This 90s Apple iBook Has Modern USB-C Power

Mods on old hardware can be especially cool. While an old 90s laptop shouldn’t be driven daily by anyone, that didn’t stop this person from making their old iBook a tad more modern than even some laptops these days.

Bluesky user Gammitin (Ben) shared the process of taking an old iBook G3 Clamshell from 1999 to not only give it a second life, but make it a tad more modern in the process—supporting USB-C PD for power. The initial problem with the unit was a common one for these aging machines: a faulty DC-In board. A tiny surface-mount (SMD) zener diode on the DC-In board had blown, rendering the laptop unable to power on. A search for the specific part, a MMBZ5233B zener diode, proved to be a challenge. While a replacement board was available online, the cost, coupled with shipping, made it unnecessarily expensive. So the solution chosen was a bit of a more custom one.

Instead of a direct SMD replacement, a readily available through-hole zener diode was used. While physically different, its electrical properties were a match. With the aid of a microscope and a steady hand, the destroyed SMD diode was removed, the board was cleaned, and the new through-hole component was meticulously soldered into place. Then, it was a matter of looking for something that could actually supply the laptop with power.

Related

Don’t Buy a Laptop if It Doesn’t Have Two USB-C Ports

One USB-C port isn’t enough (and it never was).

The original power supply also proved hard to source. The computer requires a 24-volt input, and USB-C Power Delivery (PD) standards offer a range of voltages. Here’s when the modern twist comes into play, then. By using a USB-C PD trigger board, Gammitin was able to supply the iBook with a steady 20.2 volts. While not the full 24 volts the iBook G3 requires, it looks like the laptop’s voltage tolerance is forgiving enough, because the laptop turned on fine following the mod, with the classic Mac OS 9 booting up.

It’s kind of cool, although you can’t use this USB-C port for anything but power. The early iBook models had one single USB 1.1 port as well as FireWire for expansion, and that remains the only way to plug in stuff to this laptop. Not like you’d want to, anyway, since the laptop is nearing 26 years old. But these kinds of projects are cool because they can save the hardware from our past from ending up in a landfill. If you have a fried iBook you want to recover, I wouldn’t advise doing something like this unless you’re comfortable with soldering and you don’t mind the possibility of maybe messing it up even worse.

Source: Bluesky