VOGONS

emachines all in one; are the signals inside 'standard'?

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First post, by carangil

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Hi I have an old emachines eOne sitting in the garage that still works. (amazing huh, emachines was kinda junk) It's an all on one unit that looks a bit like an iMac ripoff. I kind of want to take out the mobo and put something faster in there, and just use it as a websurfing workstation. But, I was wondering, before I crack it open, is it even possible to use the built-in monitor with a non-emachines video card? If inside it's somewhere its standard RGBHV, then sure I just need to wire up a connector, but if they did some cost-cutting funky stuff, like put some of the CRT control circuitry on the mainboard itself, then I'll just forget about this old thing and put it off the the recyclers.

(Why do this? I sorta miss the look of CRTs, I like the iMac ripoff design, and I like the absurdity of putting new parts in old cases. I already have a 450 mhz 'AT' on my desk!)

Reply 1 of 7, by swaaye

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It may be using essentially notebook hardware. That's how the iMacs like this were.

More info here
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=334460

Specs: Proc: Celeron 433mhz / 500mhz Ram: 64MB onboard (w/ available pc100/133 laptop memory slot for upgrading) Graphics: ATI R […]
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Specs:
Proc: Celeron 433mhz / 500mhz
Ram: 64MB onboard (w/ available pc100/133 laptop memory slot for upgrading)
Graphics: ATI Rage XL w/8MB ram (AGP 2x, but not AGP slot)
Monitor: 15" (14" Viewable) SVGA
HDD: 6.4GB / 8.4GB (uDMA IDE)
CD-Rom: 24x Slim CDRom
Host bridge: Intel 440LX/EX - 82443LX/EX
PCI bridge: same as host
ISA bridge: Intel 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4
IDE bridge: same as ISA
USB bridge: same as ISA/IDE
Audio: Cirrus Logic CS 4614/22/24
Cardbus bridge (x2): TI PCI1225
Modem: PCTel Inc HSP MicroModem 56 (56k)
Ethernet Controller: Intel 10BaseT w/home PNA (LSPCI lists as: Intel 21145)(Doesn't have --100BaseT)

It has PCMCIA and sounds like most of the hardware is integrated. It also sounds like it uses SODIMMs for RAM.

With that Cardbus slot you could get an Audigy 2 Notebook and have high quality audio. 😁 The CPU support is probably limited to the fastest Mendocino Celeron (533 MHz). HDD should be easily upgradeable but the BIOS is almost certainly going to have a limit under 127GB at best (you can still use any drive but will have wasted capacity). RAM max is probably 320MB (256MB PC100 SODIMM + 64MB onboard).

Reply 2 of 7, by Old Thrashbarg

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@ swaaye
That's certainly valid information, but it's also completely irrelevant to what he's asking.

The thing seems to be comprised of just a standard 15" KDS monitor crammed into a different housing, with the motherboard shoehorned underneath it. Chances are pretty good that the motherboard is feeding out a regular VGA signal through whatever connector it uses. I think your bigger issue is going to be getting a different motherboard to fit in there... I'm not even sure if a MiniITX will go into that space.

Reply 3 of 7, by carangil

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Oh wow, I didn't realize the inside was basically a laptop. No wonder it was so cheap. I do have Pentium 3 laptop with a relatively small motherboard and a jacked screen; I smell a possible Frankenstein project.

First things first: I poke around inside and see if there's anything resembling VGA inside.

Reply 4 of 7, by Old Thrashbarg

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The trouble with installing laptop hardware is that, A., they require odd power supplies, so you'll basically have to include the power brick in there somehow, and B., a laptop motherboard is designed for driving an LCD... the only way to get VGA out of one is to use the external connector, which will make it quite tricky to wire up if you're wanting a clean-looking end product. Neither of those issues is insurmountable, but it's something to keep in mind.

Reply 5 of 7, by Tetrium

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Personally I'd rather use laptop hardware in a desktop instead of repairing a laptop, 🤣

I don't like hardware that's non-standard. Means you can't really fiddle with it.

Whats missing in your collections?
My retro rigs (old topic)
Interesting Vogons threads (links to Vogonswiki)
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Reply 7 of 7, by Old Thrashbarg

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Well, I see RGB signals, V/H sync, and DDC, so you've got the full VGA available there. There's some additional power lines, but it's not quite clear if those are actually needed for the monitor, or if they're just fed through to the motherboard... if I'm looking at it right, it uses a standard ATX connector which hooks up to the little monitor interface daughterboard. I'm not entirely clear on how all that goes together... I'd have to see actual pictures of it rather than line drawings and blurry block diagrams.

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