A member of the MyDellMini forums has modded a Dell Mini 9 and turned it into a Tablet PC. Rob928 took the netbook, stripped the lid off and trimmed the hinges among other things. He used a “Honda Fun and Easy” solderless touchscreen kit to create the tablet. One issue that was found with the mod, is that due to the design of it, it can get a little hot. It loses it’s heat through the keyboard but because the screen is basically upside down, the heat isn’t ventilated. If that wasn’t enough, he also added Windows 7 to the device, which is described as better for a touch screen device anyway. You can view photos of the various stages through Rob’s Picasa account.
One hacker has already added a Broadcom HD video accelerator to the Intel Atom powered Samsung NC10 which worked well. Another hacker has tried the same hack on a VIA C7-M powered netbook and come out with good results. Chris over at HP Mini Note PC has modded his HP Mini 2133 with a Broadcom Crystal HD Enhanced Media Accelerator card. With it installed he’s been able to play 720 and 1080p videos on his netbook including Blu-Ray video. The Blu-Ray videos needed to be paused for a few seconds first though so the video could buffer.
Unfortunately Chris hasn’t provided a guide on how you can mod your own Mini 2133 but, you can see how successful his project was in the videos after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
We’ve previously seen one modder add a touch screen to his Eee PC 901 and built it into a kitchen cabinet. It seems he’s not the only one to make this move. Another modder has modded his Eee PC 701, given it 2GB of RAM, a touch screen along with a TV receiver and sound system. He’s then added it to a kitchen cupboard, making it a “Kitchen PC”. You can see the video of how he did this below.
John over at Eee-PC.de has modded his Asus Eee PC 1000H. He’s already added more RAM and a touchscreen, along with upgrading the SSD. So what more was left? The keyboard. John has posted of how he’s taken the original keyboard out of the 1000H and replaced it with the keyboard found in the 1000HE Eee PC. He explains that some modifications are needed for the 1000HE keyboard, but it only took 5 minutes to put it together. You can follow his guide with photos of how you can also replace the keyboard on your Asus 1000H.
A hack and instructions on how to perform it, show users how to add 3G into their Samsung NC10. The downside to the hack however is that you use the WiFi. The WiFi adapter is switched for a 3G modem instead. The hack is very easy to perform though and WiFi can be replaced with a USB WiFi dongle, giving you the best of both worlds, espcially if you find you use both a lot.
The hardest part is taking the case off and opening it up. Once inside the WiFi adapter can be popped out and replaced with the 3G modem. Additional modification could also be made on the netbook, to allow easy SIM swapping by making a small hole in the bottom and soldering the 3G modem in, as jkkmobile have done to a Dell Mini 9. You can view the steps here.
If security is one of your top priorities, this fingerprint scanner hack, could be for you. If you can’t afford, or don’t want to buy another netbook but, want your files more secure than password protected, or encrypted and own the Dell Mini 9, you can add a fingerprint scanner to it yourself. This is exactly what MyDellMini forum member, Rich2871 did.
He took a USB fingerprint scanner and connected it to an internal USB adapter. While he was in there, he added 4 other internal USB ports as well as a 64GB SSD. After that, he carved a piece of plastic out on the case to make room for the fingerprint scanner.
Perhaps you were intrigued by Windows 7’s built-in touchscreen features, and wanted to try them out on your netbook but didn’t know how. Well, if you own an Acer Aspire One, you can simply follow a handy guide published by Netbook Italia, with instructions on how to add a touchscreen to the 9-inch Acer netbook. All you’ll need, aside from an Acer Aspire One, time and patience, is a Hoda Technology-supplied attachable touchscreen kit. The said touchscreen kit will have everything you need in the box. So if you’re feeling up to it, head on down to Netbook Italia for the full guide.
As promised, tnkgrl has come through with a handy little hack that will let you add HSDPA to your cute Sony Vaio P. The speeds look great, and the Vaio P probably performs just as good as any other HSDPA-enabled portable computer after this mod. If you’ve got time over the weekend with nothing else to do and have a Vaio P, this mod is worth checking out. Especially since that SIM card slot is disabled, and all.
Got some extra time this weekend with a “squeeky” sounding Samsung NC10? Then a speaker mod that was detailed recently on the Sammy Netbook forums is for you. In it, one can follow a quick guide to replacing the tinny built-in speakers of the Samsung NC10 and make it better with a new set of speakers. This requires opening up the frail little netbook and cutting some wires, so it goes without saying that it could break your warranty. But if you’re ready for some hands-on hackery, you can try and give this one a go.
If you’re unfortunate enough to have bought, or be buying, an MSI Wind after they’ve changed the touchpad from Synaptics to Sentilic, the MSI Wind forums have a solution. The Sentilic touchpad, is generally viewed as inferior to that of the Synaptics as it has less functionality and less support.
dxmiller from the MSI Wind forums though, has found a solution to this problem, and the best bit, it will only cost you $12. It’s possible to purchase a Synaptics touchpad from Asus for $8 plus shipping and replace the Sentilic one. All it requires is a little wiggling to swap the touchpads over. Some solvents might be needed to remove the pad though, but apart from that, the connections and dimensions are the same.
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