Maybe someone out there can shed some light on other possibilities. Please excuse the long post, it's got quite a background on it and feel it's important to cover.
Machine in question -
PowerBook Wallstreet II 300/DVD/14.1"/etc. with 192MB RAM Factory Installed.
Background -
This notebook was given to a acquaintance after I upgraded to a Titanium in 2000, and who recently gave it back to me after abusing it in every possible way. I like the notebook so I'd like to keep it, even though it looks like replacement would be easier. After talking with him I came to find out he's been having problems with it for quite some time now. Randomly it refused to power up. His solution to this was to bash his fists against the keyboard, at which point, it would turn on and function until the machine locked up. After some time, 6+ months, the machine simply wouldn't work. He then had his coworker attempt to disassemble it, for reasons unknown. However, he didn't get all the screws out, leaving the bottom case plastics partly on, and gave it back to me.
Upon inspection, it looks as though someone tried to upgrade the HD, and in the process, removed the processor card. But, when they put it back in, it was forced in, and the edge of the card that normally sits upon a small metal support, was actually under the support, and bending the card and causing it to unseat itself. Which is where I believe the fist pounding came in, jarring it temporarily back into seated position. Also, for what it's worth, the HD was bad. Rattled when shaken after I took it out. The card cage is also half-functional. Bottom slot works fine, however, the mechanism that ejects the top card is stuck. It appears that one side of it is stuck in the 'in' position, and the other pushed out like normal. It's in there pretty good, as gentle pulling on the mechanism has not budged it. Bottom slot works though!
What I've Done Since -
Everything has been completely taken apart and reseated. The bottom case plastics were replaced as were the screws since most that hold the bottom on were missing. After some random cursing, the processor card was removed and put back into place normally. The bad HD was replaced with a brand new one. Memory has been replaced with known good memory, a 32MB stick and a 128MB stick. PMU has been replaced as this was an issue when I had the notebook and was never fixed. Also, machine has had battery removed. Stock battery was bad, the machine showed 0 charge when inserted and a moment later it shows no battery inserted.
PRAM has been zapped, NVRAM has been zapped. That has had no effect on the machine, either good or bad.
And Symptoms of its problems -
The machine is just flaky. Random lockups, usually if the machine is left idle after startup, and occurs roughly 2 mins after startup. But not always! Fresh install of OS 9.2 didn't seem to help things. Randomly refuses to turn on. When it does work, it works good. Playing DVDs with no lockups or slowdowns.
If anyone has any ideas on what else to try, I'm all ears. I don't have a bank of parts to change out until I find the bad one so I'm limited as to what I can do hardware wise.
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