PowerBook 3400c -- When the World's Fastest Laptop Was a Mac!

Apple was a hot mess during most of the 90s that few, other than existing Mac users, took seriously. But then they made a powerhouse of a laptop that righted a lot of prior wrongs.
Sources:
Infoworld (August 28, 1995 and September 25, 1995).
Macworld magazine (February 1996, May 1996, November 1996, December 1996, January 1997, April 1997).
MacUser magazine (December 1996, April 1997).
Taipei skyline photo: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
PowerBook 5300 motherboard photo: 5300 motherboard image: www.alksoft.com/projects/scan...
Compaq laptop image: jalopnik.com/this-ancient-lap...
Quanta Shanghai industrial park photo: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
3400 modem/ethernet adapter image: www.popscreen.com/prod/MTgyMzg...
PC Magazine (February 1997 and January 1998).
Udagawa subway photo: www.japan.go.jp/sustainable_f...
Antenna Design furniture: / 295759900504212017
Microsoft IP phone: blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keati...
R211 NYC subway car: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
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Please consider supporting my work on Patreon: / thisdoesnotcompute
Follow me on Twitter and Instagram! @thisdoesnotcomp
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Music by
Epidemic Sound (www.epidemicsound.com).
Intro music by BoxCat Games (www.box-cat.com).

[@LGR]

There’s a classic Apple laptop with built-in woodgrain cover support AND NOBODY TOLD ME?!

[@WalmartMustacheMan]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm yummy

[@anew742]

I almost didn't recognize your channel with that snazzy new profile picture lol

[@mrpetit2]

A very good competitor back in the day for your Gateway Solo 2200

[@FinalManaTrigger]

I thought about you when I saw that too, Clint! LOL

[@monopalisa619]

Any chance you gonna make videos on some apple products?

[@deltakid0]

Let me tell you what Colin, I'm not any remotely interested in the title and the content of this video, but you make it so interesting, entertaining and fun, this channel has soul. I love it.

[@Kylefassbinderful]

In 1999 I was 13 and I would hangout at a local thrift shop and snag cool donations when they came in. I got an Apple //c (working) with a lot of cables and accessories for $1. I got a Mac SE/30 (working) for $30. Mac IIci for $20. Power Mac 6100/66 w/DOS, I don't remember how much but it was cheap. This was all before ebay took off and everyone started to think their junk was gold. RIP thrift stores

[@MaxOakland]

There’s something so incredibly cool about that Thrift stores still exist but they’re not like that anymore

[@fatkid5600]

i still get laptops today for cheap at thrift stores but there usually broken and a little overpriced, like i got a broken laptop thats "unfixable" for 36$, i tried to fix it but i cant

[@AussieNexus7408]

@@fatkid5600 hey man what’s wrong with them I’ll fix them for you if you send them out to me I’ll pay for shipping

[@fatkid5600]

@@AussieNexus7408 i figured it out, board damage, there was a broken micro capacitor, requires microsoldering, i looked for the part couldnt find it anywhere, if theres a way to fix cracked caps then any help would be appreciated, it sparks everytime it gets power

[@namesurname4666]

@@fatkid5600 from which year is the laptop? i would pay that much only if it's new

[@Schaelpy]

Woodgrain? Has someone informed LGR yet?

[@imeepysleepy]

Yep, he commented

[@Reckoner89]

You won a notebook that sold for the price of a car when you were 15 years of age and you did NOT immediately sell it even though it couldn't run most games at the time? What the? There needs to be a second part!

[@gben82]

@stirange bahahaha! your comment made me lol. Ya FF and Goldeye were the shit back in the mid-90s, but never tried playing them while smoking haha

[@nekomasteryoutube3232]

@@gben82 ALmost any game you enjoy is fun while smoking or drinking, and these days its not hard to emulate those old games unless you REALLY want to run it on real hardware. Hell from time to time I boot up Gran Turismo 4 on PCSX2 while drinking and have some run racing in HD

[@NathanChisholm041]

@@stirange Bong resin? You mean smoke some good buds?

[@possiblewhiteguy]

LOVE the history bit about how it was used in Independence Day!

[@TheLucidLuxray]

It be foolish for the impatient to skip that part.

[@augustinchenault9981]

It’s hard to watch the movie without noticing

[@Garrettdx1988]

I loved that movie when I was a kid. Never paid attention to or cared about what computer was used. Granted, I was ten lol. Looking back though, that’s super dope.

[@ShearWater509]

In "The American President" there is also a 5300, and a 500 series as well (Sydney Ellen Wade has the 500 series)

[@ericbauer4559]

I still have my dads 3400c. We used it for real estate QTVR photography in the late 90s. It later was my laptop I used in college. It was a 200mhz model until the PRAM battery leaked out, so I ended up replacing the logic board with a 180mhz version. Also scored a 128mb ram module from that same parts machine. During covid, I got it back up and running on an SD card. It's my favorite piece in my Mac collection as it's the only one I still have left from my teen-hood.

[@Dave01Rhodes]

I love my 1400. It's a solid computer with a fantastic keyboard, and relatively easy to take apart. You can get the keyboard off with no tools, and replace the hard drive with only a single Philips driver. I've got a 3400 as well, but I've always preferred the 1400 design. One thing you didn't mention was that unlike the 5300, the 1400's processor was on a daughterboard. You could get up to 166mhz stock, but there were third-party G3 upgrades for it as well. The biggest limitation, as you said, was the memory. It supported up to 64mb, but you had to achieve this by stacking two RAM boards on top of each other. If you have an expansion card installed, (video out or LAN) it was a pain to get it all to fit and work properly. Also, fun fact about the 5300 in Independence Day: they filmed the movie before the computer was released. The label on it in the movie calls it a PowerBook XXXX. Also, since the movie was slated for release shortly after the initial planned release date of Copeland, I'm pretty sure the OS mockups in the movie are of Copeland. You can see it looks like Mac OS 8 (or 7.6.1 running Appearance Manager), which weren't released until long after the movie was out.

[@mardus_ee]

Given the role that PowerBook XXXX had in the movie, I've always imagined, that instead of MacOS, it ran A/UX, Apple's version of Unix. That was since I'd learned anything substantial about A/UX, years after ID4, and on Wikipedia. Only this year did I learn from this very channel, that A/UX was produced for 68k-based machines only.

[@colombianguy8194]

Great video as always. Man! Winning a top of the line laptop at 15 years old? That's a dream come true!. When I was 15, I drooled at computer's magazines for those powerful but insanely expensive laptops.

[@dbozan99]

My first computers were all Apple laptops that were hand-me-downs from my dad who bought them used so I ended up owning them quite a few years after their prime time. I went through several laptops, including the Duo 210, 540c, 3400c, and 5400c. My dad's garage became quite the storage area for old macs for many years, but many occasions required sellings some stuff to make room for newer things including my old laptops. My only Apple laptop that I still own from back then is a Powerbook G3 Wallstreet-II 300MHz with a dead HDD. One of these days I'll get a solid-state adapter for the HDD.

[@tobymoose2734]

One of my favorite channels to learn about the history of computers! Great video as always!

[@glyphic313]

What the hell Colin? The most interesting part of this whole story is you winning one of these at 15 years old! What an incredibly expensive prize you won!

[@SinaFarhat]

Thanks for the lovely presentation :) Have a nice weekend and keep up the good work!

[@segaboy9894]

I spotted the G3 (Kanga 3400) in "You've Got Mail" yesterday.

[@tvw4951]

I LOVE these chunky bois, ever since seeing hackers so long ago. I've always wanted to mod one to make it more modern and throw a linux distro on it with one of their intro logos

[@FredQuijada]

Your videos are as fascinating as they are informative. Great job!

[@TheAfroman]

WHOA WHOA WHOA.. You are burying the lead there! Tell us more about the sweepstakes! Apple hardly ever did that,

[@whophd]

CAME HERE TO SAY THE SAME THING!

[@charlessale409]

The LEDE dang it.

[@whophd]

Charles Sale Sure, but it’s a deliberate misspelling by the industry, made official.

[@alarak2159]

Great vid.. excellent history too. What a prize! G3 - G4 Titanium PB hammered the competition too..

[@rictr7421]

And some people think a 3000 USD laptop is expensive. Back then the processing power increased so fast that your new machine would become obsolete in a couple of years.

[@sunnohh]

Apple: 40 years of aggressively moving in the wrong direction

[@alerey4363]

You can see that in almost every product up to the intel move; those ugly proprietary connectors, specially weird video cracking bulky cables with a million delicate pins, they were really bad decisions and they all ended up being replaced in favor industry standards (vga, intel, usb, etc)

[@DanaTheInsane]

@@alerey4363 When Steve Jobs came back, he had to undo a lot of stupid.

[@ryanfraley7113]

This laptop probably kept Apple in business while Steve was getting things ready to finally come back.

[@meredithglass8760]

This was just a delight to watch, excellent job

[@turbonx]

I wasn't expecting this to end up being my favorite video of yours i've seen. Nice. Subbed!

[@justthatmichael2176]

*Love the Ambient Works sounding music you got in the background, there.*

[@arthurstout9257]

My mom had a 3400 when I was still using an Apple IIGS, and boy was I jealous. It was still working in 2003 and I used it for writing notes in my first semester of law school when my desktop was a lime green tray loading iMac. At that point the 3400's battery could only last for 1 class on a full charge, so it mostly lived plugged in with a long extension cord. When the hard disk drive failed in 2004 it wasn't worth fixing, so I got a 12" G4 Powerbook replacement, which was a VERY satisfying, worthy replacement.

[@ThisDoesNotCompute]

I had a 12” PB G4 too, and it indeed was a very nice machine. Wish I had kept it.

[@RefugioVillegasIII]

I like watching all of your videos! I like how you go into details and base knowledge on retro and modern tech.

[@neo6289]

thanks colin i love your videos

[@Brasil66]

As always very cool videos and informative too 👍🏻

[@RATsnak3]

Little did you know that the worlds fastest laptop would again be a mac one day.

[@CoasterMan13Official]

You gotta love the dual wielding batteries!

[@VicariouslyVanna]

I wonder how they'll do with their in-house processor now. I'm excited.

[@TheDuckPox]

Looking at that splash boot screen. Wow. that's fun. I didn't expect that's the first thing I miss when I look at these vintage techs.

[@Kylefassbinderful]

My last Mac that ran OS 9 was my beige G3 7200/120. That computer blew me away at the time. I was able to install a CD burner so I could backup my system folder. I eventually upgraded to the first (maybe second) version of OS X and that was where I went wrong lol it just couldn't handle the upgrade very well. OS 9 was cool though even though it was outdated. I still remember holding onto demo-CDs because they could be used as startup discs and/or they contained extensions like Quicktime MPEG. It was easy to piece together a good working system by copying extensions and apps from a multitude of different floppies and CDs. It was such a simpler time.

[@_PGleo86]

Well, after seeing this, I went back on the hunt for a Powerbook of this era... ended up bidding on and winning a Pismo G3 (which I've long admired but never bought before now). Thanks for revitalizing my search; I'm looking forward to diving into the classic Mac OS games from my childhood again!

[@whitebeartigtig]

congrats on 200k. Nice video BTW.

[@splangley]

I had the 3400/240. Yes, it was insanely expensive. For the time though it was great, I really loved the subwoofer behind the LCD, and the screen was fantastic. I do not miss the keyboard though, either in key feel, or for the lack of inverted T arrow keys.

[@koztech]

This is also a great option if you need a machine to bridge the gap between 800 KB and 1.44 MB floppies (among several other options.) Need to create a new set of System 6 or 7 disks for the Mac Plus? Download them on a modern computer, burn them to a CD or copy them to a few 1.44 MB floppies, then transfer them over to the PB3400. Copy them to the hard drive and then use the floppy drive to create 800K disks compatible with older 68k-based Mac's.

[@prismstudios001]

I love the Hokusai wave mural….. neat!

[@longbottle]

Ah, the venerable Powerbook 1400. I loved mine (still have it!). Heavy enough to bludgeon someone to death with, and sturdy enough to not break. One of the best laptop keyboards I've ever used, too.

[@MusKubium]

I love that desktop background on the 3400

[@MaxOakland]

With the M series I wonder if they’ll be able to pull it off again also I have a Powerbook 1400. Such a cool little vintage computer. The keyboard is excellent

[@johncate9541]

I never got my hands on one of these until about 2002, five years later. Even then, it was a damn good laptop, and I used a 3400 for a long time even though I wasn't a big fan of Apple. Maxed out the RAM to 144MB, and even had the Zip drive module that was made for it. Definitely one of Apple's high moments of that time period. And when they took the same machine and put a G3 on the motherboard in 1998 to make the "Kanga" G3, they had the fastest laptop in the world for a while again, on the same design.

[@jom1439]

i have the feeling we are approaching this point in history again :)

[@TonyLasagna]

Still one of the best intros of any KZbin channel.

[@Stevel_]

I have two 3400cs, a 240mhz and 200mhz model. They are rock solid machines. I write on one, play games, and the kiddos love Kid Pix. You can get programs and documents on an off easily with a PCMCIA to SD card adaptor. I only wish I could find new PRAM batteries, but luckily the clock is saved if your main batteries have a charge. Also a shame these CPU weren't upgradable as they would have been a great candidate for a Sonnet G3 upgrade with the higher ram than the 1400. Great video, thanks!

[@jNetDowling]

That post-script was great, you must have been so happy with that win!

[@ThisDoesNotCompute]

It happened at the perfect time, I needed a new computer and had been slowly saving up to buy a low-end Power Computing clone desktop.

[@jNetDowling]

@@ThisDoesNotCompute teenage-me is very pleased for teenage-you! Would've beat the pants off my family's 386.

[@skinner20011486]

I still have my 3400c. I remember my parents buying me my 1400cs in January 1997 for my birthday. It didn’t take long before they wanted one that wasn’t being used all the time by me. So a deal was settled, they would take my 1400cs and in return, bought me my laptop that I would use for the next four years. A PowerBook 3400c around June 1997. I miss playing Oregon trail after school.

[@darkwinter6028]

Had one of those, back in the day when I worked there... it was a preproduction testing unit.

[@JewelzFinazzo]

I still remember how "well" the stereo speakers sounded when I used mine as a kid. I used to listen to music for hours at a very nice level of sound (in that day, from a laptop).

[@MCSchuscha]

and doing it again 25 years later!

[@pepealexandre8815]

200k? Congrats!

[@ColonialPuppet]

This was my first computer growing up!

[@Lurker1979]

I was a proud owner of the Powerbook G3 that came out after this. It was a great unit.

[@WalmartMustacheMan]

Was it the Kanga that looks exactly like that or a newer different looking model

[@blomegoog]

Went from a Compaq Portable suitcase to a Powerbook 100. Huge example of miniaturization.

[@tuff_lover]

sick flex at the end...

[@Otokichi786]

My second laptop computer was a PowerBook 1400c 117Mhz unit that had been a middle school portable. It worked just fine, which led me to a Canadian G3 PDQ, which was upgraded from 266Mhz to a 500Mz Sonnet chip in the 1990's. My first laptop was a Toshiba 1200XE/12 Mhz 80286 with a monochrome CGA display and 20MB HDD, which was quickly replaced by the 80386 computers.

[@MattEdenzi89]

AH! The classic laptop designs. Gone are the days :'(

[@blakryptonite1]

Tell us the story of your first laptop

[@crxxpslvyr7887]

How do you commented this 3 days ago

[@duskonanyavarld1786]

I was ten year old in c:a 2000

[@maxforce1259]

Just bought my first laptop. An Acer Nitro 5. Good budget gaming laptop.

[@MindReader_PEI]

@@crxxpslvyr7887 probably was up on patreon early

[@EthanB]

HP Laptop ProBook 4530s. Bought it for school. First time I ever needed a laptop. It wasn't great but got the job done and was cheap. Main reason I got it was it had a 7200 RPM drive where just at that price had a 5400 RPM drive.

[@EROSNERdesign]

Great stuff.

[@whycantifindanavailablehandle]

the fact that it was codenamed M2 and was the fastest mac ever at the time. The M1 macs are the fastes ever. Specifically the M1 ultra.

[@photolabguy]

Those arrow keys look terrible.

[@anew742]

Welcome to the world of Apple laptops

[@gigabytemmx]

they did that for a while, surprised they didn't change it sooner.

[@stephanieperry1119]

Are early digital watches or calulator watches related to modern smart watches? Could you do a video series on the history of smart ⌚?

[@compaqdeskpro5770]

I got lucky bought a 5300c from eBay for $50 from a seller with no feedback whatsoever. Aside from heavily corroded battery terminals, everything on it including the hard drive with the original OS install worked, and the plastic panels had dates of 1997 on them, indicating it got the broken plastics recall late in its life. I both resoldered and put epoxy around the power jack, and it still wiggles, I'm thinking AC adapter barrel is worn out too.

[@ldchappell1]

That 3400c laptop weighed almost 8 pounds, compared to the Apple Air that comes in at 2.8 pounds. You could buy old Powerbooks at The Goodwill about 5 years ago for $25. I bought a complete 1984 Apple Macintosh, with 1MB memory, keyboard, mouse and external diskette reader for $35 in 1998. I still have it but I haven't booted it up since 1999.

[@orangeActiondotcom]

Damn, I just let one of these slide on eBay on the cheap earlier this week because I couldn't pull together enough information to determine if it was worth it before the auction ended.

[@kozmokohler]

and a few months later Toshiba released the Satellite 4025CDT with a 300 Mhz Pentium II, 6.3 GB hard disk, 1024x768 TFT LCD backed by a Chips & Technologies 65555 with a max RAM spec of 192 MB. I have one and still using the original battery in it, with the original disk. Been giving it hell writing a book since 2015 and the thing never gives me any funk. The Tecra of the time had dedicated graphics and offered internal MPEG-1 support for DVD playback and a proprietary webcam on the 780 DVD.

[@Kylefassbinderful]

Skip ahead? Never lol. I want all the juicy details.

[@drygnfyre]

Jeff Goldblum is a noted Apple fan. In addition to the PowerBook being in ID:4, he also did some voiceovers for several Apple commercials.

[@Hmmm4688]

what's your verdict on the Apple Watch? I notice you're still wearing one, I'm interested to hear your updated opinion on it. thanks!

[@RISCGames]

Appreciate all the great info, now I want a 3400c while I'm waiting on my 1400c lol

[@txa1265]

It is really funny looking back at pricing ... and remembering that back then (starting ~97) I had gone ‘laptop only’ and ended up alternate years buying a new Mac and PC ... and spending ~$4000 each year on them. So - never had a 3400c

[@alextirrellRI]

Another major problem with the 5300 series was the power connector. It would regularly come unsoldered from the motherboard. I got one used back in 2000 or so and I went through at least one or two motherboard replacements and a couple resolder jobs before I finally got a 1400.

[@egbront1506]

It wasn't just the connector's detachment from the logic board but also that the barrel was so loose that any slight movement of the notebook and the cable just dropped out - instant crash if your battery was dead as they all are today. It also was the only Mac range that had that particular narrow barrel size so finding a charger is tricky today. The only hack that worked was to solder the larger barrel socket from a donor Mac onto the logic board and use any charger from the 1400 series right up to the iBook Clamshell.

[@slickshoesfan19]

Also, seriously JUST picked one of these up, so your timing couldn't have been better... I tried OS 8.6 for a while, but ended up going with System 7.6.1 for an overall more snappy user experience. It does forgo some compatibility and the preemptive multitasking, but overall, it feels so much faster... Even got WiFi working with an ORiNOCO card...

[@JeremyBolanos]

I have a 5300cs that I need to do fix the power plug on and hope that fixes its issue. Seems pretty immaculate otherwise.

[@jrr851]

My Mom had a 3400C. That was an amazing, expensive, machine.

[@RetroHackShack]

Great t-shirt!

[@HistoryandReviews]

It was so good I could edit 144p video on it which was HD at the time

[@angryshoebox]

I bought a used 3400c/200 back in 2003. Nice machine. The subwoofer speakers in the lid were more like midrange speakers to my ears, they didn’t put out any kind of thumping bass. It was too bad Apple didn’t put the 3400’s CPU on a daughter card, something the 1400 had over the 3400.

[@jonglass]

My 1400 was slow and crashed a lot. I also had (still have) a 2300, which I liked a lot better. (my laptop story, Duo 230 -- greyscale-- PB1400, then the Duo 2300, and fnally, for about 9 years, a 2000 G3 PowerBook "Pismo", and with the exception of the PB1400, which had some weird hardware problem, I still have all three of the other laptops and they all still work, amazingly)

[@organicio]

Loving the channel! Has anybody ever told you that you look like Mikey Day from SNL? :-D

[@ThriftStoreHacker]

This powerbook unfortunately got discontinued very fast. The G3 Wallstreet took its place. Unlike the 3400, the Wallstreet was able to run (slowly) the new Mac OSX. The 3400c I had really liked os8.6, but got a little laggy on os9. I feel that this was the last of the pure mac classic laptops.

[@sburton015]

I actually remember interestingly that the very first computer that I had at home was a Macintosh SE. I remember when I was very little when my stepdad and his son brought it over to the house back when I was just 4 years old in 1988. It had a small black and white screen on it and I remember that we actually used it from time to time until 1996. Then early 1997 was when we had an AST advantage adventure PC with Windows 95.

[@anthonysullivan5197]

I had a PowerBook 1400!

[@Lachlant1984]

I'd be curious to know what the stereo speakers/subwoofer in the 3400 sound like please.

[@Fifury161]

I know the 5400 series (weirdly not the 190 as much though) suffered from weak hinge mounts - the plastic supports weren't strong enough to hold the brass threading for the screws and they had a free recall. I can't recall if the 3400 series suffered in the same way. I still have mine!

[@princealbertz]

1997 what a great time to live

[@polaris911]

I wonder which one was used in the movie Hackers?

[@mikegreiling]

is this the laptop Jeff Goldblum used to save us from the aliens in ID4?

[@mikegreiling]

oh... I should have started watching the video before commenting 😂

[@bkwalkabout]

I remember pining for the PB 1400 every time I stopped by a CompUSA (!) instead of the 3400.- but couldn't afford the Apple Tax! Colin, I hope the G3 Series is next on your list!

[@ThisDoesNotCompute]

I already have a Lombard, but someday I’ll pick up a Wallstreet to goof around with.

[@cwaldrip]

I loved my 3400... sigh. ❤️

[@chezsnailez]

Had a couple of those wee beasties around the turn of the century when they were going cheap on ePay...

[@tiagodeaviz]

Ohhhhh boy... I had this beauty but it was a G3... Complete with the Apple case, external mouse, CD and Floppy, SCSI adapter... It had 96 megs of RAM and an internal 3gb drive. At home I had a Zip Drive to use it on the SCSI port, along with an external hard disk drive to store all my MP3's! They were daisy-chained, oh yeah. SCSI ID and Terminators? I got it covered. Then it was STOLEN (together with my mom's car).... I miss it to this day, because I only got to enjoy it for something like 6 months or so... We happily worked together acessing UNIX servers and configuring Cisco Routers and switches, back in 2000. The sound was really good for its time, and the display and keyboard were top notch. Maybe someday I'll get one again. Just for vengeance.

[@luquivarde7266]

I believe that apple with their own processors may become the best computer business as it once was

[@hellbreakfast1590]

The swappable drives are such a cool feature you just don't see anymore. It sucks. Sometimes I see these videos and I get really huffy that these kinds of conveniences are just not in modern tech, though modern tech is, overall, much better.

[@batfan1939]

I wish modern laptops were this well-designed. The elevated feet are a brilliant idea, I'd love to see what a modern laptop could do with inch-thick batteries, and customization is all but dead today. Hot-swappable faceplates would be awesome!

[@chillinfartdotcc]

Got the 200 Mhz model as a war trophy in 2006. Lasted three years until an accident happened. Recently i repaired it, but now games like Doom are running very slow, i discarded ram and HDD as factors. Also keyboard is dead and i suspect the flat is damaged. ¿Any clues for both cases? That powerbook has Mac Os 8.6 and 48MB of ram (16+32), just months before the disaster i upgraded it's hard drive to 20GB, planning to put an SD card adapter later and if budget and risks can be managed, the 64MB module i wanted by years.

[@JohnnyWednesday]

05:08 - All hail the Motorola 68040!

[@crxxpslvyr7887]

Happy 200k ;D

[@vsrr83]

How does this compare to SPARCbook 3000ST released in 97 also?

[@rodrigomolinsky]

2:27 Yep. When I saw the laptop, I thought right away "it is the computer that hacked an alien mothership!"