I am about out of ideas, and am not the best equipped of 68kmla members to answer these questions. However, some random thoughts:
1. A multimeter would offer a ready means of confirming the working condition of the PS.
2. It occurs to me, though, before you go to such further trouble, that some powerbooks with a dead battery will not start with the dead battery inserted, or at least, they will not do so when they are giving problems. I am not sure why, but I have found that this has been the case with a number of different models.
3. It could be that you have the 5xx-series equivalent of GLOD on other older PowerBooks. The 550c's behaviour here would not be well documented, or not documented in English at any rate, though it would presumably be akin to that of the 5xx series in general. GLOD is, of course, generically a problem related to the backup battery and to the power management system in the machine.
4. I can also tell the tale of getting a 540c given to me some years ago that I later gave away again, and that finally came back to me as and in parts. It first came to me from a local chap who is really very knowledgeable, but who could not for the life of him make the machine boot. I got it home and promptly took it apart, piece by piece, in hopes that reseating everything might make it work. I reassembled and was delighted to find that it started up first time after reassembly and subsequently never skipped a beat — until being physically mangled by the developmentally delayed young man I in turn gave it to. What was left I eventually got back in pieces in a plastic bag....
Apart from that, I don't know what to tell you, apart from something like, "Sure, you just send that old 550c on to me!"
1. A multimeter would offer a ready means of confirming the working condition of the PS.
2. It occurs to me, though, before you go to such further trouble, that some powerbooks with a dead battery will not start with the dead battery inserted, or at least, they will not do so when they are giving problems. I am not sure why, but I have found that this has been the case with a number of different models.
3. It could be that you have the 5xx-series equivalent of GLOD on other older PowerBooks. The 550c's behaviour here would not be well documented, or not documented in English at any rate, though it would presumably be akin to that of the 5xx series in general. GLOD is, of course, generically a problem related to the backup battery and to the power management system in the machine.
4. I can also tell the tale of getting a 540c given to me some years ago that I later gave away again, and that finally came back to me as and in parts. It first came to me from a local chap who is really very knowledgeable, but who could not for the life of him make the machine boot. I got it home and promptly took it apart, piece by piece, in hopes that reseating everything might make it work. I reassembled and was delighted to find that it started up first time after reassembly and subsequently never skipped a beat — until being physically mangled by the developmentally delayed young man I in turn gave it to. What was left I eventually got back in pieces in a plastic bag....
Apart from that, I don't know what to tell you, apart from something like, "Sure, you just send that old 550c on to me!"