Razorbook/Alpha 400 hack: Adding a WiFi dongle

So you weren’t impressed by news that hackers had figured out how to gain root access to the Alpha 400 laptop? Well here’s a new hack for you. While the company behind this ubiquitous mini-notebook (also known as the Razorbook 400 and the Trendtac Ultra Mobile PC), has decided to offer an optional WiFi USB dongle instead of built-in wireless capabilities, one Dutch user figured out how to make his outie an innie.

Basically, it looks like there’s an unused USB port on the inside of the unit. So if you disassemble the casing on a USB WiFi dongle and attach it to the USB port and find a good spot in the case (say, next to the display), you don’t have to carry around a spare part just to connect to the internet.

You can read his original comments in Dutch, or check out a Flickr Photoset showing the hack in more detail.

thanks Menno!

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Warrenaw

07/27/2008 12:15 AM

Done this WiFi mod to the Alpha 400.Nearly identical,except the ‘unused’ usb pcb tracks arent there. I just wired it in parallel with the rear USB receptacle. Well worth the effort.No more dongle to lose, or break, etc. Performance is about the same with the antenna next to the screen.
Now if someone can produced a version of ‘open’ linux for this, so we can install our preferred software .

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