Dell Inspiron Mini 1018 Repair, Upgrade, and Modding

[moriel5]

Hello, I was hoping that perhaps someone has a broken (or not) Dell Inspiron Mini 1018 that they could spare.

The current situation with mine is, probably mostly working (I forget about the touchpad and it's buttons), a broken keyboard connector (just the holding mechanism/latch, the connector itself is fine), and a keyboard that may be defective (as in possible damage to the ribbon cable).

 

I wish to repair my old mini netbook, upgrade it, and as I learn, mod it.

 

Planned Upgrades in the Short Term:

RAM: 2GB 1333MHz Kingston SODIMM (from when I had upgraded it's RAM)

Wireless Card: Centrino Advanced-N 6250 (which, considering I use Linux, is perfectly fine)

Hard Drive: I'll see what I have when I get to it, I do not yet have the money for an SSD

 

Planned Mods in the Short Term:

Unlocking extra BIOS features, with help also from the BIOS-MODS community

 

 

Hopeful Upgrades in the Long Term:

RAM: 4GB 1333/1600/1866Mz.**

GPU: A Broadcom Video Accelerator (I'd rather have onboard WiFi+BT).* **

Monitor: Matte 1366x768 Touchscreen .*

 

Hopeful Mods in the Long Term (Warning, this Could Take a Few Years):

CPU: Atom N570, or at least the N475.

Cooling: Copper or silver heatsinks integrated into the chassis (similar to stock), and perhaps a fan (if possible).*

Motherboard: Additional USB port (for touch screen).* **

Additional mPCIe connector (for GPU).* **

Wireless Card: Intel Wireless-AC 7260, or an equivalent (or better) Atheros card.**

Webcam: 5MP camera, with OIS.* **

Firmware***: CoreBoot, with touch support.**

Chassis: Something akin to a 3rd party chassis for the Inspiron Mini 1080 that I had seen a few years ago).

 

Speculative Mods in the Future:

Motherboard: Hardware wireless switch (if possible).* **

Power: USB-C port, without USB support (unless possible to have USB2.0 over USB-C, while power delivery conforms to stock charger).

Touchpad: A slightly larger touchpad, without hardware left and right buttons.* **

Keyboard: Backlit "memchanical" keyboard.* **

 

*May/Will require hardware mod to comply with my wants.

**May/Will require Firmware*** mods to comply with my wants.

***BIOS/UEFI/Firmware terms are interchangeable.