M11X R1 motherboard - dead?

Hi guys,

I unfortunately had my R1 M11X die on me most suddenly the other night. It won't power on at all (I've tried on AC, on battery, on AC with no battery installed etc.) Is the power controlled directly by the motherboard itself? I unfortunately have no extra brick to try and plug into the wall, but the battery shows a full 5 LED's for the charge, and the light on the AC adapter is green. I'm thinking something is totally dead inside.

I've gone ahead and bit the bullet- ordered a nice M14X as I needed an upgrade anyway. But is it feasible to try and repair an R1 at this stage? Should I just part it out on ebay? I hate to leave it like that, I've had Dell repair the hinge with the new design and it worked fine until now.

I do appreciate any advice! I'm no stranger to tearing apart a computer, so if I have to find a board for sale on the internet, I can probably do it.

 

A working R1 board may run about $120~ if you can find one, you could just sell the computer as-is, maybe list it for $250 best offer and see what happens. Working they run about $400~ on ebay so I would just sell is as-is.

What did you get on the m14x?

 

Sounds like a plan, I'm most likely going to keep the hard drive for the M14X as it is a 640GB compared to a 500GB stock one. (I could throw one of them in my PS3 after a reformat.) I did add 8GB slightly faster DDR1066 RAM which was automatically underclocked to run with the Core2Duo. I also have the original 4GB stock Alienware RAM that came with the system. Maybe I could add all that in for another $100 or so?

 

Depends, tbh with 8GB kits being $50 and the laptop not being in working condition i don't think anyone would want the stock 4GB RAM. Not like you could add it in too, there's only 2 dimm slots.

You're looking at around the $150 mark for a new mobo, i guess it's up to you if you think it's worth it (ie. if you are able to do the repairs yourself and not have to pay someone). But without a working systemboard the laptop essentially has no CPU or GPU as they are all integrated so i wouldn't be hoping to get any more than $150 for it - realistically all you're selling is a used chassis with RAM & HDD & everything else in "unknown condition, expected dead".

If you do end up scrapping it and don't mind shipping internationally (bought my R1 from an NBR member in the US), hit me up i might be interested in buying it for the right price. Keen on doing some chassis modifying and having a dead dummy systemboard in there would actually be great for gauging space & clearance easily.

 

@Rishwin, thanks! I'll keep you mind. I did take the hard disk out for backup purposes/personal use- that's actually an aftermarket drive I bought off Newegg. The 250GB OEM drive that came with it is currently in my Voodoo 3dfx machine, fastest Windows XP system I've ever loaded.

I wonder if I can find a pinmodded motherboard for sale or get one and attempt it? Maybe that's a bad idea- I did wreck an Xbox 1 trying to mod it once! I can strip and rebuild a computer easily but I can't solder very well. Good thing I'm not a surgeon...burned myself on an arc welder when I was 19. It was that day I realized my college major would be social science and not engineering.

 

If you could get a pin modded one for $150~ or so, then I would say do it in that case if you still want to keep the computer.

 

Would that be part Y543F? (I have the SU4100 processor.) I never did need any virtual machine use, so I never bought the SU7300 version. Would it be possible to replace it with the 7300?

edit: I found a regular Y543F/stock SU4100 board on ebay for only $119.99. Free shipping to boot. I haven't purchased it yet, but do you guys think that's a good price? It would probably take me less than 45 minutes to swap

 

Awwwww i dunno man, found any with the SU7300? It's not just more processing power, it can make a huge difference in games since in the R1 the CPU is the performance bottleneck. BIOS overclocked SU7300 > SU4100 anyday, if you can find one for not much more then definitely get that instead.

$120 for the entire systemboard + CPU + GPU is pretty decent, as long as it's new and now a used unit.

 

The one I saw was a used SU4100. I'll keep looking, but I'm going to be a responsible dad and pay rent/bills first. Wife's birthday is next month too. Who knows? Maybe I can find the 7300 for cheaper.

I did just pick up a vintage 3dfx 4MB Voodoo 1 for $15 bucks hehe not gonna break the bank there

Another update, I did find a K1PWV/SU7300 board used for only $89.67 and free shipping too! However, this one does not have the heatsink and fan assembly attached. Could I use my own heatsink from the SU4100 board on this? The only difference I know of is the Centrino/Pentium processor...

I ask the experts at the altar of nerd-dom for guidance. This is really a steal, though I'd have to re-seat the fans and add thermal goo. If board fits, I buy it, da? *fake Ruskie accent here*

 

Haha da! da! Is good buy!

That may be perfect for you mate, because they should be identical except for the chips in the socket. Absolute worst case scenario and and it doesn't (I'm 98.6385% sure it does fit though), the heatsink & fan assembly will run you back $35 on eBay with free shipping which is only $5 more than the SU4100.

 

Thank you Rishwin! Repped
I'll keep it on watch- probably gonna buy it, I get paid this week. If I can repair the m11x, it would make a nice down payment on the m14x should I sell it.

 

No worries man. Look at it this way - an R1 SU7300 goes for about $400 compared to the $150 you would get for a dead one

 

I'm probably being silly, BUT one wonders if one could get an R2 MB and an R2 base frame to house it (different left side port placement) at a reasonable price. Just gives you a bit more bang for your bucks than an SU7300 given you're looking for a new(working) MB anyway. Believe it's the same daughter card for the right hand side on both R1 and R2.

 

Interesting idea. I didn't know you could put the R2 base on the R1...I always heard the two boards were incompatible. That's still a sweet price for a used board and it keeps it mostly "stock." Hmm, decisions decisions.

 

It is possible, it is most definitely possible, because at the end of the day you're just assembling a PC in a tiny case and you just gotta find what will fit in where and with what.

Now the reason we know the R1 & R2 boards as being incompatible is because the board has different mounting screws and different peripheral ports on the left side. So if you want an R2 board, you will need an R2 chassis. You most probably don't need the palmrest or keyboard, but you still need the rest of the bottom half of the chassis as you said which may not be sold separately so you may have to just get the entire thing. Also not sure if the palmrest screws/mounts are identical between models so you may need it after all.

So really you're looking at $250 for an R2 i7 680UM systemboard, and then maybe another $50 for the chassis, compared to the less than $100 for just that R1 SU7300 board. And other than the CPU's they are basically identical anyway (the GPU's are the same), so you're talking a $200 upgrade just to go from an SU7300 to an i7 680UM which imo would be a waste since you were happy as it is with the SU4100

 

meh. Should have acted sooner! Someone bought the $89.00 one. I did find another SU7300 board, minus the fan at $99 and went ahead and bought it a minute ago. I figure it's worth it to increase the m11x's sell value. Besides, I like tearing apart computers! I should do that professionally, get A+ certified one of these days. It's a good side job.

 

It's very easy to replace the mobo in these units, I have swapped out mine some time ago as the original mobo had problems swapping between intergrated and discrete video cards.

As as been said considered swapping chassis (base) and mobo for either an R2/R3 mobo only decided against this because of the price for these mobo's

Personally I prefer the 11 inch form factor which I use as my main work unit, it's a pity they have discontinued these units.

 

Fixing computers for me- easy peasy. I staged an Optiplex for a friend/some OT pay for the people I work with.

Putting front MO license plates on an odd car with 5 inch ground clearance while people shoot M-80's off...painful. lol (I did this about 15 minutes ago.) Stupid front plate law.

Slightly off topic, but I got my red eye Alienware logo t-shirt in the mail today. I shall wear it when I repair the m11x! mwhahaha! I also started quoting the game Postal 2 to my wife, major eye rolls from her. The main character, Postal Dude, wears an alien head shirt under his coat.