The Laptop Repair

People are always asking me if it’s possible to build a laptop computer from scratch. I always say, “Sure, same way it’s possible to build a car with parts from the autoparts store. You’ll pay several times as much as buying a car from a factory, but you can do it.” However,Asus Laptop Ac Adapter the idea of building my own laptop has been stuck in my brain for a while, and I’ve started collecting junk laptops, dell vostro 1000 battery, dell latitude e5400 battery not for repair, but to tear them apart and reverse engineer the basic assembly technology. A great engineer (or maybe it was Newton) once said, “If I have seen farther than others, it’s because I stand on the shoulders of giants.” So I’m starting at square one and building my first laptop with the technology I already know.

The two basic components required to build a laptop computer are obviously a lap and a computer. Being blessed with both, I dove right in, but it quickly became apparent my computer didn’t have a battery, so I plugged it into a wall. One possible enhancement would be to carry around a car battery and an inverter, but we’ll get to mobility later. The next challenge was building a laptop with user friendly interface devices. I’ve wanted a laptop with a full size keyboard and I always use an external mouse, problem solved.

People who talk about building laptops in discussion groups go on at length about the difficulties of procuring LCD screens and what to do with them. I decided to build my laptop with a genuine 15″ computing friendly Samsung LCD, not one of those letterbox things intended for watching DVDs. If I wanted to watch DVDs on my lap, I’d be sitting here with a DVD player and a TV. Having solved the hp pavilion dv9000 battery, hp pavilion dv8000 battery power issue early on by using a wall socket, it’s just a matter of making the connections.

Now I seriously considered building wireless into my laptop just to be fashionable, but the truth is I don’t trust the security on wireless networks, and the real range (through walls and such) of my router can drop as low as 50 ft. I decided that since I’ll usually be using my laptop in one spot, I could afford to go with the proven laplink technology to sync my laptop with my desktop. I wonder if plugging both ends of the laplink cable into the same motherboard will confuse the software?

A laptop wouldn’t be complete without a shoulder bag. Since the laptop I’m building won’t fit in a shoulder bag, Asus F2 Ac Adapter, I found a better use for it. This patented technology, which I’m calling “Extension Cord” gives my laptop a 50 ft roving range, a little longer if you count the power strip. I worry that it may set off alarm bells at airports, but you can’t expect everything in a prototype built from scratch.

So, here’s my homemade laptop solution. It has all the power of my desktop, and is fully expandable and upgradeable with standard ATX and PCI components. I can use it anywhere in the house, and with the extension cord technology, I have capability of operating throughout the front and back yards. Note how the design allows easy operation of a standard mouse, though the keyboard position is a little to close to the body for my taste. Still, sony vaio vgn-fz290e battery, sony vaio vgn-fz460e battery, it worked the first time I plugged it in, so I’m calling it a success and moving on to building a lunchbox computer.

I’m cranking up to reverse engineer a few laptops, down to weighing the components and studying the mechanical interfaces. I even have a PowerBook to chew on, first time I’ve ever looked inside an Apple laptop. I’m also going to get some car computer parts in here for a look, and I’m pretty impressed with the mini-ITX form factor as an alternative to mini-ATX for non-gaming applications. All joking aside, battery life and whether or not to even include batteries will be a major decision, and if I go with ATX components rather than cannibalized laptop parts, batteries will definitely be out the window. There’s also the trade-off between heat dissipation and fan noise to consider when you start using higher end components, particularly in laptops when the whole thing is sitting right in front of your face. One solution would be a completely detachable screen, so the body of the laptop can sit on the floor like a PC.

The printable eBook version of The Laptop Repair Workbook is now available for download anywhere in

Don’t rush into replacing the hard drive before troubleshooting the problem. The first step I take when working dell latitude e6400 battery, dell latitude e6500 battery on any laptop or notebook computer is to remove the battery. Even if the power button is well protected, like under the closed lid of the screen,Asus F3 Ac Adapter, it doesn’t mean that the power might not come on due to a mechanical jolt or a short when you’re working on the innards, so the best bet is to just get the battery out of there.

Laptop batteries generally require two actions to remove them. In this case, the lock is on the front edge of the case, and it slides to the side. After the lock is released, the battery slides back just an inch or so to release from the connector, after which it’s lifted out and removed.

There are two basic scenarios for laptop hard drive replacement, the easy access scenario and thetake the whole laptop apart scenario. This Toshiba notebook is the easy access scenario, Asus F2 Ac Adapter, Asus F3 Ac Adapter, Asus F9 Ac Adapter, Asus G1 Ac Adapter, at least as far as exposing the drive goes. The hard drive is concealed behind a removable panel on the bottom of the laptop, which is held in place with one long screw.

As we lift the lid over the hard drive, you can see the long plastic tube that serves both as a screw guide and as a mechanical support. It should be immediately apparent that the hard drive isn’t going anywhere without the cage either being removed first or coming with it.

Closer inspection shows that this hard drive mounting system relies on the cage being attached to the hard drive before the hard drive is installed in the laptop. The only things that secures the hard drive and cage in the laptop are the power and data connector on one end, and a spring steel tab on this gateway nv-54 keyboard, gateway nv-78 keyboard end. The picture to the left shows how the whole edge of the cage has to be pushed in to get the tab past the the plastic stub that holds it into place.

Once the locking tab clears the stub projection that holds the hard drive cage in place, the end still has to be lifted up till it clears the bottom of the laptop.Asus F9 Ac Adapter, There’s simply no room within the laptop bay to pull the hard drive back and disengage from the mating connector. One the cage clears the laptop, it takes a bit of force to pull the hard drive out on as shallow an angle as possible.

The first step in replacing the hard drive is removing the cage from the old drive, which is held in place with four screws. Make sure you note which way the cage goes on the old drive before you take it off, because it will need to be mounted on the new drive the same way, even though more than one orientation may be possible. You can see the corner of the new drive in the picture, in case you thought we only had one:-)

Once the replacement hard drive is mounted in the cage (same brand in this instance, though it doesn’t need to be), the whole assembly can be reinstalled in the laptop. Again, keep the drive on as shallow an angle as dell studio 1745 battery, dell studio 1747 battery possible, ie, close to the bottom of the laptop, as you slide the pins into the connector. The close tolerances on the laptop bay usually make it impossible to mate the connector improperly.

If you worry about prying the drive against the connector when depressing the end of the cage so the tab clears the locking ear, you can hold the top edge of the cage out as you pry the tab in, as I’m doing here. Laptop hard drives aren’t terribly rugged, they’re so light and slim that I hate putting any more mechanical stress on them than I have to. Replacing laptop hard drives is a bit nerve racking for people who haven’t done it before, but as long as you don’t use an unreasonable amount of force, it should work out fine.

We replace the lid and use the long screw to reattach it to the bottom of the laptop.Asus F2 Ac Adapter, Asus F3 Ac Adapter, Asus F9 Ac Adapter, Asus G1 Ac Adapter, The emergency restore CD that comes with the laptop is used to reload all the software on the PC, but your data is gone unless you backed it up.Since the laptop hard drive we replaced in this example was a total brick, I figured I’d open it up (below) so you could take a look inside. The shiny circular thing is called a platter, Asus G1 Ac Adapter, on which the data is magnetically recorded and read by a read/write head on the end of the arm (currently in its park position away from the platter). The noise you here when your hard drive is operating is the arm swinging in and out over the surface of the platter, which spins sony vgp-bps13 battery, sony vgp-bps21 battery under the read write head to provide access to all the usable locations on the drive.