Hey! I'm so proud of myself tonight!

[Maddy McCall]

I've got to share my story.

Last week, my old laptop computer crashed. The power supply went out. Well, that wasn't the only problem with it...the hinges were shot...it was held together by duct tape, gorilla glue, and JB Weld. I sorely needed a new laptop, and mine dying was expected. I'm quite suprised the computer held on for this long. The main thing that saddened me was that I had six years worth of photos on the hard drive, and I really hated to lose them, along with documents from the past six years of my profession.

So my son went on ebay and found a laptop identical to mine, in awesome shape, and I got it for $175 including shipping. I didn't expect it to be in great shape, but I knew it couldn't be in worse shape than my dead laptop.

Well, let me tell y'all, I'm handy around the house....I can do carpentry work, plumbing, minor car repairs...but I'm not really computer saavy....

So the computer came in today, and it only had 256 meg ram, same as my computer that died. It didn't have an internal wireless card, like my dead computer had. But otherwise, the laptop was in ace condition. No scratches on the outer case...the lcd looks brand new...the touch pad and keys are in immaculate shape...I got a tremendous bargain.

I talked with a DU friend of mine today and asked his advice...and he gave me some advice, and I read around on the internet. Feeling that I had sufficient guts to give it a try, I took my old computer apart, and I did the following:

1) Took the RAM from the old computer and put it in a slot in the new computer.

2) Took my old hard drive (with my docs and photos--everything from the past six years) and put it in the new computer.

3) Took the wireless card and placed it in my new computer...and the most difficult thing I did:

4) Removed the wireless antenna from the old computer and threaded it through the new computer, which meant routing it through the bottom case, up into the top case and around the lcd screen...I had to take the whole bezel off the top case and the palmrest off the bottom case to do this.

Well, I fired it up and kept my fingers crossed....EVERYTHING WORKED! My new computer is faster, thanks to the extra RAM, than my old laptop. My hard drive worked great. And I had a great connection to the internet.

So I just wanted to share this with y'all. I'm so tickled that it all worked out. I feel that I got a great deal on the laptop, and even better, I saved all my old files and was able to maintain my wireless connectivity.

In a few days, I'll probably be back asking for advice on thumb drives or whatever the easiest way is to back up my computer.

It's so nice to type on a laptop with HINGES, without duct tape and gorilla glue everywhere, without having to prop up the LCD against a box. lol.

Sorry for the long post. :D

[canetoad]

1. Well done!

I love hearing stuff like this, when folks take on a new task and accomplish it. It's kind of liberating too, in that you now know you can carry out repairs and upgrades.

Congrats.

[lpbk2713]

2. Excellent! You did good.

Too bad the power supply went out on the old one. You could have used it to keep a fresh battery charged up while you used the newer one.

You took a chance on eBay and it paid off. I learned the hard way that when the ad on electronics or computer stuff says 'untested' it usually means it is crap. I bought a few hard drives that way.

Enjoy. :thumbsup: :hi: :thumbsup:

[trotsky]

3. That is pro-level stuff you just did!

Nice work!

[CK_John]

4. Great work, here is a tool to help you transfer data from machine to machine

and also lets you add an external dvd player or a PC hard drive to your laptop when/if you need or want you.

The difference between the two is one has SATA + ATA connectors.
with SATA
<http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156102>

without SATA
<http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156101>

Caution: Always connect adapter to device and then apply power and then connect USB to the computer. Reverse order to disconnect and let HD stop spinning before moving.

[Hokie]

5. That is impressive

I have dabbled in dismantling and repairing laptops and it is no picnic. My only failure was to break a ribbon cable connector on the touch pad for a Dell Latitude C600. I had to completely strip down the laptop to change a noisy CPU cooling fan. I have also changed LCD's and hinges.

You might try selling the carcass of the old laptop on E-bay. Cases and especially LCD's will fetch some money.

[Occulus]

6. You can use the LCD as part of a projector setup.

You need the LCD sans backing, an overhead projector (like what schools use/used to use), and some spacers (wood or polyurethane or such).

I used to have the instructions, but I lost the link.