Mac Forum / General / Portable Macs / March 2007

Yes, two I can think of immediately:

You can start it in SCSI disk mode by plugging in a disk mode SCSI
adapter at the back - it will either be a cable dedicated to disk mode
(has 50 pins in the square connector) or a switchable one (should have a
little slide switch on the side of it to change it from a SCSI adapter
to a SCSI disk mode adapter.  That would make the machine behave as an
external SCSI disk drive when you turn it on, which allows it to be
plugged into another Mac capable of using SCSI peripherals (getting
rarer these days, in fact anything post-iMac would need a special card).

More flexible is the option of dismantling the machine, removing the
2.5" hard disk and putting it into an external USB / FireWire case; that
way it becomes an external backup drive.  You're lucky it's a 1400 which
uses an IDE drive, that's the only kind which works in these enclosures.  
Should cost about $20 for the enclosure including interface board.
Probably easier than swapping the PRAM battery and you have a bonus
backup drive.  But you lose the PowerBook of course.

I have a 1400c still with its G3 upgrade, lovely bit of gear, if it ran
OS X I would still use it at home I reckon.

     Cheers,  MK.

The battery should come as a pair of button cells in heatshrink plastic
with a pair of wires already soldered to them, ending in a connector.  
Once you get to the battery it should be a matter of unplugging the old
one and plugging in the new.  If the batteries DON'T come with wires
soldered, don't buy them - soldering button cells is very hazardous even
if you did have soldering gear.

Disassembling the machine to the point where you can replace the battery
would be pretty heavy going - if you lack solder gear it sounds like you
might not have the experience with electronics to make it a success.  
However you should be capable of taking out the hard drive to put it in
an external case - that doesn't require putting it all back together in
a working state, which can be challenging if you're not used to that
kind of work.

Alternatively find a friend or a reasonably priced tech and have them do
it for you.

This Japanese site shows disassembly pictures:

http://clab.vis.ne.jp/CLab/PB1400/c08_disassy-mb.html

You basically slide the speaker grill to the left and lift it off, lift
out the far edge of the keyboard and flip it toward you.  Don't worry
about undoing the screws on the metal heatsink, you don't need to do
that bit.  At that point you should be able to remove the hard drive by
undoing the two screws at the right side of the metal "tray" it's
sitting in and lifting the tray.  Then unplug the connector very
carefully, undo the screws holding the drive in the tray, and you have
the bare drive suitable for installing into the external case.

     Cheers, MK.