Hi guys, It seems most people are taking things out of a laptop and using them for the PC. Stuff like 2.5" hdd, LCD, etc. What I would like to do is to do the opposite, and make a HTPC based on a P3 notebook. I'm thinking of getting a second hand notebook (with broken screen/spoilt CD rom/etc.) (read cheap!) and making it into a HTPC. Idea is to remove the LCD screen, keyboard, hdd (replace with bigger one), battery maybe even the CD-ROM. Advantages: 1. Small power supply. 2. Silent. May simply slap a zalman onto it if necessary. 3. Cheap...I hope. 4. Case will be as thin as a notebook. Things to research: 1. There are convertors for 2.5"HDD to 3.5"IDE connectors. Can I simply reverse that? i.e. Can I connect a 120GB 3.5"HDD to a laptop? (I know I'll have to supply 12V, but that's not biggie) 2. Can notebooks boot and display to S-video out directly, instead of using the "Function-F5" thing? 3. Can notebooks boot using USB keyboard and mouse? 4. Will the notebook have problem if the keyboard, trackpoint and LCD are not present? Just some ideas I'm throwing about. Let me know your comments! If this has been done, a link would be great. Thanks. koo
Youll have to get the laptop and go into it's BIOS to see what it can boot into. I know every laptop ive dealt wih has had options for booting into different displays.
what morphine said...every1 is diff. Keep this in mind, newer laptops putout macrovision to **** up DVD -> VCR recording, so u may have to hack the video card drivers/bios because ive noticed macrovision will also affect our TV as well as our VCR. Btw, why not make it thin enough so u could fit it in an existing piece of home theatre equipment.
My laptop can be set to boot directly to S-Video in BIOS. If the computer has problems booting without its original keyboard and mouse, you could just hide the keyboard and mouse controllers somewhere in the htpc. I have been thinking about making a lappy htpc too, actually. But I see no reason for making a new case and such for it. The screen is broken, but I carry it around anyway.
I did research on this for my Car Mp3 Player (On Hold) For me,for some reason when I used that adapter backwards I had to flip every two pins. I did it with by hacking apart a IDE cable, and flipping each pin. (VERY HARD) A friend pointed out to me if I removed the IDE connector on the adapter and soldered it to the OTHER side of the PCB, that would effectivly flip every two pins. I have not had a change to try it out though, as my Media PC is my main project. EDIT: If you want it easy, this company is the only one on the planet that sells a adapter that does it: http://www.unitechelectronics.com/idecables.htm
I know my armada 7500 will boot to whichever display it sees is connected, the composite or vga, or the screen if it's open, so it should be very possible, I have toyed with the same idea...
Thanks Zap. I'm in melbourne now. But the cables are too expensive! I believe I can get some shop to custom make one set for me at a lower price when I get back to home.
Yes that is right, that is the way it was in my case. Getting an ohm meter and figuring it out that way is the best option.
