Modding the Asus 701 (Eee)
After spending several evenings exploring the motherboard of my Asus 701 (Eee) for USB signals and 5V (off in standby) here’s what I’ve discovered.
There’s a 5V trace (off in standby) that’s available without draining current from the existing USB connectors - take a look at the picture above, snapped with my Sony Ericsson K850i (then scaled to 640×480 and annotated).
There are 8 USB ports provided by the Intel chipset:
- 3 are the existing USB connectors
- 1 is used by the SDHC/MMC card reader
- 1 is used by the webcam
- 2 are used by the mini PCIe card slots (1 for each)
- 1 is still unknown (debug connector, perhaps?)
I damaged a USB Bluetooth module while looking for USB signals on the debug connector - doh! Consider this a warning :)
The MDC card slot does not have USB signals available, but both mini PCIe card slots do…
The Atheros mini PCIe wireless card does not appear to use USB signals (only PCIe signals):
These USB signals are available even when the Atheros mini PCIe wireless card is installed and working, along with another 5V trace (off in standby):
Inserting a Novatel mini PCIe EVDO card into the empty mini PCIe card slot disabled the built-in SSD - as a result, my Eee was unable to boot! I think this mini PCIe card slot is designed for an optional SSD that replaces the built-in SSD…
The Novatel mini PCIe EVDO card does not appear to use PCIe signals (only USB signals), so I think there’s a detection pin on the empty mini PCIe card slot such that the built-in SSD is disabled when a mini PCIe card is inserted.
But, without a mini PCIe card inserted, the USB signals are available, along with a 3.3V trace (off in standby):
That’s it… Enjoy hacking your Eee :) Of course, I’m not responsible if you damage anything!
For more information, visit the Eee user forums. Thanks to user “tristand” for validating some of this information.
Update: I’ve since added Bluetooth to my Eee.
November 20, 2007 at 11:54 pm
[...] propose sur cette page de suivre ses pérégrinations en matières de modifications du EEE. Pour ce faire, elle a passé [...]
November 21, 2007 at 2:37 am
Have you dissected the battery case? I’m very curious to see how the insides look, and if there are any hacks that could be made there…
November 21, 2007 at 5:13 am
How do you look for usb signals? I’ve been trying to hook up a notebook’s fingerprint sensor hat I think uses USB signals but can’t figure out. I would realy apreciate your help
November 21, 2007 at 6:25 am
What every hacker needs to know about the Eee PC
If you’re planning to mod or hack an Asus Eee PC, you’ll want to bookmark this page now. It’s tnkgrl’s all-inclusive modding information on the unit, which frankly looks a little bare. Not the information mind you, the small notebook is what I mean…
November 21, 2007 at 1:26 pm
The main bus of this platform seems to be usb. The surf versions without the webcam would allow another devices to be installed (since the webcam takes one of the usb ports). No bluetooth is a bummer, seems like it would atleast be useful for a mouse AND not need a dongle.
November 21, 2007 at 1:27 pm
@exouy prolly uses gpio?
November 21, 2007 at 2:29 pm
So what is this information good for again? Sorry for my naive-ness.
November 21, 2007 at 5:22 pm
nice info
November 22, 2007 at 5:27 am
Jeremiah: this is the begining
November 22, 2007 at 5:48 am
@ipstacks: how can I figure out if it’s gpio or usb?
someone knows how looks like the gpio and the usb signals in a oscope?
November 23, 2007 at 8:50 am
So will an EVDO card work? Or maybe a USB EVDO modem?
November 23, 2007 at 10:27 am
[...] Tracing the Eee Inserting a Novatel mini PCIe EVDO card into the empty mini PCIe card slot disabled the built-in SSD - as a result, my Eee was unable to boot! I think this mini PCIe card slot is designed for an optional SSD that replaces the built-in SSD… [...]
November 23, 2007 at 3:27 pm
did you try to remove the wifi card and put your evdo modem in that slot to see if that works?
November 24, 2007 at 5:49 pm
EeePC終極改造
這將是對EeePC做的最後一次改造,目的是把主版上mini PCI-e的USB訊號線接出來成為新的設備照例,因為我焊接功夫很差所以就不公開內部了…焊接位置可以參考下面幾篇,照片相當清楚:Internal USB gadg…
November 26, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Excellent work.
Did you happen to come across a +5 that turns on & off with the WIFI? I want to have my USB BT turn off when I turn off the WIFI when I’m on a plane.
Al.
November 27, 2007 at 2:18 am
How can I make such small connections at the Mini-PCI?
November 29, 2007 at 10:35 am
Hello … Thank you for the information that I will be very useful when I have my ASUS EEA PC 701 4GB, but all run the risk of damaging or ruining our E3 for irreparably. Excuse my ignorance, but on these modifications, my idea in the beginning was to replace the board of Atheros WiFi Mini PCI-E by Intel PRO WIRELESS 4965AGN, uses USB Is that the other does not use the Mini PCI-E?. If anyone of you I could presizar this information is what I infinitely thank. What I saw in the pictures to be more specific, noting that without the mass of the diagram. This surely is an ignorant question on my part, entiendamen. As English is not using the Google translator to translate this message, whether it is safe if found some grammatical mistake or expressions unusual. I promise to know a little more English next time. Jeje. Thanks. Greetings
November 30, 2007 at 6:56 pm
Assuming I can desolder the cpu… Will this mobo take a faster cpu?????
December 1, 2007 at 1:28 am
http://eeetutorials.blogspot.com has some walkthroughs for installing different OSs on the EEE
December 2, 2007 at 6:55 pm
[...] this baby. I have to thank my fellow blogger Kevin Tofel (JKOnTheRun) for pointing me to tnkgrl and her blog posts about hardware hacking. Her information is fantastic and any Eee enthusiast should subscribe. I don’t know if I have [...]
December 3, 2007 at 8:16 am
[...] on the heels of her Asus EEE PC Bluetooth hack from last week, tnkgrl has posted up a run-down of mainboard of her EEE… a great guide for any hardware hackers eyeing the little Asus for [...]
December 11, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Thanks tnkgrl for the writeups - thanks to you, I now have 2 additional usb ports in my (missing) cardslot (7B unit with the connector missing).
I took 2 surface mount usb connectors and soldered them into a small proto-board, then I hot glued the board onto the motherboard to secure it. It ‘almost’ fits - the access door touches it and bulges ever so slightly. It’s not enough for me to worry about though.
Thanks again
December 11, 2007 at 2:05 pm
in the pic, she shows “usb+” and “usb-”. are these power connectors or data connectors? also, where would you ground the sockets?
December 17, 2007 at 8:52 am
mini PCI-e拉出的USB, part2
我看是改造上癮了…[ICON35]之前成功的把mini PCI-e的USB訊號拉出來,並且加裝了一個16G隨身碟之後無事用了一陣子,不過看到一些論壇裡的改造報告又忍不住手癢,所以這次就找了第二個mini PCI-e槽(…
December 30, 2007 at 1:58 pm
[...] installato anche un modem GPRS/UMTS/HSDPA all’interno. Praticamente tutti i mod sfruttano la scoperta di tnkgrl dell’esistenza di pin USB utilizzabili dentro il case, quindi richiedono di saldare alcuni [...]
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February 2, 2008 at 6:29 am
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April 7, 2008 at 12:06 am
Great for my Eee - I will try it.
June 7, 2008 at 9:05 am
>Novatel mini PCIe EVDO card
Did you try to replace Wi-Fi by evdo? Does it works?
June 7, 2008 at 11:02 am
@art yes it works, especially if you install proper antennae.
June 20, 2008 at 2:27 am
[...] while back I read about a geek hacking her asus eee pc so she could install a couple of USB items inside the shell of the machine. It just hit me how nice it would be if there was a standard internal USB form factor for laptops. [...]