The idea would fly today. Especially today. It's no longer a bad idea to buy a laptop if you require high performance. Not Apple though. Fuck Apple. Samsung, or Asus or Dell (Alienware) should do this.
Your videos are an unlikely source of peace and stability during these hectic times, just like I imagine you use these projects to lose yourself and escape your day-to-day concerns, the audience gets to follow you to that tinkerer's nirvana. Thank you for doing such a wonderful job on these videos.
On the other hand, you could simply buy a non-DUO PowerBook and be alright without all the accessories. So: No, it wasn't just "the Apple thing to do".
I still have my duo 2300c, along with the full duo dock. I bought it (lightly) used in the late 90s, and used it through middle and high school. It was a surprising powerhouse for the day…especially when in the dock. I boot it up every so often for nostalgia purposes, and to show people a docking-style laptop was around in the early 90s. A few years ago, I put an SSD in it, and it made the battery last significantly longer. Yes, even my battery still holds a charge. Definitely ahead of its time, and looks good next to my SE/30.
Awesomeness. I so coveted one of those back in the 90s. I still have my SE (2/40Mb) from early 1990, but I what I really wanted was an SE/30 when I bought it. (OK, truth be known -- what I absolutely REALLY wanted was a Mac IIci, but if anyone remembers color Mac prices back then I don't have to tell you my chances of getting a Mac IIci when I couldn't even afford an SE/30).
I was a wholesale sales rep for Caribbean Computer Exports in the late 80s / early 90s. We had the exclusive distribution rights to Apple Computer products for all of the Caribbean, Central America and South America. Watching your refurb videos brings back many memories. Apple products were so expensive because their authorized retailers earned a 40% margin on the sale at retail price. CCE was put out of business when CompUSA began selling in bulk into our region. The buyers would fly to Miami, purchase a container load of Apple gear, then ship it to their country, undercutting the prices we could offer. Great channel, great content.
I love the careful repair you did on the standoffs. Great video! It reminded me of my early teenage years when I would buy out the local thrift stores of their outdated computer hardware to mess with at home
"They weren't comfortable to use back at the office." Looks at the horrible keyboard and trackpad on my work provided HP ProBook. Yep, some things never change.
Which version of the ProBook? My HP ProBook 440 G7 has a good enough keyboard (except when the P key fcks up when it overheats) and a usable glass clickpad (although I prefer my Logitech wireless mouse)
When looks takes priority over usability these things happen for sure. You would imagine that something with the name "Pro" on it would be work focused tho instead of a shiny looks grabbing thing but I guess they just wanna capitalize on people buying stuff with a "pro" tag to seem better.
glad to see these machines brought back to life. I'm the guy who donated the external floppy and the duo mini dock to you. Hope they were of some use to you and your project. Great video. I had been curious as to when i'd see this powerbook duo vid. no wonder it took so long with the display issues. Nice work. I really love your closeup shots.
Great video, Colin! You perfectly portrayed the frustration of trying to find parts for these machines, let alone waiting for them, only for the part to be the wrong one. I have had that happen many times, it makes the repair itself seem like a quarter of the total effort involved. Your 3D printed parts were thoroughly impressive. It's hard to maintain and preserve plastic that is getting older and older, but with solutions like yours, we can try our best.
Good on you for saving this! I saved two of these from being thrown out and stored them carefully at work. Then I fell ill and when I returned to work they had been dumped. They weren’t fast but they were a great talking point and that push button eject was amazing. Somewhere I still have the locking keys that physically locked it into the desk unit and disabled the switch that ejected the Duo.
There's just something about "desktop replacement" machines from that era that fascinates me. Probably a mix of the immensely advanced and expensive technology combined with how rapidly it was totally obsoleted by even better things. This stuff is amazing.
This video brought me peace for some reason. Just hearing those nostalgic clicks when that hard drive booted for the first time in 20 something years is music to my ears lol thanks for this awesome upload I know making these videos solo is not easy
26 min in and I just realized this basically was the first switch and switch dock haha. I love the idea and the complexity to each part. Thanks for the great and informative video!
@@davidfrischknecht8261 After the Apple 1 and Apple 2 they made the Lisa's for fucking 10.000 dolars in 83. 100.000 dolars now, each. Today no are 20 Lisas in operation, and most were discarded from the stock to the trash for obsolescence in 84, or transform in Macintosh XL.
Superglue and plastic works great! I like to add some baking soda on it. It hardens to rock-solid immediately. No wait and what seems like a stronger hold!
Yep, plus if you don't have a 3D printer, and need to say fill in a small gap it works wonders along with a small file to make it smooth once it's dried.
This video was great, even on the second watch a year later! Thanks to it I happened to notice this very computer in the background of an episode of Seinfeld on Jerry's desk, I guess the set dressers were feeling a bit fun that season!
Omg the duo! I was lucky enough to have one as a kid and it forever my impacted my love of computers. My dad volunteered at computer refurbisher for Mac’s donated for schools. The plus side is I regularly got a Mac, albeit 2-4 years old and used. Of all the laptops I had, this was my favourite by far.
Very impressive video. Your commitment to repairing these cool old machines is really nice to see! Thanks for letting us see your process step by step.
Back in the day I really wanted this because as a teacher I could take my work home then pop it in as a daily thing.! Instead I had a 520C and an LC II at home using floppies to do the daily transfer for my work in class. But the prices were ridiculous back then especially for a teacher. Either way, I do love watching these restorations.
It’s so cool to see something like this was still an idea back in the late 90s. Now a days USB C docks allow this kinda thing with so many laptops and it’s much more common place.
I had a duo 210 in 1992 for my first year of college. I used that machine to death. I was the only person I ever met to bring my laptop to class to take notes at that time. I never had the main dock- just the big one with those menacing pins. I remember having to clean the track ball constantly. Great video.
So much to love in this video! The disassembly and repairs and the whole trip down memory lane for one of my favorite Macintosh product families. I’ve loved most of the smallest PowerBooks from the PB100 and Duo series to the 12” MacBook Pro Retina and my current portable powerhouse, a 14” m1 MacBook Pro. I had a Duo Dock at home and at work, and several different PowerBook Duos over the years. The 270c and 280c were my favorites. I previously used a Syquest (removable hard drive) cartridge for software development and carried it back and forth to work, but the Duo was like a Syquest that was also a whole computer which worked in or out of the Duo Dock. ❤
Jerry had a Duo setup on his desk for a while on Seinfeld. The dock for the color models required a taller desktop dock to fit. But you could just replace the removable top to get it to fit. I’ve had several including the 2300c. They all had a lot of flex on the plastics. Neat units though.
I get curious about all these computers but can never invest the kind of money necessary to get into them. I enjoy them vicariously through all your videos. Your presentation is so in-depth and high definition, I feel like I’m there having fun with them.
As those of us who had the original Chromebook test units from Google found out, super glue will NOT hold for those inserts. You have to use a proper epoxy like JB Weld.
that would work, or he could try super glue mixed with baking soda. Tech Tangents did a video about it a while back with good results, and I've used the trick before in the past on a pair Philips headphones one of my nephews broke, and it's held up well for about a year so far.
Fun fact: You can see a fullsize Duo Dock setup in the background of Seinfeld in Jerry's apartment during a few seasons. I thought it looked familiar...
Always a joy to watch these, Colin. As some born in 95' whose first computer was a Windows 2000 it's really interesting to learn what other companies like Apple were doing both before and during the decade.
David Bowie had one of these laptops back in the 90's. Cool computers. Edit: here’s Bowie with his duo and monitor www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/40iw3z/rip_david_bowie_the_duo_was_almost_a_rebel_rebel/?
Brings back fond memories of my Powerbook 100 and Duo 210 I got second had. In those days I was the only one with anything that slightly resembled a laptop
Thanks for the video! Brought back memories of supporting a bunch of young creatives with Duos. Loved the big dock, but some folks thought a good spot for the dock was the shelf above their desk. Had to repair (ok, replace...) screens on several of them, because they’d put it in the dock asleep - not shut down - and the dock ejected the duo, tossing it to the desk or to the floor! Thank goodness you could renew AppleCare almost eternally back then!
Glad you mentioned the upgrades at the end, I used to have a Duo 2300c which had a track ball and I always wondered why. Must have been a 280c that had been upgraded, it had no model number on the screen bezel. Was a great machine, and also had the full size dock and the mini dock, along with a few other accessories. Sold it on eBay many years ago for far too little (compared to today’s prices).
@@themajasticcreature sounds like someone has been drinking too much obsolescence kool-aid. There's no reason why the current M1 Macs wouldn't still be viable, especially with even less moving parts like a clicking hard drive or an active cooling solution.
Thank you for the in-depth video about the PowerBook Duo. Beautifully done! I always thought this setup was very cool and was thrilled to have a hand-me-down PowerBook Duo 230 as a youngster, complete with Duo Dock and a third-party mini dock.
From 2000-2001 I worked for a medium sized newspaper in IT-support. It was the time when the whole vintage IT was thrown out that had been collected in several cellars from the 80s onwards. There were about 10 PowerBook Duo with DuoDock from the media department (as well as CBM, Apple, Atari, Amiga and other computers and even terminals). The photographers had used the PB Duo machines together with early digital cameras that used a serial connection for image transfer. They had (of course) analog cameras as well. They usually took several photos with both digital and analog cameras on events, connected the digital camera after the event and transferred the digital pictures to the Duo. Sometimes they used a landline modem (maybe even quite expensive and slow mobile modems) for direct transfer to the newspaper for fast integration into articles for the next day. The serial port on the PB Duo was perfectly fitting for this use-case. When the photographer was back in his office, he just had to connect the PB Duo to the Dock to transfer the digital images to the network-archive. The analog developing and scanning of the analog camera film often took 1-2 days depending of the backlog the department had. Going digital was often the only way to have on-time reports of events from the pervious day in the current newspaper with pictures. The cameras had resolution (around 1.0 - 2.5 MP) that was good enough for a newspaper. I can remember that even in 2000, i was quite baffled that they had this kind of streamlined process since the early 90s.
I really do find it relaxing when I'm watching cool videos about Apple products while using a Mac Pro 5,1 with a 30" Cinema Display. Thanks for the video :)
In 1992 I worked on the board line manufacturing the mother boards in Fountain Colorado. 12 hr. shifts alternating 4 days a week then 3 days. I recall those days vividly. All the jobs have long since been out sourced over seas decades ago now. Sad what happened to most all of our manufacturing jobs. Thanks for the blast from the past.
Razor companies: Give them the razors, sell them the cartridges Printer companies: Give then the printer, sell them thr ink Apple: Sell them the item without necessary features, sell them the features.
Repairing Retro Tech is always a love and hate relationship. I know the feelings of trying to rebuild some neat old tech to only leads to further problems as you return it to working order... Sometimes it's a difficult process and leads to depression with thought of quoting the project. Glad you kept at it! Appreciate the retro tech review!
I used to have a Duo 2300c back when I was in my early twenties. (2001). I learned that you could transfer files, and even whole programs, over Appletalk. It was painfully slow, going through the printer/serial port, but it worked! 🙂
It’s hard to imagine how much of my early professional and student life were spent waiting for files to transfer over AppleTalk or worse, slow dial-up modems in hardware like this. Ethernet was amazing, and I was thrilled to eventually upgrade to 10base2 (coax) and ISDN in my home office.
Love it, thanks man! I never knew these back in the day since I was only like 2 when they released lol but due to my work as a computer technician and love for retro tech, I've admired these from afar for a very long time! I always thought the idea of sticking the entire laptop in like a cartridge and thereby expanding its capabilities was pretty awesome and extremely revolutionary for that time, and I am more than a little envious of the fact you have not one but TWO of them PLUS the dock and accessories!!! I collect old laptops (as well as other misc. tech like PDA's, Pocket PC's, old video game consoles, etc) and try to snag them off ebay whenever I can, however I haven't managed to get around to any of the Duos yet.. (mosty DUE-O to the price lol! [sry... couldn't help myself]). Also, I wanted to mention I was thoroughly impressed with your ability to repair the units as well as you did, specifically with the 3D printed pieces which was very cool! And I appreciate you demonstrating that trick you used melting the metal screw insert in with the soldering iron - that's valuable knowledge to me that I won't soon forget! Anyway, thanks again man! I really enjoyed the video!!!
@@UNSCPILOT I would argue that their current products can do way more for the dollar than their stuff back then. Most Apple consumers these days don't care about expandability. They just buy and buy again.
@@sunnohh Give me a break with that kind of BS, you can't even upgrade the internal storage, or RAM on the users side, and it's dongle city out the ying yang. I did a recycle center rescue towards the end of July of a 13in Mid-2012 Macbook Pro, and I was able to fix the bad HDD cable, give it a new battery, 240GB SATA III SSD, and 16GB of DDR3 RAM for less than $150 USD, you can't even think of doing any of that outside of the battery on a new one without board board level work, and donor parts if can get past the T1 security chip, and that ain't cheap. So IMHO Apple has only gone downhill from that point with their laptops.
I’m new to this channel but I love it already. One of the greatest vintage electronics restoration channels on UA-cam. The camera work is amazing, the story flow is natural and the narration is very professional. Kudos, thumbs up and a subscription on me. 👍😀
Great video. It brought back memories for me.I had one of the 2300Cs in 1996-97 with a Newer Ultradock, external floppy and later got a duo dock from work. (a mac reseller). Also got the duo through them at a good price on an EPP. It was not a powerhouse machine, but a neat computer to own. I played WC2 on it with friends using a phone net adapter and used it for school work. I also connected a giagantic Lacie CD-R drive to the ultradock at home and used it to burn CDs and install Crystal Caliburn PInball Fun times. Your restoration was great and had some suspenseful moments!
I worked as an ad builder at the Windsor Star (Ontario) at the end of 1994, and the reporters all had Duos to bring with them as they chased stories, with the full-sized docks on their desks at the office.
My mother was given one of these as a teacher at her school and i remember as a kid my mom getting to take it home during the summer. Me and my brother use to play hellcats, lemmings and prince of Persia on it all summer long. It was an awesome design. One thing I Rembrandt that sucked though was the battery life on the laptop. This might have been just because of the age of batteries( it was 95-98) when using this and she had had it for years by this point. Good memories!
This was another great idea that never took off…….Colin, I love your videos. I am hoping to “fix” up my old Pismo (G3) by moving the guts from an older, beat on body to a “newer” less blemished one. I can then hang out at a Starbucks looking very retro and attempt to write the great American novel…..
For next time you need to install brass inserts, try adding a small chamfer to the top edge of the hole to catch any squeezed out plastic. Helps massively for trying to keep the top of the hole flush
Wow. As lifelong Windows Weenie I learned a ton from this video. (Learned to compute on an Apple II in elementary school, A Mac in HS, bought a Windows PC when Wolfenstein 3D came out and haven't owned an Apple product since!). Bravo on this project. I know this video was no small feat to produce and you captured, condensed, narrated and edited it masterfully.
My family’s the exact opposite lol. My mom has had apple devices since around 1996 and I only have a windows pc for gaming and a MacBook Air (mostly battery life) for everything else.
Thats a very neat trick replacing the broken studs inside the laptop. I will give it a try should I ever come across the problem again. I tend to rely on using very effective solvents with a syringe to fix plastic. It's great on cracked cases.
I had about 5 of these back in college in the early '00s and they were so easy to work on that they were how I taught myself to work on small electronics. Got to the point where I could have one completely blown apart and back together in about 30 minutes. The one thing you missed that played a big role in why many people didn't keep using them was the keyboard. The membranes they used, especially on the early ones, were terrible. They had a numb feel when typing and often had difficulty completing contacts, especially as they aged. By the time Apple got them right (revision 4, if I recall) many people had just discarded the computers in frustration rather than bother to update an older machine. And although they at least allowed you to type without dead keys, they never got rid of the numbness and didn't feel very good compared to other laptop keyboards. Still, I seriously regret selling my collection of machines and parts back in '04. I always found them easy and fun to work on and to use. This makes me want to buy another... someone distract my wife.
20:40 OH MY GOD look at how small that trackpad is!!!! I remembered early track pads being pretty small, but they didn't remember them being THAT small!
Love it! My first laptop was an inherited Duo 230 in 1999, along with the Duo Dock. I feel like my MacBook Pro is a spiritual successor to it, and I also keep it docked on my desk with a TB3 dock.
My Aunt had a Duo when I was a kid. It felt like a computer from the future.
Cool!
How much it cost back in 1992?
Thunderbolt 3 making this stuff possible again.
The idea would fly today.
Especially today. It's no longer a bad idea to buy a laptop if you require high performance.
Not Apple though. Fuck Apple.
Samsung, or Asus or Dell (Alienware) should do this.
@@nexxusty ah yess the docking gaming laptops migh be cool too
Your videos are an unlikely source of peace and stability during these hectic times, just like I imagine you use these projects to lose yourself and escape your day-to-day concerns, the audience gets to follow you to that tinkerer's nirvana. Thank you for doing such a wonderful job on these videos.
"a lot of potential buyers felt like they were getting nickeled and dimed by all the accessories' Oh Apple, you never change
This 100% 👍
That was the pre-Jobs era. They wouldn’t ever do that today.
@@JasperJanssen lol
@@JasperJanssen You're right, now they charge thousands of nickels and dimes for commodity hardware with an Apple logo on it.
On the other hand, you could simply buy a non-DUO PowerBook and be alright without all the accessories. So: No, it wasn't just "the Apple thing to do".
I still have my duo 2300c, along with the full duo dock. I bought it (lightly) used in the late 90s, and used it through middle and high school. It was a surprising powerhouse for the day…especially when in the dock. I boot it up every so often for nostalgia purposes, and to show people a docking-style laptop was around in the early 90s.
A few years ago, I put an SSD in it, and it made the battery last significantly longer. Yes, even my battery still holds a charge.
Definitely ahead of its time, and looks good next to my SE/30.
Awesomeness. I so coveted one of those back in the 90s. I still have my SE (2/40Mb) from early 1990, but I what I really wanted was an SE/30 when I bought it. (OK, truth be known -- what I absolutely REALLY wanted was a Mac IIci, but if anyone remembers color Mac prices back then I don't have to tell you my chances of getting a Mac IIci when I couldn't even afford an SE/30).
Using the soldering iron to get the brass threads in was genius! Thoroughly enjoyed the vid
I was a wholesale sales rep for Caribbean Computer Exports in the late 80s / early 90s. We had the exclusive distribution rights to Apple Computer products for all of the Caribbean, Central America and South America. Watching your refurb videos brings back many memories.
Apple products were so expensive because their authorized retailers earned a 40% margin on the sale at retail price. CCE was put out of business when CompUSA began selling in bulk into our region. The buyers would fly to Miami, purchase a container load of Apple gear, then ship it to their country, undercutting the prices we could offer.
Great channel, great content.
So happy my dad kept his Duo Dock and a handful of Duo laptops.
Still have mine too.
That was my dream setup 👍🏽
I still have my 2300, my minidoc and my QuickTake (as shown in the advertising lol).
I love the careful repair you did on the standoffs. Great video! It reminded me of my early teenage years when I would buy out the local thrift stores of their outdated computer hardware to mess with at home
one of my teachers had one of these setups and it genuinely inspired me to think differently about computers and form factors.
Right? This was so ahead of it's time. This is literally how I run my setup now: laptop > usb-c cable -> monitor with extended I/O.
"They weren't comfortable to use back at the office." Looks at the horrible keyboard and trackpad on my work provided HP ProBook. Yep, some things never change.
Laptop manufacturers these days seem to have a vendetta against sensible keyboard layouts and usable pointing devices. "Clickpads" are unacceptable.
Which version of the ProBook? My HP ProBook 440 G7 has a good enough keyboard (except when the P key fcks up when it overheats) and a usable glass clickpad (although I prefer my Logitech wireless mouse)
@@s8wc3 ya for my two cents, I still like the stick between the F and G keys , but still seems to only be on some Lenovo models
When looks takes priority over usability these things happen for sure.
You would imagine that something with the name "Pro" on it would be work focused tho instead of a shiny looks grabbing thing but I guess they just wanna capitalize on people buying stuff with a "pro" tag to seem better.
@@Kalvinjj newer (~
glad to see these machines brought back to life. I'm the guy who donated the external floppy and the duo mini dock to you. Hope they were of some use to you and your project. Great video. I had been curious as to when i'd see this powerbook duo vid. no wonder it took so long with the display issues. Nice work. I really love your closeup shots.
Thanks again for sending them along! I’ve also got another long-term project in the works that they’ll come in useful for...
Thankfully you can still find a lot of this stuff for super cheap out in the wild. Just sad that it is getting harder to find.
Hey Rin.
Ywnbaw
Great video, Colin! You perfectly portrayed the frustration of trying to find parts for these machines, let alone waiting for them, only for the part to be the wrong one. I have had that happen many times, it makes the repair itself seem like a quarter of the total effort involved. Your 3D printed parts were thoroughly impressive. It's hard to maintain and preserve plastic that is getting older and older, but with solutions like yours, we can try our best.
Good on you for saving this!
I saved two of these from being thrown out and stored them carefully at work. Then I fell ill and when I returned to work they had been dumped.
They weren’t fast but they were a great talking point and that push button eject was amazing. Somewhere I still have the locking keys that physically locked it into the desk unit and disabled the switch that ejected the Duo.
There's just something about "desktop replacement" machines from that era that fascinates me. Probably a mix of the immensely advanced and expensive technology combined with how rapidly it was totally obsoleted by even better things. This stuff is amazing.
This video brought me peace for some reason. Just hearing those nostalgic clicks when that hard drive booted for the first time in 20 something years is music to my ears lol thanks for this awesome upload I know making these videos solo is not easy
26 min in and I just realized this basically was the first switch and switch dock haha. I love the idea and the complexity to each part. Thanks for the great and informative video!
I scrolled and scrolled to find this comment! Just goes to show that this was a solid idea, just ahead of its time.
that grease pencil pricing is the same thing that they use to price items at Savers thrift store.
One word comes to mind when thinking about Apple products: expensive. This seems to be no exception.
Ultraportable ultralight comes at a price. For all manufacturers.
@@JasperJanssen That's only half the story.
Their products weren't super expensive when they first started out. The Apple II line was relatively inexpensive.
@@davidfrischknecht8261
After the Apple 1 and Apple 2 they made the Lisa's for fucking 10.000 dolars in 83. 100.000 dolars now, each. Today no are 20 Lisas in operation, and most were discarded from the stock to the trash for obsolescence in 84, or transform in Macintosh XL.
So how much would a comparable Windows Laptop sell for?
Your vids are the best, great job! Also, I take no offense to the car stereo comment about wiring :-P
It would be fun, if you were the original owner who hacked that wiring together.
@@silvernode right, that guy is probably still out there. Maybe he'll run across this video and explain himself....
I dont know id find Big D heeeeere
we've all been there lol
yeah
Although not entirely original, I think I have seen SATA to SCSI adapters.
Also the OS is still available.
So at least you can get a working machine.
There's also the SCSI2SD Powerbook Edition.
I would love to see a solid state disk in one of these. A 1GB CompactFlash card might be perfect if you can find a scsi adapter for it
Superglue and plastic works great! I like to add some baking soda on it. It hardens to rock-solid immediately. No wait and what seems like a stronger hold!
Yep, plus if you don't have a 3D printer, and need to say fill in a small gap it works wonders along with a small file to make it smooth once it's dried.
Loved this video and the soldering iron tip is brilliant!
This video was great, even on the second watch a year later!
Thanks to it I happened to notice this very computer in the background of an episode of Seinfeld on Jerry's desk, I guess the set dressers were feeling a bit fun that season!
I was in middle school when these were new. I remember the principals all had one in their offices, but never undocked them.
Omg the duo! I was lucky enough to have one as a kid and it forever my impacted my love of computers. My dad volunteered at computer refurbisher for Mac’s donated for schools. The plus side is I regularly got a Mac, albeit 2-4 years old and used. Of all the laptops I had, this was my favourite by far.
finally some more stuff about the Duo that isn’t just “this laptop is rare, oh right the battery will die”
25:24 Woooah. Serious nostalgia over that Netscape logo.
This was a great watch. Repairing a classic and throwing in an abundance of well researched material.
Very impressive video. Your commitment to repairing these cool old machines is really nice to see! Thanks for letting us see your process step by step.
Back in the day I really wanted this because as a teacher I could take my work home then pop it in as a daily thing.! Instead I had a 520C and an LC II at home using floppies to do the daily transfer for my work in class. But the prices were ridiculous back then especially for a teacher. Either way, I do love watching these restorations.
I still have a Libretto 70CT in my box of old stuff. It worked the last time I used it. Cool interface with mouse buttons on the back of the screen.
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25:21
It’s so cool to see something like this was still an idea back in the late 90s. Now a days USB C docks allow this kinda thing with so many laptops and it’s much more common place.
I used to have the same PowerBook. It was an amazing machine.
I had a duo 210 in 1992 for my first year of college. I used that machine to death. I was the only person I ever met to bring my laptop to class to take notes at that time. I never had the main dock- just the big one with those menacing pins. I remember having to clean the track ball constantly. Great video.
18:02 "they mustve had experience installing car stereos too". I feel personally attacked lol
I legit laughed out loud from that… it’s so freaking true. 😆
So much to love in this video! The disassembly and repairs and the whole trip down memory lane for one of my favorite Macintosh product families. I’ve loved most of the smallest PowerBooks from the PB100 and Duo series to the 12” MacBook Pro Retina and my current portable powerhouse, a 14” m1 MacBook Pro.
I had a Duo Dock at home and at work, and several different PowerBook Duos over the years. The 270c and 280c were my favorites.
I previously used a Syquest (removable hard drive) cartridge for software development and carried it back and forth to work, but the Duo was like a Syquest that was also a whole computer which worked in or out of the Duo Dock. ❤
“ARE YOU *quack*ING KIDDING ME”
😂
Jerry had a Duo setup on his desk for a while on Seinfeld. The dock for the color models required a taller desktop dock to fit. But you could just replace the removable top to get it to fit. I’ve had several including the 2300c. They all had a lot of flex on the plastics. Neat units though.
He also had a 20th Anniversary Mac (which I'm dying to see Colin work on) and a couple others
I get curious about all these computers but can never invest the kind of money necessary to get into them. I enjoy them vicariously through all your videos. Your presentation is so in-depth and high definition, I feel like I’m there having fun with them.
Colin, way too much love and professionality go into these videos. I'm voting you up for a show in repairs on Netflix.
As those of us who had the original Chromebook test units from Google found out, super glue will NOT hold for those inserts. You have to use a proper epoxy like JB Weld.
that would work, or he could try super glue mixed with baking soda. Tech Tangents did a video about it a while back with good results, and I've used the trick before in the past on a pair Philips headphones one of my nephews broke, and it's held up well for about a year so far.
Fun fact: You can see a fullsize Duo Dock setup in the background of Seinfeld in Jerry's apartment during a few seasons. I thought it looked familiar...
The original laptop dock, nice!
Always a joy to watch these, Colin. As some born in 95' whose first computer was a Windows 2000 it's really interesting to learn what other companies like Apple were doing both before and during the decade.
Mis-labled parts that take forever to get, then refund(assuming yourvin the window) I f$#kn hate that. Too
I don't know how you say it so calmly when you find out the hard drive works. Best feeling ever lol
TDNC: repairs a PowerBook Duo
* Louis Rossman has entered the chat.
The Duo laptops were VERY popular with Sales reps and especially journalists.
Really enjoyed this video and your repair 👍
David Bowie had one of these laptops back in the 90's. Cool computers.
Edit: here’s Bowie with his duo and monitor
www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/40iw3z/rip_david_bowie_the_duo_was_almost_a_rebel_rebel/?
Added Bowie and his Duo to my comment.
Brings back fond memories of my Powerbook 100 and Duo 210 I got second had. In those days I was the only one with anything that slightly resembled a laptop
Jerry Seinfeld had one on his desk on the show - yaddi yaddi yadda, it served him well.
The one I always remember from Seinfeld is the 20th Anniversary Mac, hard to forget a weird one like that though!
Lol indeed
He had a few different macs during the run of the show. First was an original all in one style model
@@JaredConnell Yep that was a SE/30. My fav all in one model.
i came to the comments for this
Thanks for the video! Brought back memories of supporting a bunch of young creatives with Duos. Loved the big dock, but some folks thought a good spot for the dock was the shelf above their desk. Had to repair (ok, replace...) screens on several of them, because they’d put it in the dock asleep - not shut down - and the dock ejected the duo, tossing it to the desk or to the floor! Thank goodness you could renew AppleCare almost eternally back then!
5:37 I had this exact scenario so many times.
Best thing about colins videos are the no BS intro it's just hey here's the thing. It's brilliant
Wow, I don't think I've ever heard him so angry.
I'd be pissed too.
Glad you mentioned the upgrades at the end, I used to have a Duo 2300c which had a track ball and I always wondered why. Must have been a 280c that had been upgraded, it had no model number on the screen bezel.
Was a great machine, and also had the full size dock and the mini dock, along with a few other accessories. Sold it on eBay many years ago for far too little (compared to today’s prices).
25:22 whoever owned this predicted gen z humor
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What?
@@Fede_uyz E
I love how in depth you go in your videos! You spend loads of time bringing great quality and information!
Just imagine someone in year 2052 reviewing M1 Macs
lol would be safer to say they'll be reviewing the power pcs and such, i wouldn't rely on anything newer lasting that long. you're very optimistic XD
@@themajasticcreature sounds like someone has been drinking too much obsolescence kool-aid. There's no reason why the current M1 Macs wouldn't still be viable, especially with even less moving parts like a clicking hard drive or an active cooling solution.
Thank you for the in-depth video about the PowerBook Duo. Beautifully done! I always thought this setup was very cool and was thrilled to have a hand-me-down PowerBook Duo 230 as a youngster, complete with Duo Dock and a third-party mini dock.
the Toshiba "dock" at 16:19 is more like a dongle
From 2000-2001 I worked for a medium sized newspaper in IT-support. It was the time when the whole vintage IT was thrown out that had been collected in several cellars from the 80s onwards. There were about 10 PowerBook Duo with DuoDock from the media department (as well as CBM, Apple, Atari, Amiga and other computers and even terminals). The photographers had used the PB Duo machines together with early digital cameras that used a serial connection for image transfer. They had (of course) analog cameras as well. They usually took several photos with both digital and analog cameras on events, connected the digital camera after the event and transferred the digital pictures to the Duo. Sometimes they used a landline modem (maybe even quite expensive and slow mobile modems) for direct transfer to the newspaper for fast integration into articles for the next day. The serial port on the PB Duo was perfectly fitting for this use-case. When the photographer was back in his office, he just had to connect the PB Duo to the Dock to transfer the digital images to the network-archive. The analog developing and scanning of the analog camera film often took 1-2 days depending of the backlog the department had. Going digital was often the only way to have on-time reports of events from the pervious day in the current newspaper with pictures. The cameras had resolution (around 1.0 - 2.5 MP) that was good enough for a newspaper. I can remember that even in 2000, i was quite baffled that they had this kind of streamlined process since the early 90s.
I’m not gonna lie, getting up to eject my dad’s duo before he left for work was my main incentive for getting up for elementary school.
I really do find it relaxing when I'm watching cool videos about Apple products while using a Mac Pro 5,1 with a 30" Cinema Display. Thanks for the video :)
The 230 was very popular with dentists 😉
In 1992 I worked on the board line manufacturing the mother boards in Fountain Colorado. 12 hr. shifts alternating 4 days a week then 3 days. I recall those days vividly. All the jobs have long since been out sourced over seas decades ago now. Sad what happened to most all of our manufacturing jobs. Thanks for the blast from the past.
Apple: Removing ports since 1992.
And selling docks🤣
Razor companies: Give them the razors, sell them the cartridges
Printer companies: Give then the printer, sell them thr ink
Apple: Sell them the item without necessary features, sell them the features.
That trick with the stand offs just somehow comes, I just thought about it one day at my old job fixing cellphones and laptops
What about the eucalyptus oil though? :)
Wrong channel
@@kit7une_ :D
Repairing Retro Tech is always a love and hate relationship. I know the feelings of trying to rebuild some neat old tech to only leads to further problems as you return it to working order... Sometimes it's a difficult process and leads to depression with thought of quoting the project. Glad you kept at it! Appreciate the retro tech review!
The powerbook that was dropped probably belonged to some relative of Linus.
@@kreuner11 Not the Danish clown Linus. The other Linus. Does the dropping not ring a bell?
I used to have a Duo 2300c back when I was in my early twenties. (2001). I learned that you could transfer files, and even whole programs, over Appletalk. It was painfully slow, going through the printer/serial port, but it worked! 🙂
It’s hard to imagine how much of my early professional and student life were spent waiting for files to transfer over AppleTalk or worse, slow dial-up modems in hardware like this. Ethernet was amazing, and I was thrilled to eventually upgrade to 10base2 (coax) and ISDN in my home office.
aah apple making their customers spend money on adapters since 1992 LOL
Love it, thanks man! I never knew these back in the day since I was only like 2 when they released lol but due to my work as a computer technician and love for retro tech, I've admired these from afar for a very long time!
I always thought the idea of sticking the entire laptop in like a cartridge and thereby expanding its capabilities was pretty awesome and extremely revolutionary for that time, and I am more than a little envious of the fact you have not one but TWO of them PLUS the dock and accessories!!! I collect old laptops (as well as other misc. tech like PDA's, Pocket PC's, old video game consoles, etc) and try to snag them off ebay whenever I can, however I haven't managed to get around to any of the Duos yet.. (mosty DUE-O to the price lol! [sry... couldn't help myself]).
Also, I wanted to mention I was thoroughly impressed with your ability to repair the units as well as you did, specifically with the 3D printed pieces which was very cool! And I appreciate you demonstrating that trick you used melting the metal screw insert in with the soldering iron - that's valuable knowledge to me that I won't soon forget!
Anyway, thanks again man! I really enjoyed the video!!!
lol everything about Apple was expensive back then.
But it had more ports and expandability than anything they make these days, kinda funny really
@@UNSCPILOT I would argue that their current products can do way more for the dollar than their stuff back then. Most Apple consumers these days don't care about expandability. They just buy and buy again.
This is the reason why we love old computer , they has so many options and tools
4000 dollars for an apple laptop setup? Sounds about right what's changed?
Honestly? They are designed a lot better and cost much, much, much less
@@sunnohh designed better? i guess they are much better at planned obsolescence now
@@virtualtools_3021 Don't forget complete lack of repairability!
If Apple laptops were actually repairable, I'd buy one in a heartbeat
@@sunnohh Give me a break with that kind of BS, you can't even upgrade the internal storage, or RAM on the users side, and it's dongle city out the ying yang.
I did a recycle center rescue towards the end of July of a 13in Mid-2012 Macbook Pro, and I was able to fix the bad HDD cable, give it a new battery, 240GB SATA III SSD, and 16GB of DDR3 RAM for less than $150 USD, you can't even think of doing any of that outside of the battery on a new one without board board level work, and donor parts if can get past the T1 security chip, and that ain't cheap. So IMHO Apple has only gone downhill from that point with their laptops.
This is an incredible refurbishment. This inspires me to 3D print standoffs for my PowerBook 180. Thank you for sharing this Colin.
How far we’ve come. Now I have dual 27 inch monitors keyboard and mouse. Then my MacBook Pro into a desktop with one cable connection.
I’m new to this channel but I love it already. One of the greatest vintage electronics restoration channels on UA-cam. The camera work is amazing, the story flow is natural and the narration is very professional. Kudos, thumbs up and a subscription on me. 👍😀
Great video. It brought back memories for me.I had one of the 2300Cs in 1996-97 with a Newer Ultradock, external floppy and later got a duo dock from work. (a mac reseller). Also got the duo through them at a good price on an EPP. It was not a powerhouse machine, but a neat computer to own. I played WC2 on it with friends using a phone net adapter and used it for school work. I also connected a giagantic Lacie CD-R drive to the ultradock at home and used it to burn CDs and install Crystal Caliburn PInball Fun times. Your restoration was great and had some suspenseful moments!
I loved my Duo 230 with doc. reminded me of an oversized vcr. still loved it go to back and forth between work
So much attention and love for these old machines!
Just bought one as well! Your video has kindled my interest in them.
I worked as an ad builder at the Windsor Star (Ontario) at the end of 1994, and the reporters all had Duos to bring with them as they chased stories, with the full-sized docks on their desks at the office.
Your Duo Dock is in surprisingly good condition. I recently got one myself, and the dark gray plastic is basically just starting to fall apart.
Lots of good tricks to get everything to work. I’m glad everything worked out well.
My mother was given one of these as a teacher at her school and i remember as a kid my mom getting to take it home during the summer. Me and my brother use to play hellcats, lemmings and prince of Persia on it all summer long. It was an awesome design. One thing I Rembrandt that sucked though was the battery life on the laptop. This might have been just because of the age of batteries( it was 95-98) when using this and she had had it for years by this point. Good memories!
My 6th grade teacher had one of these. Not sure which model but I remember she had the full size duo dock on her desk. This was in 1999/2000.
This was another great idea that never took off…….Colin, I love your videos. I am hoping to “fix” up my old Pismo (G3) by moving the guts from an older, beat on body to a “newer” less blemished one. I can then hang out at a Starbucks looking very retro and attempt to write the great American novel…..
For next time you need to install brass inserts, try adding a small chamfer to the top edge of the hole to catch any squeezed out plastic. Helps massively for trying to keep the top of the hole flush
Wow. As lifelong Windows Weenie I learned a ton from this video. (Learned to compute on an Apple II in elementary school, A Mac in HS, bought a Windows PC when Wolfenstein 3D came out and haven't owned an Apple product since!). Bravo on this project. I know this video was no small feat to produce and you captured, condensed, narrated and edited it masterfully.
My family’s the exact opposite lol. My mom has had apple devices since around 1996 and I only have a windows pc for gaming and a MacBook Air (mostly battery life) for everything else.
Thats a very neat trick replacing the broken studs inside the laptop. I will give it a try should I ever come across the problem again.
I tend to rely on using very effective solvents with a syringe to fix plastic. It's great on cracked cases.
Worked on a couple of these in the 90s when I was a tech at CompUSA, but I never got to see the dock. Very cool.
What an awesome video. Prior to this I had no interest in 90s era mobile computing, but this has easily woken up a hobby in me.
I had about 5 of these back in college in the early '00s and they were so easy to work on that they were how I taught myself to work on small electronics. Got to the point where I could have one completely blown apart and back together in about 30 minutes. The one thing you missed that played a big role in why many people didn't keep using them was the keyboard. The membranes they used, especially on the early ones, were terrible. They had a numb feel when typing and often had difficulty completing contacts, especially as they aged. By the time Apple got them right (revision 4, if I recall) many people had just discarded the computers in frustration rather than bother to update an older machine. And although they at least allowed you to type without dead keys, they never got rid of the numbness and didn't feel very good compared to other laptop keyboards.
Still, I seriously regret selling my collection of machines and parts back in '04. I always found them easy and fun to work on and to use. This makes me want to buy another... someone distract my wife.
20:40 OH MY GOD look at how small that trackpad is!!!!
I remembered early track pads being pretty small, but they didn't remember them being THAT small!
Love it! My first laptop was an inherited Duo 230 in 1999, along with the Duo Dock. I feel like my MacBook Pro is a spiritual successor to it, and I also keep it docked on my desk with a TB3 dock.