The PowerBook 165c, like other 100 series laptops, suffers from many different issues.
ABS plastic on just about anything made in the 1990s has become very brittle with age, and this includes the PowerBook 165c. The most frequent place on the 165c where you'll see this issue is with the screw mounts for the screen hinges. These mounts will break and crumble away with use, and lead to further plastic damage if the hinges are used in this state. A tell-tale sign of this issue is a gap in the plastic on the back near the hinges. If you see a gap, you've got broken standoffs. In addition, the screw mounts for the drive cages, and really just about every one in the system commonly stress crack with age.
Multiple methods can be used to prevent and fix these weak screw mounts. The one I'd recommend the most is to replace the old brittle mounts with new 3D-printed ones. These parts when applied correctly are very strong and last a long time. A link to the STL files for the new parts is available on the resources page.
Another method of repair if you don't have access to a 3D printer is epoxy. Lots of epoxy. This method works best if the original mounts are still intact, as otherwise they can be very difficult to reassemble. The idea is that you put a bunch of plastics epoxy around all of the mounts, in order to prevent them from breaking, and to add extra rigidity to the area. This can work when done right, but I'd still recommend the 3D printing approach if possible.
The Passive-Matrix Color LCDs used in the 165c are rather problematic in their age. Unlike many other 100 series laptops, the capacitors in these are not the most common killer. They do have a handful of electrolytic caps on them, but they're a through-hole type that are less prone to leakage and failure. They stil can fail, and I would definitely replace them if I were you, but they don't generally ruin the LCDs with corrosion.
I do not currently have the values for these caps.
The most common failure I see with the 165c's LCD is Vinegar Syndrome. (Click the link to find out about what it is). For whatever reason, I've probably seen more 165c laptops with Vinegar Syndrome than any other one of these laptops, except for the 150 maybe. This particular LCD seems to be very prone to it. There's also dead pixels and other total LCD failures, which I've also seen on these.
Vinegar Syndrome is repairable, but it requires a lot of work to do so. It could also be the case that I just have observation bias here and the 165c's LCD is actually no worse than any other panel from the time, but man have I seen a lot of failures.
As with any computer this old, it's more common to see a dead hard drive in one of them than one that works. Especially so, as drives used in the 165c are especially prone to failure. Apple laptops of this time used drives from one of three vendors: IBM, Conner Peripherals, and Quantum. Quantum drives are nearly always dead due to an internal rubber bumper in them that goes sticky, getting the heads stuck. Some Conner drives were also affected by this. This can sometimes be fixed with careful work inside of the drive, but it's tough.
Otherwise, these PowerBooks used SCSI 2.5" drives, which are pretty tough to find nowadays. If you do have a dead drive, I'd recommend replacing it with a modern solid state solution instead of paying silly money for spinning rust off eBay. Multiple options are available, and more info is available here.
The main battery for the 100 series PowerBooks is NiCad based, so they leak pretty frequently. Don't leave an intact one in your laptop, and make sure to check any unit you get your hands on for one. Usually the logic board only ends up damage in the event of a pretty severe leak luckily. Also, if the battery has shorted (which is pretty common), the laptop won't start with it installed. If you have a known-good AC Adapter and your PowerBook is acting dead, there's a good chance that's why.
The PRAM battery in the 165c is a rechargeable Lithium coin cell. These rarely leak. Still probably a good idea to remove it if you get the chance though, but be warned, it is soldered right to the internal interconnect board, so getting it out is a bit of a pain.
The color 100 series PowerBooks use a very similar looking AC Adapter to the others, but the color supply is a 3A unit instead of the usual 2A ones. I'm really unsure on the reliability of these too. If they do in fact use ELNA brand capacitors in them like the 2A units do, then they are likely going to fail a lot, but I'm not positive on whether they do or not. Mine still works, but they're likely pretty unreliable regardless.
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