![]() That generous donor was awesome enough to send me another power supply - which lasted for about three months. Unfortunately, the power supply in that newer DuoDock II died shortly after. It was a bit like going back to those years when I was making the most out of it. For a while, I enjoyed having such a workstation on my desk again. Imagine my joy when a very generous donor contacted me and sent me - among many other things - a complete Duo workstation with another 280c unit that was even better configured than mine (more RAM, more storage space). Losing the PowerBook Duo 280c was a blow. But no other portable Mac was that compact and lightweight. By that time, my vintage Mac collection had grown, and I had other machines readily available to keep carrying out the tasks I used the Duo for. At that point I didn’t have much time to take care of what appeared to be a streak of Duo-related bad luck, so I just used the main Duo 280c unit when out and about, because it was still the lightest, most compact option for writing when not at home.įast forward to late 2014: one day, for no apparent reason, the Duo 280c stopped working. Then the problems continued: the display stopped working, but I had another available from another acquisition but then of course the DB15 cable broke down. I was still able to use the Duo in desktop configuration by connecting the 14-inch display and the AppleDesign keyboard via the MiniDock. I also lost Ethernet connectivity (the Duo MiniDock doesn’t have an Ethernet port), but since it was mainly used for transferring files locally, I switched to LocalTalk slower, but better than nothing. Luckily I still managed to handle floppies by connecting the external floppy drive of my PowerBook 100. ![]() Not being able to use the DuoDock floppy drive was another loss, as it was one of the most reliable units I had ever used. The loss of the DuoDock meant having to extract the internal hard drive (that was bigger in storage size than the 230 MB internal one of the Duo 280c) and put it in an external SCSI enclosure. From then on, I would use the Duo MiniDock instead. At a local shop and Apple reseller they told me they could import the part, but when they gave me an estimate of the final price, I decided it was not worth the trouble. At the time I didn’t have the options I would have today if I wanted to search for a replacement. One day, after a power surge, the DuoDock II power supply died. I had a battery for that Duo with enough juice to last me about a couple of hours, so I could use the Duo 280c while commuting, then recharge it while I was at the university, then more writing on the train back home and, once home, I would insert the Duo in its Dock and continue where I left off, but on a bigger display and with a full-sized keyboard. I remember using this system rather frequently in the 3-4 years following the acquisition and before purchasing a second-hand clamshell iBook G3/466. I was really happy back in 2000 when I acquired a full Duo system consisting of a PowerBook Duo 280c, Duo MiniDock, the DuoDock II, a 14-inch Apple colour display, and an AppleDesign keyboard plus ADB mouse II. (Today we have notebook computers that can transform into tablets, no? So the concept still stands). I’ve always loved the idea behind the PowerBook Duo system, so much I think it could still be handy today without feeling obsolete.
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