A Photo of the Texas Instruments TravelMate 4000E Color with the top left being another photo showcasing the branding details, make and model.

An 85% Cyberpunk, 15% Hipster rebuild of a Texas Instruments TravelMate 4000E CoL0R.

The Setup:

When someone asks if you want a 20 year old computer, the answer is always, "of course." In this case, perhaps asking "Does it work?" would have been a better first step.

This piece was a gift from a fellow student at Morehead State. It was supplied with two warnings: "there is no charger," and "the CMOS battery is dead."

The Problems:

  1. "there is no charger..."

    2. Well that was technically true. The computer could not charge because there was no charger. In trying to find what appropriate voltage a replacement hackjob would be, I discovered that the battery compartment had swollen and started to leak dangerous, ugly chemicals. So that had to go.

  2. "the CMOS battery is dead."

    3. Also technically true. The CMOS battery on this sucker ducked out a lengthy while ago, I would wager. No worries. I would simply replace it... or would I? An image will accompany this text soon showing the cmos battery soldered directly onto the motherboard. Not only that, the batteries (which are still being manufactured) run around $15 (literally) infinitely more than I have already invested in the laptop.


Options:

At this point solutions consist of:

  1. Replace the battery, replace the CMOS battery, cobble together or eBay a new charger.

    2. OR

  2. as e0 says, go "full hipster" and rebuild the missing and failing parts from scratch, almost literally reinventing the wheel.

This is one of those decisive moments where I (Eric Lawson) can choose to grow up into an Adult-Engineer and do the right thing, spending just a little cash and restoring an object to whatever former glory it had... or continue to be a scandalous child-at-heart, do-everything-the-hardest-way-possible Hipster-Teen-Engineer and do things the cheapest, most kludgy way possible.


An Outline of Objectives:

  • Replace the battery pack with a lower-weight battery.
  • EITHER replace the CMOS battery with a voltage regulator tied to the main battery OR replace the ENTIRE MOTHERBOARD with something that will fit.

    • I really shouldn't be but I'm actually pretty torn on this. The idea of running this lovely case and a spanking new i5 or i7 makes me happy in a profound way.

Nothing can start until well after I've decided which plan to implement.

So far, I've googled days worth of Mini-ITX boards and replacement Battery Packs.

Current Build Phase: indecision.