Modifying The Prison Laptop

[@JonBringus]

The 1st video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mIPSg4OfebSni8k Also I tried to install windows in a multitude of ways and it would never boot but all my homies hate windows anyway so it's all good

[@BADESTPIE1-ESK5]

My friend had me work on a laptop of his, I left it at his house with a different hard drive and Debian installed😂

[@goosetunic]

i like windows

[@heresgenus2849]

windows user here

[@PoonSlayer69420]

Bringus me a sandwich

[@itisliamhfjone22]

W, just use steamOS

[@tarvest]

Man actually added a BIOS flashing port to the maximum security prison laptop. He deprisoned the prison laptop in the most security violating way he possibly could have and I respect it.

[@shadesoftime]

He jailbroke it

[@Reiikz]

yeah the bios is supposed to be the most secure software on the computer and my man just put a conector in to mess with it.

[@RhinoRapscallion]

@@Reiikzthe BIOS is most definitely not the most secure piece of software on your computer, it's pretty much just a storage chip, and most motherboards let you reflash it with a USB stick.

[@Reiikz]

@@RhinoRapscallion yeah it should be though it's what starts the computer, I'm of the stance that os level bios flashing is an idiotic feature

[@gabrielv.4358]

lmao

[@key099able]

Fun fact, Prison tech is not allowed to have decent speakers, it's either so low you have to have your ear next to it to hear anything or forced to use headphones, no inbetween.

[@Cyber_Gas]

but why ?

[@key099able]

@@Cyber_Gas To not disturb fellow cellmates/guards and if given the option with normal speakers, they would exclusively annoy everyone.

[@Cyber_Gas]

@@key099able ok

[@tlingitsoldier]

That was pretty fun.

[@buzzpile]

DMX - Up in here blasting in the cell block might be counter intuitive

[@draggonhedd]

Personally I would pull 5v from the SATA header so you don't overload the touchpad line by plugging too many devices in at once. I love modifying little things like this, adding features that it never had. Such a cool little laptop i wish manufacturers would be bold and put stuff out like this again.

[@nbzwt]

Wenting here, some comments/ notes about the mods: 1. I uploaded the modded BIOS.. It's quite hacky, basically the BIOS had a integrity/ signature check. Changing modules inside the BIOS causes it to ignore that particular UEFI module and boots you to the BIOS screen for recovery. So the modded BIOS really is just about screwing up the whitelist checking module so the BIOS no longer loads the check. In return it would try to boot you into the BIOS screen prompting you to reflash a correct BIOS 2. It's possible to set an empty password. Though every time it loses power (no battery no DC) it resets to the default password 3. The USB FFC connector without 5V is for the fingerprint reader. The fingerprinter reader doesn't need 5V so it doesn't have it 4. The pinout for the touchpad connector is literally printed on the touchpad itself 5. There is indeed speaker connectors on the mainboard, however the speaker amplifier is disabled by either the BIOS or the EC. Re-enabling that requires modding the BIOS or the EC firmware 6. Another thing disabled by BIOS/EC is bluetooth. Even though the Intel wireless card supports it, it has been disabled Have fun hacking

[@reverberer]

Out of curiosity did you do any research on what is presumably a docking port on the bottom?

[@nbzwt]

@@reverberer It is a docking port, however the connector is custom made for the laptop afaik. It should be possible to get HDMI among additional USB lanes out of the docking port but I didn't attempt to RE that

[@reverberer]

@@nbzwt cool, glad you confirmed my suspicions, was just thinking endgame wise a little externally mounted "plate" kind of like an oversized breakout board that exposed the usb etc ports could be used.

[@charliesretrocomputing]

This needs to be top comment!

[@JulianQuinn]

You are awesome!

[@AlfinoFr]

Imagine installing windows 7 on it. The aero theme + transparent laptop shell would be like a match made in heaven...

[@TorutheRedFox]

considering it runs HL2 decently, it should work fine too

[@darekmistrz4364]

No lie, I would have loved a laptop with transparent case as a kid

[@franciscocolorado3028]

​@@TorutheRedFox I have a laptop with exactly the same specs with windows 10, I'm pretty sure windows 7 would run with no problem

[@juansotelo3996]

The user would feel just like out of jail 😁

[@w花b]

​@@darekmistrz4364 who doesn't remember the PS2 transparent blue controller after all?

[@nikisizm3579]

I have a theory on why your gamer password never works while using the laptop keyboard. In fact it's kind of silly. You have NumLock on, which means that the "m" in "gamer" gets replaced with a "0" as the vague blue marks on the keys indicate what key presses are made if NumLock was on.

[@JonBringus]

Oh fuck that's it

[@joharakiri]

I was thinking that as well. Not because I'm smart but because it's happened to me several times before. No idea why NumLock is enabled by default on some Linux distros.

[@xPLAYnOfficial]

I was looking for this comment or else I was going to tell him myself. It's extremely common for that to be the case on a lot of different laptops of this form factor, and since he's booting a conventional distro as opposed to what was originally on the machine numlock is going to be enabled by default.

[@killertruth186]

I see where the numpad is. It's at 13:16. They've programed a small percentage of the right side keyboard to be function as a keypad as well. That is kind of smart but it doesn't make it as good as a full keyboard.

[@user-28qhfk65]

​@@killertruth186old thinkpad keyboard also has this "integrated" numpad. Not useful unless you really need it.

[@imSomebody-m4c]

The laptop has more usb ports than my laptop and usb hub combined

[@yeavLikesStockAndroid]

hi saar. apni kemon asen??

[@imSomebody-m4c]

@@yeavLikesStockAndroid ami onek bhalo asi saar..

[@RisingRevengeance]

Modern laptops sure are wonderful eh

[@adamk9652]

This has more ports than my XPS 7390 2in1 from 2020.I have 0 USB ports and 2 USB C's and a Headphone jack

[@imSomebody-m4c]

@@RisingRevengeance mine only has 1 usb c port

[@Semaze]

Two ideas: - 3D printed casing around the USB ports to look more presentable - USB audio card with some speakers added

[@aleksandarlazarov9182]

The USB connector could be 3.0, but it is more probable that it is a dual USB 2.0, especially when looking at the pinout of the USB board.

[@Mikemk_]

The USB board didn't come with the laptop and isn't even USB specific. It's a generic ribbon cable breakout board.

[@NaddlyC]

The guy who modified the BIOS said that this extra USB header is for the fingerprint scanner, that doesn't even need 5V.

[@teclego007]

Most people: Can't wait for new Taylor Swift album to drop. This guy: Can't wait for the new BIOS to drop for my prison laptop.

[@81L298]

😂

[@C4mpblor]

Absolute madlad doing this with the battery connected.

[@JonBringus]

That's how you seperate the boy laptops from the men laptops

[@dontreadmyprofilepicture8015]

​​@@JonBringusjust set admin bios password to get more settings

[@gatto_furry]

It resets.​@@dontreadmyprofilepicture8015

[@NoMore12345-z]

@@dontreadmyprofilepicture8015 That's actually a interesting idea.

[@flappyjay_gaming]

Raise your hand if you got here before it gets taken down

[@Ironyum99]

🖖🏻

[@imSomebody-m4c]

it wont get taken down lol

[@flappyjay_gaming]

@@imSomebody-m4c it might. its not very legal to give out this information apparently

[@A_Hat17]

✌🏼

[@MCBuilder]

I will raise my left thumb up to both this comment and this video

[@MiiBoshii]

That wiring made me scared, confused, happy and impressed all at once thats insane

[@smokeyeyes__]

Caught the second channel vid before the main channel vid goes live I feel like I'm accessing forbidden knowledge

[@raz0rblade06]

Same, it feels like I'm in a government building I have no place being.

[@flappyjay_gaming]

you kinda are, apparently its not very legal to post stuff like this because it'll somehow teach prisoners how to hack the laptops (even though they dont have access to those tools).

[@Skiptrac3]

@@flappyjay_gaming Then just... don't give prisoners a Laptop... Give them a hard-mounted Desktop sunk into the wall of wherever so they can't do stuff like this.

[@zagmee]

@@flappyjay_gaming he literally got it for himself, what? is he gonna get banned off youtube for hacking HIS OWN LAPTOP THAT HE BOUGHT??? also, where are they gonna get circuts? hmm? what are they gonna pry open the laptop WITH THEIR BARE HANDS? like, stop posting misinformation on youtube, who knows, little kids are going to see your comment and start spam reporting him over misinformation

[@thomasmarsden1870]

Absolutely love this channel. 100% pure comedy. 100% pure jank. It’s 100% perfect

[@GrumpyWolfTech]

I spent a few years in prison in the late 90s/early 00s. It's crazy to me they have laptops now, we were lucky to have the see through walkmans.

[@DamyanTanev]

7:14 They are not gaps they are speedholes

[@JonBringus]

damn right

[@michaellegg9381]

That prison port on the bottom is very very likely a PCI express port built by the secure book manufacturers to only fit their own hardware add-ons ( which will be several different devices) such as a 3 in 1 printer, scanner and copier, a dock to add some USB ports for removable media, among other hardware useful for schooling and transfering documents and work to USB sticks to be sent off to the school for grading. You will find all the laptops in the yard don't have these parts it's just 1 or more 3 in 1 printers and docks in the education rooms and the inmates just come in sit the laptop on the dock and it connects to a local ethernet network to share school documents and work with the teachers and students. It also would connect with the rest of the nessasary hardware needed.. so I don't know why no one thought to use the interface on the bottom it would have left the trackpad working.. I know this because I've been in and out of prison my whole adult life in Australia 🦘 and we also have these computer's and that port does control shared hardware in the education rooms.. the dock and other hardware isn't available to the inmates to purchase tho so I don't imagine you will find it on eBay but there is infact other hardware it can connect with and it also allows IT services to audit the laptop when searches are nessasary and it can grant higher levels of bios access but only if you are accessing the device though the dock port so the user in a cell can't modify the laptop or delete any data... Hopefully that all helps.. it's probably all jumbled up in how I tried to explain it but I'm not a genius PC user just someone with enough brain cells to understand how it works and what it can connect with roughly..

[@steelplasma256]

Thank you Bingus for enlightening me about the existence of flat flex cable breakouts. This will allow me to fix soo many broken electronics I've been keeping just in case. I swear that just a few years ago I looked for the exact same thing but couldn't find anything online anywhere.

[@GIRGHGH]

Gotta love those "Circuitry Breakout Tactics", CBT always coming in clutch.

[@majesticgrey]

Bringus, did they catch you gaming on-the-go. Did they, bringus?

[@-ElectricRat-]

4:39 single female usb port SINGLE FEMALE USB PORTS NEAR YOU

[@DragonBuilds]

This laptop somehow has more USB ports than my $1000 MacBook.

[@Dawid_The_Man]

It doesn't have any

[@DragonBuilds]

@@Dawid_The_Man exactly

[@Krustable]

who would ever choose mac over anything else?

[@panjak323]

​@@Krustablesocial status

[@kookaa]

@@KrustableIt’s actually a very good os (+ Macs actually have respectable performance), the computers are just overpriced

[@lenni-builder]

If you need more space in there (for example for a speaker) you can take the SSD apart, it is probably just a very small board in the big case

[@ToasterCore]

I am the only one that noticed funking OG.Xbox SDK in the end?

[@Monke_in_Space]

No

[@Monke_in_Space]

I was trying to see if someone noticed that and you did

[@jacobeii]

he's done videos about modding the og xbox, i'm assuming thats why

[@twistedmanbags]

That's an Xbox alpha tower, suuuuuper rare

[@THEtechknight]

Thanks for the shoutout! I actually met Wenting in person at VCF East. he seems like a decent guy. Unfortunately, being as busy as the show is, we didnt get to say much to each other.

[@absurddive]

You clearly underestimated my passion for jank projects. I am SO watching this hahahaha This is one of the reasons I fell in love with YT.

[@TheMrDeeJay]

My guess with the gamer keyboard is that the built in keyboard has numlock active when booted into Ubuntu and because there’s no number pad on the keyboard, couple of keys basically turn into the number pad so you are typing in numbers instead of the password

[@rythrill59]

amrican dankpods aftershow

[@GatheredStorm_YT]

Just realized that he showed the xbox dev case in this video, so this actually had a teaser in it and we just didn’t notice

[@TomiloGame]

yea I was going to say it

[@d3d9]

I love these videos, very inspiring. My ThinkPad X1 Carbon (3rd Gen) died last year and I replaced the internals with a cheap HDMI to eDP board to reuse the display. My next goal is to also use one of these little breakout boards so I can use the touchscreen again. I know it also just uses the USB protocol since I was able to find a full schematic of the laptop online :D

[@jonharzi]

the fact that i watched the first video, clicked home and this was the first result

[@eeveeblazelol]

i saw “2” in the title and thought i missed an upload, but now that there’s a premiere going on i realized that he just uploaded this one first lol

[@mastershifu445]

down to the basics, that laptop is basically just a chromebook, but with an ssd

[@myhandleiswhat]

"Sometimes Green is positive, sometimes it's negative" I love how the "Universal Serial Bus" is universal.

[@TheSpotify95]

I'd love to see the next step in this series where the speakers are added, a better BIOS is added... the progress made so far has been excellent though. I never thought a laptop with no USBs at all would even be possible.

[@kriekenzero]

I bet that bright light is so prisoners can't hide that they're using it when they're not supposed to(like at midnight or something).

[@SodlidDesu]

I'm watching this from the shower. Don't disappoint.

[@JorgeRocha-j1o]

The end result is more prison-looking than the original prison version. 10/10 would watch again.

[@VSteam81]

"I guess I'll just... I don't know, put it through cbt?" 4:54 lmfao

[@freeagent4lyfe]

Chip and board torture

[@Foxbandicoot9]

I was torn on whether he meant cock and ball torture or cognitive behavioural therapy. Ya know, to help it cope with prison life

[@WhoWatchesVideos]

The concerning thing about the backlight bleeding through the back of the lid is that if they just put some reflective tape there, you'd get... more backlight. It's a gorgeous touch, though - one I'd like to see with a separate dedicated LED panel on a more normal laptop with a transparent lid. Getting further into fantasy territory, if such a laptop had a matrix of nice diffused RGB LED squares on the back, it could even be hooked up to the display for bias lighting on the desk and wall behind the laptop!

[@RahmadiPrabowo]

We just need consumer-grade transparent laptops rn ngl

[@superNova5837]

My first thought when was if someone could force the guts of a framework laptop 13 to fit (Yes you’d need to permanently mess with the case)

[@louism771]

Theres a lot of crazy things in this video that I have never seen before but this external BIOS pinout is my absolute favorite

[@bluecar5556]

That's not a choke on the USB hub wire, but rather, it's a strain relief. A choke is those donut things wrapped in wire, just FYI.

[@TorutheRedFox]

i love how you went out of your way to undo _everything_ that makes this a prison laptop except the translucency

[@SinlowMusic]

Apple's been real silent since the Prisonbook Pro dropped

[@Dracossaint]

If you're going to add speakers, maybe take some vinyl, cut a pattern in it and cover all the light except for the logo. Make it like the prison architect games, logo

[@KevysNotHeavy]

man using base 1 tally marks 2:22

[@Dragonshader]

Good thing is that even though the video may get demonetized, you will still get paid in cigarettes

[@courtneymertz4596]

You've turned the cool clear laptop that is usually stuck in a prison to a laptop that is pretty sweet to use now, and you can wow all your friends with! It also uses Linux too, so A+ laptop in my book! Great video as always!

[@xanderplayz3446]

⁠@notanetcherIt doesn’t suck, just try installing Debian to a spare junk computer. It’s easy, smaller than Windows, uses less at idle than windows, and doesn’t have the worst shell ever (CMD < Bash). Most of the smartphones in your city/town use Linux (Android uses the Linux Kernel.) You can do whatever you want, without windows updates screwing you over. And, you don’t need to reboot to install updates (on all mainstream distros.) Most servers run it, you can compact it onto the size of a floppy, and the Wii, Wii U, Nintendo Switch, PS3, PS4, and PS5 are based on unix-likes like FreeBSD and NetBSD. How does it suck?

[@GNexYde]

Remove the charging port and put a usb-c in, find some small speakers and wire them to the headphone jack, 3d print a little shell piece for the usb hub... Love the clear plastic shell!!!!

[@commanderkay7038]

yeppie, you made it to the 2nd part

[@joeysteel4658]

I adore your channel style, the intros, the sounds the language and everything haha

[@seshpenguin]

Despite the all the wiring jank, this is also somehow really satisfying put together, and with the transparent plastic this laptop seems like a really fun device to do mods on lol

[@gabrielv.4358]

Why is that prision tech is so cool??? Everything is transparent! Why cant that be mainstream???

[@Jeff-ss6qt]

I wonder if it's possible to figure out what the docking port on the bottom does. It's possible that it could allow to access USB and legacy ports without having to open up the laptop.

[@JonBringus]

Justice Tech Solutions has a few different docks but you can't buy them directly: justicetechsolutions.com/products/hidden-usb-docking-station

[@iBonziUniverse]

Just found your channel the other day. I love you bringus. Keep bringing the gold

[@mindaugasbarkauskas9894]

Jokes on you I haven't even watched the main video!

[@lancheloth]

You missed the gaming time there... 😅

[@darekmistrz4364]

Adding a BIOS header pins as connector in the case was pure genius.

[@escapetherace1943]

this thing is literally just an 8-10 year old chromebook rebranded and thrown into a clear chassis with a custom bios flashed onto it 😂and I bet the taxpayers paid 1000+ dollars for this beautiful 20-30 dollars of hardware.

[@threemar3]

damn you. I watched the first vidoe thinking it was something to have in the background while I worked, but here I am now, intently watching the continuation. I could've been done with work by now, but nooooo you just had to make interesting content.

[@Siktah]

You can't just show that Xbox Devkit like that!

[@blue-spy-j4g]

that's why he got arrested lol

[@RicardoRamosRetrocomputacao]

You need to modify the bios with aptio's customization software, or find the manufacturer of this motherboard, who probably has a consumer version. This laptop is reminiscent of that notebook from the movie Hackers from the 90s, the protagonist gets a super laptop from the villain, and it has a transparent case (it's a prototype of the Apple Powerbook). I have a Compaq Presario 1400, which I removed the metal shield, leaving it translucent, and it also looks like this. The touchpad has more lanes, because there must be variants of this piece that have a biometric reader and multimedia buttons.

[@AliBello]

bringus, your original video isn't even up yet

[@radiicall]

The finished product looks sick! It would be cool if these were powerful enough to be used as a daily driver laptop, walking around with my literal prison laptop, doing stuff

[@abhinavsathish8335]

bringus the numlock is on that why password dont work

[@JonBringus]

I don't think that would prevent "gamer" from being input correctly EDIT: actually wait I think it does because there's a numpad key on M 💀

[@SUPERBOBESPONJA1000]

just casually showing us a bit of a xbox developer kit

[@MausiVR]

Second!

[@Ironyum99]

how 1hr ago 😮

[@heresgenus2849]

how 2 hr ago

[@Joe-xr2xl]

Im fairly certain they make a specific board that hss usbs for that exact ribbon cable, and its on the pinebook pro, fits the chassis too i think

[@scramblerbricks7293]

I feel like being forced to use a track pad without any way to connect a mouse is pure torture

[@Dungeonseeker1uk]

The touchpad has the answer you seek written on its board, its not actually using USB, well it kinda is but its actually using I2C over USB so its I2C data being sent through a USB interface.

[@milescarter7803]

I would have started at the port in question and found V+ and ground to start with. Also you can visually trace the pins back to a USB static protect chip or circuit pretty quickly.

[@just_a_kid1]

They sell the secure book 6 now, and they sell a dock which has built in usb ports for students.

[@thejackofclubs]

so the way a headphone jack works is theres 5 pins: a ground, 2 in for sound (left and right) and 2 out for sound. when you plug in a jack, it breaks the connection to the out and sends it to the headphones. you can easily find small speaker drivers thatll be able to be powered from the headphone jack, just wire them to the sound out pins and youll have an easy speaker add. the undisablable secure boot might keep you from ever running windows on it, and also any other distro other than ubuntu (maybe debian and suse) as canonical has some uefi keys and is pretty gatekeepy about them.

[@sciencedogsandallkindsofcr9104]

USB color standards are needed, the other day i found a USB cable that used red for ground, and blue for 5 V

[@BifareZanah]

your videos are a blend of fun, facts, and fantastic visuals!

[@rover908]

I miss when generic tech was also often in some transparent plastics like nearly 2 decades ago

[@antoniotarin]

You give me dankpod vibes but with x100 tech wisdom

[@imbe.]

This thing increased your street respect levels to immense levels. Look at that thing, now i want one of these.

[@Jack-hk4nn]

No speakers - designed for prison where they don’t want cell mates fighting because one of them lost their headphones. What’s interesting is they charge +$40 for WiFi on their website, but this one has it. So either the prison wanted one with WiFi (penny pinchers wouldn’t and it would have so limited use), or they’re just toggling it out in the BIOS 😂

[@clairekholin6935]

The usb power is possibly separate to allow higher power devices that the ribbon cable cannot handle

[@Pentium4Proto]

I love how he shows off the back of the screen lighting up by shining it on AN XBOX DEV KIT so casually lol.

[@axelprino]

Really cool project, that thing now has more USB ports than the average laptop.

[@GodsBadAssBlade]

Damn, thats actually insane how it went from Frankensteins monster to Frankensteins slightly deformed kid. Good job!

[@The_Kiosk]

Enjoyed the first video. Can't get the string trimmer started and my elbow hurts now. Probably flooded, or the gas having been in the thing all winter. Of course I clicked for the second video.

[@romangiertych5198]

Never heard of either of your channels and clicked on this video from recommendations, so the intro caught me off guard!

[@romangiertych5198]

Watched both vids now, seems I saw your Sega video before.

[@EMDWDG4]

4:51 "one USB is not enough" *Famous last words before Apple removes all the USB ports*

[@bnichoo]

This project is so cool, feels the closest to a DIY laptop

[@csolisr]

Hold up there are BIOS flashers? Nice, the two micro-PCs that I mistakenly turned into bricks after a failed BIOS update have some hope of revival

[@309electronics5]

They are just spi flash programmers because the bios is a firmware on the popular 25xxxx series spi flash chips. They have been available for years. I am kind of surprised bringus did not know about them yet. I successfully modified my ip camera using those to run locally and to add some features

[@angw3l]

"and I thought you'd close the tab and move on with your day" unfortunately I'm rotting in bed

[@MarcosCodas]

I wanted to move on with my day but it feels like I'M IN PRISON!!!

[@Chaos_God_of_Fate]

I think it's crazy that there are prison laptops at all to begin with.

[@slacker1]

As complicated as this is, I see why there are no Tik-Toks coming from Prisons.

[@anonymoose9038]

Having a bios flash port is next level unnecessary. I love it.

[@lemmonsinmyeyes]

Get a black Mac sticker for the illuminated back, upside down, an inverse MacBook lol (or apples ideal MacBook, one that has everything locked down for the user )

[@fluffy_shapes]

could use a custom 3D printed bottom plate that keeps the usb ports closed off safely from dust entering the case lol, super neat idea tbh

[@Bjrn-nv3ie]

Should’ve been on the main video, this is top tier content

[@lockedsoul9562]

well, I tried to close the tab and move on with my day then this got recomended, and now im invested

[@masonhughes_big]

me slowly turning towards my screen because I clicked on this after seeing it in my reccomended and not right after watching the first video