[x41] A variety of questions

[willprice94]

Hi everyone,
I've picked up a cheap for spares/repairs x41 tablet to play about with and try and repair. Will the tablet boot up without a battery and HD to the bios screen? What sort of things should I check for if it won't turn on at all?

Many thanks
Will

[Tasurinchi]

It should actually, although I never tried it in my tablet. But I tried this in one of my X40 and in my X41 and both did boot. Just be a little bit patient, without HD the boot process takes longer...

[willprice94]

Thanks Tasurinchi, I shall update this thread as I progress, should be a fun process!

[willprice94]

I've got the tablet now and am happy to say it's in excellent condition unfortunately it came with a supervisor password which was a pain to remove but I managed in the end. I'm waiting on a keyboard, RAM cover and HDD cover. I'm not sure what I'm going to use for storage medium but think I'll probably remove the SATA-PATA bridge (that looks fun!) and use some solid state memory - on that note, where can I get SATA and PATA plugs with solder tags on them? I can't seem to find any on google, I'm doubtlessly searching using the wrong terms, any guidance would be thoroughly appreciated.

Thanks,
Will

[twistero]

You will need to find an electronic parts reseller. In the US there are Digikey and Mouser; I'm not sure what there is in the UK. Also, SATA and PATA plug/sockets are usually designed to be soldered to PCB - either through hole or surface mount. Finding ones with solder tags may be somewhat difficult.

The drive bay in X41 is the exact size of a 1.8 inch hard drive/ssd, so if you use a 1.8 inch MicroSATA SSD, there may not be enough clearance to plug anything into the drive. There are smaller form factor SATA SSDs: Half Slim, or mSATA (physically identical to a mini PCIe card). Those may be easier to maneuver.

[willprice94]

Ah woops, I meant PCB mounting, temporary brain lapse there! I've had a look for "sata plugs" on Farnell/Element14 there only seem to be a few a choices, ~3.50GBP which seems a bit steep, and no PATA plugs... RS don't have either. I don't like buying from Mouser or Digikey as they charge a lot for shipping to the UK.

Regarding SSD size, I was looking at some of the MyDigitalSSD and there seem to be a few models that would fit appropriately, I haven't decided whether to use a CF card instead.

[twistero]

MyDigitalSSD carries both mSATA and half slim SATA drives, and either should fit in the drive bay with room to spare. If you want to use a CF card, though, there will be no need to remove the SATA-PATA bridge since CF cards are natively PATA.

Since mSATA SSDs are physically identical to mini-pcie cards, you should be able to use mini-pcie sockets. You can even get one of these adapters, and simply solder wires off it. For half slim drives (which uses standard SATA sockets), you should be able to plug SATA cables into the drives and splice the other end.

Aren't "PATA plugs" just double-row headers?

[willprice94]

Aren't "PATA plugs" just double-row headers?

Hehe. I "knew" that... well it hadn't occurred to me whilst looking at the socket. Thanks.
I've taken the SATA-PATA bridge off now and booted to check everything still works fine, works a treat. Now I just need to look at the pin outs and figure out how I'm going to do this thing, I can't seem to get micro sata SSDs (mydigitalSSD) in the UK, which is a bit of a pain as the mSATA connectors look nasty to solder (fine pitch *shudder*). I think I might make a PCB.
I've taken the cooler off the CPU and Northbridge(?), the latter running incredibly hotly. I'm going to make some copper heatsinks to help dissipate the heat and add some AS5 to hopefully cool the whole tablet down.