Ok, we all hate to let good computer equipment go to waste. I bought a P3 laptop 3 and a half years ago. The hard drive went bad after 14 months, I added some ram, and I replaced my power brick after it too went bad. Oh yea, my two batteries... they've stopped holding charge for some time now. The laptop still runs, but it shuts down quite often. When I built my PC, I did a fresh install of windows xp. To prevent it from overheating it during that ordeal, I had to prop it in front of a window in 30 degree weather. Installing adobe acrobat reader prompted the laptop to shutdown as well. So now that you know the background information, I'll get to the point. I was wondering if anyone knew a way that I could fix this overheating problem that eventually developed, OR if anyone has suggestions as to how I can gut the laptop and convert it into a stationary computer with possible desktop worthy cooling? The last time I tried using the laptop was to play an avi file, and after 10 minutes it shutoff. At the very least I want to be able to use the computer for tasks one would buy a budget PC for (web surfing, email, word processing, etc. Portability would be preferred, but anything that'll get it off the shelf and running would be spectacular. Any suggestions would be most welcommed, ~STU~
Well, with a regular case and a minimal amount of modding, you could just mod the lappy components into a desktop environment. Use the ports, instead of trying to use the integ. kb/mouse. The optical drive may be a pain, but the hard drive you could just figure out a savvy way to mount. I would recommend an sff, just because it'll be cooler, you already have the parts made to be in a tight space, and..well why not? Also, the LCD would be a pain to extend, but you still may be able to do it. Otherwise, you could just use a standard monitor on the lappy's I/O port.
Well, ideally I want to use its lcd too since it's nice and flat and 14.1 inch isn't too bad. When I upgrade my 15" LCD to a 17" LCD, I'll most likely go for a dual monitor setup. I appreciate the suggestions and any other suggestions to come. I've just started brainstorming this now but maybe interesting (insane) ideas will develop.
umm toss it out a window ok if you really want to do this properly your going to build an enclosure for it and youll have to use an external keyboard and mouse. I you dont want to build a new enclosure there is a way Take the whole thing apart, then you should be able to swap the lcd from a foward facing direction to a back ( umm ie when you close it the lcd will be on top. Then you need to remove the heasink,clean it, unplug the fan from the motherboard. Now you see the fan, your gonna need to cut those wires, and solder on a new 80mm fan. The voltage coming out of the motherboard should be plenty to move a stock 80mm fan. Attach the fan to the heatsink some how. You wont need the battery since the laptop is no longer a "mobile device" so just keep it plugged in all the time.. You should have a decent setup ( id draw a picture but its late)
Someone here just suggested that your overheating problems may be due to a dead fan and/or a dirty and dusty, clogged up HS.
I was about to also suggest that a good clearing of the heatsink removal of all the gunk dirt/hair/dust and whatnot that would inevitably accumulated over the laptops entire life would help alleviate, if not completely remove the overheating problems. A check to see if the relevant fan/s are still functioning and a replacement if necessary, would probably fix any remaining heat issues. While my comments aren’t very radical you would still be able to use your laptop as a laptop if it fixed the problems.
Last night I completely disassembled the laptop and cleaned everything out. My sister has the same model laptop and it still runs well even though she has similar hard drive problems. Anyways, I cleaned off the fan/heatsink combo and took off the thermal pad. Without the thermal pad, the laptop fan kicks in quite soon (which I kind of expected). I'm going to put some paste on tonight and see if anything improves. I have a theory: my stock power brick was rated for maybe 50-60 Watts and the one I replaced it with is a 70W unit. Perhaps too much current is going to the CPU and this is creating excess temperatures? I like the idea of reversing the LCD so it faces up. Without the battery, the LCD is the most weighty part so maybe I can create a swivel for the entire unit. USB keyboard/mouse and everything should be spiffy. Maybe I can extend the touchpad and/or keyboard and make this a super compact unit that can perhaps be mounted on a wall? If I build a custom enclosure, I have a P4 heatink/fan on my shelf in addition to the stock Radeon 9800 heatsink/fan that might be useful. I'll post again later after I add thermal paste.
current doesnt work that way, think of current a drinks straw, you can suck all day long (the current used) but only so much liquid is going to come though (the max current rating of the PSU). now voltage is differnt, think of it as a hose, its a "push" type affair rather than currents "reserve to suck from" unless of course you have a short somewhere in which case that sucks (ba-doom-boom-tissh, thank you I'll be here till thursday) and it will just draw as much as it can. incedentally you need current limited resistors on LED's cos they are in effect a short
The thing is, there was a 52 W or so upper limit as to how much power draw the laptop could muster. Anyways, the problems only began last February when the laptop stopped recognizing my USB 2.0 card. After that, the overheating problems began. My theory: perhaps after the upper limit of the power draw was raised (to 70W), the CPU began to draw more power than the chassis was designed for and this might have damaged something. Or... the CPU continues to draw excess power and overheats beyond the heat dissipation abilities of the laptop. =( I hate wasting good components or even expensive bad ones. You need resistors to power an LED because the lack of resistance would overload the LED with too much current. Thanks again for everyone's suggestions. I guess now I'm going to focus on modding the chassis or creating a custom one =D.
i would remove the components that started causing the problems first and get back to base 1 when everything was just as you got it when it was bought. I would also give the thing a good cleaning. Take it apart and clean out the dust and make sure the fans are still operating. There are also many new things out there today for laptop cooling like little pads your laptop can sit on and cool off. Some work better than others so research properly first. Once youve removed all add on components try reintroducing them one at a time untill your problem starts again and then you will know if somehting is faulty at all.
Well, the thing is original HD broke (my sister had same model laptop and had similar HD failure a month after me). I had used a USB 2 card every now and then, a wireless card occassionally. I had ram upgrade for an entire year before problems. Stock power brick broke so I had to buy a 3rd party universal replacement. The fan still works. Update: I put some arctic silver ceramique between the heat sink and CPU. I'll test the system to see if it fixed anything. A new relevation came to me... the ram area is really really hot. So... I unscrewed the flap. There is noticeablle discoloration of the metal ram heatsink. I poked around with my finger and at some point the system restarted. I know, I know, don't touch anything in a live system. What I noticed is that the ram is really hot to the touch so inside the ram chips the heat must be somewhat higher than what I'm feeling. Perhaps the ram partly overheats the system. I think that since I know the system is still mostly functional, I really would like to create a custom enclosure in which I could better heatsinks and or an additional or better fan. Notice the two discolorations from the two ram sticks. I can imagine that I can attach better heatsinks to the ram, perhaps video memory heatsinks, and elevate the case a bit, BUT then how do I apply sinks to the other side of each ram SODIMM? Let me show you the mainboard: The highlighted region is where the pcmia (spelling?) card slides in. You may be wondering what's on the other side of the board... RAM! This might explain why I couldn't use my USB 2 card anymore or my wireless card. I might have mentioned it, but my USB2 card just stopped working one day, and the wireless card began turning off randomly after 10-25 minutes. It might be possible that this functionality has been lost due to overheating of the ram? As always, any feedback/comments will be appreciated.
It seems to me that you could make the conversion by building a box that the laptop would sit on. Inside the box, you could mount your power supply, and several fans that would blow into the laptop. Also, you could mount a desktop CPU heatsink. As for the ram, I would think that having ramsinks on one side and a fan blowing onto the ram would do a lot to help keep temperatures down.
Do you think that it would be better to just built an enclosure for the laptop so sit on top of, or an enclosure for the gutted components to reside inside? I'm thinking that a custom enclosure might be the best solution but maybe I can cool down the ram a bit without modifying the entire mobile chassis.
Go for the full monty -- a custom enclosure. It'll be a lot better in the long run, and it'll make the lappy components a ton easier to work with, if need be.
I like that idea =). My friend suggested that I configure everything so that I can hang it on the wall. I could still use some more advise though. I like the small keyboard but don't know how to extend the signal traces. On the laptop, the touchpad, keyboard, and LCD are attached by these signal traces. It looks like a piece of clear tape with conductive traces at the end which plug into a receptacle slot. I highly doubt my ability to extend these traces via regular wires. If I can't use the keyboard, touchpad, or the LCD I may as well give up now. I'm sure either someone will suggest a radical design or I'll come up with one, that will allow me to salvage a damaged laptop into a unique system.
bin the trackpad and keyboard, use external ones. as for the screen remove it from the lid and then fold the screen back over onto the rear of the laptop (leaving a gap for air and fans and stuff) other than that I cant see any reason why you couldnt theorectically sextend the kb/trackpad with normal wires.
Here is a picture of the "ZIF" keyboard connector. The touchpad consists of a smaller one as does the LCD. I don't trust my ability to extend these connectors. Oh well, I guess you're right. Worst comes to worst I use my wireless setup now for the laptop and buy myself a bluetooth setup for my primary computer =D.
Those are a bitch to extend. It can be done, with a lot of work and a steady hand. I believe extensions are made, for some standard trace-sizes, just Google around a bit. Does the LCD connect the same way, through the ribbon-cable like tracepaper?
The LCD has "ribbon trace" and a fany-type connector on the other end for blacklight power. I believe that if I move things around right I can have the LCD connected through the stock connections. As soon as the snow lets up I'll take a trip to the hardware store to see if I can get some copper sheet/pipes to custom make some ram heat sinks. Most of my tools/wires/modding equipment is at home since I'm back at university from winter break, so I can't get started on this right away. Just trying to see what is feasible. OMG! I just realized... they make sheets of traces which you can use to make a printer circuit board. Perhaps I can find one thin enough so that I can make my own traces. I'm visualizing a section of transparency with these traces, rolled around a non-conductive core and in a protective wire casing. I'll whip out my multimeter to see if the trace along the entire length is conductive; I know the trace in the plug is conductive but don't know if there's a substrate protecting the wire through the entire length.
