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What to do with a half destroyed E540

395 views 10 replies 4 participants last post by  XanderTheGoober 
#1 ·
So I have a laptop seemingly on it's last leg of life from being beat up and not well taken care of.
It is a Lenovo Edge E540 15.6 inch laptop.
current list of issues:
LCD backlight starting to fail, so the LCD panel itself may not be far behind.
LCD hinge is broken
Keyboard is possibly faulty
No Hard drive
Main case is broken, mostly by the cpu heatsink fins.

the good? It posts, it has ram, and a 4th gen i5 CPU, that's about it.

It seems a waste to throw it away if it still posts as it is a working motherboard and cpu hence why i ask your opinion

Let me know what you think I should do with it. My 2 ideas are 1, make another HTPC out of it, or 2, Ghetto All in 1 PC.
 
#3 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dimensive View Post

I actually just watched a video yesterday of someone converting their laptop into a HTPC.
HA, I was watching that video as I was posting this to get some ideas.
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#5 ·
Rebuild or sell. As far as broken chassis goes, well that's because laptop makers cheap out in a big way and the newer a laptop is the worse it gets. My chassis from 2006 started to break because the plastic turned brittle after so many years, 6+.
If you have some use for it then rebuild it using house found parts. Usually old laptops are not worth much anything, even the batteries get many cycles often and are close to dead. My original ones already started to leak and I threw some away.
 
#6 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by JackCY View Post

Rebuild or sell. As far as broken chassis goes, well that's because laptop makers cheap out in a big way and the newer a laptop is the worse it gets. My chassis from 2006 started to break because the plastic turned brittle after so many years, 6+.
If you have some use for it then rebuild it using house found parts. Usually old laptops are not worth much anything, even the batteries get many cycles often and are close to dead. My original ones already started to leak and I threw some away.
I already looked into repairing with cheap OEM parts on ebay and it would be well over $100 for a laptop maybe worth $160 on the used market in my area so I put an end to that idea before my wallet cries.

EDIT: If I got lucky i might find another E540 with a dead motherboard but everything else is good for under 80. slap an SSD in it and have a decent laptop.
 
#7 ·
So I just had a thought.

I have an empty NZXT phantom case just laying around not doing anyone any good. And I am not much for making my own case as demonstrated in the above video so i figured having a good base to start with could be good.
How hard do you think it would be to mod the motherboard tray to hold the laptop board and then possibly mod an LCD into the side panel for a freakishly large, ghetto all in one PC?
 
#8 ·
If you're just looking at mounting the mainboard of the laptop to the mobo tray, I'm sure with a little engineering, drilling, and bracket-making you could get it to work quite well without tons of effort. The LCD thing could work if you're good at bondo-work, or make yourself a homemade vacuum former, or woodwork, maybe 3D printing. It's as simple as what you have to work with and build your idea around your skill set.

Cooling on the other hand I'd imagine being a bit more difficult, but then again I've not watched the above video yet, so I'm not sure what kind of solutions there are for aftermarket cooling. Were you planning on using the original heat pipes/ fans from the mainboard?
 
#9 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by bajer29 View Post

If you're just looking at mounting the mainboard of the laptop to the mobo tray, I'm sure with a little engineering, drilling, and bracket-making you could get it to work quite well without tons of effort. The LCD thing could work if you're good at bondo-work, or make yourself a homemade vacuum former, or woodwork, maybe 3D printing. It's as simple as what you have to work with and build your idea around your skill set.

Cooling on the other hand I'd imagine being a bit more difficult, but then again I've not watched the above video yet, so I'm not sure what kind of solutions there are for aftermarket cooling. Were you planning on using the original heat pipes/ fans from the mainboard?
I would either re-use the original heatsink or ghetto rig up a stock intel heatsink. Also as far as the side panel monitor i was thinking about just drilling holes for the vesa screws.
 
#10 ·
Oh... haha. Yeah, I guess I assumed you were going for a more finished look. I'd be a bit concerned, depending on the weight of the monitor you choose to mount to the side of the case, that the case would end up unstable and tip over.

But yeah, mounting an existing vesa capable monitor should work. I like ghetto rigging projects like this so let me know if you need any suggestions or ideas.

I bet the Ghetto Rigging Shenanigans Thread would appreciate the finished product too
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#11 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by bajer29 View Post

Oh... haha. Yeah, I guess I assumed you were going for a more finished look. I'd be a bit concerned, depending on the weight of the monitor you choose to mount to the side of the case, that the case would end up unstable and tip over.

But yeah, mounting an existing vesa capable monitor should work. I like ghetto rigging projects like this so let me know if you need any suggestions or ideas.

I bet the Ghetto Rigging Shenanigans Thread would appreciate the finished product too
biggrin.gif
Already follow that thread
smile.gif
 
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