R500 chassis compatibility

[curious.m]

Greetings friends,

I recently acquired an R500 that's not powering on. The seller told me that the screen was fine. I have a T400 motherboard in working condition, the question is... will it fit in this chassis?
Will the screen be compatible? It's an R500 Type 2713 AA3.

Is any other motherboard compatible with the screen? I have a 15.4" T61 with a 1280x800 display. Maybe if this screen is compatible and has a higher res I could use it with that other laptop.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[TPFanatic]

R500 case is only compatible with R500 motherboard. No compatibility with T400.

The lid as an assembly can be reused on an r61 15.4”.

Most r500 have a low res 1280x800, no upgrade over that 15.4” T61.

[curious.m]

Thank you @TPFanatic

I don't know exactly what I did, but I got working. It seems that it doesn't start the first time, but it powers on after the third try. Maybe installing a new RTC battery will help with this, I don't know. Any ideas?

Here's some info:
BIOS 3.09 (7YETT79WW) - 2009-11-19
Embedded Controller 1.06
DISPLAY EDID: LP154WX7-TLP20

So you were right, the display is 1280x800 (the same as the one I already have on my T61) but it's actually very bright, and in great condition.

Now I have new problems as the fan is not spinning (the connector is broken) and it's evidently the wrong heat sink. It's not long enough to reach the chipset. What model is it for? Could you please tell me? Take a look:


I didn't hope for the motherboard to work but it looks like I got myself another Arch laptop. Now I'll have to find a WLAN card for it, a keyboard, and lots of screws.

By the way, is there something like a Middleton BIOS for this board?

I like the solid material of the display's cover case vis a vis the one the T61 has, which is soft and prone to marks.

[curious.m]

Unfortunately there's more...

The previous user (Fred Flintstone?) did this to the USB ports


Two are destroyed, only one is still OK.

These don't seem to be standard so I don't know where I'll source them from.

[TPFanatic]

Wtf
That looks like a T400 heatsink.
I guess parts are “compatible” after all.

There’s whitelist removed bioses for r500 but for slic 2.1 if it’s missing you might need to hunt down a “marker tool”.

R500 has a PC Cardbus slot, expresscard inherently contains USB 2 but can also convert to USB3. I’d get some of those for your USB problem. The cardbus ones are no-nonsense.

[curious.m]

That looks like a T400 heatsink.
I guess parts are “compatible” after all.

LOL! Amazing. I'll see if I can fix the fan connector, place a slim heat sink on the chipset and use it that way temporarily until I can find the appropriate heat sink. It looks like it will not be easy to find on the local market. This model doesn't seem to be very popular like the T400. The only compatible one is the R61, or are there more?

Maybe I'll get lucky and find those odd USB ports on my scrap box.
Otherwise as you say, the cardbus alternative is the way to go.

Is this the BIOS I need?
http://www.mediafire.com/file/j8vanre82 ... t.rar/file

According to the readme I should first flash the latest official BIOS, and then flash this one on Windows and using a specific set of Advanced Settings, but previously running setmark.bat file on pure DOS to modify TP-7Y.bin... and that will give me a SLIC capable BIOS. I'm not sure why I need one of those. Is it needed to run Windows 10?

I'll probably never run Windows, except maybe an occasional game or piece of software that doesn't run on GNU/Linux, but it's a good idea to update the BIOS to the most capable one since it's not a process I want to go through more than once... I have to completely disassembly the computer to plug the only working battery I have (which is not compatible with this case).

[TPFanatic]

it turns out the r61 and r500 heatsinks are different. r500's is specific to r500 since the height of the northbridge differs between r61 and r500. also of note there are two (actually three) different r61's. r61 15.4", r61 14.1", and then the elusive Euro-market R61 15.1". R-series was really a backburner production before they figured out how make even cheaper models to sell to people.

[dr_st]

R500 has a PC Cardbus slot, expresscard inherently contains USB 2 but can also convert to USB3. I’d get some of those for your USB problem. The cardbus ones are no-nonsense.

One advantage of an ExpressCard to USB 2.0 solution is that such adapters typically do not contain a controller. They are either direct passthrough to the chipset USB lanes, or contain a hub. They are also bootable.

Years ago I could find AKE-branded flush adapters of this type. It would be almost like exposing another port directly off the chipset (subject to the power limits of the ExpressCard slot). I am not able to find any for sale at the moment, though.