Pc in Amiga A1200 - started !!!

[Tiago]

Hi, as i told you in other topic i would convert a laptop to An Amiga 1200 case.
So i started this weekend.

Laptop is a Dell 630, that a friend gave me. I open it, and remove the board... laptops are not so easy to open... we must be very carefull.
I had a spare A1200 case so... here we go:

Problems so far:
- fan must be placed exactly as it were inside laptop, 2 milimeters out of place and the board shuts down with cooling problems.

- as i get the board out of laptop, i notice it is to big for the A1200 case, i will have to cut a bit of keyboad and metal bellow to get some space, and also have to remove the board battery connector as i will not need it.

- power on button is in the laptop keyboard, how can i remove it from the keyboard???? I guess i can put a switch from the wires...


Here is a big photo of work so far, hope you understand:

http://www.lobodias.com/Commodore_Am...20PC2AMIGA.jpg

Help about the button is much apreciated !

[Harrison]

For the button you would need to multimeter and try to trace the buttons connections back into the connector.

Have you also checked to see if the motherboard will boot without the laptop keyboard connected? My wife's wouldn't when her keyboard went wrong. Could be a problem if it doesn't.

[Tiago]

Have you also checked to see if the motherboard will boot without the laptop keyboard connected?

The button on/off is on the keyboard, so if i remove the keyboard, how i would turn it on? I dont have other button for the same funtion.
Desktop keyboards have an average of 27 pins in a small circuit. To make a keypress you need to close circuit in 2 or 3 pins, like if you want the key "A" you would close pin x and pin Y and he will do the "G" key, the same with the others, some special keys, like Alt+tab would need multiple pins....
I dont now in this case of a laptop keyboard if it's the same procedure... i could cut the keyboard wire, and test with a single wire, to close these circuits to see if any would make the "on/off"

[Harrison]

Is the keyboard connected via a cable or flat ribbon connector like the A1200 has? Most laptops I've seen have these plastic flat connectors and it makes it really hard to do anything with them. Steve will testify to the nightmare he had trying to repair one of these.

That is the problem using laptop components as they are heavily modified and integrated to fit them all into the laptop case.

It's also annoying about your overheating issue. I suspect the cooling was designed with the motherboard and laptop case together, so that the 2 combined channelled the air around the system exactly as it was needed. Removing the casing probably upset this design.

[Tiago]

Yes it's a flat ribbon cable like the A1200,
check the photo of it:

It's also annoying about your overheating issue. I suspect the cooling was designed with the motherboard and laptop case together, so that the 2 combined channelled the air around the system exactly as it was needed. Removing the casing probably upset this design.

Well yes i guess, but after placing the fan exactly in the correct position, it worked fine, for more then 1 hour.
now, i need to know, if i can put a on/off switch in that ribbon cable

[Harrison]

Could be hard with that type of connector then. Maybe instead of trying to modify the keyboard/cable you could try to access the right connections from the motherboard end of the keyboard connector?