Overclockers

violineb · 06-16-06, 12:30 AM

Hello everyone and welcome to what seems to be only my second big mod, the first one being here and it's not even big) One of my first mods and obviously some infuence for this one can be seen here.

But what is important is this; how many notebook docks/port replicators have you seen modded? hmm? I thought so. Not many. Now then, let me get on with the story.

I have a very sweet Sony Vaio which I bought off these forums (thanks tweeker) and I love it to death. It's become my main machine. It does everything I need it to, and I've been running it at 600mhz for the last year or so and I have no problems getting done what needs to get done. And if I ever do, then I have 1.7ghz of Dothan power. (ok don't laugh if you have a Merom or Yonah) Now what's makes this even better is I have a nice dock that it came with. I never really use the dock, but I do play alot of emulated games using a PSX to USB adapter.

It's all good but I don't enjoy having a gray box attached to my computer and then having the PSX controllers plugged into that. So I thought to myself, "Why don't I do something about that?" ...and that's exactly what I did.

We have the dock>

and we have the USB adapter taken out of it's ugly grey box.

The first step is to break off the blue connectors which the Playstation controllers plug into.

So far so good, but I did manage to burn myself about 3 times through the course of the entire mod.

Next thing (after measuring everything twice) is to start soldering the new wires onto the PCB. I used an old serial cable, or was it a printer cable, doesn't matter. For the other side I did one better and decided to go with IDE cable. It's a lot thinner so it takes up much less space, however it's tiny so it's difficult to work with.

I then double checked the USB plug it used to have to see which wires go to which pin

Only later did I realize I could just search Google for "usb pinouts"

Sizing it up and getting ready to solder.

A few pictures to show what the ports look like when in place.

violineb · 06-16-06, 12:31 AM

I then put it all together and fired her up and.....OMG, it doesn't work. WTF is wrong why why why? I did everything right. Life isn't fair!

The trouble was, I never actually tried that adapter in this dock, and I ended up with the error "Power Surge on Hub Port" and the device simply refused to work. Well, a true modder never gives up so on I went. I needed more power. More power comes from more USB ports.

Started by cutting a USB cord (poor USB cord) and then wired that puppy up to the device like so. I used a USB because I didn't want to chance soldering it and having it not work again.

It did work! However, now, the program I used this device most for (ZSNES) decided to crash every time I started it up. If I plugged into just the USB port on the laptop it worked fine, however if I plugged into two USB ports on the dock, no, it had to crash and burn. Speaking of burning, I certainly was by now.

After a lot of fooling around I finally got to work without crashing. (it ended up breaking again but I got it working again)

Then I went for the final wiring configuration.

It worked!

Needless to say, after I screwed everything shut, it decided to give me problems again. However, I just kept plugging it in over and over and restarting until it worked, and it does now.

And now, the finished product. Please feel free to comment or ask any questions.

Thanks, Emmanuel

RevelatorHarmon · 06-16-06, 12:43 AM

Incredibly awesomely sweet, great job, looks very clean.

Props!!

Albaholic · 06-16-06, 05:55 AM

Sweet. It looks pretty good

Slayer2003 · 06-16-06, 09:15 AM

......that is awsome........

Adragontattoo · 06-16-06, 05:02 PM

looks good.. next time try a powered USB hub bridged into the USB connection instead.

pik4chu · 06-20-06, 03:51 PM

wow very nice job! Looks almost factory installed

SolidxSnake · 06-20-06, 08:46 PM

very nice!

threeme2189 · 06-21-06, 04:21 PM

nice job!
btw how did you connect the controllers to the computer before you did the mod?

pik4chu · 06-21-06, 05:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by threeme2189

nice job!
btw how did you connect the controllers to the computer before you did the mod?

controller adapters are USB devices; you plug controller into the box and the box has a usb cord you plug into the PC. He simply removed the extra connectors and connected it directly to the USB ports inside the dock. Or atleast thats what I assume.

06-16-06, 12:30 AM	#1
violineb Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Living in Baltimore/Studying in Bloomington, IN	Project: Notebook Dock Mod -56k warning. Hello everyone and welcome to what seems to be only my second big mod, the first one being here and it's not even big) One of my first mods and obviously some infuence for this one can be seen here. But what is important is this; how many notebook docks/port replicators have you seen modded? hmm? I thought so. Not many. Now then, let me get on with the story. I have a very sweet Sony Vaio which I bought off these forums (thanks tweeker) and I love it to death. It's become my main machine. It does everything I need it to, and I've been running it at 600mhz for the last year or so and I have no problems getting done what needs to get done. And if I ever do, then I have 1.7ghz of Dothan power. (ok don't laugh if you have a Merom or Yonah) Now what's makes this even better is I have a nice dock that it came with. I never really use the dock, but I do play alot of emulated games using a PSX to USB adapter. It's all good but I don't enjoy having a gray box attached to my computer and then having the PSX controllers plugged into that. So I thought to myself, "Why don't I do something about that?" ...and that's exactly what I did. We have the dock> and we have the USB adapter taken out of it's ugly grey box. The first step is to break off the blue connectors which the Playstation controllers plug into. So far so good, but I did manage to burn myself about 3 times through the course of the entire mod. Next thing (after measuring everything twice) is to start soldering the new wires onto the PCB. I used an old serial cable, or was it a printer cable, doesn't matter. For the other side I did one better and decided to go with IDE cable. It's a lot thinner so it takes up much less space, however it's tiny so it's difficult to work with. I then double checked the USB plug it used to have to see which wires go to which pin Only later did I realize I could just search Google for "usb pinouts" Sizing it up and getting ready to solder. A few pictures to show what the ports look like when in place. __________________ MY HEATWARE 27-0-0 Main Rig: M4A79T-Deluxe, AMD 720, 2GB OCZ 1333, Radeon 4870 1GB, 2x Seagate 7200.12 RAID 0. Mods:PSX-Modded Laptop Dock Mini PC

06-16-06, 12:31 AM	#2
violineb Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Living in Baltimore/Studying in Bloomington, IN	I then put it all together and fired her up and.....OMG, it doesn't work. WTF is wrong why why why? I did everything right. Life isn't fair! The trouble was, I never actually tried that adapter in this dock, and I ended up with the error "Power Surge on Hub Port" and the device simply refused to work. Well, a true modder never gives up so on I went. I needed more power. More power comes from more USB ports. Started by cutting a USB cord (poor USB cord) and then wired that puppy up to the device like so. I used a USB because I didn't want to chance soldering it and having it not work again. It did work! However, now, the program I used this device most for (ZSNES) decided to crash every time I started it up. If I plugged into just the USB port on the laptop it worked fine, however if I plugged into two USB ports on the dock, no, it had to crash and burn. Speaking of burning, I certainly was by now. After a lot of fooling around I finally got to work without crashing. (it ended up breaking again but I got it working again) Then I went for the final wiring configuration. It worked! Needless to say, after I screwed everything shut, it decided to give me problems again. However, I just kept plugging it in over and over and restarting until it worked, and it does now. And now, the finished product. Please feel free to comment or ask any questions. Thanks, Emmanuel __________________ MY HEATWARE 27-0-0 Main Rig: M4A79T-Deluxe, AMD 720, 2GB OCZ 1333, Radeon 4870 1GB, 2x Seagate 7200.12 RAID 0. Mods:PSX-Modded Laptop Dock Mini PC

06-16-06, 12:43 AM	#3
RevelatorHarmon Registered Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Somewhere between a temporal singularity and eternity	Incredibly awesomely sweet, great job, looks very clean. Props!! __________________ Well, it took 933 days but I finally got two stars, 932 day lurker, eat that guinness’s book of records! 11/17/03 - 6/14/06 one star Duct tape is like the Force, it has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together. My system: Athlon 64 3000+, 1 GB Corsair low lat RAM, 80 GB SATA HDD, 250 GB Maxtor HDD, ATI Radeon 9600XT "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

06-16-06, 05:55 AM	#4
Albaholic Member Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Oahu, Hawaii	Sweet. It looks pretty good __________________ Heat

06-16-06, 09:15 AM	#5
Slayer2003 Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: New Hampshire	......that is awsome........ __________________ :\|: Q9450 - DFI LanParty P45 - Dominator 4gig 1066 kit - XFX G92 8800GTS - 3Tb of storage :\|: :\|: D-TEK Fuzion v.2 - QP320 - Liang DDC - EK Multi-Res :\|: .:\|:. Heat .:\|:.

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06-16-06, 05:02 PM	#6
Adragontattoo Trailer Chasing Senior Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: in a hotel by a CONUS Army base	looks good.. next time try a powered USB hub bridged into the USB connection instead. __________________ Only ISP provided, .EDU, .GOV, .MIL e-mail addresses are Classifieds approved. Are you unable to access the Classifieds? Click here to find out why! The Forum Rules FAQ\|Classies Rules and Regs Prices, slashes and edits Quality over Quantity Pictures are NOT req. My Heat Brolloks is a Boombox. Adopt an animal if you want one, dont use a breeder!

06-20-06, 03:51 PM	#7
pik4chu Senior Yellow Forum Rat Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Highlands Ranch, Colorado	wow very nice job! Looks almost factory installed __________________ DFI X58-T3EH8 \| I7-920 C0@3.4 (V8)\| 2gb6 Corsair Dominator @1800-7-7-7-18\| eVGA 285 \| 1.5 TB RAID 0 \| Vista Ultimate 64-bit Server:* GA-P35-DS3L \| Q6600 @2.8 \| 41GB Corsair XMS \| 3x1.5TB Raid 5 \| 2x1.5TB Raid 1 \| Server 2k3 Ent Office:* Q6600 @3.2\|\| G.Skill RED 41GB \|\| eVGA 8800GTS (640) FOLD!* \|\| Some Windows Networking? \|\| heatware Finished Projects- X-box/PC \|\| Antivirus Benchmarking v1.0

06-20-06, 08:46 PM	#8
SolidxSnake Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Waltham, MA, USA	very nice! __________________ Too funny. When I logon to Windows, I press Ctrl+Alt+ELITE E8600 Wolfie 3333Mhz @ 4000MHz 400x10~Gigabyte EP45-UD3P~GeForce 9800GTX+ 512MB @ 814/2025/1275 ~4GB Corsair Dominator PC2-8500 @ 533MHz 5-5-5-15~BFG ES-800 PSU Custom Watercooling Loop \| selling a Maze4 GPU \| Apogee GT, MCW60, 1/2" Modded DDC-1VC, Thermochill PA120.2 w/ 2 Yate Loon D12SL-12s pull, 7/16"x5/8" MasterKleer, 100% Distilled Water with Iodine ---All encased in a Silverstone TJ-06 Join in on the fun! Heatware OCForums Metal Club member #13224

06-21-06, 04:21 PM	#9
threeme2189 Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Drowning my sorrow and misery in apple juice	nice job! btw how did you connect the controllers to the computer before you did the mod? __________________ My Rig: HOT Athlon XP 2600 T-Bred :: GA-7M400M Gigabyte Mobo Asus 9600XT OC from 500/300@580/360 stock! :: 512 MB 333Mhz Spektek Ram Crappy 80 Gig HDD :: Sony CD Burner/dvd drive + CD drive If You'll Excuse Me, I Have A Beam Of Light To Catch.