no bids. Swallow that large pill because if it ain't selling on ebay at that price, the market's aren't smiling down upon you.
With the laptop as clean as it is (it has the back door, which likes to break off), two PSU's a bag. An extra trackball for some reason and that funky Warner Brothers asset tag, $75 seems like a fair price.
$200? No.
$150? No.
$100? Turn it on and leave it for 20 minutes. It has an Active Matrix display which looks really nice but is prone to tunnel vision.
It's been relisted five times since then with still no bids. Swallow that large pill because if it ain't selling on ebay at that price, the market's aren't smiling down upon you.
With the laptop as clean as it is (it has the back door, which likes to break off), two PSU's a bag. An extra trackball for some reason and that funky Warner Brothers asset tag, $75 seems like a fair price.
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