So, the only thing I hate more than people forcing me to published unfinished work because they are redoing what I spend nights already doing, is people wasting time doing what I already did…

https://github.com/mmuman/cad-mac-pb500-pwrconn

I'm very happy with the results. I went in not knowing if I was going to be able to succeed at all. This thing is just so brittle, and I had never attempted to replace a polarizing filter before. Given that I now have an almost fully working #PowerBook #5300C (sans working speaker, future project!) is so cool.

Move over, Jeff Goldblum. I now I have the power to save the world

Alright, that's the end of my nerd-spam. Hope you enjoyed it!

For example, I left the filter larger than the display as I wanted to make sure it would cover everything fully and no dust could get in. I went a bit too far and this caused some parts of the filter to bend ever so slightly by the plastic frame of the display.
This doesn't cause stress on any of the parts, it just means the light reflects a bit differently in some places, which if you know what you're looking for can be obvious.
#MARCHintosh #Apple #Macintosh #PowerBook #5300C #RetroComputing

So, what does the result look like? Pretty good, I think! Even with the filter not directly applied, the result is quite clean and clear looking — especially keeping in mind we're dealing with a 30 year old active matrix LCD display with aging backlight.
It's definitely not perfect, though, and I have some ideas that I'd like to do next time I open this laptop up — as its speaker isn't currently working, which I have to fix too.
#MARCHintosh #Apple #Macintosh #PowerBook #5300C #RetroComputing

While I was here I used a bit of epoxy to sort of glue up a small broken part as best I could. It came to me in this incomplete and broken state so there's only so much I can do. It's something, at least.
The combination of now brittle plastics and very poor design decisions really do have this thing exploding parts left and right. If you want to work on these, a 3D printer is probably essential. Which, sadly, I don't have.
#MARCHintosh #Apple #Macintosh #PowerBook #5300C #RetroComputing

Fortunately it was easy to remove this, err, mistake in confidence. You saw nothing!
For my second attempt I chose an easier route; Leave the protective film covering the film's adhesive on and simply attach the film to the sides of the display, and have it sort of hang in front of the screen.
I'd be sacrificing a bit of display quality, but I can revisit attempting to do it right again once I obtain the tools and/or skills.
#MARCHintosh #Apple #Macintosh #PowerBook #5300C #RetroComputing

Another week later to get the 45° filter variant. Since I could only find (reasonably priced) adhesive variants shipped to where I live, I thought I'd try to see if I could actually get it to stick reasonably well. However, as mentioned before, I totally lack the skills (and tools!) to do this reasonably well, so the result was.. abysmal. So many bubbles! Who needs Marine Aquarium when you've got me slapping on this bad boy. Yikes.
#MARCHintosh #Apple #Macintosh #PowerBook #5300C #RetroComputing

With that success under my belt, I felt hopeful. The next step was to find out the polarizing filter's orientation, as that varies by display. I wasn't able to find this online for this specific model, so I thought I'll just order a few in the obvious orientation choices. Easy.
I initially didn't order the 45 degrees variant, because I thought; surely it's not 45 degrees, right? That'd be a silly number.
Right?
It was 45 degrees.
#MARCHintosh #Apple #Macintosh #PowerBook #5300C #RetroComputing

But I digress.. the residue has to go, and no amount of alcohol was doing anything to it. I found this recommendation for a certain cleaning liquid designed for this very purpose, so I ordered that and gave it a try. To my surprise, it worked amazingly well.
I put two paper towels on the display, drenched these in the liquid, let it sit for a bit, and then wiped everything off. That's it, super simple. The screen looks gorgeous!
#MARCHintosh #Apple #Macintosh #PowerBook #5300C #RetroComputing

And the smell! Don't get me started on the smell. I did this in front of an open window wearing a mask, but still had to walk away. Just the act of removing the film awakened this positively vile chemical stench that just can't be right.
Kind of terrifying we're normally sitting in front of this (while warm from being powered on!). I wonder if this stuff slowly seeps out too over the years? Yikes.
#MARCHintosh #Apple #Macintosh #PowerBook #5300C #RetroComputing

I mention scary because have you ever tried to apply a screen protector to a phone display? Yeah, well, I suck at that. This would be that, but bigger *and* required removing the old polarizing filter without, you know, destroying the display in the process. I know what I'm doing, I lie to myself.
Anywho, in for a penny.. Fortunately the filter came off fairly easily. But by golly did it leave a *ton* of glue residue behind. Hoboy.
#MARCHintosh #Apple #Macintosh #PowerBook #5300C #RetroComputing

PowerBook 145B!
Station Villa-Maria, Métro de Montréal