Enabling the "Disabled" Card Interfaces?

An Anonymous Coward asks: "Has anyone else noticed how often different versions of what are essentially identical products often differ only in what connections are available on the card? Take for example the GeForce 2 MX... some cards include a TV-Out, others don't. Often, the traces that go to the missing connector are still on the board, only the plug/socket is missing. Has anyone ever tried adding these ports 'after market'? If so, what kind of success rate could one expect, adding something like an MPEG-2 audio connector to their TV tuner, or a DVI port to their Prophet?" An interesting thought, but is soldering on the missing connecter all you need for that extra functionality? Wouldn't firmware changes also be required?

Comments

Not always possible

[clark625]

In general, simply soldiering the new jacks onto the board won't work. The actual circuit board is common to all revisions and features simply to reduce cost. Each "original" board costs far more, but additional boards are relatively cheap. This is why you see the leads and sometimes even empty sockets.

Even if you do soldier on new jacks, you may also have to soldier on surface-mount resistors, capacitors, etc, to get it to work. And there's still no guarantee. It's quite possible that particular chips are missing (NTSC generator for video out, etc), or even that the major chips are completely different from the more expensive version.

If you're really set on doing this, find a way to compare the cheaper and more expensive versions of the card. If the chip numbers are identical, and there doesn't seem to be any other major differences, then you're probably able to get the features working. And as always, be careful when soldiering onto a PCB--keep animals and small children away.

this is very common

[Phork]

this is a very common tactict in the electronics industry, because it costs less to fab more of the expensive board, than fab 2 seperaate boards.
A few years back some company released several printers, the only difference between the printers was the model number printed on the front, and the drivers in the box, you could download the better driver off of their website and you had the better printer.
The USA version of many nokia cellphones dont have IR ports, while the EU models do, the difference is simply a plug in module, and the firmware.
There was a ahrddrive a few years back(can't remember who made it) that you could open and remove one piece, and get 20% more space.
I have 2 dell towers that i use as servers, one has on board ethernet, the other one doesnt, but the one that doesnt has the place to solder on the jack, has the controler chip, and appears to have a jumper to turn it on.
I have heard this is also common with kitchen appliances.