bifo86
Experienced Member
I picked up a 190CS from ebay a little while ago to work on as a new project, it's been a long time since I last worked on a classic 68k mac and I thought I'd like to try it out again. I had several powerbooks over the years, (140, 180 and 540C iirc) but never a 190CS and it looked as it it hadn't been fully inspected and the price was low enough to roll the dice. I received it and also bought a compatible AC adapter and discovered that it would power on and boot from the floppy, but the hard drive had of course been removed. I made several attempts to set up a DMA CF card with adapter but it wouldn't work reliably so I put in an old 18GB laptop hard drive which appears to work well enough with 7.5.3. Formats properly as one partition, install works, but I think all of these computers must have suffered from the same poor design on the power supply jack because there was very obviously a poor solder joint. I'll attach pictures below, but what a massive design flaw. I have a PB1400 on a shelf somewhere that wouldn't boot (I think I've had that one for nearly 20 years, I found it sitting on top of a recycling bin with the power supply near my first apartment. Those were the days) and I'm wondering if that isn't the same issue.
Tonight I finally got around to pulling the mainboard, which is when I took the photos and re-soldered the connections. Now the power connector doesn't seem to be fiddly with the connection but I'm worried that there might be some other connections or something else within it that are off. I've zapped the PRAM but it doesn't seem to want to stay on when I try to install from the floppy drive. The NiMH battery was leaking when I received it but I removed it and cleaned the contacts, nothing had gotten on the motherboard.
However, it still shuts down by about the time I get to the 7th floppy disk in the 7.5.3 install. The HDI-30 SCSI adapter for my external CD drive should arrive by next monday, so I won't need to swap disks then, but it could introduce further problems.
The PRAM battery is apparently live enough to cause problems when the computer shuts down but the noted procedures in the service manual, when it shuts down the power light remains on and solid and it doesn't respond to the service manual suggestion of trying to hold down the reset button for a length of time or repeatedly. If anyone has any suggestions other than leaving it unplugged and leaving the power adapter unplugged for a while, I'm very open to them. I think there might be some kind of extra transient charge going around the system which trips something over, so maybe a few days will let it discharge naturally.
Tonight I finally got around to pulling the mainboard, which is when I took the photos and re-soldered the connections. Now the power connector doesn't seem to be fiddly with the connection but I'm worried that there might be some other connections or something else within it that are off. I've zapped the PRAM but it doesn't seem to want to stay on when I try to install from the floppy drive. The NiMH battery was leaking when I received it but I removed it and cleaned the contacts, nothing had gotten on the motherboard.
However, it still shuts down by about the time I get to the 7th floppy disk in the 7.5.3 install. The HDI-30 SCSI adapter for my external CD drive should arrive by next monday, so I won't need to swap disks then, but it could introduce further problems.
The PRAM battery is apparently live enough to cause problems when the computer shuts down but the noted procedures in the service manual, when it shuts down the power light remains on and solid and it doesn't respond to the service manual suggestion of trying to hold down the reset button for a length of time or repeatedly. If anyone has any suggestions other than leaving it unplugged and leaving the power adapter unplugged for a while, I'm very open to them. I think there might be some kind of extra transient charge going around the system which trips something over, so maybe a few days will let it discharge naturally.