The Wallstreet and PDQ PowerBooks are prone to hinge failure, but not because of plastic cracking. For these, the metal hinges themselves are weak and wear out easily, causing them to eventually go floppy. To prevent this from happening to a good hinge, try not to open or close the lid too quickly.
The PDQ PowerBooks (not sure on the Wallstreets) will have very long POST times on cold-boots, taking between 30 seconds to a minute after the chime to make it to the point where the screen lights up. This is caused by a dead PRAM battery and only affects cold-boots. If you shut the computer down then start it again, it will start much faster, and continue to do so until it loses power. I believe this is caused by the laptop's RAM test.
This is also caused by a dead PRAM battery. If the PRAM battery is drained, the laptop will fail to start cold off the main battery, requiring you to jump-start it off the charger first. After that, it will be able to boot off the battery just fine unless it loses power.
Index < Macintosh Portal < PowerBook Home < PowerBook G3 Landing Page < PowerBook G3 "Wallstreet" and "PDQ" Home < PowerBook G3 "Wallstreet" and "PDQ" Issues