Homeade Solid State Notebook

[bomberboysk]

Well, this is a work in progress but basically its as follows:
Old presario 2500 with the following specs:
2.3Ghz Pentium 4 M
40gb hard drive-> Since removed, drive died
512mb(2x256mb) PC-2100 Memory
15" 1024x768 Display
Pcmcia D-link Wifi card, original antennas from original card have been damaged from the multiple repairs ive had to do.

Now, What am i doing with it you ask? Good question:
For one, with no hard drive, it will now me shock resistant and i can use it much more safely in a moving vehicle, which at the moment is why i am not worried about not having a battery, as it will be used while watching tv or while on car trips.

-No Hard drive, well, i though for a minute. I have an old 4gb cruzer micro, 17mb/s read rate isnt the greatest, but should do for now. (Completed)
-Paint Entire Notebook with Matte Black paint(Semi Completed, body painted, lid tomorrow perhaps)
-Clear Spraypaint Keyboard, gives them a nice gloss effect and your fingers can more easily slide from one key to next. (Completed)
-Replace TIM With Arctic Silver Ceramique(Completed)
-Cut out side fan grilles to improve airflow(Semi Completed, Need to be smoothed out but mainly done)
-DC Jack has broken off 3 times, ive replaced it 2 times now. Third time i decided to fix it once and for all, i soldered some 14guage wire to the contacts on the mainboard, hotglued into place, soldered and heatshrunk on quickconnects.(Completed)
-Buy replacement battery
-Install Xubuntu
-Purchase True SSD or much faster flashdrive
-LED Lights to light up keyboard
-Bluetooth
-Anything else cheap i think of

Now, some pics so far:

(Will have the old battery cover over that, the flash drive is located inside there)

^^Yes, the display is currently being painted

 

[Fatback]

It's not the prettiest laptop in the world but It will get the job done. I had a 160GB hard drive that I just gave away if I knew you had needed it I would have sent it to you. If I come across any more at my shop I will let you know. My boss buys broke computers from people on craigslist on the weekends so we will usually have extra parts laying around that we don't need.

 

[bomberboysk]

It's not the prettiest laptop in the world but It will get the job done. I had a 160GB hard drive that I just gave away if I knew you had needed it I would have sent it to you. If I come across any more at my shop I will let you know. My boss buys broke computers from people on craigslist on the weekends so we will usually have extra parts laying around that we don't need.

Yeah, this is just a side project im working on since my other laptop is a bulky 3 yr old desktop replacement(17" screen, 200W power supply so it doesnt work in anything except our truck, 3Ghz desktop p4 so it runs hot lol) and ill prolly set it to fold for me when im not using it for gps or browsing the web while watching tv. Right now im working on an issue that just popped up with it not displaying anything on its screen or an external screen. I guess ill have to pull it apart again see whats wrong with it. I wish that sata drives would have dropped the price of pata drives but they havent..

 

[Fatback]

Yeah, this is just a side project im working on since my other laptop is a bulky 3 yr old desktop replacement(17" screen, 200W power supply so it doesnt work in anything except our truck, 3Ghz desktop p4 so it runs hot lol) and ill prolly set it to fold for me when im not using it for gps or browsing the web while watching tv. Right now im working on an issue that just popped up with it not displaying anything on its screen or an external screen. I guess ill have to pull it apart again see whats wrong with it. I wish that sata drives would have dropped the price of pata drives but they havent..

I have never liked laptops after my last one broke a week ago I don't plan on getting another one for a long time. They are a pain to work on I hate one someone brings one into the shop. 50% of the time it is the motherboard 15%its the GPU 5% it's the hard drive 15% it's the RAM and 5% is from people dropping them.

 

[bomberboysk]

I have never liked laptops after my last one broke a week ago I don't plan on getting another one for a long time. They are a pain to work on I hate one someone brings one into the shop. 50% of the time it is the motherboard 15%its the GPU 5% it's the hard drive 15% it's the RAM and 5% is from people dropping them.

Exactly why my newest laptop is 3 years old If i ever get anything again it will either be long battery life thinkpad or a netbook.

 

[Fatback]

Exactly why my newest laptop is 3 years old If i ever get anything again it will either be long battery life thinkpad or a netbook.

You can never trust the listed battery life the way they test the battery is stupid. They use the lowest power settings then turn the brightness all the way down. They don't have any programs running at all expect for the ones you can't stop from running. Then they just leave it sitting there until the battery goes dead. If it say 4 hours you got about 2 hours tops 1 hour if your watching a video. What ever the battery is rated at subtract half then another hour to 30 mins and that is the actually time you have to use it and the screen brightness can make a world of a difference.

 

[bomberboysk]

You can never trust the listed battery life the way they test the battery is stupid. They use the lowest power settings then turn the brightness all the way down. They don't have any programs running at all expect for the ones you can't stop from running. Then they just leave it sitting there until the battery goes dead. If it say 4 hours you got about 2 hours tops 1 hour if your watching a video. What ever the battery is rated at subtract half then another hour to 30 mins and that is the actually time you have to use it and the screen brightness can make a world of a difference.

Well, ive experienced the thinkpads and they usually get the battery life they are rated for, it really depends on who you purchase a notebook from. Then again general stuff is all i do on a notebook, for gaming and whatnot i have my desktop

 

[ScOuT]

Looks like a fire hazard to me

 

[Fatback]

Well, ive experienced the thinkpads and they usually get the battery life they are rated for, it really depends on who you purchase a notebook from. Then again general stuff is all i do on a notebook, for gaming and whatnot i have my desktop

True Dell,ASUS,Lenovo,Sony and a few other usually come pretty close. Acer,MSI,HP, Samsung, Apple usually come know where close to the rated battery life.

 

[bomberboysk]

Looks like a fire hazard to me

Only one of those is the power cable The other is a usb extension cable heading to a flash drive(makeshift ssd). I actually have run it that way for over 2 years now, just now redid it though so its cleaner with the glue to insulate everything and heatshrink vs pvc tape.

 

[Shane]

Whats that cable for?

 

[Euklid]

What sucks about the laptop battery is that after a year they stop holding their
charge. You have to buy a new one. And a replacement battery costs $90 to $175.
I'm not going to buy another laptop for a good 5 to 10 years - waiting for the batteries
to stop sucking so bad.

Settings that drain the battery quickly:
- WiFi on.
- Dual-cores.
- Bright screen.
- Speakers.
- Video.

I had a Dell I used for college. It would last me the advertised 6 hours in the beginning
just running OpenOffice. At the end of the year, it would only last 10 minutes running
a video with wifi.

A replacement 6 hour battery costs $175 Cad. The laptop itself cost me $560 Cad in
total.

 

[bomberboysk]

Whats that cable for?

One goes to a usb thumbdrive as a makeshift ssd, the other is for a hacked together power cable. The dc power jack cost me $15 including shipping on it and i had to replace it 3 times, it was really prone to coming insoldered on these notebooks, either that or the center pin would break. This way it takes a few seconds longer to connect, but i dont have to open the notebook up every 2-3months again.

I had a Dell I used for college. It would last me the advertised 6 hours in the beginning
just running OpenOffice. At the end of the year, it would only last 10 minutes running
a video with wifi.
.

Theres your problem I know all about how they pull that crap with laptops, no need to tell me

 

[mac550]

Looks like a fire hazard to me

lol i aint a fire hazard until its on fire

 

[bomberboysk]

lol i aint a fire hazard until its on fire

Lol, good one.

Updates-
Xubuntu currently installing, about to sand down the lid to remove the old paint, then paint it. Right now i just have the lcd itself connected without its surround. Fixed the booting issue, turned out memory wasnt contacting apparently, as removing and reinserting both of them fixed the issue. More to come..

 

[Geoff]

So it's just a regular laptop with a SSD and custom power cable?

 

[bomberboysk]

So it's just a regular laptop with a SSD and custom power cable?

Thumbdrive as ssd, pata ssd's are expensive compared to the new sata ones. Plus this laptop is like 6 years old.but my effective cost on this project is nothing since this laptop has been sitting here for ages, plus i did a few mods to it(matte black after removing my old high gloss black paintjob, clear paint to make keys glossy, etc.) Next ill be trying to find a way to put led's to light the keyboard.

EDIT:
Posting this edit from the notebook. Pretty snappy and good boot times, especially for a 17mb/s transfer rate of a flash drive. Now i just gotta wait for the lid to dry and it will be semi done with the main parts, then can get to finding a way to hide this flash drive somewhere else in the notebook. After that, i might buy myself a battery for it..