ok, after pondering this over for a few days after recieving my wallstreet, I decided to go for it. plus, I just got a Dremel 300 for cristmas I wanted to break in. so, here is what I did:
1. popped open the display (no need to open any of the CPU componants.) to do this: remove the rubber stoppers, remove the 4 t-8 torx screws, and wedge her open carefully.
2. remove the paper/ metallic tape. most of it is preferated, and if it isnt, slice it with a knife.
3. sand off the white plastic layer of the apple logo. (from the inside.)
4. smooth out the plastic until it is clear (stick your fingers behind it, and if you can see them, your good.)
5. if the inverter cable (thick pink and white wires) are sticking up, put a bit of scotch tape on it to hol it in it's place.
6. re-assemble everything.
7. power on the beast, and enjoy.
note: this isnt as bright as the later models that offically support it, including all current PB/ibook modles. they must have some white LEDs to enhance it. hoewever, it IS there, kida sppoky.
how this works: simple: the backlight from the LCD is shining through the plastic apple logo (now clear). so, so long as the display is on, you have a light apple logo.
one more thing: the logo still looks white when the display is closed. on mine, the scrachedness of the dremel work gives it a swirly kinda look.
enjoy and happy holidays.
-digital 
I have always wanted a wallstreet and I will be getting one soon and have always wanted to do something like that. youll have to post some pics sometime. keep up the good work
I will get some pics from my webcam as soon as I can hook it up to my mom;s wintel. Ubuntu (running on my B&W G3 temp.) doesnt like webcams.
and the light is an errie blueish colour.
it's kinda dim, but that's because I put the brighness on the screen way down right before the hard drive crashed and I lost OS 9. once I get my 9 CD from iantm, along with Panther and a few other goodies, I'll turn the brightness up and take another shot. but it looks good.
-digital
I was wondering if there was another way to get rid of the white layer on the inside of the apple logo without sanding it.
couldn't you just use alcohol? assuming the paint is similar to that which coats the insides of the ibook g3's and g4 towers, i think it should work fine.
and thanks for the instructions. ive been searching online for weeks and havn't found anything. good instructions. if you can get pics i'd be very interested.
couldn't you just use alcohol? assuming the paint is similar to that which coats the insides of the ibook g3's and g4 towers, i think it should work fine.
and thanks for the instructions. ive been searching online for weeks and havn't found anything. good instructions. if you can get pics i'd be very interested.
yeah, i guess I could use alcohol, but the sanding gave the logo a nice swirly effect, so that it still apears white, instead of transperent.
if you want, go ahead and use the alcohol.
pics are coming in about an hour. im waiting to use the laptop.
-digital
im wondering if my lombard can have this done to it? im just waiting for it to arrive in the mail... then ill have a look see...
the lombard and pismo models already have this standard, as do later production wallstreets. only the early wallstreets could not light up. they make the logo brighter in the G4 PBs and snow white iBooks.
still waiting for the computer. -digital
the reason the logo is brighter is because the LCD is brighter.
When I did this to my wallstreet back in 1998 I left the white backing intact and injected the light from the top and bottom edges. It lit up really well.
anyone else here buy that lombard from ebay???
here we go:
the powerbook's display. to open, remove the 4 plugs, circled in red. the bottom two need a knife to wedge them apart. the top two are rubber stoppers.
the plugs are removed, and the 4 screws (circled in red) are exposed. top two are silver, bottom two are black and slightly longer. all are torx t-8.
the (now clear) apple logo on the lid.
the reverse side of the (now clear) apple logo.
another pic of the logo, lighting conditions are better.
no, this isnt the backlight of the display powering the logo, it's a flourescent bulb. just showing off how transperent it is.
close up of the logo, showing the swirly effect that sanding off the white paint had. pretty cool.
the back of the LCD. you can see how much of the paper stuff I removed. the reflection is from the back of the display.
what I removed from the back of the display. semi-preferated paper covered in metallic silver (not duct) tape. also, yellow tape that held down the inverter wires.
bad quality (sorry), but this is what the logo looks like when it's light by the display. it looks better in person, I swear. it's just a bad camera. but the room was totally dark, and all you could see was that.
I have a pic of the ol' flashing question mark on the screen, but nobody wants to see that. I need software!!
just so you all know, this is the camera I took those pisc with:
A rebranded Intel YC72, made for compaq, so it's the Compaq YC72-CPQ. pretty crappy, but I got it for free.
enjoy. -digital
so you stripped the foil backing off the lcd? i was worried that i had to do that. -_-' someone said to just cut out a hole where the logo was and just leave the rest of the backing. i may just do that and maybe try alcohol on the logo and see what colors i can make it. now to find a t-8 screwdriver....
it was actually paper, kinda thick like the stuff you get in the HO Ho's package (no other way to describe it.) there is silver tape on top of it. it is easy to remove, as most of it is preferated, and the only part I left in there was over the inverter board.
let me know how your method comes out.
-digital
are you sure the later wallstreets have the light up apple logo? becuase if so what do you mean by "later wallstreets." i am getting a 266 MHz PDQ so would his already have the light up apple logo?
Thanks
i'm not sure if there is really any good way of telling from first appearance except for the screen. the rev. a wallstreets (like mine) come with 12, 13, and 14 inch screens and the 233, 250, and 266 mhz processors. the rev. b wallstreets come with 14 inch screens standard and, i believe, 266 or 300 mhz processors, but i've never bothered in researching so much on a computer that i don't own. i think that if the logo does glow on the later machines, it's very faint, probably more so than if you were to modify and earlier model yourself. you can still pop open the screen and insert different cellophane to give the logo different colors. i might do the classic rainbow logo to show off my wallstreet's heritage when i get the logo to glow. just tape it in and pop the screen back together.
digital, how large were the holes in the paper on the screen? isn't that the padding thats supposed to be there like on the lombard/pismo models? see i suppose id do my technique with the small hole. it's just like how the other models are put together.
That is cool.I would mod my pbg3 but I might mess up and it is the only
one I got.but good for you
p.s my only camera is a quicktake
i have a wallstreet and an ibook g4. id be sad to hurt the powerbook since the ibook is terribly unreliable. the 7 year old powerbook batteries are just now starting to act like the 2 year old ibook battery which loses all capacity after 10 minutes of use without the powercord. you should be able to safely do this mod, however. as long as you are careful with the lcd itself and make sure not to crack the case or strip the screws, you should be able to do this without harming any electronic parts.
i would be careful when opening the case however. according to the red delicious page (long gone; i wish it were still on here), the display on the pismo is hard to crack open because it's snapped together. im assuming the same goes for the wallstreet, right digital? i'll try like the red delicous page said and use a spatula to pry the plastics apart.
well, according to this article on everymac.com, they say that the later wallstreets light up.
as for the paper, I dont know what it was there for, but the wallstreet still works all the same, or as well as a system with no OS on it can. I guess you can go about cuttng the small hole, but it might be hard to match it up with the logo. i did this in 10 minutes.
I guess this is one technique of doing it. there are other methods, like stripping the white paint with alcohol, instead of sanding, but the sanding gives the plastic a nice swirly effect.
the only problem with this, is (if) I sell it. it wont be stock anymore, so it wont bring as much to a collector, unless they collect modified and customized computers.
the quicktake is a nice camera, much nicer than mine for several reasons:
-mine is webcam only, so no taking of still images/video away from the computer
-quicktake has a flash ( I think). if not, it takes nicer qualitly photos that arnt so dark. ( in all the photos, I used a flourescent bulb for lighting.)
-quicktake does sharp 640x480. my camera does grainy 320x240, if that.
need I go on?
-digital
when i get mine done ill make sure to use my friend's digital rebel for photos and i can post it under mods. while i myself have a kodak dc4800, it's a bit ricey in certain lighting and the canon has more megapixels anyway. the adjustable shutter and aperture will also help me for taking a good pic of the logo glowing. ^_^ anyway, i think a collector might still go for your computer. if i find hinges soon enough (if the donor i get to replace the sound card has good ones) then ill replace them too. tighter hinges should boost the value, don't you think?
if your gonna get new hinges, dont get them from apple. they charge $100 PER HINGE. so, $200 to get them. and they are made of soft pewter-like metal, so that is why they break so damn easy. I know somebody makes a set of them for $69, and they are made out of STEEL. so, they should last much longer.
and yes, tighter hinges boost value.
-digital
not to mention they'll make the computer feel less (arrgh) fragile. broken power connector, loose hinges, and batteries finally starting to show their age make the experience a bit hectic. so, obviously, i'll be fixing about 5 things at once.
I just picked up my wallstreet g3 266 today and it in fact does glow. I am digital man is right, its not as bright as some later powerbooks and ibooks but at least mine glows so i am happy. thanks anyways guys!!!
yeah, there are 8 latches that need to be carefully pried apart to open the display. that is, after you remove the stoppers, and take out the torx screws. but it's not too bad.
@the above post, you have a PDQ series 2 wallstreet. these are the ones that came in 233, 266, and 300mhz. the series 2 must be the ones with the glowing logo. the screen is 14", and the low en (233mhz) model now has a 512k casche. that is what mine has, but it is indees a series one with a 13.3" display. somebody must have upgraded the CPU card, as it also is far from the stock memory at 160mb. I just need to track down 2 256mb sticks to max her out at 512mb.
oh, could oyu pop the display and snap a few pics at the lighting mechanisim? it must be the same principle tha I am using, by using the EL backlight of the display to light it up.
-digital
more ram is a plus. that and a new hard drive (QUIETER, bigger, and faster) will help to speed up the computer by a longshot. maybe if i decide to switch back to X on it, which was a living hell with 64mb of ram, then i'll get a newer processor, but the point of the other upgrades is to avoid that since 250.1mhz is surprisingly speedy with os 9 as long as the memory remains defragmented.