Source: forum.eeeuser.com

I wanted an internal USB flash drive, but did not want to open up the unit (other than the memory access door) or solder anything to the board. I wanted the mod to be 100% reversable, with no traces left at all, thus preserving the warranty. A tall order perhaps? Not as it turns out.

I was looking at my eee the other day (a new white 4g, without a flash connector in the memory bay), and pondered the 3 usb ports. Too bad, I said to no one but me, that one of those couldn't somehow be accessed from the memory door area; after all, I can't imagine using all 3 of them at once, ever. Looking at the ports on the right side, I noticed the two little metal tabs in the bottom of each port; through the small gap around each tab, I could see light coming through the vent under the wlan card. I wondered further whether four small wires could pass through the gaps around those little tabs, under the wlan card (or over it, if you've turned your eee upside down by now), and into the open flash bay. I tested with a bit of solid wire, and found I could easily guide a wire into the flash bay; there's nothing obstructing the path.

Theory proven, on to implementation. Keeping the theme of making no mod at all to the eeepc, I needed a usb 'plug' that would fit entirely within the socket, and allow the four wires to escape through the two tabs. I observed that the size and spacing of the four contacts in a usb socket is just about exactly the same as on an old ISA bus card, or also the same as the card-edge connector used on old-school 5.25" floppy drives. Rooting around in a box of old junk, I came up with a once common 34-pin socket to male card-edge adapter (used once upon a time to install 3.5" floppy drives in older PC's that had only card-edge floppy connectors). Trusty dremel in hand, I sliced off 4 contact's worth of the card-edge connector.

(after-the-fact photo of the donor adapter)

A bit of filing, and it fit nicely in the usb port and the contacts lined up PERFECTLY. It was a little loose vertically though, but there's still wire and solder to be added to each contact.

Grabbing 4 lengths 30awg wire-wrap wire, I soldered each one along the length of each of the four contacts, and then filed the resulting solder beads down flat to make nice contact with the contacts in the USB port. Another test fit, now it's nice and snug.

On to the hardest part: guiding the wires inside the eee to the flash bay. Using a tiny screwdriver, I carefully bent both tabs down into the usb port, opening up the path. I found all four wires had to be guided through at once. A little trial and error, and a few swear words later, all four wires appeared in the flash bay. Now, I GENTLY bent the two tabs back in place, taking care that each wire had a place on either side of each tab. CAUTION must be excercised here - it wouldn't take much to strip away the thin insulation, and of course those metal tabs are grounded!. Finally I gently slid the edge connector into the usb port, carefully guiding the wires the last few millimeters into the chassis. (oh, all this was done with the ac adapter disconnected and the battery out too)

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