Help my power up my Powerbook one last time please

July 4, 2006 8:21 PM

Please help me power up my Powerbook G3 Wallstreet 300mhz one last time. I'm on my second 45W power supply...

and the connection just before the plug to the computer has severed again. It's been soldered a bunch of times, but is beyond repair this time.
The local shops (I live in Toronto) have quoted a price of $100 for a new 45w power supply which I can't quite rationalize as it is no longer my everyday computer. The thing is that it still has all my photos, short stories, and journals from when I was living in Europe...and I'd really like to be able to recover them.
Are there any other (cheaper) power supplies that I can buy that would work with this computer? Is it possible to bypass the connector on the back, open up the computer and solder the power cord directly to the board inside?
Thanks

posted by dismitree to computers & internet (8 comments total)

I wouldn't bother. I would take the hard drive out of it, mount it in your primary machine, and copy the data from it.
You may need one of these if you're intending to mount the old drive in a desktop machine. The process is quite simple and you should have no trouble.
posted by disclaimer at 8:44 PM on July 4, 2006

Take it apart, if you're comfortable with doing so, and then put the hard drive in an external enclosure and hook it up to your current computer. That's going to be less work then soldering anything. If the hard drive inside your old laptop is a 2.5" one, there are plenty of cases available, try newegg.com.
posted by voidcontext at 8:46 PM on July 4, 2006

Even better: Use an external hard drive enclosure for the old drive. Then it becomes a portable and you don't even have to copy the data.
posted by disclaimer at 8:47 PM on July 4, 2006

er, yeah, what they said :)
posted by disclaimer at 8:47 PM on July 4, 2006

Jinx.
posted by voidcontext at 8:48 PM on July 4, 2006

Oops, knew I forgot something crucial in the original question. Unfortunately, new primary machine is a PC (got it through work) - stupid question - is it possible to read the Mac HD in a PC?
posted by dismitree at 9:21 PM on July 4, 2006

Car power adapters are considerably cheaper than the official Apple ones. Either one like this, or your local computer store may have a universal one that includes a PowerBook G3 attachment. Then you can either use it in a car or just cut off the plug and solder it onto your old one.

is it possible to read the Mac HD in a PC?

With special software. There are a million old AskMe threads about this. You'll also need a USB enclosure or laptop to desktop adapter.
posted by cillit bang at 9:25 PM on July 4, 2006

You need MacDrive (to do the mounting a mac-formmated drive on your windows box).
posted by zpousman at 8:51 AM on July 5, 2006