M11x tablet mod!

Ever since I got my m11x I have dreamed of making a tablet out of one. So I started doing just that.

I ordered a bare chassic, palm rest, and screen cover. and started cutting and measuring things up.

Right now, I just have a case made, I still need to get the power button area done. Once the chassis is complete I will order a used m11xr1 to gut and install into its new home

I thought about just buying the motherboard, and other parts by them selves, but I would rather have a computer that I know works before I build.

Pardon the cell phone pictures, I am at work right now and did a little bit of work on the tablet.

I put some paper between the screen cover and chassis to make it look a little better. And yes that is the saw I used in the back ground

 

I saw your first post about this about 1 month ago and I have been waiting for you to finish it! It looks prety amazing
+rep if you make it work well

 

One thing that I am trying to figure out is screen orientation... Should I have the lights on the top, or the lights on the bottom?

With the lights on the top, the alienware word on the screen will be correct and the webcam will be correct. But the alienhead power button will be upsidedown.
Lights on the bottom, the alienware word and web cam will be upsidedown and the power button will be right....

 

Lights on top. It better to have camera working for whatever reason you need it . You will be using the power bottom once each 3-6 hrs or even less (those are my calculations )so it doesnt really matter if it upside down

By the way, I recommend you to "grab"it from the grills side, so that everyone can see them while you are using it
FIRST GAMING TABLET >

 

Looks like there may be a very small problem with having the lights at the top... the fan will blow hot air into your right hand, Not too big of a problem, but may annoy some.

 

You have outdone yourself again way to go +1 and jealous once again.

 

Finally, I've been waiting this update for months now +1..
How about the touchscreen you ordered btw?

 

who's touch screen you going to go with? I've had a great experience with Xenarc in 7" for an old EeePC.

 

so what are you using for touch?

 

Rear Door Lock VT VT00 3ME ?
Fuel Supply Line R4 20N4 TJS ?

I'll take a seat heater please...

(Nice project btw)

 

Wow...this is truly amazing
Please keep us updated

 

Capacitive or Resistive?

 

Brilliant! You certainly deserve rep+!

 

I work for Volkswagon, those are some of the recalls I work on a little cheat sheet.

 

Thanks to theneighborrkid I will soon have a broken m11x r1 to work with, So I can get all of my parts installed, and everything set. I would say with in a month or so I should have a working prototype of a m11x tablet!

 

YES! frickin sweet dude! Let us know ASAP and better yet, give us regular updates while you building it

 

So if i put the M11x motherboard in my old 14" tablet would i have a M11x Tablet? Yes i know 11 is nowhere near 14 lol Id have to see how the screen connects to the M11xs motherboard i cant find any close ups of the whole board.

 

Not unless your old tablet has the internal structure to secure the motherboard and its parts. Plus you need to make holes for the ports on it.

 

you can always cut existing standoff and relocate them with epoxy. that how i did my NES PC mod.

 

I had thought about making a nes HTPC awhile go, but decided to wait it out for a alienware hanger to pop up that I can mod broken m15x into.

 

using a laptop mobo would be ideal far many reasons... but i use CAD at work and i was able to DIM everything out and found the perfect arrangement so that i could have all the basic needs (HDD, DVDrom, standard heatsinks & fans) with out having to drop the bottom out of the NES like most others have done. its nice to know the integrity of the case isn't compromised and you could literally toss this thing down the stairs and it would be fine.

i cant wait you see your M11tab in action. playing RTS games on it alone would be worth all the R&D you put into it.

 

Yep Yep and that if freaking awesome +rep

 

LOL thats awesome +rep. whats the specs on that?

 

If you build a few, they would probably go for a lot on eBay. Heck, I want one!

 

A bit off topic, but what about reverse of your NES? Eg, making a gamecube laptop? :3

 

sorry ejohnson, i didnt mean to derail your thread. the post was relevant but... yea.

as for specs:

Zotac 9300 mini ITX mobo
Intel E3400 w/ HS/F
4Gb OCZ 1066
320GB WD Scorpio Black
mini 150w power supply powered by a Xbox 360 (175w)power brick
2x60mm fans exhaust
1x40mm fan intake

any more questions or comments plz PM me as to not mess up this thread.

 

lol, no worries.

 

This is loads of awesome Please update us...I'm so jelly..

 

Well according to theneighborrkid (the guy I got the spare m11x from here on the boards) It should be here today sometime. So keeping my fingers crossed that all I have to do is swap in my new motherboard, a hdd and a new battery.

The other night though I got to thinking about another m11x mod... this one, is to take all the insides of the m11x, and mount them inside of a alienware optx 22 inch screen! I could have the first alienware all-in-one

So now I am on the hunt for a m11x with a broken screen or junked battery or both!

 

Wow, keep it up man and Dell will have to give you a job.

Alienware needs some innovators like you!

 

niiiiiiiiiiiiice!!!!

 

Got my bricked m11x today, put in a hdd and some other ram and pushed the power button. If you listen really carefully you can actually hear the motherboard dying a little more. So new mother board will go in when I get back from vacation, and the old one will be put into a picture frame as a memorial to its service as a fine computer.

 

Hey there! This is the guy who made a thread on Dell's ideaStorm website as a suggestion for Alienware to make a tablet. You posted on the thread I made. Interested in seeing how your project is coming. Are you making a slate or a convertible? I think what I was thinking of when I made that product suggestion was a convertible tablet version of the M11X (or a model with a larger screen that could be called an M13X or something like that.) That way you could keep the keyboard to do traditional hardcore gaming, but also have a touch screen to do tablet stuff with. I have yet to see any company make a convertible tablet, that can actually handle hardcore PC gaming...

I hate how most convertible tablets are aimed at corporate business people (therefore they don't have very good graphics cards (if even a discreet graphics card at all), and on the other hand, most slate tablets are aimed at people who are "casual gamers" at best.

I'd like to see a tablet aimed the hardcore gamer/digital content creation professional. What I mean by that, is something that can use the tablet functionality of a stylus digitizer for things like photoshop, illistrator, corel painter, almost like a Wacom Cintiq, except portable, and even stuff like maya and zbrush. But at the same time, it can also run whatever the latest FPS is with a high framerate and on high settings.

Personally, I happen to have the need to do all of the above, as my chosen profession is in video game development. I have yet to see any kind of tablet that can handle all of that in a single device. The M11X is prolly the closest thing I've seen, sticking a gaming machine in a netbook form factor. Only problem, is that it isn't a tablet and lacks a touch screen (and stylus.) But anyway, I digress, your project sounds really cool, and hopefully you can get it wokring real soon.

When you finish it, you should totally show it to Dell, maybe it'll actually inspire them to make something like it. I would totally buy a piece of tech that is like what you're building, if some company actually offered it (and assuming it came in red, like all of Alienware's laptops already do XD)

 

I bet we'll see some hitting the market as soon as Windows 8 is released.

@ejohnson how did he brick it? Bad BIOS/vBIOS flash or physical damage... maybe it can be blind flashed.

 

Nice of you to join us over here

Mine is going to be a straight tablet style computer with a screen thats fixed to the base. While it would be pretty sweet to make a convertible, I dont have the equipment to make a convertible

Not too sure what happened to the bricked one I have, but when you try to boot it beeps (very softly, you must be in a silent room, and hold the computer to your ear to hear it) 7 times. Usually meaning a bad motherboard. But when I too it apart the other day to fix the hinges on it, I noticed some water damage and a little corrosion on the motherboard. So, I have a bottle of iso alcohol and some cotton swabs. Going to try to clean it all up today and see if she boots.... If not, then the new motherboard is going in when I get back from vacation.

 

Try baking it as well.

 

For a faulty solder joint? or just to dry it up?

 

Well I got the computer all apart while at work, found tons of corrosion on the board. The vga port, eithernet port and the usb on that side were all very bad. I also found some on the back side of the cpu, along with a few other little chips on the board. I took some pictures with my phone that I can upload tonight.

Cleaned most of it out with some iso, going to blow out the dust, and put it all back together and hope she works.

 

Just got the computer all back together, still nothing. So I guess we get to install the motherboard

 

Was this like a white residue? This is sometimes applied at the factory, I know for a fact my motherboard looks like this but there's never been an once of liquid spilt on it.



If it looks anything like this chances are it's down to the poor quality flux used at the factory.

 

Here are the crappy cell phone pictures of the corrosion. You can see it had standing water on the eithernet port and vga ports. The motherboard had a few spots just like it with heavy corrosion. All of the spots on the mother board had matching spots on the palm rest and case.

 

Ouch, no visible scorch marks though? I've managed to get away with many a spillage (Not of my own) by just giving the motherboard a good clean.

On the OP subject, how's the tablet looking? Any updates?

 

I didnt see any marks on it other than the corrosion. But it looks like the water damage has been there for awhile, maybe it just got to a point where it shorted out the board. Either way, the fan/heat sink from it will go to good use in modding for a triple pipe cooler eventually, and the junked board will be framed for the wall in my basement (wife wont go down into the basement cause the cat killed a mouse down there along time ago)

Well the case is all ready to go, I just need to get this r1 working so I can swap its guts into the tablet.

Then I need to do some final trimming on the the area where the hinge is normally.

 

Sounds great! Pictures when you can

 

Really really looking forward to this... Seems like an amazing idea... If only AW picked up this idea and made a convertible, kickass looking tablet...


Waiting for the results on your awsome mods ejohnson!

 

cant wait dude when its done make sure you post a youtube video of you blowing through crysis on it!

 

M11x tablet and NES PC in the same thread....I might have just nerded everywhere.

You sirs are gods. Rep++

 

ejohnson the progress of the work?
we're all waiting for this your great work

 

Kinda stalled due to the lack of a touch screen that will work for this

 

ejonson how do you solve the problem of attacking a touch screen to the motherboard?
I am Italian and I am very interested in a fantastic thing like yours and I want to know how to solve this problem in the display