Restoring an In-Box Apple PowerBook from 1991!

I picked up one of Apple's first laptops, a PowerBook 170, that was mostly complete with its original box. And while it doesn't appear to have suffered any abuse, the past 30 years have still taken their toll.

Sources:
Macworld, December 1991.
MacUser, December 1991.

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[Misstersack]

Hey! I came on Thursday down 2 hours from up north in a rare day off to Free Geek to buy something to play games from my childhood on and ended up walking out with your laptop! I just came home from work and saw this video and literally couldn't believe my eyes! I went to my storage unit, dug out my games and am patiently waiting for my roommate to come home and recap the power supply for me. Thank you so much! Free Geek has slowly helped me get back all the machines I used or owned growing up and this one was the last one I needed to get them all! My district was using these as late as 2001, when the clamshell iBooks ran out we had 5 of these in my kindergarten class just so we could play games or write short stories. Sometimes I got one of these and they always were more fun for me. Again, thanks for doing what you do, a sub well earned.

[CurtisOvard]

I do like the longer “rambling” style video. The more in-depth the better 👍🏼💻

[briand]

This is great. I was a Apple repair tech in the 90’s. The Coner drives always failed even new. Loved this!

[HidrogenoyMau]

8:52 "We're at a point where pretty much everybody knows how to use a computer" My mother-in-law is an elementary school teacher, with the lockdowns she was surprised to find out that some of the younger kids don't know their way around a PC because for them tablets and smartphones are the computers.

[PotatoFi]

Vintage Macs, 3D printing, and even cracking open a hard drive! Super fun. I enjoy these a lot. I like that your channel is a mix of different kinds of videos.

[rn]

I absolutely prefer the long form videos.

[xerzy]

You're a genuinely good teacher! I wish I could be thankful enough for videos like this, the narrative, tone, shots and pacing are really pleasing, and your thorough and careful methodology is really valuable and easy to follow, especially with a rewind button. Thank you a lot and good job, Colin!

[deBaer]

The FDHD actually means "Floppy Disk High Density", the drive later called "SuperDrive" in marketing.

[kylek]

Man this brings back memories. Our family started with a Performa 550 one evening in November 93 and quite literally watched the Sears truck bringing the 575's off the truck Poor mom and dad looked at each other after months of shopping with 4 kids and said stick with what we bought or we'll never own a computer. Since, we've had numerous macs. Love your content Colin, regardless of format because it reminds me of when computers were work to own and you had to figure most stuff out on your own or pay serious bucks to a expert. Kids now don't know how lucky they have it to not have to run a sneaker-net or survive with dial-up with one phone line in the house and family wanting to talk on the phone.

[AnthonyRBlacker]

I'm surprised this video hasn't done better, this is a REALLY GOOD flashback to the days.. back when, as you're showing off the manuals that are wire bound and very premium, to be read not just once and tossed, but kept with the system for its life.. there was a time that I remember VERY well when things that you paid a premium for were actually PREMIUM. This, this was the epitome of highest class in the Mac ecosphere. Nothing like today. Today you're lucky to get 4 or 5 years of out of a MacBook. Then? That thing would have lasted you a decade, EASY. I mean my wife's MacBook pro is probably 10 years old today and it still works fine, but I installed an SSD and ram, boosted it a little.. but it still does the job. It's nothing like they were back then though.

[LunarHermit]

So Misstersack is my roommate/friend; I just cracked into the powersupply tonight while watching this video! Every single one of the low voltage caps was leaking pretty badly. One had even started getting to work on the traces! Nothing too bad though! Lost a bit of the solder mask and there's some blackened bits on the very edge of the copper trace; nothing needing a trace repair thankfully, but plenty of clean up.... Only took maybe an hour or so, but it's working well now! Thanks for all the work you put into this machine even though you were just donating it!

[therepairsloth]

Dude, make the videos you like making, but since you asked, I love these types of videos. Long-form, rambling videos show your thought process and your operating process. All of the ingenuity you employ to get these old machines running inspires me to get back into fixing stuff again.

Keep up the amazing work, and thank you for your badass videos.

[JurruttCuurtnuy]

More long form vids pls. Ramble all you want.

[EmelieKerek]

I definitely like this style of video. I love watching repairs, but I also really like learning more about the machine and why certain issues can be resolved they way that they are. I especially found the hard drive disassembly interesting.

[atomicoverridelbc]

Also I do like the long detailed videos, especially the Sony walkman videos.

[retrolobo]

Wow, so lucky with the battery! As you said it is not common. I got a couple of PowerBook 100s series and both of them had a leaking battery and a lot of electrolytic all over the motherboard. Very nasty.

[cleffei]

I love both formats! Longer is usually nicer for me though since I can put it on while I do other stuff and not have to keep finding new videos to queue up :P

[zxyz]

just commenting to say that i absolutely love the style

[hmm]

Both styles of videos are good. a longer one once in a while makes for good balance

[Cameront]

I am having a rough day and this video is exactly what I needed. Thanks for what you do!