HP 6000 Pro All-In-One - rebuild and upgrade

[WkdPaul]

So, had an old HP Compaq 6000 Pro All-In-One PC that died, tried to fix it but I quickly realized it wasn't worth my time since it's an old Core 2 Duo platform.

 

I could've gotten a used motherboard, but then I'm still stuck with an old platform.

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I was going to put it in the "bring it to the recycler" pile, but remembered you can get LCD drivers for laptops, so it's probably possible to get a driver for that LCD, no?

 

And it is! After some research, I ended up with a m.nt68676.2a kit that included a backlight driver. Got it within 3 weeks and it works !!!

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I have a Lenovo ThinClient with an i3 4130 that was laying around gathering dust, and decided to replace the guts with that!

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I started by fixing some of the case mounts, the plastic has become brittle and all the mounts for the screw inserts were either completely broken, or cracked. Nothing some 2 part JB Weld can't fix!!!

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While this all cured, I took the metal backplate off the LCD, drilled out the old motherboard mounts, drilled new holes for the new mounts, and started planning the layout.

 

 

 

Bottom left is the ThinClient power supply, no need to take it out of it's plastic shell, top is the LCD driver, under it is it's power supply (12v 4amps), right is the PC.

 

Next I need to connect the LCD and PC power button to the front case power button and test to see if it works.

 

After that I will make a bracket to hold the USB extension to the side of the case, then I need to install an AC female plug on the back of the case, then I need to put jumpers on the LCD drivers' buttons to the case buttons, so I can control the LCD settings, and finally I need to wire it all up and test if it works when all together (tested all apart fine).

 

I'll update with the next steps this weekend! 

[WkdPaul]

Power plug and on/off switch installed.

 

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I ended up having to manually wire the Lenovo power supply since the plug was too stiff and was getting in the way of things.

 

Finished most things, I'm going to do a test start up soon, when I have enough things plugged in and somewhat cable managed.

 

 

If it works, I'll install Windows and see how it goes.

 

I still have to wire the integrated speakers, place the WiFi and BT antenna, make a bracket for the audio and USB ports (on the side), and most importantly, wire the front power button to the motherboard and screen power button.

[WkdPaul]

It's working great, Windows is installed, today I'm going out to get a relay for the power buttons ; I need to wire the front power button to the motherboard, and the LCD driver, but they run on different voltage, so wiring them together might damage something.

 

I'm going to wire up a DPDT relay, so that when you press the front power button, it'll activate both the LCD and PC power buttons while keeping their circuit separate.

 

 

 

While the board for the power button will be out, I'll trace the SMD LED to separate it's trace from the power button and I'll wire it to the LCD power LED so that the power button lights up when it will be powered on.

 

It's a red/green LED for both the LCD and the original HP 6000, so it'll be easy enough to wire up.

[WkdPaul]

Power buttons and side panel LCD controls are wired up and working.

 

Relay setup ;

 

Top left goes to the front power button, top right goes to 12v power supply, the other side of the front power button goes to the ground on the 12v power supply, so when you press the power button, it activates the relay and effectively press the PC and LCD power at the same time.

 

Jumpers on the PC power ;

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The side panel buttons wired up ;

 

Top left button brings up the menu, left middle is "up" on the menu, bottom left is "down" on the menu.

 

The menu timeout is set to 5 seconds, so I didn't have to add an "exit" button (when you're inside a menu, pressing the menu button also gets you out of the menu, so in the end I don't need the exit button thankfully !!).

 

If you look on the green PCB, the far right 2 wires are the power button, they're jumped by the relay above.

 

 

 

I've changed the power button settings in Windows, I selected "do nothing" when the power and sleep buttons are pressed, making it possible to close the screen without closing the PC or waiting for 15 minutes of inactivity to close the display output.

 

 

 

Overview without the back panel (WiFi is crap, I need to get a new cable to place the antenna elsewhere for better reception) ;

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I have a connector so I can separate the back panel properly (120v in), I'll have to install that next ;

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Got myself a 3.5mm panel mount connector (though that's the wrong one since it doesn't have a switch, so I'll have to get another one) ;

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Also got a USB 3 female connector ;

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And finally a small 3w 5v amp for the integrated speakers (I wired them to the 3.5mm jack on the PC and you can barely hear anything at max volume) ;

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[WkdPaul]

I didn't use the USB 3 connector with PCB, I wanted to make a USB 3 case port and "vampirize" it to power the audio amp (see above pics), in the end I used a broken USB2 phone cable to power the amp, and installed a UBS3 extension for the case port instead.

 

Got a screen stand ($16) and installed it yesterday evening ;

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SOURCE ; https://www.primecables.ca/p-353227-cab-psw738-full-motion-tv-wall-mount-17-to-42-inch-primecables

 

 

he PC installed on the wall ;

 

 

 

 

Only thing left is cleanup and cable manage the inside so I can install the DVD drive back, I'm still not sure if I will do this or just remove the cover and install the DVD cover to the shell and leave it without an optical drive.

[sub68]

Nice mod job