My trusty Wallstreet still serves me well for what I need it to, but some issues have cropped up. I have upgraded it to a 500 mhz (Sonnet), 320 MB RAM, and a larger HD, running OS X 10.2.8; and will get the G4 500 mhz soon for it. From what I can tell it is the Wallstreet II...
Issue 1: while on a road trip the Dock icons began bouncing faster, the spinning beachball and clock also sped up (these issues also are in OS 9 but not as apparent). The system seemed slow, so I checked the "About This Mac" and it reported only 209 mhz, and System Profiler reported only 29 mhz bus speed. Could the Logic Board be getting ready to fail?
Issue 2: this is a long time problem. Sometimes on startup (and sometimes during use) the LCD video gets scrambled, out of whack, and to straighten it up I squeeze the upper right edge of the LCD housing and pressing both sides of it. Once it is working it is perfect, no missing pixels, etc.
I've been reading a lot recently on the possible culprits, and two come back to the Logic Board. Not wanting to throw parts at a problem (former car technician here ) I thought I would post this here in hopes of some feedback. I have located a couple sites with parts, the 83 mhz Logic Board seems to be the scarcest, and a few have the 14.1 LCD available. Most at pretty reasonable prices, compared to replacing the laptop (at this point I would like to put that off as long as possible).
As I mentioned above, the Wallstreet does the job I need albiet a bit slower than my desktop G5 (but of course). I have been amazed how upgradable the PB has been and hope it continues to serve me for a while.
Thanks in advance for any insight.
Hmmm.
Having just replaced the hinges on my "new" Wallstreet, I'd say squeezing the upper right side of the display housing shouldn't do anything at all. The only thing up there is the microphone. The video cable wraps around the left hinge and plugs into the center of the display on the back side. Power connections wrap around the right hinge and there is a PC board in the bottom just above the hinges sitting crossways.
If the hinges are getting floppy, chances are you are getting some sharp bits digging into the video cable on the left hinge.
Of course, my old 1400cs would do the same thing, cured by squeezing the left center of the display bezel, so who knows!
The bouncing/spinning issue is likely display hardware, so it's possible the MB is going. Check the connections for the video cable first, though. Pop the battery and drive out, find the two release tabs in there (on the top of the bays) and pull them back. The keyboard pops free on the bottom end, lift gently and pull back to get the five tabs out of the case, then flip it over onto the wrist pad. Cables stay on.
Pry the cover for the hinges (where the power button, etc is) up until it pops off. Video cable is on the left side at the hinge, plugs straigh down into a tiny socket. Inverter cable is on the right.
Peter