VIDEO: Recycling Destroyed Tech into Beautiful PCs

I want to showcase 2 of my projects i did. Both are made from older notebooks. I use both for Home Assistant server. It has a battery, so built-in UPS. 

First one is made from a LaCie 2big Quadra HDD case. Both harddrives failed in this, no point replacing. But an Asus E403S motherboard and battery fits perfectly inside. I had to 3d print some small parts, like the backplate and various brackets. Here is a gallery how it looks and build process:

And the next one is a completely custom 3D printed case for a broken Lenovo Chromebook that i found with a broken screen on FB marketplace for basically free. You can download the 3d print from here. 

@muzammil17 Your GPU might be fine then; I don't think I've ever gotten a laptop to power a display without RAM.

@imp-inventor fingers 🤞,  hopefully its good, it would be best 5$ i have spent.

The timing of this video is perfect because I’ve been trying to fix my old Dell Alienware 15 R3 (i7-6700HQ, GTX 1070 8GB, 120Hz 1080p G-SYNC) since last week.

It started with a 2,7 LCD/eDP error, which makes sense because the motherboard’s eDP connector has been ripped off, so there’s no internal display connected. Even with an external monitor connected through Mini DP, it never gets to the BIOS.

I’ve been trying to fix this laptop on and off for the last couple of years, but I always end up getting busy with work and putting it aside.

My question is: Is this normal on Dell laptops? Will the BIOS stop POST if something like the LCD, keyboard, or daughterboards are missing, or should it still boot and show the BIOS on an external monitor even without the eDP connector?

I’m also attaching some photos of the motherboard and the damaged eDP connector. I’d really appreciate any thoughts or suggestions.

You can exclude words from eBay searches with minus before the word. Adding “-faulty” is helpful here.

ive been wondering if you had any insight as to how to choose an epoxy to use to glue the glass onto the front pannel of the imac, i want to attempt this mainly for the monitor but im afraid to use the wrong epoxy

@diyperks You need to make sure of the display model number, that should be on a sticker, look for something like " LM270WQ1"

I bought one case like this one. 

@leeye [Link removed] - Admin.

I do this project, mostly for fun, But with the specs those laptop motherboard has. Well with very high insane prices on GPU, RAM and CPU's, this might be more than fun. 😆 

@vroooom the EDP Pads maybe shorting each other, look closely and try to clean the pads, it should boot after that.

@vroooom or try this, https://share.google/aimode/qGM9N9UVsQESKmM6a

Just a note, not all laptop motherboards will perform at their peak without a battery attached, that is, they need to be plugged into the wall and have a charged battery in order to reach full GPU clock. So watch out for that when buying.

@vroooom it is some kind of "feature" that prevents the laptop from POSTing, last option is to solder that eDP connector and connect the display, OR this might work,

@assassinblake6 Maybe try looking on AliExpress at reputable sellers?

@diyperks hey! I'm from India. I want to try building a PC like this.... but I'm not very sure on which motherboard to buy. Also I don't know how to 3D print. Will you be able to help me with this??

Hello, what sturdy materials could i use for making this computer without wood, aluminium or 3d printing as i dont have access to power tools to cut such materials

@bigshot 1/8" acrylic is a good option, but beware--it's very brittle stuff. I've heard a laser cutter is the best thing to cut it, but obviously most of us don't have a laser cutter, so try a hacksaw. It's a little messy and it will snap the acrylic if you're not careful though. I've heard PVC sheets are good as well, but I can't personally vouch for them, as I've never built with them before.

@muzammil17 I can't imagine the computer wouldn't boot without the eDP connector attached--why would it make any difference to the BIOS whether something's soldered to those contact points? I've booted boards before without the eDP cables connected. But looking at your pictures @vroooom, I agree with muzammil17 that some of them might be short circuiting and are worth checking/cleaning. If you have a multimeter perhaps check each pin in sets of 2 on continuity mode?

@imp-inventor dell laptops are notorious for this, just like apple wouldn't let you change or enable true tone if it is a aftermarket display or a donor display, dell have programmed their laptops to not boot if the main display isn't connected, there is a way to bypass that, but that requires the original display or a broken one.

@muzammil17 Huh. Weird. I messed around with a Dell Latitude 5480 motherboard--just the motherboard, SSD, and RAM--for about a year, then swapped it into a Latitude 5490 to fix the 5490, and I never had any problems with it not booting. It's never had an eDP cable attached either.

@imp-inventor https://share.google/aimode/Q25PqERukt5Kkqi7p this is the main reason, but the laptop works normally after it is booted into windows. So running headless is easily possible. but tweaking bios is not I guess.

@muzammil17 Ah, so "yes" but "no". Weird that it never gets to bios though...@vroooom have you confirmed it never gets to BIOS, or do you never get a display signal at all and so there's no way to tell, even if you see in other ways the motherboard is powering? (Lights, fan spinning up, etc.)

@diyperks What an amazing news, I found some very interesting deals but most of them are missing the cooling system and I'm sure the next video will be amazing thanks a lot for all your work and sharing!

Could you please give us some documentation on how to make a shell for these laptop motherboards like shown at the end of your latest upload?

Hi @diyperks,

first of all, really cool video — it was very helpful to see this kind of laptop motherboard-to-PC conversion in practice.

I’m currently stuck trying to power on an MSI Creator Z16P B12UGST / MS-15G1 motherboard.

The power button is integrated into the keyboard, and the matching keyboard seems to be S1N-3EUS2T2-SA0. I measured all 40 pins on the suspected keyboard connector PC1.

Quick summary of what I found:

• three individual pins sit at about 3.3 V; I briefly connected each of them to GND, but nothing happened
• there is also a block of several adjacent 3.3 V pins next to a larger group of 0 V pins, which looked like a possible keyboard matrix
• I tried all plausible combinations within that suspected matrix as well, again with no response

Does anyone happen to have a pinout/boardview for the MS-15G1, or know how the power button is implemented through the keyboard connector?

Is there anything else worth testing before I buy a keyboard just to power the board on?

Thanks!

I found a tiny board on AliExpress that will convert EDP to DP (not the much more common reverse!) so I'm wondering if this could solve the EDP requirement issues?

It does say it's limited to 60hz, which is a bit disappointing since many EDP connectors do higher refresh rates.
I did originally address this to the person with the broken EDP lol sorryyyy. But still, if some laptops require EDP I would love to know about this potential solution.

@lucilletea it should work, make sure to order the correct one.

How can i attach the motherboard to !an acryllic sheet without using power tools?

I haven't ordered anything yet, still building my shopping list, but I think I'm piecing together a nice Alienware M15 build. Concern is I don't think I can source the exact heatsink, at least not without adding $150+. I do have a heatsink option that should cover it well enough including VRAM/Chipset, it seems to be from a different M15 model so it's similar, but the mounting holes don't line up. It should be possible to bodge it I think, not sure if "good enough" mounting pressure will fly, has anyone handled this situation? Or it sounds like the followup video will have tips so I should wait? :p