SSD Flex connector to SATA

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[Scott] was trying to fix a laptop, and we all know how that sometimes ends. Having a spare 128GB solid state drive and a Dell Mini 10 netbook to shove it in, there was only one problem, the drive did not have SATA connectors. That problem was taken care of like a pro with this FPC to SATA converter. Inspired by our recent spot about Speeding up a ThinkPad, he was able to find information about … [Read more...]

Quick hack brings Wi-Fi to an aging laptop

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[Jarrod] has an older Compaq laptop he is still pretty keen on, but he has one niggling problem - the laptop doesn’t have a built-in wireless card. He recently changed security protocols on his home wireless network to WPA and realized that his old Linksys PC card only supports WEP. He decided it was time to find another way to connect wirelessly, so he started searching around for … [Read more...]

Heat gun GPU reflow fixes laptop

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Solder connections on processors seem to be a very common failure point in modern electronics. Consider the Red Ring of Death (RRoD) on Xbox 360 or the Yellow Light of Death (YLoD) on PlayStation 3. This time around the problem is a malfunctioning Nvidia GPU on an HP Pavilion TX2000 laptop. The video is sometimes a jumbled mess and other times there's no video at all. If the hardware is older, and … [Read more...]

V4Z80P: The 8-bit laptop

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[Phil] over at Retroleum has cobbled together a clean, well put together laptop based entirely around a Zilog Z80 microprocessor and a pair of Spartan II FPGAs. These FPGAs allow him to reduce the number of devices on his board, and therefore cut his production cost as well as device size. He even managed to integrate a salvaged PSOne screen. The laptop comes complete with [Phil]'s own Homebrew OS … [Read more...]

A desktop made of Air

Deskbook Air Guts

[Bart] managed to get his hands on a Macbook Air for free. The catch was that the monitor hinge was broken and the laptop wasn't in too great of a condition. Rather than scrapping it or using it as a cake cutter, he decided to turn it into a keyboard PC. By removing the internals he was able to fit all of the components with minimal modification. [Bart] has added a few things to make it a … [Read more...]

Windows 7 tablet in a carbon fiber case

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If you're not one of Apple's devoted following the iPad means little more than new hardware you won't use. Tired of being left out in the cold, [Slampana] built himself a Windows 7 tablet. He grabbed the motherboard and 13.4" screen from an MSI X320, added a resistive touch screen, USB hub, internal WiFi and Bluetooth, then wrapped it up in a custom-built carbon case. It's small, sleek, and comes … [Read more...]

Cramming more pixels into a Thinkpad

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Not willing to settle for 1400x1050 on his Thinkpad, [Lawrence Sheed] set out to upgrade the LCD screen. He ordered a 15" replacement screen that brought the eye candy up to an impressive 2048x1536 QXGA format. The replacement fits perfectly for a nice factory look. Other than some delicate disassembly you might need to flash the EDID but in [Lawrence's] case it wasn't necessary. If you're going … [Read more...]