A31 Upgrades

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djpharoah · #1 Post by **djpharoah** » Sat May 13, 2006 12:54 pm

Hi everyone. Just wanted to know where I can get these parts for my laptop. Also what would be the cheapest parts?

Wireless
I want to get a Wireless b/g mpci card by Intel. I wouldn't mind 2200b/g or 2915a/b/g. Where can I get these cards? Do the antenaes come with them?? Any ideas??

Harddrive
30Gb 5400rpm => Hitachi 60Gb 7200rpm .
Will this 60gb 7200rpm drive work on the A31? Will the bios recognize it? Any issues with the hdd like in the T4x series? Could I use two harddrives? Would the 7200rpm generate too much heat.??

Optical Drive
8x DVD-ROM => 8x DVD+/-RW Drive 24x CDRW

Thanks for any ideas/suggestions/advice.

JHEM · #2 Post by **JHEM** » Sat May 13, 2006 1:21 pm

Sell your A31 and buy an A31p!

Display swap requires an A31p Mb swap.

Regards,

James

djpharoah · #3 Post by **djpharoah** » Sat May 13, 2006 1:23 pm

JHEM wrote:Sell your A31 and buy an A31p!

Display swap requires an A31p Mb swap.

Regards,

James

Dang it

Well I cant really sell the laptop, but why does the LCD swap need the A31p motherboard? Is it due to the video card? Is the 7500 not capable of running the 1600x1200 LCD??

If the motherboard swap is required, it would be easier to get a motherboard from ebay would it not?

djpharoah · #4 Post by **djpharoah** » Sat May 13, 2006 4:49 pm

it seems like the A31p motherboard is an extremely rare commodity, since I couldnt find it on ebay.

Well thanks for the help. I guess I might just keep the A31 and maybe sell it for another thinkpad or something.

zone · #5 Post by **zone** » Sat May 13, 2006 8:11 pm

djpharoah wrote:
JHEM wrote:Sell your A31 and buy an A31p!

Display swap requires an A31p Mb swap.

Regards,

James
Dang it

Well I cant really sell the laptop, but why does the LCD swap need the A31p motherboard? Is it due to the video card? Is the 7500 not capable of running the 1600x1200 LCD??

If the motherboard swap is required, it would be easier to get a motherboard from ebay would it not?

Second to JHEM's statement, sell it and buy *real* A31p... think that cost of parts involved in your rather ambitious upgrade attempt will cost you likely more than decent A31p from ebay.

You sayin' u cannot sell it, OK get *new* one, A31p are great value and you may find rediculous bargains on ebay.

djpharoah · #6 Post by **djpharoah** » Sun May 14, 2006 12:45 am

zone wrote:Second to JHEM's statement, sell it and buy *real* A31p... think that cost of parts involved in your rather ambitious upgrade attempt will cost you likely more than decent A31p from ebay.

You sayin' u cannot sell it, OK get *new* one, A31p are great value and you may find rediculous bargains on ebay.

Yes I have given up ugprading/modding the A31 to A31p specs.

I am going to sell my T20 and save some cash. I will be buying this laptop at the end of the summer, so hopefully at that time the price for a T41p drops (probably wont) otherwise I get A31p from ebay.

The reason I want the A31p is because I have 3 spare batteries from IBM with my existing A31.

vital-analitix · #7 Post by **vital-analitix** » Sun May 14, 2006 3:04 am

There are also A31's that have a 1400 x 1050 screen, you do not need the A31P for that.

I think the other major differences are:

1) some extra connectivity: bluetooth and wireless. But the wireless card is combined modem / wireless b and if you want to go b/g then you'll have to get a different wireless card (eg Intel 2915 a/b/g/ or Intel 2200 b/g) and a CDC modem. (edit: or use a PCMCIA modem). There are no modem / wireless b/g mini-PCI cards. So it makes no sense in getting the A31P for that.

2) the faster CPU (2.0 Ghz) and a bigger fan (look at my signature) The fan in the A31 runs your temperature around 10 C higher. For intermittent use it is fine (or as backup machine) but when you run them flat out as I do every day testing stuff then it puts quite some strain on your MB. But it makes a little bit more noise.

Re fan: Some time ago I replaced my CPU to a 2.2 Ghz (SL6J5) one and upgraded the fan. Ambient temperature: 23 C, CPU temperature 64 C when running at 100%. The lower spec'd fan runs around 73 - 74 C with the 1.8 CPU. (SL6CJ) I bought the CPU from a dealer in Singapore (cheapest to get here) with 30 day warranty.

I looked into downgrading my screen on one machine (easier on the eyes for the wife) but was told it needs a different MB and a different connector cable between MB and screen. They were not sure if I needed a different inverter too.

You can always use a second external screen, (same size as what you have now) and use extended desktop under XP. This would be my suggestion if you do not want to upgrade the CPU and you want more workspace. But this depends on where you need the extra desktop space - when you are "on the road" or when you are "at home".

Personally I would be looking at getting a later model than the A31, already am starting to see some incompatibility / non-certifcation with some hardware / software (eg the Intel b/g & a/b/g wireless cards. Officially no wireless card except for b is supported)

But if you want three HD in one machine then this is the only that can do it. And those Ultrabay HD are just as fast as the internal disks, I gave up on a USB HD long time ago.

indessen · #8 Post by **indessen** » Sun May 14, 2006 3:09 am

JHEM wrote:Sell your A31 and buy an A31p!

Display swap requires an A31p Mb swap.

Regards,

James

as far as I know it should be possible to swap the display from XGA to SXGA+ on the A30 without any other changes... the A30p is "by IBM definition" UXGA, the A30 is XGA and SXGA+.

djpharoah · #9 Post by **djpharoah** » Sun May 14, 2006 10:36 am

indessen wrote:as far as I know it should be possible to swap the display from XGA to SXGA+ on the A30 without any other changes... the A30p is "by IBM definition" UXGA, the A30 is XGA and SXGA+.

I just checked on ebay and with screentek and the SXGA+ is extremely rare on ebay, and the SXGA+ lcd from screentek was like $400+

So either I stick with the XGA lcd or my T20 hopefully gets sold.

djpharoah · #10 Post by **djpharoah** » Mon May 15, 2006 11:40 pm

bump. changed the original topic.

thanks for any ideas.

Peter Babelfish · #11 Post by **Peter Babelfish** » Sun May 28, 2006 2:27 pm

Hi,

The Hitachi drive should fit to your A31, no problems at all. I fitted the Hitachi 100GB 7,200rpm to my own A31 around two months ago. Works like a dream, don't see any issues at all concerning temperature.

Docs here:

http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/techlib. ... lstar_7K60

for 60GB

http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/techlib. ... star_7K100

for 100GB

A second hard drive can be fitted via a '2nd Hard Drive Caddy' (common on eBay) that slots into the Ultrabay 2000. I use one myself and do monthly data and disk image backups to it from my main drive. Caddy drive works fine for this. Don't know about prolonged useage issues though.

The writer who writes that A31's are available with 1400 x 1050 resolution is correct. My own A31-2652-Q3C (bought in China) came with that resolution.

Go here:

http://www-3.ibm.com/pc/support/site.ws ... MIGR-39796

and download the manual. From it you may at least be able to work out the monitor resolutions of the A31(p) series and figure out model numbers for them.

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