garageputer from an old laptop?

The kids abused an old Dell Lowlineron 5000. It has zero battery life, unplug and it turns off. The touchscreen is wonky. If you enable it, the mouse goes nutso. The hard drive failed, and it's now running Linux.

I want to mount it on the wall in the garage, plugged into the wall, and use it for tunes and the occasional search for a schematic or exploded diagram on the interwebz.

How do I power this thing? The plug is bad enough that it stops being a plug if you breathe wrong. Can I hardwire it somehow? Just bust through the case and solder in a cord? What's the hot ticket to mounting something to the wall for $0.35? Speakers which are cheap and amazing?

You might be able to replace the connector, I mean if you're going to try and solder something... but yes you more than likely can solder the power pack directly to the laptop.  You'll need to disassemble it quite a bit to get access to the top and bottom of the board.

Here's the self-service manual:

https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Dell_Inspiron_5000

Possible fix for the touchscreen:

https://www.dell.com/community/Laptops-General-Read-Only/Touch-screen-for-Inspiron-13-5000-not-working/td-p/5110749

and it looks like the powerjack might be relatively easily replaced:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-Power-Jack-with-cable-Dell-Inspiron-15-5000-15-5555-15-5558-5551-5559-KD4T9-/282393407601

Here's an idea of how to mount a laptop to the wall:

https://www.instructables.com/id/Work-Shop-Laptop-Fix/

plus some others:

https://www.instructables.com/howto/laptop+mount/

I had an HP several years ago that had notoriously fragile DC jack.  I put at least 2x new DC jacks on the motherboard before I finally said berk it, and fixed it for good.

I bought a 2x prong quick disconnect pig tail similar to this, from Radioshack.  Remember Radioshack?

Removed the dead DC jack again, and soldered the quick disconnect in its place.

Hot glued the wire to the housing, so it wasn't tugging on the soldered joints.

Of course, I had to modify the power brick too.

In reply to tuna55 :

i hate dell inspiron ours is slow af and glitches all the time. finally getting a new one(not inspiron i hope)

Dieselboss15 said:

In reply to tuna55 :

i hate dell inspiron ours is slow af and glitches all the time. finally getting a new one(not inspiron i hope)

What are the specs of the system?  How long has the OS been installed on it?  Has anyone checked for updated drivers, BIOS or firmware for it? 

Some basic maintenance could resurrect the system and make it more stable and reliable. 

Just like performing basic, routine maintenance on your vehicles.

In reply to Stefan (Forum Supporter) :

lol i ain't very techy and haven't done any diagnostic or anything on it. computer is about ~13 years old sooo...

In reply to Dieselboss15 :

Find a young person who is and have them go over it.

In reply to Dieselboss15 :

I've got a 9 year old Dell Vostro in my herd of laptops that's still relevant for web surfing and other general computery things.  It'll even handle older games on low settings. 

If you're willing to teach yourself or ask some of us for assistance, they're not all black magic and voodoo.  I know my in-laws think I'm some kind of tech wizard, because I've built computers, and know how to use Google.

My Vostro 3550 has a SSD in it, never came with one, has 4x the ram it came with, and 2nd to fastest mobile i7 processor from its generation, it came with a mid tier i5.  I took a slight gamble, figuring that the latest BIOS would support an unofficially supported CPU and I was right.

Biggest improvement to that old laptop was the SSD, really brought the thing to life.  Ram & CPU weren't really perceptive improvements for day-to-day, bench marks showed slight improvements from them though.

I found the following through some rapid deconstruction. Five wires, two red, two black, and one white. All very small. Positive negative and ground?

It seems I can't get enough of this thread, but I read the OP again, somehow I missed the speaker question first go around.

Do you have an Amp, something you can run the audio signal from the laptop's 3.5mm head phone jack to, or do you need an amp/powered speakers?  I'm sure Good Will, Salvation Army, or a local flea market would have some cheap computer speakers to choose from.

In my current slice of suburban hell, 2 car garage, I've got 2 options.

1st is an ancient pair of Boston Acoustics powered computer speakers that are pushing 20 years old.  They, came with the Pentium III, Gateway, desktop I got a couple weeks after starting college.  They are surprisingly good speakers, and pretty good for background music and pod casts.  I didn't go look at the part number but I'm pretty sure they're these exact speakers.

My other set-up for ROCKING! is as follows.

I found a pair of these random, Phillips, bookshelf speakers in my attic, they came with the house.

I needed a speaker system at a party we hosted at an event center, so I used those free speakers, and added the following:

Chinesium 2.1 Bluetooth Amp this one is a little pricier, but it's decent advertised power for its size, at the time was an almost current Bluetooth standard, and came with a power supply, a lot of them don't.  There are cheaper versions, maybe better versions all over Amazon, eBay, Parts Express, etc.

Cheapest 8" subwoofer that was a brand I'd heard of.

Cheapest sealed box, for the cheapest subwoofer I could find at the time.  Says out of stock now, but my order history says it was $26, there's similar available for around that price, or ya know build one.

Those free speakers & 8" sub on my little Bluetooth amp are impressive.

You can probably FB Market Place, CL, Flea Market, etc. everything, probably better stuff for cheaper.

Here's a much cheaper, similar power spec amplifier board, without a case, Bluetooth, or power supply.

In reply to tuna55 :

I'm guessing your laptop has a DC jack with a pig tail that plugs into the motherboard for easier replacement, instead of being soldered directly to the board?  Still, I'd really need to see the board, and follow the PCB traces to tell you 100%, but generally, as I'm sure you know, red is + and black is -, also look at the DC jack, generally (I stress generally, not always) the outer part of the DC jack's barrel is - and the inner pin of the DC jack is +.

To be 100% sure I'd be breaking out the multimeter and checking continuity with ground traces on the motherboard, and the wires.

Good news is that, if that's the easier to replace, plug-in style DC jack I think it is, it'll be a lot easier to replace than soldering something to the board.  So, if it's going to sit on a shelf plugged in to the wall for the rest of its life, and never move, I'd probably forget everything I said above, hop on eBay and find the replacement jack for your model laptop, and just replace it with a new jack.

Another thing, that Dell is probably new enough, that one of those wires is a sensor looking for an OE Dell power brick, and will likely give you the warning it's looking for an authentic Dell power brick, "plugged in but not charging" warning, if bypassed.  I know you said the battery is toast and it's not charging anyway, so that may not matter.

His laptop might be so old that he might not have a sensor wire- I'd still google search it, because it's very likely someone has done the same as you.

Also, ripping old speakers out of laptops is a great idea 'cause most of them are only 12 volt. Real easy for projects.

I finally got the thing working last night, but it's not entirely working. Wireless doesn't turn on and I believe it's because of this little guy. He came undone when I was popping the back off and I tried to solder his connections, in both directions to be sure, but no matter what I do it doesn't seem to make a good connection with the motherboard and function. Given that this thing has so many other problems it may be time to punt. 

If you go with new rather than used speakers, a single IKEA Frekvens 4x8 (which seems to be a model name and not an indicator of speaker size) might be a good choice if it's in the clearance rack at your local store. There are scalpers on eBay for some reason, and I wouldn't go there for it.

It's monoaural, AC powered (with optional battery support), has a nice big knob for easy volume control, connects over bluetooth or 3.5mm, has outputs for AC power and for more speakers and subwoofer if you choose. It's sold as a party speaker, so it can get pretty loud for the size. It comes with a fairly stout hang loop that screws into the top with some brackets you could repurpose if you chose to develop your own mount. Teenage Engineering, who designed it for IKEA, have shared  files for 3d-printable brackets and accessories that are free to download.

When my older WinXP laptop for the shop (and Megasquirt tuning) slowed down to oblivion, I bought a "refurbished" Win10 laptop from Staples with a touch screen for cheap cheap cheap, like $100 cheap.

If you troll your local freecycle sometimes you can pick up a good, used laptop for free.

Is skip the hassle and do a raspberry pi. Old computers are old and slow which is the last thing I want when I'm ready to set the project on fire and roll it out into the street. 

Strizzo said:

Is skip the hassle and do a raspberry pi. Old computers are old and slow which is the last thing I want when I'm ready to set the project on fire and roll it out into the street. 

Except I wanted a laptop, because I want one thing there, with a touchscreen. I don't want a computer, a laptop, a keyboard and a mouse. Also I had a laptop, which is free.

So those wires that you soldered on are the antenna for the little Mini PCIe WiFi card.  Each wire is like a tiny little coax, with 2 connections, a pin in the middle and the outer shroud.  They should just clip onto their respective connections, similar to snaps on a garment, the connection just snaps on.

You probably just needed to tweak the outer part of the wire's connection a little, to tighten them up, if they weren't staying put.  Now that they've been soldered, you probably need new antennas and may need a new card too.

They're not that expensive, I'm sure you can find them on eBay.

Though if you've got a USB port to spare, it may be simpler to just grab a cheap USB WiFi adapter and use that instead.

bigdaddylee82 said:

So those wires that you soldered on are the antenna for the little Mini PCIe WiFi card.  Each wire is like a tiny little coax, with 2 connections, a pin in the middle and the outer shroud.  They should just clip onto their respective connections, similar to snaps on a garment, the connection just snaps on.

You probably just needed to tweak the outer part of the wire's connection a little, to tighten them up, if they weren't staying put.  Now that they've been soldered, you probably need new antennas and may need a new card too.

They're not that expensive, I'm sure you can find them on eBay.

Though if you've got a USB port to spare, it may be simpler to just grab a cheap USB WiFi adapter and use that instead.

Oh

I've had really good luck with the Alfa brand USB adapters with the external antennas. If you've got a detached garage, the better antenna will really help.

In reply to tuna55 :

If you end up wanted not to go the USB route PM me with your address, I have a handful of the cards and will gladly send a couple your way.