I will explain here how to disassemble any laptop, and not just focus on one specific model. I will teach you this way because there is a general rhythm to the placement of the screws and different types used.
With all laptops, you will start the disassembling by flipping the laptop over to its bottom side. Use a foam pad if available so you do not scratch the lid/cover.
Removing the battery is the first thing you will do.
Now you will start with removing all the screws. You will start at the rear of the laptop where most batteries are located (most, not all…). Start right in the battery bay and remove all the screws inside it. Here you will find smaller screws usually 2 to 8 of them, and typically they are silver or black in color – usually being silver. Also in some battery bays you will have keyboard securing screws, these will be removed also at this time. If you like, you can save the screws in one big pile, or you can separate them by size. Laptops do not use a million different sized screw’s, rather, they will use a set of sizes and stick with those size differences throughout the laptop, usually having 2 to 5 different lengths or thicknesses per laptop model. If your specific battery is not located at the rear of the laptop, you still will remove it, though it will probably not have any screws in its empty bay (if there are any, remove all of them).
Next you will remove all of the screws at the rear corners of the laptop. Typically they will use 1 to 3 on each side. These will be the longest screws used on your laptop, the far corner screws will be the longest – sometimes being thicker too, then, the ones further inward will usually be a little shorter. Still at the rear or the laptops bottom side, you will remove any screws in the center/rear and you will usually find 2 or so screws there… While still at the rear side, flip the laptop up a little and look at the rear of the laptop. Look for any screws at the Hinge Cap area, as some laptops will use 1 or 2 per hinge cap to secure the cap to the base, remove them. While still at the back side of the laptop, look for any securing riser screws. Riser screws are found in areas like the VGA Serial Port or a Printer Port, look on each side of that port, there will sometimes be riser screws. Remove them using needle nosed Next you will remove all of the screws at the rear corners of the laptop. Typically they will use 1 to 3 on each side. These will be the longest screws used on your laptop, the far corner screws will be the longest – sometimes being thicker too, then, the ones further inward will usually be a little shorter. Still at the rear or the laptops bottom side, you will remove any screws in the center/rear and you will usually find 2 or so screws there… While still at the rear side, flip the laptop up a little and look at the rear of the laptop. Look for any screws at the Hinge Cap area, as some laptops will use 1 or 2 per hinge cap to secure the cap to the base, remove them. While still at the back side of the laptop, look for any securing riser screws. Riser screws are found in areas like the VGA Serial Port or a Printer Port, look on each side of that port, there will sometimes be riser screws. Remove them using needle nosed pliers. Other extension ports on the rear and sides of the laptop will have riser screws that need removing and some will be removed with a micro sized flat head screwdriver. Some of these riser screws can be left in and still allow for complete removal of all parts, but if you are not sure, you should remove them.
You can now remove any case covers that exist on the laptop in front of you. The photo on the previous page shows 1 main cover that will cover all accessible components, some laptops use just one, and some will separate them and use 2 to 4 separate covers. Remove all of them regardless. Note that some laptops will use extra long or extra short screws to secure the covers and if you think you will have trouble remembering the placement of these upon reassembling, then place the screws for each separate cover inside that cover and set the covers aside with their screws on them. After removing these covers, you will remove the components inside their bays. These will include the hard drive, the Wireless card, RAM, and similar. The hard drive will sometimes have a caddie, and the caddy’s purpose is to secure the laptop to the hard drive. A caddie will wrap the drive or will cover one side of the drive then will be secured with small thick screws (usually 2 to 4). The hard drive and caddie will then slide into the hard drive port (whether SATA or PATA is irrelevant) or it will use a ZIF connection and pull away from the port. Use the installed pull tab on the hard drive to either slide or pull the hard drive away from the laptop. Some hard drives will be secured to the laptop and some will not. Once the hard drive is removed, look in the empty hard drive bay for any screws there. Remove any screws in that bay.
Next part to remove is any Wi-Fi Card and antenna wires. You will typically find the Wireless card on the bottom side of the laptop. Most models will allow you to leave this card installed and will not hinder the disassembly process. The Wi-Fi antenna cables are what you want to remove… You will disconnect the 2 (or more) antenna wires and un-route them from the case track. These wires will typically run up to the upper-side of the motherboard and you need to allow them to be pulled away from the upper side by loosening them and untracking them on the underside. Remove the card also if needed.
Continue on removing the bottom base screws, all along the front of the laptop (still on the bottom side), usually there are 4 to 6 in the front, sometimes a sticker or rubber plug is hiding the screw, you will remove any blocking tab and remove the screw.
When removing the CD/DVD rom, you need to visualize the actual size and shape of that drive in relation to its location on the laptop and remove the securing screw at the rear of the cd rom drive which you will typically find located near the center of the laptop and it will almost always have a perforated Icon imprinted on the bottom case right next to the corresponding screw hole.
Since I mentioned these imprinted icons, I will now elaborate on them and their use. If you look closely at the bottom of the laptop, you will see Icons near some of the screw holes. Typically the RAM has an Icon, the Wi-Fi will also have an icon, the hard drive will have an Icon, the keyboard screw locations will have an icon, and the cd drive locking hole will have an icon. It is also common for a Screw length guide to be located somewhere on the underside of the laptop, either imprinted directly into the plastic, or printed onto a sticker.
Once you have removed the screw that secures the optical drive in place you will need to slide it out and set it aside. To do this, you can usually just grab the edge of the drives faceplate and gently pull it outward. Some laptops will not be so easy and you will need a plastic pry tool to pull it outward (use a guitar pick). Then some laptops will have a lever located nearby that you will slide/pull to ―pop‖ the optical drive out of the laptop.
Once the drive is removed, you will look for any screws on the empty bay that would secure the lower base to the upper palm rest… some laptops will use 2 to 4 screws here.
Another thing to check while still on the bottom side of the laptop is whether the Fan and Heat sink assembly needs to be removed prior to motherboard removal. Most laptops will be obvious that the fan/heat sink will need removal, though some it can be hard to tell… If the fan and heat sink are accessible from the open areas of the underside of the laptop, then you can go ahead and unplug the fan(s) and unscrew/remove the fan and heat sink assembly. Some model Laptops like the Gateway Ma3/7 series will have unlabeled keyboard screws hidden here near the fan. And one hidden in the Wi-Fi bay, both screws are silver in color and need to be removed. Take a minute to look for any hidden accessible screws on the underside of the laptop, removing them all, then double check all the open bays on the underside for remaining screws, like the hard drive bay where it is common to place 1 to 4 screws there. Finish removing all visible screws on the bottom of the laptop, when done, flip the laptop over and open the screen slightly past a 90 degree angle… You want it like this to be able to remove the media strip / hinge covers. So start the upper half disassembly by removing the hinge caps using a micro size flat head screwdriver or using a plastic pry tool (recommended).
Continuing on with the Upper Half disassembly, you will remove the media/power button strip and hinge covers. Removing this strip can sometimes be a little tricky, Dell makes it easier by adding a pry access area on the right side of the strip, you stick your pry tool in it and pull upward to unsnap the strip of plastic. Most of these strips will be snapped on and you will need to pull outward while slightly pulling up and down on the area you are unsnapping to release the tab locks. You will get the hang of this the more you have to unsnap… it becomes easier when you know how the snaps loosen because simply pulling outward doesn’t always release the tab. It’s now a good time to use the guitar or plastic pry tool here to help pull the media strip away. Note that some laptops like the Toshiba also have a thin plastic snap strip just above the keyboard that need removing prior to removing hinge caps or keyboard.
To remove these, ensure all bottom side screws are removed, then, use a plastic pry tool or a micro flat head screwdriver. Start in the center of the thin plastic strip and right where the keyboard ends at the center of the keyboard, stick pry tool under the lip of that strip and pull it outward/upward. Lift it up a ½ inch and slide down to the right or left and pry the strip upward popping all the snaps until you have freed the piece, set aside.
Other models like the Compaq Presario will have a rectangular piece that completely surrounds the keyboard, and in order to remove the keyboard, you will need to unsnap this part and set aside. You must be very careful when removing or unsnapping any part on the palm rest area because it could have wires, ribbon cables connected to it and they are extremely fragile. This Presario has a ribbon cable on the rectangular piece discussed here and it is located on the upper bar of the piece, which travels under the keyboard and plugs into the motherboard. You will need to gently unsnap this framing piece, though don’t pull it away, instead, you will unscrew any visible keyboard screws which you will find at the top of the keyboard, then unplug the keyboard ribbon cable then remove the keyboard. Then you can now also remove the rectangular keyboard frame and set aside.
Keyboards will sometimes have securing screws (2-4) at the top and will need to be removed. These are smaller screws than what you will find on the underside of the laptop. Some laptops will use locking tabs instead of screws and the photo shows these tabs slide up and down to lock and unlock the keyboard in place. Another way some manufacturers secure the keyboard is by using spring loaded tabs that protrude from above the keyboard and will extend over the keyboards upper tab. To release the keyboard from these you will need a plastic pry tool or a micro size flat head screwdriver to depress the spring loaded tabs (usually 4 of them) and simultaneously use a secondary pry tool to pull the keyboard upward and away from the spring loaded tab continuing to release all 4 tabs, then lifting the top of the keyboard upward and away.
Hopefully you now have removed the hinge covers/media panel and keyboard from the laptop. You need to pay attention here… When removing the media strip above the keyboard, you MUST be careful not to pull any cables in the process.
Laptops media strip has 2 fragile black ribbon cables attached to it and a fragile speaker plug wire, these need to be disconnected before you can remove the part, and if you pull to aggressively you will damage the cables.
With these parts removed, you will first look for any screws in the empty keyboard bay on the palm rest. There are typically 1 to 6 screws here, also look everywhere else on the upper half for screws and remove all. The screen will get removed now as well. You will unplug all wires or cables coming out of the screen. These will include the display cable, the Wi-Fi antenna wires, the Webcam cable, Microphone cable and any other that might be there. The Wi-Fi cables will also be placed in a track along the upper palm rest and you will un-track these and pull the ends through from the bottom side. Unscrew the display hinges to release the screen from the lower half of the laptop and it should now pull away freely. Note that some laptops will attach the display cable differently the most common type of cable plug is one that pulls straight upward to release the cable, yet, other types will need to be pried outward from their casing port. You will need to determine yours and slowly unplug the cable. If it gives any resistance, you should double check to ensure you are removing it correctly. The ones that pull outward will always have a pulling plastic tab attached to them to help you easily pull it apart. With the screen hopefully removed now, you will again look over the entire palm rest for any remaining screws.
Let me also say that on models such as the HP dv6000 you will have to remove the 2 Riser screws that are located on the bottom side and exactly next to the Wireless card port, these need to be removed before the palm rest can be removed. So look for strangely placed screw locations on both the bottom and top before removing the palm rest.
The palm rest will have a data ribbon cable that attaches to itself and leads to the motherboard, usually directly in the middle of the palm rest, though some models like the older dells will run the cable to the left side then it plugs into the motherboard using a plug/socket connection. The typical touchpad ribbon cable connection port will be the slide locking tab type, and you will gently slide both left and right sides of the locking tab upward to release the cable.
Look around the exposed areas of the palm rest and carefully unplug any cables that you can see. Also untrack any remaining cables or wires away from the palm rest. You should now be ready to remove the palm rest from the lower base.
Most all palm rests will be snapped down to the base and to remove the palm rest you will need to unsnap all the tabs. To do this, you will use a guitar pick or similar plastic pry tool, starting at a corner and making your way around the entire palm rest to unsnap all the locking tabs. You should now be able to pull the palm rest away from the bottom base of the laptop. You will be left with the bottom base and motherboard.
Some Sony Vaio and Toshiba laptops have reversed this process and you will be removing the bottom base first, as the motherboard is attached to the palm rest.
You should now have the bottom base and motherboard left over to disassemble, or the opposite and you have the palm rest and motherboard left, this process will be the same for either, so I will just refer to the bottom base method and you can use that in the same fashion to remove the motherboard from palm rest.
Now, with the bottom base in front of you, you will disconnect any remaining wires or cables that hinder the removal of the motherboard. You can remove any screws securing the motherboard to the base. These screws will usually be marked on the motherboard with either a number or a symbol. If not, you can use a marker to draw an x over the hole to remind yourself that it needs to have a securing screw upon reassembly of the laptop.
Some laptops will have mini boards or daughter boards attached to them that will also need to be removed or detached from the motherboard to complete the removal process.
Once you think you have removed all the retaining screws, you can attempt to remove the motherboard from the base. Start this process by slightly lifting up on any given corner. I will usually start near the area opposite from the onboard headphone jack port or volume knob. I pull upward slightly then outward making sure to pull any components like the audio out ports, or the VGA or printer port away from the case shell as to not damage any parts when removing the motherboard. A lot of motherboards will have cables/plugs and wires still attached when removing the motherboard… Take for instance once again the HP DV6000, it has the DC Jack and the Ethernet/Audio board cable plugs that plug into the under side of the motherboard though they are only accessible when you raise up the motherboard to expose them. Be careful here as you can damage the ports or plugs by pulling to far on the motherboard. Also, on the example model dv6000 on the front of the motherboard in the center area just under the bottom middle area is where you will find 2 more cables and plugs… the IR/audio/Wi-Fi switches and boards connect to the under side of the board and the wires/cables used do not leave room for error and if pulled too far, they will break, so go slow and triple check all areas of the top and under side of the motherboard before completely removing the board from the base. The Motherboard should lift right out, if it does not, do not panic here, simply go through the top and bottom again and pinpoint the location that it is stuck in and locate the retaining screw. You should be able to determine where the location is that is keeping the motherboard from removal just by lifting up on the board and finding the area that is still stuck to the base. Finally, remove the motherboard and set aside, you are done with the removal, you can remove the fan and heat sink assembly now if still attached.
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