CF-19 MK2 motherboard swap

Hello,

I need some help regarding a CF-19 MK2 motherboard swap. I read all or almost all posts I could find regarding CF-19 swaps.
I have a MK2 in a grade A condition and I found a MK6 motherboard quite cheap.

My questions are below:

1) Can I take the MK2 motherboard out and fit in the bottom case the MK6 motherboard?
I looked at all the pictures on the net and compared the holes and it seems that it is possible.
Heating pipes should match just the termal pads replaced. Need some feedback here...

2) Can I use all the doughterboards from MK2 with the MK6 motherboard?
I read that the power board with serial and VGA ports needs also to be replaced? Why?
Other doughterboards that needs to be replaced?
LED and power button board?
USB/SIM slot board?
Audio board?
Modem board?
WWAN board?
SDHC board?
PCMCIA/ExpressCard slots/cage is compatible?
What about the front 6 bottons, will they work on a MK6 motherboard?

3) LED and powerbutton board connects the touchpad I guess?!
I read that MK6-7-8 has a different touchpad (VersaPad).
If I keep the MK2 LED/power button board will the MK2 touchpad work normally or reversed or not at all?

4) Display needs to be replaced because of CCFL/LED technology changed and connectors are different between models.
What is the difference between LCD from MK3-4-5 and MK6-7-8 besides the light sensor?

If somebody can take a few minutes to reply inline to each point would be great.

Best regards and thank you!

 

No on a mk6 motherboard swap.
I tried it with a mk4 and it will not work. You need a mk6 housing. I tried this swap with a 100 hour mk4 and a mk6 motherboard. I had the entire mk4 and mk6 along with 4 or 5 parts units. In the end, I used the beat up mk6 housing.

The mk2 touchpad connected to a mk6 motherboard WILL respond upside down and backwards. Does not matter what combination of daughterboards (led/power etc..) you use. The X and Y outputs on the pad itself are reversed.
I know the front tablet buttons use a different part number.

Mk3-5 LCD assembly should work, but may require harness modification or the proper harness for a mk6. I think the early version is 10.4" and the later is 10.1" Brightness(nit rating) and contrast is very different.

Heatsink in the housing is different.

BarrMaley could not get a mk6 to start with an early WWAN board installed.

I had some issue with the audio board. Can't recall the exact problem but I know the solution was to find a proper audio board.

The mk2 wifi card will not work either.

The touchpad will not work. The heatsink is different. The WWAN will cause it to not boot. There is not much point in going further. Sorry, I have already tried this and FAILED.

 

Hello Shawn,

Thanks for fast reply. I was going to buy the motherboard and the complete LCD top. So the swap of the LCD will mainly be the screws to the bottom part and connecting the cables for antennas and LVDS.

Looking at all the pictures I have with MK2 and MK6 motherboards and overlapping them I see the two big chips on the MK6 seem to be in the same position as the 2 big chips of the MK2. The 3rd chip on the MK2, the I/O ICH8 chip, doesn't exist on the MK6 so no need to have a pad there or heatsink to fit there. Do you have any pictures to compare the cases and heatsinks?

My main goal here is to make a fixed unit, fanless and more powerful than the C2D. Display should work, keyboard should work, 16GB RAM should work, SSD should work and one USB port should work. If the Audio/WWAN/SDHC cards are not working is not a big deal.

What about the power board with VGA and serial ports? LED and power button board? Can I reuse those?

Thanks again!

 

I am sorry, but you are not going to be happy with the results. It just will not work properly.
I tried the swap and the results are not usable.

The chips may be in the same location. but how TALL are they? The different height could crush the chip or not make contact at all.

Ohlip (Teo) says the power board and others will not work. Teo has more parts and experience than I do with Toughbooks. If Ohlip says those boards will not work, THEY WILL NOT WORK.

I have tried this and had all the parts and resources in front of me.
That includes
hot air station,
chip programmer,
6 soldering irons
3 soldering guns
4 complete working CF19's
5 parts unit CF19's,
several drawers of CF19 parts from all mk's,
4GB of factory service manuals,
6 or so years experience working on Toughbooks
44 years experience working on electronics.

It will not work..
You sound determined to buy and attempt the swap. It is your choice to ignore my experience and advice.

If you are looking for a mk6, send me a pm.

 

Thanks Shawn, I will not proceed in buying the motherboard and LCD for a MK6.

I though that I can change from a C2D with 8GB RAM to i5 3rd gen with 16GB RAM in a cheap way.

My MK2 is used as a linux server staying in a corner for a long time. It just works but for some tasks it is slow.

Thanks again for your feedback.

 

If these 2 guys say no then it's a big NO. If you only new some of the things these guys have done with touhhbook it would blow your mind. If it can be done they will do. If it can't they will tell you.

 

Hello,

I believe them since I read many posts on the forum regarding modifications.
I will not go for any modding on the MK2. It works and it will stay like this for the moment.

Thanks to all of you for your fast and helpful replies.

 

have you thought about getting an old box comp from somewhere and loading a 'nix OS on it ?
as a server , unless you are shipping large video files , a (say) five year old box should work ok .
even if it has to run a firewall , it should run nicely .

i am running a 7 year old MB box with 4 gigs of ram and a 2.5 GHz processor as my 'nix forensics box ...
it works quite well .