If you could please post the manufacturers of the drives, that would be great.

From my batch of PowerBooks, I found IBM to be the most reliable, with only 2 out of 6 failed. Quantum was the worst, both drives from PB150 were dead. Conner was 2nd worst, 1 out of 3 working.

Sorry about never getting to posting about the AC adapter, looks like you got that sorted. Lots of exams last week.