PowerBook 540c screen in a 520c?

eric

eric

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Sep 2, 2021
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Hi all!

I got a parts 540c from @Drake recently and while it does spin up the HDD fans, that's all it does. I was thinking of taking the screen and/or other parts out of the 540c to upgrade my 520c - the passive matrix on the 520c is just so hard to use!

So what parts are compatible between these two models? Everything? Nothing? I plan top open them up this weekend and look but wanted to know if others have done something similar.
 
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I've only used the case from a 540 to make my 540c (with PPC upgrade), which was bought at an estate sale in pieces, whole again. But I think the 520, 520c, 540, and 540c all share the same model number. If it's the same resolution, I'm guessing it will be a direct swap.

While you're in there, may be a good idea to beef up the hinge attachment points.
 
IIRC pretty much all of the parts are interchangeable between the 520 and 540 models. The service manual lists a "540c Upgrade" kit that was sold (page 168 in the PDF), which would replace a 520/520c/540's screen with the active-matrix panel from the 540c. It's possible that the display ribbon cables are different depending on which panel you have, but the connector on the motherboard is the same.
 
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Thanks for the replies! I'll post some photos soon but the screen works great! I also found when opening up the 540c why it wasnt working - someone grabbed the ram card out and didn't bother to put the CPU card back in it's socket. So now my 520c is a 540c! There is another card in it, a Global Village communications - I'd guess that is a modem card? I've been trying to extract it from the 540 but it's not budging.
 
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So I got the 540c open and found this poor little 040 66/33mhz just sitting there disconnected, well i suppose that's why it wasn't starting up! You can also see that communication module - which i realized is because there is a modem port on the 540c and not the 520c.
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So I put the screen and the CPU on the 520c body and it booted right up in 8.1 - Screen looks great compared to the passive.

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Stuck a BlueSCSI in as one does and doing a fresh 8.1 install from CD now.

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Last things to do is clean the back of the cover - some old asset tags on there. Hinges and plastics there were looking good, so nothing to do there yet.
 
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I'm thinking about replacing the screen in my pretty-sad-condition PowerBook 520c with a PowerBook 540c, would anyone know where I might could get the part from?
 
I know after my friend gave it to me (I'm its third or fourth owner) I played around with it and was… quite impressed with the 60LC040 in it. Originally, I would've said 68030 or PowerPC (thanks to a few emulators and being able to play around with old Macs in one form or another as a kid), but it's something to be pleased with, actually. I do, however, think that it could do a PowerPC upgrade, so finding a Moto 68040 on a daughtercard might be feasible. I'm not too enthralled with getting the CPU swapped out right now, but if software support for Mac OS 7.6-68k becomes an issue in the future, I might look into it then. Right now, it needs RAM, the drive is ancient, something's up with the speakers, the power cable needs some work, a piece of plastic under the screen is gone, and the display is shot, thanks to it residing in my basement for five years.
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Kai Robinson said:
I wish there was a way of getting a full 040 in one...
Click to expand...
I was recently successful in doing a transplant to a full 040:

PowerBook 500 Series full 040 CPU swap

I've just obtained one of these chips. All indications are - particularly the film of dirt - that it's a genuine part. I'm going to swap it into one of my 68LC040 processor cards later and hopefully, gain an FPU. This will go in my PB 540c if successful. I'm dead curious as to what the donor...
68kmla.org 68kmla.org
 
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