I’m sorry to report that, after four power supplies — including one new, sealed, Apple-branded hockey puck adapter — I’m confident that the old PowerBook I had given to me as a challenge is dead.

I don’t know that I can definitively diagnose the problem, but I’m fairly confident that the problem is similar to what used to happen to old Inspirons — the brace or connector on the motherboard becomes defective, and power just never reaches the components. The solution for Inspirons was to replace the entire motherboard, or to solder a new power bracket on to the board.

Neither of those ideas is particularly attractive to me, mostly because I don’t have enough experience with Apple machines to be confident that it would be fixed. If anyone has ideas on how to resurrect it — that don’t include soldering irons or $120 replacement boards — now is the time to speak up.

I wish I could do more with it, but unless it’s an absolute classic, I usually draw the line at getting out the soldering iron. It’s more effective, in my experience, to buy a new, trustworthy component than to do a klutz job trying to solder a piece on — and not know if it’s really the problem anyway.

Either way, I can’t take the time or spend the money on a complete top-to-bottom rehab on the machine. It’s not something I would keep, and I don’t know if I would recoup the price. I spent $40 on power supplies already, and so I’ll probably disassemble it and all sell the remains on ebay, as untested parts. Sad, but unavoidable.

Sigh. I had so wanted to try out Edgy on an old Apple, too. Maybe next time. There are lots out there, if I want them badly.