Hi All,

When I was doing my internal mods I read each thread and went through all tips and info. It was fun, though too tiresome to locate all threads and now I can see that the info related to mods is growing exponentially on this great forum as time passes.So I decided to gather all the useful tips posted in this forum and my own experience while modding my EEE and prepared this small guide post for internal mods.I hope it will be helpful for all those out there thinking where to start. And I must thank to all contributors of modding info,especially to ckeeg,tristand,tnkgrl,Johnx and texasguy  as I used their material without their consent while preparing this small guide.I hope I didn’t offend anyone and here is the DISCLAIMER:You mod your EEE Pc at your own risk.If your EEE bricks neither I nor this site can be held responsible for it and be aware that all the mods and methods described here will void your warranty.

Having said that so, here it goes:

Opening up and exposing your EEE Pc:

First remove keyboard by depressing marked tabs.


Keyboard and touchpad both has a ribbon cable connector. move the sliders forward to release the ribbon cables .Be careful not to damage and avoid using force to pull back the ribbons.They must gently give way.if not, means you couldn’t release the slider properly
     

Unscrew all the red circled screws at the top metal plate and bottom cover.Don’t worry to mix them they are all same size.
     
     

Now separate top cover from bottom one.You can do it by using your finger nails. Don’t use force and go systematically all around the perimeter as shown.
     
     

Now you should see the motherboard. Before lifting it up or ideally taking it out for any mod job you have to disconnect all the JST connectors pointed by red arrows. You can also flip the board over the screen without disconnecting those but ideally it is better to disconnect all and take out the mobo. Don’t forget to take out the rubber fill in the unused  modem port as this can resist when you try to lift the board.When lifting the mother board be careful not to use force and bend it.There are two tabs under the touchpad area as can be seen.these needs to be pushed back while lifting.Also easy on the audio jacks and VGA connector.It needs a careful navigation between them while lifting.
     
     

If you wish to mod in the LCD area,to open the LCD screen bezel remove 6 screws shown by arrows
     
Then separate two parts from each other using your finger nails.
     

This is how a fully exposed EEE looks like
     

Motherboard elements and Connection points:

Mod wiring zones at the bottom side of the motherboard to guide you to locate:
     

There are two usb ports on the motherboard that can be used for internal mods.These are in the WIFI mini pcie and spare unused mini pcie connectors as shown.In some revisions of mobo the unused mini pcie connector is soldered and in some it's not in it's place. The wifi mini pcie has a black connector which holds the atheros wifi card.To solder you have to remove the atheros wifi card by removing the two screws and sliding the card gently outwards.

Wifi mini pcie USB pins:

The two USB pins D+ and D- are located as shown


Ram door mini pcie:
The two USB pins D+ and D- are located as shown


+5V and ground points to be used in your mods:**EDITED**The +5v is switched off at all times when EEE pc is off.Even when the charger is connected to mains while the EEE Pc is off. Unlike the external USB ports which still have power when the charger is in mains and EEE Pc is off.**EDITED**


Suggestions for internal mods:
There are various ways of modding and it’s up to your imagination and skills.I will give two examples just to give you an idea:

Two internal USB ports using the two minipcie USB points ,+5V and Ground.



Internal USB hub to have 4 internal USB ports:

This is the mod I carried out.My aim was to obtain 4 USB ports internally by using one of the mini pcie USB port points for hub as I wanted to embed in two USB flash drives, Bluetooth and a spare USB for future mods.



I used this hub which has several advantages,the USB ports are not soldered on to the pcb so no worries about de-soldering and damaging the hub pcb and the pcb footprint is quite small,you can use the hubs USB receptacles in your mod as they are wired surface mount ones. But you can use any USB hub you think that fits in equally and don’t mind de-soldering the USB ports. This particular hub I used is called the synapsis 4 port hub and the link is :
http://synapsis.manufacturer.globalsour … SB-Hub.htm



A closer look at the hub pcb:


This is where I placed my Bluetooth to give an idea:


This is how it looks like inside the mini pcie-ram bay after modding:


Essential Tools for modding:
For internal modifications these tools are vital:
1-    A fine tip low wattage soldering iron
2-    A de-soldering hand pump
3-    A magnifier third hand
4-    A + type fine screw driver
5-    A cable cutter
6-    For fixing if needed, Hot glue or double sided fixing tape
7-    Electrical insulation tape
8-    30 AWG or equivalent wire for wiring.

For soldering iron,I used an Antex W12,12 Watt soldering iron with a fine 0.6 mm tip but any soldering iron in the order of 8 to 15 watts with a fine tip will be okay.

Here is the link for Antex soldering iron : http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Mod … ;U=strat15

A de-soldering pump on the side is a must as it is very easy to spread solder on adjacent pads and you may need to clean it up by a de-soldering pump.
http://www.jbctools.com/english/classic … du1191.php


The pads of mini pcie connectors are tiny and close to each other. In order to gain some confidence in soldering it is a good idea to make some test runs on a similar scrap pcb and test your soldering skills before the actual run.

Having a good magnifier glass is also a must to see the soldering quality in detail and to solder with more precision.A third hand with a magnifier can be used as in this link: http://www.micro-tools.com/store/item_d … emCode=CF2


I hope this guide will be helpful. If I missed a point please feel free to add in.

ba

Last edited by ta2cba (2007-12-20 5:52:41 am)