Project: Mobility Charles

[The Black Pumpkin]

Well, it's time to post my first worklog! :santa:

I have an old laptop that I'm going to revitalize in a few ways.

Specs:

Compaq Armada 1750
PIII 500
320MB ram
4GB hdd :eek:
14" screen
cd-rom (no dvd! :eek: )

I'm not going to do anything that sacrifices portability, as I still want to use it now and then for traveling.

I plan to do the following:

Paint job (colors will be posted later)
Increase hdd space
Add internal usb hub
Integrate wireless and LAN
Upgrade to dvd-rom

...and more, maybe.

I'll post more in a few days, including better pics of what I'm working with, but for now, here's a pic I found showing what the laptop looks like:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/armada1750.jpg

[chaksq]

Good luck. I would like to see how you upgrade everything.

[The Black Pumpkin]

Well, ideas are slowly being drawn together for this. So far, my idea is to use this usb 2 hub (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817422001) to add the internal ethernet and wireless, and I might add a wireless mouse to the mix.

Also, I had a thought to save on power, and use a flash drive for a hard drive. This one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233042) in particular. Does anyone know how usb drives fair in speed verses ata laptop drives? Keep in mind that it would be competing with a 4gb ata33 drive, probably with 4200 rpm.

I plan to use a cut apart pcmcia usb card to interface the hub (I might also have two hubs, to add external ports). The wireless adapter will be hacked apart as well, hopefully, and have an antenna routed around the screen for greater signal strength.

[XcOM]

for a flash HDD, vs an ATA33, yes you will see a speed increese (Provided you get fast r/w )

Also you need true flash memory, thats a USB stick, which if my memory serves me correct your laptop dosen't support boot from.

Use CF for example with an addapter.

[luciusad2004]

I guess ill just mention that if you plan on using flash memory to boot from you will kill it quickly. The flash memory only supports so many read wright cycles so if your swap disk or swap partition (i think its called the page file in windows, not sure though) is on the flash memory you will kill it quickly. Just a heads up.

[chaksq]

I was looking into using a solid state hard drive (Flash memory) a few weeks back so I'll post what I can remember. As luciusad2004 stated doing this will significantly shorten the life of you flash memory.

Basically there are adaptors to connect a compact flash card to run as an ide hard drive. There are bennifits to this such as no noise and runs cooler. Being that you are using a laptop I recommend this adaptor: 44 pin IDE adaptor (http://www.pcengines.ch/cf2g.htm). Which will fit within most laptop HD trays. The website has regular 40 pin adaptors as well to use in a regular laptop. You can get CF cards in many sizes it all depends on what you want to spend. Keep in mind that you will probably need to replace your card fairly regularly if you go this route so keep backups.

I doubt that computer will support a USB boot. Only recent computers have that capability.

[XcOM]

i forgot to mention the life span of a CF card. i think they have 1000 rads and writes before the data begins to degrade, Unless you pay MEGA BUCKS and you get about 2000 r/w then.

FLash wasn't designed to run an OS,
What about one of these? there small, quite (http://sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Path=8182000000070000000100006598000026b 9/818200000b0c000000010000659c000026bd)

[The Black Pumpkin]

I'll test my laptop's usb booting capabilities with a 256mb stick, just to be sure. CF seems like the future, but I had already dismissed it because of the aforementioned short lifespan.

I guess I might just have to stick with a traditional hard drive, it doesn't make much difference to me. :banana:

More to come!

[The Black Pumpkin]

Ok, first real work entry!

I'm doing mainly internal mods/upgrades at this point, until I get my other, regular laptop back for lappytop uses. (It's with my sister...)

Anyway, here are some external shots.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0001.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0002.jpg

Closed and open. As you can see, there is some sticky stuff on the screen I have to remove.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0003.jpg

Sorry for the fuzzy pic, :think:

For reference, this laptop shipped with a Pentium II and Windows 95. :D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0004.jpg

Here you can see both the left and right screen "clips". Unfortunately, the left one is broken, and needs to be replaced. Fortunately, I have a spare 12" screen, and it has the same clips, I'll just take one out of it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0005.jpg

The speaker opening are just some small holes in the bezel. I haven't decided yet, but I'll either drill out the rest of the holes, or cut out the whole little section and use mesh. I'll probably just drill out the rest of the holes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0006.jpg

Just a quick "under the keyboard" shot.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0007.jpg

Here is the mod for the day! A DVD drive! Yay! It's an LG DRN8080B.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0008.jpg

I'll have to take this bracket off before I can use it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0009.jpg

Can you see the small switch? It's for selecting cable select, slave, or master. This laptop only has one IDE channel :think: , so I had to get one I knew could be put as a slave.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0010.jpg

Here you can see that even laptops need adapters for the slim drives! :D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0011.jpg

Here the specific laptop adapter is fully installed on the new drive.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0012.jpg

And here it is being slid into the laptop! It fits! The bezel doesn't sit right with the laptop, I think it's from some Dell or something.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0013.jpg

And it works!

[Luke122]

Congrats on the working dvd drive! Laptop mods are great, and I hope that this project works out well for you.

On a side note, have you considered going with a solid state hard drive? I know that it's kind of a big investment of cash, but they are available in both 1.8" and 2.5" versions, and up to 8gb from Tigerdirect. No moving parts, no noise, much less power usage, and much lighter... that offsets the $ in my opinion.. but then space is a concern, as you are already using a 4gb hdd.

If you are intersted, I've got a 20gb toshiba 2.5" hdd from my Compaq Presario 710CA, which is just collecting dust atm. (I upgraded to a 60gb)

[The Black Pumpkin]

Yeah, I've thought about it, and it is the future, but it's just not in my cards at the moment. Thanks for the offer, btw, but I've got a 20 in my other laptop that I'm going to similarly replace with a 60. :)

[chaksq]

What was in the laptop before just a regular CD? Nice functional upgrade. How much was the DVD, I might look into getting a used one for my project Framed which probably will be used for pictures/video.

I diverge off topic but Lukifer122 how much did you want for that HD. I could use a larger HD in project framed as well. I think the one in there now is only 1 GB if that.

[The Black Pumpkin]

Yeah, it was just a Cd-rom. I got it for about $25, not to expensive. I was thinking about a burner, but this thing just doesn't have the power for that.

Update

I've decided on a paint scheme, open to suggestions, of course. The base color will be a candy emerald green, like in Commando's green flame tutorial. At least that's all you will see from the outside. When you open up the screen, the bezel around the screen, as well as the one around the keyboard and all the buttons, will be either glossy black or flat black, haven't chosen yet. All the buttons will be candy green with black letters, I've still got to choose a new font.

So yeah. :)

[The Black Pumpkin]

Update time!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0014.jpg

My spare parts box! :banana:

Here's a little backstory on the origins of how this laptop came to me. A coworker of mine sold it to me for 20 dollars, the screen was cracked and the motherboard would only run off of a charged battery, not off of the ac adapter. Sounded like a fun little project. :think:

I bought a motherboard and screen off eBay, and all was well! It worked, albeit slowly. So I looked into how I could upgrade it. I found this site (http://wireball.com/cms/armada_1750_repair) which has a few upgrades, but here's the clincher, they were for the 1750, I had the 1700, and there were slight differences. I got a 1750 motherboard and a 14" screen, and that brings us to the present! :up:

Now, for this update, we will be disassembling the laptop! Onwards!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0015.jpg

So innocent... :D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0016.jpg

One cool thing about this model is the fact that it can have two batteries. One in the normal slot, and the other in the multi-slot, where the floppy drive normally resides. (I do have that, by the way!)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0017.jpg

The third keyboard I've gone through. Don't ask. :neutral:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0018.jpg

You can see the memory, touch screen cable, and other proprietary stuff. :banana:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0019.jpg

Off with it's head!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0020.jpg

Hard drive cover popped.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0021.jpg

Hard drive cover removed!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0022.jpg

Top cover bezel removed.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0023.jpg

Motherboard shield removed.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0024.jpg

The Pentium III! :banana: :think:

More pics of this later.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0025.jpg

The bottom case, almost all cleaned out! I don't have a picture of it, but the metal shield lining the area under the motherboard is out as well.

See you next time!

[chaksq]

Nice to see this coming along, I may be continuing my laptop project soon. Once again good luck.

[The Black Pumpkin]

Thanks, I appreciate the support! God knows my mother doesn't understand what I'm doing.

I have thought of an interesting idea, though. You know how moving the Windoze page file off of the boot drive can improve performance with a PC? Well that's a little tricky with a laptop, as they only have one hard drive, unless you have one that does the no cd/slide a hard drive in its place trick.

Or it was until my idea! (If my idea works.) What about putting the page file on a permanent usb drive? It wouldn't be booting off of it, so lack of usb boot wouldn't a stickler. A 512mb one would be plenty of space for this laptop. Anyone have any thoughts on whether or not it can be done?

[Luke122]

You might end up with the same issue of limited re-write capability.

HOWEVER.. Vista has an option to use a USB drive as a sort of cache (speedboost? not sure what they call it exactly).. so I think it's possible. If you can put it inside the case, all the better!

512mb or 1gb usb drive could theoretically be used as a seperate drive for the swap file.. as long as the limited rewrite issue doesnt apply.. the swap gets hit CONSTANTLY..

Do you have the usb drive already? Post the make/model, and I'll check it out for you if you want. :D

[Drum Thumper]

Thanks, I appreciate the support! God knows my mother doesn't understand what I'm doing.

I have thought of an interesting idea, though. You know how moving the Windoze page file off of the boot drive can improve performance with a PC? Well that's a little tricky with a laptop, as they only have one hard drive, unless you have one that does the no cd/slide a hard drive in its place trick.

Or it was until my idea! (If my idea works.) What about putting the page file on a permanent usb drive? It wouldn't be booting off of it, so lack of usb boot wouldn't a stickler. A 512mb one would be plenty of space for this laptop. Anyone have any thoughts on whether or not it can be done?

Doubtful. I know Vista gives you the option of using USB flash drives to increase your total RAM, but I'm pretty sure there's no such beast for any previous Windows version.

+rep for the idea though!

[The Black Pumpkin]

Yeah, I don't think I'll try it. I do think it would work, as the page file is just that, a file, but the limited life is a problem. (I'd probably use a 512 Corsair drive, btw, if I did it...)

[The Black Pumpkin]

Been a while, but here's a new update! :banana:

I've finished sanding all of the back cover for the LCD, except for removing the original Compaq logo.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0026.jpg

I've been really busy with other stuff, but I'm back, some! Going to sand off the logo, prime this piece, and then work on the front LCD bezel! :santa:

[The Black Pumpkin]

*yawn*

When in doubt, hibernate! Who wants me to keep working on this project, which has of course been completely abandoned until now?! WHO, I SAY!!

Ahem. Update tomorrow, maybe? :D

[nevermind1534]

That would be good to see this finished. I actually have that laptop.

[Luke122]

Doo eeet!!

[The Black Pumpkin]

Well, unfortunately today did not offer any time for modding, but I will try and fit a little time in tomorrow. Tomorrow's pretty full too, but I have a little time tomorrow afternoon, hopefully.

[The Black Pumpkin]

Yay! Update time!

When we left off last time, I had sanded down the lcd backcover except for the compaq logo and had mostly sanded down the front bezel.

Well I took a mini flap-disk in my dremel and removed the compaq logo. I then applied a thin layer of "Liquid Metal" (it was the only thing handy, I need more bondo.)

And then I wetsanded my first coat:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0027.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0028.jpg

In the first picture, it doesn't look all that flat, but you can see it is very nice in the second picture. I'm gonna put another coat on and wetsand that tonight as well, this liquid metal dries fast!

[chaksq]

DUDE! Your back, wow it has been a long time. Looking forward to updates.

[The Black Pumpkin]

Yep, I'm back, and it has been a long time!

One small update for today, put some more filler on and sanded it (forgot pictures!), then put the third coat on. I'm waiting to find my sanding block before I sand this coat.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0029.jpg

Next up until I find that, I'm gonna finish sanding the front bezel.

[The Black Pumpkin]

Well I found my sanding block, so I sanded!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0030.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0031.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0032.jpg

Notice in the third picture how smooth it's starting to look? That's not good enough! You can see some of the flaws, they will be destroyed and a level surface will remain behind!

Ahem, till next time. :up:

[The Black Pumpkin]

Small update today.

No further work on the top panel, but I did more sanding on the lcd bezel and did some work prepping the cover of the motherboard part of the case for sanding. (If you couldn't tell, sanding is taking forever! It's hard to get it smooth and get rid of this stupid grit-like finish.)

Anyway:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0033.jpg

The parts I took off of the bottom cover today.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0034.jpg

The place one of the pieces came out of.

See the difference from this picture?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0019.jpg

[DonT-FeaR]

cooleo ... keep it up

[The Black Pumpkin]

Thanks dude.

Anyway, I found some time to sand some more today (you can only do it for so long), this time on the keyboard bezel piece.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/TheBlackPumpkin/MobChar/mobchar-0035.jpg

It's not the best picture but it's hard to get a picture of the stuff I have to sand away...