Broken Sony Vaio VGN365E - reusing components

Hello,

I have received a broken Sony Vaio VGN365E laptop (broken LCD and video, no video output).
I would like to build a low power desktop PC reusing its processor (T2450, Yonah 2GHz), memory (2GB SO-DIMM DDR2) and 120GB Hdd SATA.

Which would be the most viable option and the best cost effective one?

Am i stuck with AOpen's motherboard i945GTm-VHL, the only one (?) with both socket 379 for Yonah and SO-DIMM slots?

Should i try to trade the SO-DIMM's for regular DDR2 and look for another motherboard (like AOpen i975XA-YDG)?

What other motherboards i should be looking for?

Should i drop the "project" altogether and try selling the components?

Thank you in advance for your help and information.

 

Selling it in parts is a better approach, and use the money towards some projects with fresh parts.

cheers ...

 

You can build a desktop. You need a Socket M desktop board. AOpen makes a few, I know member ANDY has one and it works great. It uses standard laptop processors and ddr2 sodimm memory. It will have a PCI port or something of that sort so you can use a standard desktop graphics card.
This solution is the best for you. All you need is a motherboard, case, power supply and a case.

You can use your current harddrive, processor, memory, wireless, so you can use the most of your system

K-TRON

 

Thank you very much for your reply(s). I'll see what i can find and how (i'm from Romania). While AOpen is a bit expensive, it's still cheaper than an LCD for Vaio + motherboard+upper cover+inverter. Do you by any chance know if AOpen's trend ("mobile on desktop") is something fairly new? Should i wait a little for the price to drop?
Thanks again.

 

I would just sell the parts. It is not worth spending money to make use of those parts.

 

Ok, let's suppose i could reasonably sell the broken laptop's parts. What other solution (and for how much) would be to build a relatively small, fairly quiet, fairly low consuming desktop, that would run 24/7, for occasional video capture/encoding, no gaming?

I have a few more questions concerning this laptop:
- the LCD was broken, including the inverter board; basically the lid with everything is in it was broken due to some sort of mechanical shock; i don't think the laptop was dropped as there are no other signs/cracks on it.
- when i start it, i can hear in it's speakers the sony melody (or whatever it is), and there is some activity on
the HDD as well; if i insert a live linux DVD, then it seems to be working/installing as well.
- however, i cannot get a VGA signal to an external monitor with FN+F6 (or something).
- there is a 4 dip switch block on the motherboard, does it have to do anything with video output?

I assumed that the video chip (well the video part on the chipset) is broken, would it be so? If so, what would have caused it? The mechanical shock on the LCD and the fact that the inverter was broken also could have sent a wrong voltage back to the chipset and that would have fried only the video section?

While i work as a computer hardware technician since 1985, believe it or not, this is the first time i'm dealing with laptop hardware. Am i doing something wrong, in that there are some hidden keyboard combination to make video out work?

How could i know for sure that video is irreparably busted? Is there anything i could measure with a multimeter?

 

It looks like even the cheap MSI Fussy boards are a bit expensive, around $130-150 to get it working

You could try selling the parts. You can get about $25 for the processor
and about $10 for the ram
You can keep the harddrive for another build.

You should test what you have to find out if the motherboard works. If it works you can just buy an LCD and be all set.
Your laptop should have some means of outputting video display. Plug in the VGA connector or whatever it may be. Power the external screen, and than power your laptop. If the external screen comes on your motherboard and video work. If the screen does not come on try pressing a number of keyboard combinations in order to force the system to use the external screen. For example to change screens on my Dell, I push FN+F8
If the screen still does not come on try rebooting and press F8 as the system turns on.
If nothing happens than you need a new motherboard and LCD, and in that case its probably better to scrap the system and sell parts.

K-TRON