Hey there all. Glad to be on the forums, and looking forward to what I will find here! Anyway, I'm not only a first time poster on these boards, but a first time modder as well. It started a few days ago when a 4 year old Dell Inspiron 1150 fell into my hands (P4 2.8GHz, 512 ram, 80gb). It works fine as is, but its a bit clogged with unused software (hopefully nothing that a reformat wont fix). My plan is to simply strip the whole lot down, clean it up, and try and squish it down into a small form factor case (I will be using it as a peripheral machine to run random programs along with my main), without an on board LCD. I'm also looking at adding a few LED's in a few places. Having started with the mod, I have laready encountered some problems where your expertise will hopefully help me out. The problems that I have encountered so far are as follows: 1. Power button needs to be moved. First off, I naively expected the power button to be connected via wires, but instead i have a header: Motherboard Power Button Header Power Button Male Connector Is there a way to move the button when this is the utilized connector? 2. I need to figure out how to use the laptop using only an external monitor (no LCD attached at all). 3. The on board 2 USB's need to be expanded. One to power the LED's, and the other for a USB hub to power both a USB keyboard and mouse (also one left open). Also, is it possible to draw power from this set of USB ports, and to mod in a small 3 port USB hub? USB Ports So those are my questions thus far. Remember, I am a first time modder, and would love to learn more about modding as a whole, but I would need to be eased into things first. There you have it, thanks in advance!
You could use a multimeter to work out which two pins are shorted to turn it on, and then connect to those. The header will be a problem though unless you have a really good soldering iron, and a steady hand. As for the usb, a usb hub will solve your problem, and you could pull 5 volts from the board, near the PSU if you are careful enough with a multimeter and soldering iron. Laptops dont really lend themselves to be modded in this way, but it can be done if you are willing and careful. As your first mod, i would have picked something a little less ambitions. And to be honest, you are taking a laptop and putting into a BIGGER case? you should do something like taking the lcd off and putting it back on the case upside down so you have a form of tablet PC, and then glueing it together so you have a form of mac, being a thick monitor.
Great, thanks for your input! I'm not all too concerned about case size (of course, the smaller the better), what matters is that it fits into the thing that I want it to fit into. Seeing as I'm not too experienced, I will take your advice and forgo moving the power button, and work on a mechanical solution instead. I could also do without the LED's and the internal USB hub, but this is something I would like to attempt before giving up on it, and I need to start learning to mod somewhere along the line. The real problem is the LCD (the laptop itself will operate as a desktop solution). Is there a way to make the laptop operate using the an external LCD only? Would this be a software or a hardware issue? If you would like to have a look, this is what I have in mind regarding the LCD > http://forums.macnn.com/69/mac-notebooks/371036/frankenstein-my-tibook-pics/ Thanks again.
There is a good chance it could be in the bios. You could also test it by plugging in an external monitor, and booting it up and see what the laptop prefers. It would have a key switch to select the monitor, like Fn F5 or something. See if it sticks over a reboot. Only way to find out is to test! heh
