Repair4Laptop: How to Repair and Mod the Serial Port of a Laptop or Notebook

How to Repair and Mod the Serial Port of a Laptop or Notebook

Here are some links to free guide for serial port modding and repairing. If you have written a DIY guide yourself (or if you know of a report not linked here), please submit a new entry.

ASUS Eee PC

Using a RoyalTek RGM-3550LP GPS module (from a broken MyGuide 3000 GPS unit) as a navigation system together with a notebook computer. Since notebooks don't have a serial port anymore you have to use an UART to USB bridge.

ASUS Eee PC 701 4G

Wouldn't it be cool to have a ultra-portable computer with a FM transmitter for travelling? This guide shows how to fit a small AirPlay adapter for Apple iPods into the case, which has a regular audio-jack and an additional plug for power and serial data, it's not connected to the USB hub and runs off 3.3v.

IBM ThinkPad T42

Lost your IBM ThinkPad Supervisor password? No problem, this guide will show you how to recover your old password. Although IBM claims their ThinkPad BIOS passwords are impossible to break, there is an easy and cheap way to fix this. The stuff you need cost about 5 $ at your closest radio shack type of store. Also you need a spare PC with a serial port.

Accessories

ASUS WL-700gE

How to tear down the wireless LAN router and add a serial port.

FON La Fonera

How to open the wireless router and access the serial port (RS-232).

LinkSys WRT54G(v4)

SD/MMC Card Fits in Floppy Edge-Connector: You can attach a SD memory card to any homebrew DIY project that has a few I/O pins, using ordinary connectors you probably have right now. SD cards are very popular for this purpose, because they only need a few pins (using SPI mode), and can be driven with simple "bit-bashed" SPI serial communications protocol, using free device drivers. An unused 5.25" floppy drive card edge connector just hanging off the end of the floppy drive cable, may be used as a cheap connector. This project shows how to put one of these connectors on your WRT54G(v4).

LinkSys WRT54GS

This HOWTO contains instructions on how to add two serial ports (one DB9 Female DCE port and one DB9 Male DTE port) to the wireless router.

LinkSys WRT54G

Here are some pics from a max233 based serial port modification.

Pretec compactGPS CF-Card

How to modify the CompactFlash Card to work with a standard serial port. This modding will allow you to use the device using your PDA serial port, a PC serial port, and a PDA/GPS car kit.

Laptop Parts Expert

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