I have a friend who has a Mac Powerbook 520 Laptop. She can not get any life out of it at all. We have tried two power adapters.
I found this article on-line titled "Bringing a Powerbook 520 Back from the Dead" at
http://lowendmac.com/brierley/05/1128.html
"Intelligent Battery Reconditioning Software" is talked about and there is a link to download a file called "Intelligent_Battery_Update.sea.bin" which I've done (downloaded with a PC, I don't have a Mac nor do I really know anything much about anything later than the Apple II, and what I did know about that, I can't remember anymore!).
What I'm having trouble understanding from the article is that if the Laptop appears "dead" then how was this utility used? I presume that the file I've downloaded is a diskette image and my plan is to create a diskette using a Windows or Linux PC to use on the PowerBook. Am I stupid to think that this has any chance of working?
The status at the moment is that we've tried different key combinations to try and start the PowerBook, but it seems to be completely dead. I'm thinking that maybe the problem has to do with the hard drive in which case it might start up from a floppy. I've asked her to hunt for her "Disk Tools" diskette but she's not sure if she will be able to find it. If the problem is not in the drive but in the battery "smartchip" then the solution outlined in the above linked article might work but I just don't understand how the "Intelligent Battery Reconditioning Software" can be run if the PowerBook is dead.
Can anyone help and does anyone have the least idea what I'm on about? I guess that if the problem lies in old batteries that are beyond "resurection" then maybe some new batteries would work. She's been to the Apple Centre in London however, and they are telling her that they have no parts for it because it is such an old model. Does this mean that it is no longer possible to get new batteries for it? Last question. Does anyone know where I might start looking for new batteries?
Any help and advice would be useful I know much about PC systems but when it comes to Macs I am somewhat in the dark. Thanks.
Top
