Hacking Asus EEE

An anonymous reader writes "Torsten Lyngaas has published a set of instructions with photographs on his personal wiki that describe the steps he took to install $450 worth of extra hardware, including a GPS receiver, an FM transmitter, Bluetooth, extra USB ports, 802.11n, and an extra 4GB flash storage drive."

Comments

Honest question

[Pojut]

Why do laptops not have any kind of universal form factor similar to desktops? Is it because of the varying shapes and sizes of the cases? Couldn't laptop manufacturers just design the case around standardized hardware, thus making it easier to upgrade them (or are they already doing this?)

For example...say I wanted to upgrade the video card in my old laptop (provided it wasn't one built into the motherboard)...why isn't there a universal way of doing this, similar to how it is done on a desktop? Cost?

Re:Honest question

[Malevolent Tester]

Couldn't laptop manufacturers just design the case around standardized hardware, thus making it easier to upgrade them

And who'd buy a new laptop then?

Re:Honest question

[Actually, I do RTFA]

For example...say I wanted to upgrade the video card in my old laptop (provided it wasn't one built into the motherboard)...why isn't there a universal way of doing this, similar to how it is done on a desktop? Cost?

Because then you couldn't get a really, really thin laptop?

Re:Honest question

[TheRaven64]

It's mainly about size. Every laptop I have bought has been smaller than the one it replaced. A fixed form factor would make this impossible. That said, there is a standard for miniPCI Express and if your GPU is on one of these cards it can be upgraded. Quite a few older machines came with miniPCI slots for things like WiFi or crypto accelerators. They're not often used though, since laptops tend to have everything the designers thought might be useful soldered on to the motherboard.

Re:Honest question

[Hatta]

Because if I don't need an internal optical drive on my laptop, it would be dumb for me to buy a case that has one. Extra weight and bulk for no benefit. But there are plenty of people who do want internal optical drives, so there really is no one size fits all solution. Is this not obvious?

Re:Honest question

[Pojut]

My apologies for pissing you off. I had a legitimate question, and in my question I even offered up reasons as to why I thought this hasn't been done yet (and those same reasons were echoed in the responses to my original post)

It would be one thing if I was trolling. I wasn't. I was curious as to what other slashdotters thought about the subject. Don't be an ass.

Re:Honest question

[wwwillem]

I would love to see (and willing to pay extra) if for starters standardization appears for laptop batteries and power bricks. Now that we (the world) are using for laptops for 10+ years, I guess nearly everybody has drawers full of old power bricks that are incompatible with your new and different brand notebook. Why can we standardize on 110 resp. 230 volt in our homes, but not on 18 Volt (or whatever) for a notebook.

Notebook designers can still make their own power-bricks, but the plug and voltage should be standardized. Hey, VGA and USB are also common accross the industry, so why not the power as well.

Same with batteries. Why do I have AAA / AA / C / D cells for my transistor radios and flashlights, but not the same thing for my laptop. Everex and Mallory should be ones where you buy your battery from. Laptops is now a mature product and the time is over where customized batteries were needed because of the constraints.

I know of course why this doesn't happen, it's all about profit. But because it all ends up in our landfills, this is something where IMHO governments should step in and regulate. If they can regulate the CO2 emissions of my car, they should also be allowed to take on this.

Re:Honest question

[misleb]

A laptop that is easy to upgrade is worth more to the consumer, so you could sell it for more by pointing out you won't need to buy another laptop.

Most laptops are relatively easy to upgrade. That is, for the things that are important: HD and RAM. Some even allow you to upgrade the optical drive without too much trouble. Might have to have someone with some skill do the work, but it isn't impossible. Beyond that, what would you upgrade? CPU? Yeah right, CPU sockets change on a weekly basis. Even on a desktop, your motherboard is probably going to be obsolete by the time you want to make an upgrade. You'll need a new one. And with that, all new RAM. So what on a laptop is really good long term? The GPU? I suppose you could have a standard slot for that, but it would add to the bulk. The display? The keyboard? Certainly not the battery.

-matthew

Re:Honest question

[pragma_x]

or perhaps components could communicate by simply "seeing" each other and transmitting data via light.

I've dreamed of this for a long time. Everything just plugs into "the bus", by mating lenses, GND and +5V rails. Plus, optical interconnects have just silly amounts of bandwidth at their disposal, all interference free. The major problem is having a cheap-but-good UART of sorts that can drink from that firehose.

The neat thing about this is that your tech problems then devolve into rather trival territory:

- "Don't plug that into slot 5, the lens is scratched."
- "I can't use that, I need a few more mA on my power supply, plus my bus manager has feckity power management."
- "I had a device conflict since that network adapter was factory preset to 'blue' - I switched it to 'red' and off I went."

Anyway, you're right: this'll be a huge boon for portables. Removing the sheer number of metal-to-metal contacts on devices would be a huge step towards proper miniaturization of a lot of devices. You may also see some broad compatibility between desktops, laptops, palmtops and cellphones, depending on the level of miniaturization involved.

Re:Honest question

[evilviper]

Why do laptops not have any kind of universal form factor similar to desktops? Is it because of the varying shapes and sizes of the cases?

Laptops are largely standardized. You can swap RAM, miniPCI devices (usually for graphics) WiFi, modems, keyboards, PSUs, etc.

As for motherboards... desktops really aren't standardized either. It's just that ATX is so large to begin with that making cases a few inches larger than an ATX motherboard (...is supposed to be) is hardly noticed, so cases are significantly oversized in both depth and width to ensure every motherboard out there will fit... and nobody cares. With laptops, size is a big selling point, so there's no room for several inches of such a fudge-factor.

When prices on the tech go down much further, so that top of the line motherboards can be made extremely tiny (say, 4" diameter) at only nominal expense over larger boards, you'll see laptops standardized just like desktops were, when the technology advanced to the point where ATX was more than big enough for everybody.

Corel Cache?

[Razed By TV]

There are something like 92 pictures on that page. I don't think his personal wiki is going to be able to survive the onslaught of /. readers. May want to corel cache that next time.

http://beta.ivancover.com.nyud.net:8090/wiki/index.php/Eee_PC_Internal_Upgrades

Hopefully it gets all of the pictures.

Offtopic, but relevant to slashdot

[e2d2]

Why is almost every post lately labeled "what could possibly go wrong". Who the fuck is doing that and what is the purpose? Every single thing you do could go wrong, wtf is your point? Do we halt progress you son of a bitch! I throw my hate at you sir!

That being said, what could possibly go wrong?