Description

RARE/RESTORED/RECAPPED/WORKING Vintage Apple Mac Macintosh PowerBook 100.

Refurbished, tested and working Apple Powerbook 100 with 4MB RAM, no hard disk, recapped logic board and recapped display panel.

The PowerBook 100 was introduced by Apple in October 1991. It was a highly miniaturized replacement to the heavy, bulky and very finicky Macintosh Portable. It is considered to be the first truly portable computer sold by Apple…but this model was actually (mostly) designed by Sony. Unlike most laptops produced around the same time period, which were difficult to service, the Powerbook 100 was VERY easily serviceable. Its design was praised as being “...one of the 10 best PCs of all times” and it won many design awards.

Unlike (the very few) other 100’s available for sale these days, which are sold “for parts or repair”, ”as is”, “untested”, “no power adapter”, “not turning on” etc.. This particular unit is serviced, recapped, repaired and functional!

The laptop’s logic board has had all its electrolytic capacitors replaced (“recapped”). The screen has been recapped. The failed SCSI hard disk has been removed - this laptop does NOT boot in its present state and will require either a SCSI hard disk or an SD-based SCSI hard disk emulator to boot. The computer was tested with both an internal BlueSCSI and an external BlueSCSI and was able to boot with no issues. Note that the two brackets and the four screws used to hold down the hard disk are missing - likely removed by the previous owner with the hard disk.

The unit has no cracks; however, it does exhibit a few cosmetic issues: (1) the I/O port door is missing, (2) both riser feet are missing, (3) one of the three case screws is missing; and (3) the brightness plastic knob is missing.

The unit has been thoroughly tested. Sound, internal and external SCSI ports, external floppy port, keyboard, trackball, serial port, brightness and contrast controls and the reset and programmer switches. All tested and working properly.

Included with the PowerBook is the battery’s sliding locking tab, but no battery; the battery has been recycled as it was starting to bulge. Also included is (what I believe to be) the full original documentation set and floppy disk set (the disks are still in their original sleeve, but are untested). Both the documentation and the OS disks are in French.

The lot does not include a power adapter (most aftermarket universal adapters with a 7.5VDC @2+ Amps would work) and does not include a floppy drive (no floppy drive is built into this model of Powerbook - an external floppy drive was optional).

The screen is bright and both the brightness and contrast controls work properly. The base 2MB memory has been expanded to 4MB with an included memory expansion card.

Note: this unit is equipped with a French (Canada) keyboard. Essentially, its character positions are IDENTICAL to the standard US English keyboard. The Main difference being that some of the punctuation keys are replaced by accented characters. With a couple of included stickers, the keyboard can be used as a standard US English keyboard.

Despite this computer having been extensively tested and found to be fully functional, it IS over 30 years old technology and as such, there is no guarantee offered, or implied, for continued functioning. This lot is being sold as-is with no returns accepted.

This is a rare, thought after, collector’s item in fair cosmetic condition and excellent functional condition.