MP979

MP979

The MP979 was an Intel MMC1 CPU (PII or Celeron with 66 MHZ FSB) motherboard laptop and was one of four Chicony laptops that, in general, all shared the same outer plastic case design and all four can sharep the various drive modules produced for these laptops - including the CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, LS120, ZIP, FLoppy and secondary hard drive modules.

The other machines in this series of laptops were the MP978 (Socket 7) , MP989 (MMC2 - P2/Celeron) and also the few MP999's (MMC2 - P3) that was only available in Europe. Also, the Micron Transport NX was a customized version of the MP989 and was available only with a 15.0" LCD and a satin black case color.

The MP979 (MMC1) differs from the MP978 (Socket 7 CPU) laptop only in the CPU type plus it has an added third memory socket. Other than the CPU module differences, the MP979 and the MP978 are nearly the same laptops and share all the same device drivers for setup of Windows. Some MP979's had a conversion socket that converted the MMC1 socket into a Socket 7 socket laptop - or turning the MP979 into a MP978, for all intents and purposes. There was a special Socket Seven BIOS for the Socket Seven conversion MP979's. but I've never seen a MP979 so equipped and so I have no knowledge of problems with this version of the MP979 laptop.

The MP979 had a 4000 mAHr NiMH or a 4050 mAHr Li Ion black label face battery as provided by the factory. The original factory MP989 (yellow label face) battery does not work in the MP979. However, a later production battery (also yellow faced) that has BP989 as part of it's label name does function correctly in a MP979. A second battery can be installed in place of the floppy drive, but it requires a secondary battery plastic cover plate (rare beast!) if you want a clean installation look.

The MP979 came with LCD's in size and type from a 12.1" TFT, to a 13.0" DS, to 13.3" TFT and up to the 14.1" TFT LCD and most of these laptops are found with the 13.3" TFTor 14" TFT LCD's and so most are TFT (active matrix) machines. The few Dual Scan LCD laptops do have a decent dual scan LCD and so it isn't a major problem if you do have the DS laptop.

Replacement LCD plastic LCD covers (lids) are impossible to find and may well be the final cause for end-of-life of many MP979s. Plastic repairs using epoxy and fiberglass mesh is about the only method of repairing broken mounting studs on existing damage LCD lids.

The MP979 does suffer from the same video connection problems as its siblings. (MP978 & MP989) This problem is caused by poor case/ video transfer board mounting design. The video problem shows up as disrupted video display output (flickering) when the LCD lid is moved. There is a quick and simple method to reduce this problem and store proper video operation before a major problem develops. See Video flicker repair page (Left).

The video board moves with the poorly designed upper case when the LCD lid is moved. the motherboard is firmly mounted to the lower case and so it doesn't move. The three tiny connectors on the video board that transfer signals to/from the motherboard are overloaded with side forces and "pop" out of their mates on the motherboard. Pressing down on the video board (power removed) will reseat the connectors. Sometimes the forces are so high the solder pads for the connectors crack from strain and need to be resoldered. This is easy if the cracked traces are on the video board and not the motherboard.

Drive modules for the MP979 will exchange with MP978 and MP989 drive modules. Several makers of CD drives were used and faceplates do not exchange between brands. From my experiences the 20x and the 24x CD-ROM drives will not read CD-RW disks. To read a CD-RW, I believe, you would need to replace the CD-ROM module with a DVD module - but I've not tested this theory.

DVD drive modules was available in 2x and 4x DVD/CD speed ratings. Again, there are differences in faceplates between the 2x and 4x versions and maybe in brands. (I've seen very few DVD modules) The DVD module works best if a Margi DVD-To-Go decoder card is installed in the ZV PCMCIA card slot. (lower slot) This card offloads the video processing from the MP979's CPU and so CPU speed becomes unimportant for playing DVD's. Else, video performance depends upon CPU speed without a Margi card and even the fastest CPU may still allow dropped frames in most cases.

The factory internal modem is under the palmrest on the left hand side (if installed) and the modem needs to be turned on in BIOS before it will function.

The internal modem uses a very hard to find 15 pin dongle (cable) and I've had little luck in maintaining the correct dongle in stock. I did have one batch of dongles that worked, but the next batch from the same source was incorrect. The problem comes from the seemingly non-standard pin assignment that was used in the Chicony modem and dongle. So factory dongles are the best solution unless you are willing to modify 3rd party dongles.

The Chicony modem and dongle has pins 10 & 13 assigned as the telephone system "red" wire plus has pin 15 as the phone system "green" wire. The much more common "standard" 15 pin dongle assigns pin 14 as the green wire plus pin 15 as the red wire. A solder bridge between terminal 13 and terminal 14 of the modem connector solves one problem and cuting off and reversing the red and green wires at the RG45 connector end of the "standard" dongle will allow use of the "standard" dongle to replace the Chicony dongle.

Care must be taken to NOT short the phone company's Red/Green signals - damage to phone company equipment can lead to expensive fees. Extra care needs to be observed when working with phone lines since the "ring" voltage can deliver a nasty shock - unqualified people should not attempt these modifications.

The primary hard drive module is also under the palmrest and it is on the right side inside the metal box. Most motherboards have a CMOS reset toggle switch is mounted on the motherboard near the touchpad cable connection.

The floppy drive module can be replaced with LS120 or a ZIP drive module. There is also a second hard drive module that also replaces the floppy drive module. This module takes a standard 2.5" IDE hard drive and requires the hard drive to be set for secondary operation with a jumper.

The RAM slots are under the keyboard and you need to open the palmrest and lift the keyboard to find the memory slots. Memory - 144-pin EDO or SDRAM, 3.3 volt RAM modules can be used, but SDRAM is cheaper and available in larger capacities. I've had conflicting information on the memory types and amount. I believe that you can install EDO RAM modules into all three slots. Each EDO module can be as large as 128 MB for a limit of 384 MB, I believe. SD-RAM up to 256MB module size will function if you can find smaller 256 MB modules that are "fully capatible" (16 chip modules) and only two sockets will support SD-RAM.

EDO and SDRAM modules can NOT be mixed.

The CMOS backup battery is also under the keyboard and it should be changed once a year to be safe. Cost is about $3.50 at Radio Shack. It is a CR1220. See MP978 for procedure.

The following data has been extracted from Chicony's former web site:

Chicony's MP979

The latest notebook trend is to replace the desktop computer, with our MP979, you don't need two computers anymore. With a 14.1" XGA (1024x768) TFT display the image is as large as a desktop monitor. The CPU is on a MCC1 mobile module from Intel, you can upgrade to any Intel Pentium with MMX or Pentium II.

Memory is expandable to 192 MB and the second level cache is 512 KB. Also discover the flexibility with two smart bays, you can use the ZIP drive at the same time as the DVD, or two batteries and DVD at the same time!

Keyboard:

Full size 88-keys Windows 95TM keyboard, available in many languages. In the center of the palmrest there is a big ergonomic TouchPad with two buttons.

PCMCIA & Battery:

There are two PCMCIA slots, one type II and one Type II/III (also called Type IV), supports ZV-port for multimedia 32-bit Cardbus cards. The primary battery (same size as secondary) can be exchanged with a Li-Ion or Ni-MH type.

Two SmartBays:

The FDD bay can be exchanged with: ZIP-drive (100MB), LS-120 (120MB), 2nd battery, 2nd HDD. The CD-ROM can be exchanged with a DVD-ROM.

Fax modem & HDD:

A 56kbps fax modem can easily be installed and the HDD can be replaced as easy. The MP979 supports any 2.5" HDD you can buy!

CPU:

The CPU can easily be removed and exchanged with another one. The MP979 supports up to Intel Pentium II 366 MHz on Intel's MCC1 CPU module.

Rear of the MP979: