Upgrading the pandora?

[DrHAX]

Hello. I'm not exactly sure this fits in Support.. since the whole topic (In theory.. I know how these topics can go sideways.. I know I don't help in that regard either. What? I like talking you with lunatics. ^_^  ) is about purchasing a mainboard then installing it myself in a case. I'm a tinker at heart. I've rebuilt laptops before.    And opened up and repaired things that people said couldn't be repaired, or really doubted me. I replaced the lcd screen on dell axim 51-v  Two times.. I'm convinced the company that made apple's Iphone screens made those screens.

 I let my fiancee borrow (Gave? :blink: ) one of my RMA'd pandoras so she can type with it and use it. She already loves it. She loved linux and has a soft spot for it.. Just like I do. So she's happy as a clam with it.  It was funny having us just sitting side by side at restaurant playing Not Tetris together.

I love my CC pandora but the 1ghz is a much better beast in every shape and way. I know ed is selling of main boards since they have a surplus. I saw the picture of the cases being tossed   its a bit sad seeing the pandora at the end of its life. Considering I just got one... Last year?Or was it two years ago. As a person who really uses the pandora.. the silver cases i've noticed are slippery and wear away quickly with me. Even the keymats are showing marks.  It's a bit sad when you can identify which pandora is which from the feel of the keymats 


So my question is how easy is it to replace a main board on a pandora. Or even swap out the casings. I really prefer the black casing because it doesn't show my usage instantly. To give you an idea my pandoras looked like they were years old when I sent them in for RMA both units I purchased used and they looked brand new basically both had little then 20 hours on them combined!  When I sent them in I used them daily for months. My fiancee was surprised by the stylus I gave her was silver where as mine is black.. I used this stylus for both systems and stored her silver one in a drawer because I didn't want to wear down that one either.

So my hopes are depending on ease is to purchase a 1ghz mainboard put it into the CC machine.. Save it's board for a steampunk project. (Some of you know exactly what i'm talking about.) Purchase a complete black case and install my 1ghz's guts into it. Or just paint my 1ghz's case with something that won't wear down quickly... Automotive paint maybe? Maybe steampunk it while i'm at it  :wub:  So for those who have cracked open your pandoras and tinkered with them.. Any advice? I'm looking to learn from other people's mistakes because I don't want to F-up! I don't want a dead pandora.. or even worse a ruined LCD cable!

 

[elw3]

So you basically want to swap cases? Like that? 

Spoiler

Pretty easy.

Open the screws, unplug the hinge and youre done. Just follow the videos.

Now stop to show of your girl, the envy is killing me.

 

[groovechicken]

I originally bought my Rebirth with full intentions to upgrade it down the road when I had a little extra cash, but I haven't had any real major issues with it as-is, so I have not felt too urgent about it. Especially now with the Pyra on the way.

What I do know, though, is that replacing the LCD cable is a beast. Heck, it's not even easy to get the LCD cable plugged back into the ZIF connector on the mainboard without putting a lot of tension on it in the process. It shouldn't be too bad, though. Like you, I have rebuilt some of the most PITA laptops to work on in the past and thought this couldn't be as bad as those. It is. Since you won't have to take the screen apart, though, the only tricky part will be plugging that cable back in.

One other note... before I took mine apart, I never needed a spacer in the battery compartment. After putting it back to gether, I had to add a thin layer of mini Stick-It notes to the battery to keep it from randomly dropping its connection. Not really sure how it ended up different enough to require this, but it has been fine with the notes stuck in there.

If you do the upgrade, please post some feedback after using it for a week. I would like to hear how noticeable the upgrade is for performance and general usage. Good luck!

 

[levi]

Yep, that ZIF connector is a pain. I managed to bend a pin on mine trying to get a new cable into it. Only other complication first time was getting the screws out of the bottom - two of them seized on me.

 

[mongrol]

The silver case is far better quality than the black one. I bought 2 broken black CC's to fix my LCD on my silver CC. Totally busted the LCD cable on the first one trying to get it out. With the next I just swapped the mainboard. I was far too wary of the fragile LCD cable. Now I have a black CC and it's much flimsier and less grippy than the silver case.

 

[Gruntfuggly]

Ironic when you consider what ZIF stands for...

 

[DrHAX]

The silver case is far better quality than the black one. I bought 2 broken black CC's to fix my LCD on my silver CC. Totally busted the LCD cable on the first one trying to get it out. With the next I just swapped the mainboard. I was far too wary of the fragile LCD cable. Now I have a black CC and it's much flimsier and less grippy than the silver case.

I've found the opposite. My CC I've found to have nice grip. And the black case showed no wear at all. Its just the CC is slower. It lags and crashes periodically. My CC has an issue with the mainboard. The lid switch doesn't work. I'm tempted to just take my 1ghz and swap boards with the CC. I downloaded the video of ED replacing the LCD cable, seems simple. Just don't force anything swapping out a mainboard would be really simple. I'm really Hoping we get information on the aluminum cases soon. If I can purchase one.. or two of those it'd be worth it.

 

[DrHAX]

Well after spending three days with fiancee at her house and constantly confusing our pandoras.... We're both writing on them. So we both had moments of pure horror as we picked up a pandora and went "WHERES MY STORY! :blink:    Oh this is yours." Had to identify the units by the colours of the sd cards.. So just because I had time today...and I was bored i swapped out the cases... was nerve racking taking it apart. But I set up more technical precautions then I ever did with my computers.. (Re-building a laptop on a wool carpet would probably count as NOT the optimal work environment) First time assembling it nothing happened. Luckily I did something stupid and forgot to close the flap on the connector of the LCD... however for those who follow eds videos the screws for the CC's are NOT THE SAME LENGTH! I sent a screw through the other side of my black case   Terrified I thought I broke it and it went through the main board. (first reason why I was freaking to why it wasn't turning on.)  Theres now  a random hole in my pandora..  <_<   Oh well at least I got it all assembled and working lovely. 

now I can even see the difference between the CC and the 1ghz due to the simple psychological effect of it having the same case.    Seriously if you guys just purchase a mainboard you can upgrade your system yourself it took less then five minutes if you're not constantly F-ing up like I was. Seriously both times I didn't get the cables on on both systems.   :wacko:    Also waiting for the board to come in BEATS having to ship you pandora and waiting for it to get done and sent to you.