My 9550 mb upgrade to 9560

So i've been following this forum for a few months after I bought a dead 9550, i7, 4k touchscreen with no hdd and 8gb ram.

All the info I had was that it needed a new mb due to a fan related issue that could have been fixed. So I bought it and found that a amature attempted to fix it and damaged the original board beyond repair. I found some people suggesting that the 9560 MB has the same/ similar dimensions. After researching some I took a gamble and ordered a new mb i7 7700/ gtx 1050 and a 9560 heatsink. They arrived yesterday. 31/10/17

The 9560 heatsink is needed due to different mounting points and design.

Here's a photo comparing the old (on top) vs the new

Some of the mounting holes are different, most line up. All of the peripherals line up with the chassis fine.


There is a locating pin on the top left for that needs to be ground/filed off.

There are two or three mounting screws overall that are different. There is still plenty of support for the new board.

Also the headphone jack and speaker board that attaches to the 9550 doesn't fit on the 9560 because there is a headphone jack built in. There is no alignment issues with any of the peripherals


The right fan doesn't fit properly at all. There is no way to mount it. In my case I had to modify the fan to fit as a temporary solution.

Here you can see that it fails against the wifi card


And my awesome mounting solution



I cant get the 84w battery to work with the 9560 board, there is a warning that it wont charge in the post. Any info on this would be great


I ran into some issues with the wifi card installing drivers. It's the DW 1830 card, no dell drivers will install, I had to use a usb wifi doodad and let windows download drivers for it. This got it working okay.


Noticing the idel temps on HWmonitor is 45c+ and jumps easily up to mid 60c’s


That's where im at anyway, typing on my phone, suggestions welcome

*EDIT*
I uploaded the photo's instead of the links

 

Thanks Narraz. There has been a lot of talk about this but no one has executed as far as I can see.

Would you mind posting the pictures rather than the painful google links?

 

Yeah no problem, when I get home ill upload proper pictures. Ive taken several high res close ups

I havent seen anyone else actually do this mb upgrade at all?

 

I've probably seen a half dozen people ask about it but because of the change in the heatsink, some screw placement and other unknowns, I believe you are the first to do this.

Won't be the last now that you have the process documented. . .

 

You need the 97wh battery, you really should buy the correct chassis to save problems. Personally if it was an eBay purchase I would be returning it as it is not as described otherwise a palmrest and chassis shouldn't be that expensive.

 

Please be sure to make full disclosure when selling. It is a cool proof of concept.

 

Im already in the deep end with this, I have already had plenty of interest from buyers and its not even complete yet.

 

Could not agree more with this. Narraz, sounds like a really cool project you have on your hands but a custom built/modded laptop sounds like a sketchy thing to sell. Be careful, and you must disclose the mods made
Its hard to see too much from your pictures to help but you'll need to get that fan mounted better. Don't have many options for you other than buying a 9560 right fan and gluing it to the palm rest (use an ABS glue I believe). A real nice fix would be 3D printing two posts with large, flat bottom surface to glue below the fan and then tap and screw the fan into, but this is probably overkill for your needs.[EDIT, this is a very dumb idea as I forgot about the keyboard being directly below]. The only 3D printing solution here would be an adapter that would screw to the palm rest under the mobo using its two screw holes to the left and right of the fan output. The adapter would then snake towards proximal end of fan with two post you could tap and screw. This is probably even more overkill.
As for the battery, does it display this message only when plugged into AC adapter or all the time? Trying to eliminate the ac adapter as it has similar POST message

 

While that does sounds like a great idea Mlev, the new 9560 mb has its own mount for the right fan, a 9560 fan will screw it properly and be properly supported.

I haven't had the battery plugged in and the AC adapter at the same time, as I didnt want to fry something if the m/b assumes the battery is a new 97wh(or w/e the capacity is) and overcharge the 84wh. i'd think that the old battery will charge fine as its just a normal LI battery.
I only saw the warning once, when I first installed it and ran it off the battery as a test. The LED's at the front were flashing orange and white. The warning was in red text. other then that, it looked like it would have booted and ran on the old battery.


You guys need to remember that this isnt close to being finished, it was a proof of concept. The main thing is that its operating fine in this chassis without any major modification.
To finish it I will need to:
Make the 84wh battery work with the 9560/ replace the battery. ($100-150)
Buy and install right fan ($20ish)
Buy 9560 speaker board module to get headphone jack and speakers (maybe mic, not tested) ($?)

total cost so far:
laptop $900
New mb $570
new heatsink $50
sold old mb and heatsink -$200
selling old battery $50
=$1270
Not too bad

I intend on disclosing the information if/when I sell it. Would be a nasty shock to a random buyer who looks up the service code and see's that its a 2016 chassis with new hardward haha

 

It will run off the old battery but iirc will not attempt to charge it. You will not damage the laptop that way.

 

If you need to use some adhesive with the palm rest, I think you need to do some sample testing as we don't quite know what will work and what could ruin the palm rest.

I've done some repairs to fibreglass & carbon fibre products and two-part epoxy is frequently called for. But Dell has some additional materials on the palm rest so I don't know what would work without trying.

 

Doesn't the fan mount to the palmrest, not the motherboard? I figured the 9550 chassis wouldn't have screw mounts in the proper location if so.
And yeah, I wouldn't worry about it overcharging. Charge limits are mostly determined by voltage which are almost definitely the same between models. I'm a bit surprised it rejected it at all as I imagined the same battery charging chip is used in all variants with the 53 and 84 whr, and likely carrying over to the 9560 as well. Did the swaps from 53 to 84 whr battery in the 9550 for adding or removing a HDD work without issue? I cant remember.
Of note, ebay sellers are advertising 84 and 97 whr batteries as compatible with both the 9550 and 9560 ( https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...+battery.TRS0&_nkw=dell+9560+battery&_sacat=0). Not that this means much as these are not the most reputable sellers and aftermarket batteries can be questionable. But I am interested in what determines battery compatibility. Out of curiosity, run Dell diagnostics (the BIOS version) with the battery installed if you get a chance

 

My weapon of choice is 3M 9088 tape, strong, heat resistant and it can be removed. The fans come with a strip of tape on the 9550 (can't say I have needed to check on a 9560 yet)

You can get 50m rolls of the 12mm for about £7, I have used it on many things, sticking tablet screens down is was the primary use so you know it is good for laptops.

 

I upload the pics instead of the links, probably easier to see now

 

I would like to make same mod but I don't see any of your images can you please repost them. Thanks.

 

Almost makes me want to break my spare 9560

 

Who will be the first to try this with the 9570 when it comes out?

 

I am also planning to upgrade the my 9550 motherboard to 9560
The photoes is disabled, could you update your photoes again?​

Thanks

 

Hello, I've found this thread after the mobo of my 9550 died. I was thinking about doing this but as other user said the pictures are no longer visible, can OP post them again?

 

Hi everyone,

Like few last posts, my 9550's mobo just die, and I'm clearly thinking about replacing it with a 9560 one.

@Narraz, could you please re-upload your pictures?
Did you finaly try to charge the 84WHr battery with the 9560 mobo?
I'm not really sure I got the thing about the jack/headphone board compatibility... could you explain that again?
Did you try to run the 9560 mobo through thunderbolt dock (Dell TB16 or other)?

Really nice project by the way, definitely an act of resistance facing the dumb blinded consumption system...!