Intro & Notes
Before we begin, know that I've redone this mod twice now. The first time I put the bluetooth in, I made it removable. The second time is where some of the pictures came from, so click on the pictures to see what wires to NVM. The third (and hopefully final) time is when i decided to shorten a couple of the wires and solder them onto the SIM card pads.
All three times were successful, and the bluetooth module that's on the third time is the same exact one from the first. I and other hacker/modders have done lots of trial and error to get this to work. Perform this mod at your own risk. I'm not responsible for any damages that may incur.
Tools and Materials
- 4-stranded ribbon cable or 4 thin wires
- Double-sided tape
- Sticky foam
- Soldering iron with a fine tip
- Solder
- Solder wick
- Tweezers
- Wire strippers
- Phillips screwdriver
- Regular (flat) screwdriver
Crack open the bluetooth module
Using a small, regular (flat) screw driver, carefully pry open the bluetooth module. Set everything but the circuit board aside.
Netbook Surgery
- Take out the battery and anything in the USB or card slots.
- Hold the power button in for 3 - 5 seconds.
- Flip the netbook over, peel off the two rubber feet closest to the battery, and unscrew all screws with the phillips screwdriver, except the two on the door.
- Turn the netbook back over and open the screen.
- Using the regular screwdriver, gently push in the three small plastic tabs above the keyboard to get it to pop out. Be careful not to press too hard!
- Undo both ZIF connectors: one for the keyboard and one for the touch pad.
- Unscrew all of the screws with the phillips screwdriver. Don't miss the tiny silver one on the right!
- Use your finger nail, a guitar pick, or the regular screwdriver to pop the plastic cover off, revealing the motherboard.
- Unscrew the phillips screw holding in the WIFI module, unsnap the wires to the antenna, and pull the module out.
- Remove the black piece of sticky rubber on the empty SIM card pad, near the power button.
Merge with the dongle!
- Solder the ribbon cable to the bluetooth module. => With the four longer pads facing you, the one on the far right is VCC, the far left is GND, the middle right is D+, and middle left is D-.
- Attach the module to the empty SIM card pad with the double-stick tape.
- Cut and stick two skinny pieces of sticky foam to either side of the module.
- Solder VCC to the left middle pad of the six pads below it.
- Solder D+ to pin 38 of the mini PCIe connector where the WIFI card plugs in.
- Solder D- to pin 36 of the mini PCIe connector.
- Solder GND to the left-most pin of where the SIM card slot would be.
- Plug the battery back in, and test to see if bluetooth turns on.
You may need to...
... Put the netbook back together in the reverse order you took it apart.
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