Powerbook 145B

The Macintosh PowerBook 145B was one of Apple's early laptops in the Powerbook 1xx line. It was introduced on June 7th, 1993 and discontinued on July 18th, 1994.

Known Issues
Like with anything, vintage computers have issues associated with them, the PowerBook 145B being no exception. Many of these are age related, but some are original manufacturing defects, and others can be caused by neglect. The PowerBook 145B was one of Apple's better laptops, but the machine can have serious issues if preventative maintenance and care in storing the machine are lacking.

The most common types of damage typical with older Apple Macintosh computers are leaking capacitors, leaking PRAM batteries and with PowerBooks, leaking main batteries. This damage is often caught far too late due to such machines being stored in attics, basements, sheds, etc. and long forgotten about by the original owner. Eventually such machines will be rediscovered during events such as moving, cleaning or estate sales, but the damage done by leaking capacitors and especially batteries has long since happened. You just have to hope that the machine was stored in such a way to minimize the effects of damage done so the device can be repaired.

The most destructive types of damage that can occur in older Macintosh machines are colloquially known in the vintage Macintosh community as "battery bombs", where the Parameter RAM (PRAM) battery casing fails and leaks its corrosive electrolyte all over the board and causes damage to whatever it touches. In PowerBooks, the Nickel Cadmium main battery can cause much more damage due to more batteries being present in the pack. And while the PowerBook 145B doesn't have the same type of PRAM battery used in desktop Macintosh models, it does have a rechargeable button cell battery that can leak and should be replaced as part of preventative maintenance.

Troubleshooting
Below is a table of some known issues with the machine and some potential fixes.