I picked up a replacement Samsung Powerbook LCD screen on eBay for AU$61.

Fitting it was a simple matter of swapping out the old one. I left the existing cables in place, plugged them into the new screen and reassembled the screen surround.

Everything is now working fine (except the battery wont hold a charge, but I probably wont be using it, so that’s not a problem).

This is the initial design for the MP3 player. I think I’ll mount the LCD screen in the top of the player facing up. Normal operation of the unit will be while standing looking down on the screen. The powerbooks screen has a fairly narrow viewing angle, but it should still be OK in this situation. I’m going to use the Beocenter 4600’s main radio slider for navigation through the song titles.
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Well my Powerbook has arrived but unfortunately no amount of “shift-fn-ctrl-pwr” key combinations would bring it back to life. I decided to open it up and stare blankly at it’s insides for a while (I have a long history of looking at the inner workings of things I don’t understand, for some reason it makes me feel like I’m being productive). I followed the very detailed Powerbook G3 Wallstreet take-apart instructions. After separating the upper case assembly I discovered the Power Management Unit and most of the surrounding components were covered in a sticky black substance, I could tell this wasn’t normal. I’m guessing that someone spilled liquid (probably Coke) into the computer. Realising that I couldn’t really make it any worse, I decided to try cleaning the affected circuit boards. I did this by scrubbing them with an electric toothbrush under warm running water. I then let the parts dry thoroughly in front of the heater before reassembling the powerbook.
And to my great surprise and excitement it worked, well sort-off. I got the familiar start-up chime but when the screen came on it looked like this – lots of vertical lines and a kind of cloudy appearance.

After cracking open the screen assembly I found the same sticky black substance on everything, even between the various layers in the LCD assembly. I tried cleaning everything as before but the problem persists. It’s back to eBay to try to find a replacement screen.

To begin the B&O MP3 Mod. I have to decide what computer to mod. First off it needs to be quiet, preferably fan-less, it needs to start up quickly or have the ability to go into low power sleep (so that it is never really off), it needs to take large, cheap IDE hard drives (I’ve got at least 300 CD’s), and it needs to be able to connect to some form of display. The display is crucial, some of the B&O equipment from the late 70’s and early 80’s have large LED displays (like this Beocentre 7000).

They look great and I was considering this option but I’ve decided this may make it difficult to navigate through all the music files, an LCD display would probably be more convenient (and more flexible if I want to add extra functions in the future). Having decided on an LCD screen the logical computer choice would be a laptop; the screens built in and they generally have good low power sleep functions. The only problem is that large laptop drives tend to be very expensive – maybe I can add a desktop HD. I have a couple of PC laptops lying around but they’re old and really not up to the job. Also, my main computer is a Mac, it’s very stable and I enjoy using it (unlike the PC’s I have). I like the idea of making this a Mac mod. so I’ve bought a second hand PowerBook on eBay for AU$125.

It’s a 233MHz Wallstreet and it’s listed as faulty, but being the optimist I am I think I’ll have it up and running in no time.

I have a facination for Bang and Olufsen stereo equipment, possibly bordering on an obsession. I’m talking about the old stuff by Jacob Jensen, I think B&O have kind of lost the plot lately but the stuff from the 70’s and 80’s is great. I recently bought a non-working Beocenter 4600 on eBay for AU$51.

I had it going on and off for about 3 days and then something blew-up that I couldn’t track down. I was considering replacing it’s insides with a home made MP3 file server when a Beomaster 1500 turned up on eBay.

This receiver has a similar profile to the 4600 and I decided I’d buy it and rework the 4600 to match… so begins the B&O MP3 computer mod. I’ll post updates as I go.
If your interested in checking out some other great B&O designs try the extensive www.beocentral.com and www.beoworld.co.uk sites.