Picture Documentation of 550c Internals (especially the logic board)?

[Paralel]

Does anyone know of any place that has a well documented pictorial of the internal hardware of the Powerbook 550c (Codename: Banzai)?

I have looked just about everywhere I can think of to locate an image of just the logic board, but have come up empty.

Has anyone actually documented the Powerbook 500c inside and out? Or are they just too rare?

I'm looking for it because someone recently informed me that the logic board for the 550c is different from the other members of the blackbird family. I was not aware of this as I have never had the pleasure of meeting a 550c in person. I would like to know how much different the logic board is, as well as the ribbon connector between the screen and the logic board.

Unfortunately, even Apple's service source is useless. They literally just recycled all the images from the other blackbird service source (you can tell because the contact and brightness controls are parallel to one another on the display bezel).

 

[This Does Not Compute]

It's been a while since I restored my 550c, but what I remember is that there were really few, if any, major motherboard differences. The internal layout of the machine is the same, as is the processor card connector (the 550c will take, for example, the same PPC upgrade card like the other Blackbird models). If there is a difference, it probably would be related to the display. I tend to use a lot of macro shots in my episodes, so perhaps scrubbing through it will show you some of the areas you're interested in:

 

[Crutch]

I have both a 540c and 550c, and while I haven’t opened them up in a while, I recall the internals being basically identical. I don’t know why they wouldn’t be — they both have a 040 (LC or otherwise) at 33MHz and otherwise all the same features aside from the display.

Btw I’m pretty sure the code name was “bonsai” like the little trees, not “banzai” like the war cry.

 

[This Does Not Compute]

It is definitely "banzai", I found it in at least two places inside the machine -- on the LCD ribbon cable, and also on the right side of the motherboard (and @Paralel this shot gives a bit of detail of the display connector):

 

[Paralel]

Thank you so much for the pics! This tells me everything I need to know. It's exactly what I thought, the connector is identical to the 540c. In fact, just from that shot of the logic board, I can see it is indeed very similar internally to the 540c. No reason to think that a 550c display assembly would not be compatible with a 540c.

The information you provided in the video was also very helpful, especially the part number for the screen. It seems as if it was a popular model for 10" color LCD's. Still easy to get even now. I should be able to test my theory with an aftermarket screen even if I can't get my hands on the actual display assembly of a 550c.

I owe you one.

 

[Crutch]

It is definitely "banzai", I found it in at least two places inside the machine

Well thanks for that correction! What’s funny is basically the entire Internet was wrong about this too … maybe everyone just copies Wikipedia (which was also wrong, until I fixed it just now…).

Banzai is certainly a better code name than “bonsai” ….

 

[Paralel]

Well thanks for that correction! What’s funny is basically the entire Internet was wrong about this too … maybe everyone just copies Wikipedia (which was also wrong, until I fixed it just now…).

Banzai is certainly a better code name than “bonsai” ….

You wouldn't believe how often I find this is true. It's actually kind of terrifying.

It wasn't terribly different regarding the belief of 7.1.2 on 68k systems other than the 630 series, or Open Transport 1.3 or 1.3.1 on System 7. But finding the non-system specific install disks for 7.1.2 that allowed for updating 7.1 and 7.1.1 installation proved that wrong. The 1.3 GM installer proved that Open Transport 1.3 worked perfectly on 7.1.x and that the installer most people were familiar with was artificially limited by Apple for no good reason. Same with getting a SCSI DVD-ROM to function with System 7.1.x, but I was able to get it to work.

It's gotten to the point that I don't generally believe anything I hear that is "common knowledge" until I verify it for myself.