MP968 or ARa

MP968 or ARa

The MP968 and the nearly identical ARa laptops were Intel Socket 5 Pentium models produced by Chicony. These two laptops were sold under many brands. With updates the MP968 or ARa still can be a useful backup laptop or a student's inexpensive first laptop and will give good service because they are quite sturdy and well made.

These two models shared most features including the case, drive modules, battery and just about every component other than the motherboards. The major difference between the two models is the amount of video memory - with the MP968 having twice the video memory, 2 MB vs. 1 MB.

The MP968 always has a 12.1" TFT LCD. While an ARa will have one of about a half dozen different dual scan or TFT LCD's and with sizes ranging from 11.3" to 12.1". Since each LCD used in the ARa and each has it's own plastic lid assembly you can't just e-mail me and ask for a new LCD or plastic lid for your ARa - my ESP meter is broken. You must tell me the brand and model # of the LCD that's in your ARa or I can't help you. This means opening up the lid assembly and checking on just what replacement LCD or plastic lid is needed.

Switching complete ARa lid assembly from one ARa to a different LCD type may require installation of a new BIOS also. Each ARa LCD type has it's own BIOS version so part swapping can be a challenge.

To swap a LCD you also need to adjust three jumper blocks on the ARa motherboard. They have to be configured correctly for each LCD type. These jumpers are located under the keyboard - see how to lift the keyboard in the memory area of this page. Match the settings on the donor machine when swapping lids.

Since each LCD type used in an ARa required a different BIOS, updating an ARa BIOS requires figuring out what the correct BIOS needed for the LCD mounted to the laptop and then updating to the last version of that BIOS. The POST boot screen can provide this information.

Updating the BIOS in a MP968 is much simpler - just use the last MP968 BIOS that is available. You can not switch an ARa BIOS for a MP968 BIOS. You can not switch a MP968 BIOS for the ARa BIOS.

Updating the MP968 or ARa BIOS to the last version is one of the few times that I believe that an updating is worth the risk of flash failure. The latest BIOS for these laptops allows the installation of 32 MB RAM modules for a max. memory size of 72 MB. Most early MP968/ARa BIOS versions limit memory to only 40 MB. So there is something to gain.

Onboard base memory is only 8 MB and so upgrading to more memory is essential if you want to install Windows 95/98.

The MP968 & ARa both use 72 pin Fast-Page SO-DIMM memory that look just like the MP975's EDO modules. Since the two 72 pin types of modules appear the same but don't replace each other, confusion can occur. If you install the wrong type of memory the machine will not boot until the offending memory is removed.

To install expansion memory into a MP968 or ARa you need to pry up the keyboard. The two expansion sockets are easy to fill once the keyboard is up and out of the way. At first there doesn't appear to be any way to lift the keyboard. What is needed is a small screwdriver blade inserted between the front side of the keyboard and the plastic laptop case at two well masked points that have slight indents cut into the frame of the keyboard. Insert the blade and apply a prying motion and the keyboard flexes a small amount. Then gently lift the keyboard while still applying pressure to the keyboard. The memory sockets are visible after lifting the keyboard up out of the way.

So will be the rechargeable CMOS backup battery. The CMOS battery is mounted to a small plug-in circuit board near center front. Do not throw away this board if you plan to replace the CMOS battery - it must be reused. The battery should measure 3.0 volts when full charged. Charging of the CMOS battery only occurs when the laptop is turned on - so be sure to leave the laptop on overnight to charge the battery.

If the battery is defective then you must unsolder the old battery and mount a new battery to the small board. Note: My replacement CMOS batteries are not exactly the same as the factory batteries and so polarity of the battery terminals must be determined before you solder the new battery in place.

The MP968/ARa motherboards went through a number of revisions. The last version, revision 8, was labeled for CPU's as fast as the Intel 166 MHz CPU. I have successfully installed 200 MHz CPU's in the of MP968/ARa's that I've seen. The POST screen will not report 200 MHz, but running the SiSoft Sandra CPU benchmark testing program shows that the CPU is indeed operating at 200 MHz. Some older BIOS versions may not report the 166 speed correctly also. If the jumpers on the motherboard are set per my CPU speed tables, then the CPU is operating at the speeds selected. It doesn't matter what speed the BIOS is reporting because in some BIOS revisions the BIOS is not able to report some speeds correctly and no BIOS revision reports 200 MHz correctly.

These laptops do not support CPU's that operate at other than 2.9v, 3.1volts or 3.3 volts. So using AMD K6 line of CPU's is out and since the BIOS does not support the Intel MMX instruction set, using a MMX CPU is not worth the extra cost to purchase one.

Note: Other than some 150 MHz CPU's most of the Intel CPU's that work in these machines are desktop CPU's and are not low power devices. So do make sure that the Vcc is correct for the CPU being used and also be sure that the CPU fan is correctly bonded to the CPU with new heat conducting double-sided tape.

A 166 MHz or 200 MHz non-mmx CPU is still very useful today and my own test bed machine runs Windows ME with ease. I test all of my MP968/ARa CD-ROM drives, floppy drives and memory modules on this machine. It is a surprisingly quick laptop.

Note: I've only installed up to a 2.1 MB hard drive in my own MP968.

The CPU fan in these laptops is held in place with a double-sided heat conducting tape and this fan is a hard one to find if a replacement is needed. I've located a replacement CPU fan that will function in these machines with only minor modifications. My replacement fan doesn't have plastic duct as found on some of the original fans, but the old fan's duct can be reused. My replacement fan doesn't have the correct connector and again the original five-pin connector can be reused.

Because these laptops have just one drive bay (2 spindle design), and installation of an operating system may require the use of both a CD drive and the floppy drive, Chicony had an optional external floppy adapter unit to support use of the CD and floppy drives at the same time. The external unit comes with an attached cable plugs into the parallel port. This box converts the internal floppy module into an external drive. I don't often have these adapter units in stock and they do appear to be quite rare. Any other Chicony models that used internal/external floppy drive modules have modules that do not work with the MP968/ARa.

The hard drive carrier module, floppy drive module, external floppy drive system module and the CD-ROM module are not interchangeable with the later Chicony machines.

The MP968 or ARa use the same 5 terminal battery also used in the MP975. This battery is often seen listed the battery for the Zenith GMT+ laptop, but do note that some Zenith batteries have very low mAHr ratings. The Energy plus batteries that I sell are new stock and have a one year warranty.

Overall, one can see the family resemblance between the MP968/ARa and the later MP978 and MP979 laptops. More so than with the MP975 or MP983 that were the next generation after the MP968/ARa. I wonder if there weren't two Chicony design teams that worked on alternating projects?