I’m pretty excited about this. The Macintosh Portable has been on my want list for a long, long time. They usually go for a good $300 bucks on eBay with the case. To score one for $140 is a really good deal. Not only does this machine boot, but it also has the carrying case. I have seen the carrying cases go for about $100 alone on eBay.

The case is in great shape, despite that fact that it’s missing a foot. Believe it or not, I actually found a guy on eBa selling spare feet. So I was able to pick one up. What are the chances of that!? I wonder how much value having all 4 feet adds?





The seller wasn’t originally going to include the case because he said it smelled “musty”. It must have been stored in a basement or crawl space. He included it just so that it would proved some additional protection during shipping. I figured I’d be able to dry clean it, or lightly tumble it in the washer. However, I think the seller took it upon himself to mask the smell by spraying it with some cologne or something. I’m going to try and air it out overnight, but it’s pretty strong. My whole computer room smells like cheap cologne.

I’ve seen tons of pictures of the Macintosh Portable online, but I guess I’ve never seen a picture of someone touching one. If I had, I suspect I would have had a better sense of the size. This thing is way bigger than I thought it was! I knew it was by no means a laptop, but it’s still pretty hefty. I guess that’s what they mean by “portable”.



Looking inside the bag reveals the power adapter along with an always welcomed freebie: an ADB mouse.



What is this we have here? Underneath the adapter lies an original Macintosh Portable tag! I’ll take it!



As far as the power adapter, some discoloration on the front. That’ll need to be taken apart and dipped along with the mouse.









The cool thing about the Portable is the handle that pulls out from the top. Portable. That’s funny. They should have called it the “Macintosh Luggable”.



It’s in really good shape. There’s really no major discoloration. At first glance, I don’t think there’s anything that really requires a retr0brite session.

It can use a good cleaning though. There’s dirt in the little nooks and crannies and in the recessed lines on top of the case. If anything, I need to wipe the whole thing down with some alcohol to remove the cologne smell that it picked up from sitting in the bag during shipping.











Yeah, pretty dirty, and some discoloration on the keyboard. What is it about spacebars that always makes them so yellow?



The display is good. No dings or scratches.



Removing the top cover reveals an original Connor low power 40 MB hard drive.





Sitting between the hard drive and the battery well lies an additional 3M of RAM. RAM upgrades are always welcome. Combined with the onboard 1M, this machine should have 4 Megs all together. I wish the seller sprung for a full 9 Megs, but beggars can’t be choosers.



Removing the battery cover shows that the battery is still intact. I wonder if it still holds a charge?



Pretty hefty.



I threw my volt meter on it and it reads a little over 3 volts. Dead.



I removed the 9V PRAM battery and checked that too.



The same, a little over 3 volts. Dead.



I plugged the Portable in for a little bit to see if the battery would hold a charge. It tried to power on. A small sign of life, but not enough juice.



I let it sit a little longer. Eureka!



It booted right into System 6.0.4 fully loaded with all types of software. As I suspected, 4 M of RAM.



There’s all kinds of software on here. Word, Excel, MacPaint, MacWrite, MacProject, FileMaker, PrintShop, partitioning and disk utilities, Virex virus scanner and a ton of clip art.



Symantec Disk Clinic



HyperCard



Cool! Screensavers too!



I popped in an 800k floppy to copy some of the apps off the machine and Virex kicked in and scanned the disk upon insertion. Pretty neat.



Very cool indeed. The Portable looks right at home next to the SE. I had to move my ImageWriter II out of the way. I never print, so I disconnected it from the SE and moved it over to the bookcase for now. I think I’m going to have to redo my setup. I really like having the printers in with the machines.



I left the Portable plugged in and charging over night to see how much of a charge the battery would hold. Good thing I checked it when I got home from work. It was red hot! Not a good sign. I checked it with the voltmeter and it was barely over 5 volts. Looks like it’s cooked. I think it gave me all it was going to give me. Now I can’t get the machine to power on. Looks like I’ll be needing a new battery.

For now, I’ll give it a good cleaning and keep it as a display piece.