What's in my laptop...

[GT]

I have an old Multivision N251C1 laptop. I think the graphics card has gone
as the laptop screen is just colourful noise. An external monitor displays
the same. I am going to break it and ebay the parts. I know the screen is a
good one, I just can't exactly remember the resolution. Can anyone help me??
It was something like 1400x1080, but I want to be sure before listing it.

The company (multivision) went into liquidation many years ago and the only
thing I can find on google is replacement batteries.

Ideally I would like to have used the screen as a second desktop monitor,
but research suggests that this is more trouble than its worth! Any thoughts
on adapters etc for this?

Incidentally, anyone want to buy a broken laptop? 15.4" 1450x1080 screen (I
think ). Athlon 2500. 512MB DDR Ram. 80GB hd. All working except GPU.... Ah,
OK, thought not!

 

[Paul]

I have an old Multivision N251C1 laptop. I think the graphics card has gone
as the laptop screen is just colourful noise. An external monitor displays
the same. I am going to break it and ebay the parts. I know the screen is a
good one, I just can't exactly remember the resolution. Can anyone help me??
It was something like 1400x1080, but I want to be sure before listing it.

The company (multivision) went into liquidation many years ago and the only
thing I can find on google is replacement batteries.

Ideally I would like to have used the screen as a second desktop monitor,
but research suggests that this is more trouble than its worth! Any thoughts
on adapters etc for this?

Incidentally, anyone want to buy a broken laptop? 15.4" 1450x1080 screen (I
think ). Athlon 2500. 512MB DDR Ram. 80GB hd. All working except GPU.... Ah,
OK, thought not!

Does the graphics corruption show in the BIOS ? If so, then
it is more likely to be hardware at fault.

Apparently, the GPU chip is a Radeon Mobility. It is the one with the
white cross on the top. The cross separates four RAM chips, which are
fastened to the top of the chip. So it is effectively five chips in one.

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo289/ty_pcsolve/100_0747.jpg

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Multivision-N...s_RL?hash=item518b00e0c2&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Web.archive.org cannot help, because their former website was covered
by a robots exclusion file, so the site did not get archived. That
reduces the odds of finding specs. This was apparently their old
web site address from 2004.

http://www.multivision.co.uk/gen_contactus.php

Paul

 

[GT]

First off, can you read the bios message?

No, the graphics have definitely blown. Noise immediately from power on. Can
hear the hard disk working etc, so everything else is probably OK. Can ebay
the RAM etc.

Anyone know what core voltage should be for the Athlon 2500 mobile CPU? I
have put the processor in my 'living room' socket A shuttle box, but its
clocked it (automatically) at 1.65. Sure this is too high. Probably have to
pin mod it down - I seem to remember 1.4 or 1.5 volts??

 

[GT]

Does the graphics corruption show in the BIOS ? If so, then
it is more likely to be hardware at fault.

Nothing even from power on - graphics is shot!

Apparently, the GPU chip is a Radeon Mobility. It is the one with the
white cross on the top. The cross separates four RAM chips, which are
fastened to the top of the chip. So it is effectively five chips in one.

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo289/ty_pcsolve/100_0747.jpg

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Multivision-N...s_RL?hash=item518b00e0c2&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Nice find! This is exactly my motherboard (can't figure out how to open the
final stage of the case tho!). Looks like the GPU is soldered onto the
board, so there will be no replacing the chip for me!

I'm just going to ebay the battery, CD, RAM, etc.

Web.archive.org cannot help, because their former website was covered
by a robots exclusion file, so the site did not get archived. That
reduces the odds of finding specs. This was apparently their old
web site address from 2004.

Yeah, tried archive too, but no good! Most of the site was done through
images etc so won't be archived anyway!

http://www.multivision.co.uk/gen_contactus.php

Paul

Cheers,
GT

 

[GT]

[snip]

Ideally I would like to have used the screen as a second desktop monitor,
but research suggests that this is more trouble than its worth! Any
thoughts on adapters etc for this?

I take it the lack of comment on this point reflects my googlings - ie.
forget it?!?

 

[Paul]

No, the graphics have definitely blown. Noise immediately from power on. Can
hear the hard disk working etc, so everything else is probably OK. Can ebay
the RAM etc.

Anyone know what core voltage should be for the Athlon 2500 mobile CPU? I
have put the processor in my 'living room' socket A shuttle box, but its
clocked it (automatically) at 1.65. Sure this is too high. Probably have to
pin mod it down - I seem to remember 1.4 or 1.5 volts??

I have an AthlonXP-M 2600 and I ran it at 1.65V while using it
at 3200+ settings (2200MHz or 200x11). It seemed to be happy there,
running on settings used by desktop processors. My processor
didn't like higher voltages. And I didn't really spend any time
"playing the limbo" with it, and seeing how low it would go.
I just wanted it to remain stable.

The coding a mobile uses, and a desktop uses, is apparently different.
Scroll down to the L11 "Code to CORE Voltage Definition" section here.
My processor was a "Q", with mobile coding of 1.45V, and when plugged
into my Nforce2 desktop board, asks for 1.575V. I set it manually
to 1.65V. So I was running it at a different clock rate, and a different
voltage, than whatever its defaults were. The main reason I got the
mobile, is so I could dial it all over the place (and do things
like benchmark how low a frequency could be used on a game, before
it would stutter). When I overclocked it (ran it higher than 3200+),
it really didn't seem to be improving things much, so there was
no point leaving it there. It wasn't completely stable at 2400MHz,
and I was running out of room to use more voltage (it won't post
at about 1.75V). And I didn't want to ruin it for nothing.

http://fab51.com/cpu/barton/athlon-e23.html

So read the code off the top of the processor, and you should be
able to figure out what voltage it is officially. All I can remember,
is that mine was a "Q".

Paul

 

[Paul]

[snip]

Ideally I would like to have used the screen as a second desktop monitor,
but research suggests that this is more trouble than its worth! Any
thoughts on adapters etc for this?

I take it the lack of comment on this point reflects my googlings - ie.
forget it?!?

A laptop panel is just a panel.

An LCD monitor equals "I/O board" plus panel.

You need to do some of the functions of the I/O board.
And that isn't trivial.

http://www.molex.com/chinese/AppIn/images/dataPeri/LCDMonitor.jpg

There is a sample panel datasheet here, if you want to have a
look.

http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datasheet/nec/NL10276BC28-05D.pdf

The LVDS panel interface is simple bit transmission, but the
bits are packed a bit funny. 21 bits of data appear to be
sent per pixel on screen, with the DE being a "data enable"
bit. It tells the panel when the visible display data is present.
That sample panel is a 6 bit type. DVI is 8 bit data per pixel
and 2 overhead bits (stripped off), for a total of 10 bits for
each color signal. I assume dithering is used, to go from an
8 bit code to 6 bit code, but I don't know the details. 7 bits
at a pixel rate of 65MHz equals a bit clock for this pattern
of 455MHz. (And the reason that frequency is so low, is because
the sample datasheet is a 1024x768 panel. DVI runs at 1650MHz max,
for comparison.)

"R" R0 R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 G0
"G" G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 B0 B1
"B" B2 B3 B4 B5 Hsync Vsync DE

So, forget it.

As for commercial solutions, yes, they exist. But the price charged
is totally out of line with the cost of the chips inside. Now, this
one is for driving an SGI 1600SW, but you'd be crazy to spend this
much, to be able to continue using it. The 1600SW was a monitor
with a pre-DVI interface on it, of LVDS flavor. So this is
functionally a little closer to what you want to do, but
still isn't going to be right. (The 1600SW may not do things
the way current panels do. I'm only mentioning this, as
an example of how much you can gouge people for.)

http://www.hdtvsupply.com/dvi-3180a.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SGI_1600SW

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLDI

The thing is, an I/O board is dirt cheap, when you consider
what we pay for LCD monitors at the low end. So the chips
on there aren't that expensive. But the thing is, the chips
have to be programmed to the characteristics of the panel
being used, so some EEPROM on the I/O board has the
"personality" to make the panel work. Arbitrarily
ripping an I/O board out of some monitor, doesn't
instantly solve your problem. There are bound to be
other details. And with any luck, all the datasheets
for the chips in the monitor, will be written in
Chinese

HTH,
Paul

 

[GT]

I have an AthlonXP-M 2600 and I ran it at 1.65V while using it
at 3200+ settings (2200MHz or 200x11). It seemed to be happy there,
running on settings used by desktop processors. My processor
didn't like higher voltages. And I didn't really spend any time
"playing the limbo" with it, and seeing how low it would go.
I just wanted it to remain stable.

The coding a mobile uses, and a desktop uses, is apparently different.
Scroll down to the L11 "Code to CORE Voltage Definition" section here.
My processor was a "Q", with mobile coding of 1.45V, and when plugged
into my Nforce2 desktop board, asks for 1.575V. I set it manually
to 1.65V. So I was running it at a different clock rate, and a different
voltage, than whatever its defaults were. The main reason I got the
mobile, is so I could dial it all over the place (and do things
like benchmark how low a frequency could be used on a game, before
it would stutter). When I overclocked it (ran it higher than 3200+),
it really didn't seem to be improving things much, so there was
no point leaving it there. It wasn't completely stable at 2400MHz,
and I was running out of room to use more voltage (it won't post
at about 1.75V). And I didn't want to ruin it for nothing.

http://fab51.com/cpu/barton/athlon-e23.html

So read the code off the top of the processor, and you should be
able to figure out what voltage it is officially. All I can remember,
is that mine was a "Q".

Paul

Brilliant, thanks. I'm not looking to overclock, but run as quietly as
possible. Its just a basic PC connected to the TV for the kids to run
CBeebies and silly little games on. No power required, but silence would be
perfect!

 

[GT]

You may have a lot of latitude with that CPU, depending on
what voltage, bus and multiplier settings your board
supports.

Generally keeping in mind that it may boost performance
keeping a 1:1 FSB to memory bus ratio, it would be better
performance to set FSB and memory to the max your memory and
chipset revision supports, then set the multiplier depending
on what speed you want (you could even desire underclocking
it to reduce power/heat... and use lower speed fan for less
noise, the most possible), and give it enough voltage to
POST, and run Prime95's Torture Test stabily.

That voltage can vary quite a bit on mobile chips. I expect
you can run stock speed at around 1.5V, but don't recall if
that might be under the stock voltage. Odds are good that
you can run the stock speed stabily at lower than the stock
voltage, but the heatsink you want to use factors in at some
point, this was an era when plain cheap all aluminum
extruded types started to not do so well anymore at full
load unless they had pretty large or high RPM fans.

Thanks again. The setup is all in a Shuttle SK41 case. There is a spring
mounted 3 heatpipe setup with a variable fan exhausing to the rear. The
exhaust fan is noisy at anything other than its 'ultra quite' setting
(slowest of 4 settings). I could replace the fan, but frankly, I don't know
what db its putting out now, so don't know what difference a replacement
would make. I had a desktop Athlon 2400 in there and the fan kept on
changing speeds. As my old laptop has died I have put the mobile CPU into
the shuttle hoping that it would silence things, but it seems to be running
at 1.65v still. Clearly that would give headroom for quite a decent
overclock, but I'm not after that - Silence is the target. Performance is
not too important.

I don't think the bios has any voltage settings, but I think there are
frequency settings. Its downstairs and I'm lazy - doing my research before I
dedicate any time to this! I'll hunt around for the latest bios and see what
there is on offer. If I can't find a software solution, then I'll pinmod the
voltage as low as I can at standard speeds.

Must remember to put CPU Idle on there too! I know that makes a huge
difference when the CPU isn't loaded.