In the following guide I will disassemble a HP Compaq 8510p notebook PC and remove all main parts. According with the HP specifications, my disassembly guide should work for a HP Compaq 8510w mobile workstation. If it works for any other model, I would appreciate if you mention the model name in the following comments.

In the next guide I’ll explain how to remove and replace the screen inverter.
Before you start, you should turn off the laptop and unplug the power adapter.

STEP 1

Remove the battery.
Remove the hard drive and memory covers.

STEP 2

Remove the memory module.
Remove the hard drive as it shown on the sticker. Simply remove one screw securing the hard drive, slide the hard drive to the left and remove it from the laptop.

STEP 3

Remove one screw securing the optical drive (CD/DVD drive). Push the drive from the laptop with a screwdriver. Remove the drive.

STEP 4

Loosen two screws securing the keyboard. Both screws will stay attached to the laptop bottom.

STEP 5

Slide four latches securing the keyboard to the direction pointed by red arrows.

STEP 6

Lift up the keyboard with a sharp object, you can use a small flathead screwdriver.

STEP 7

Continue removing the keyboard. Place it upside down on the palm rest.

STEP 8

The keyboard is connected to the motherboard via two flat ribbon cables. Unlock both connectors by lifting the locking tab about 2-3 millimeters up with your finger nails. Be very careful with the connectors.

On the picture below you can see both connectors unlocked and keyboard cables removed. The locking tab must stay attached to the connector base.

STEP 9

Remove two screws securing the cooling fan. Unplug the fan cable from the motherboard.

Remove the fan.

STEP 10

Remove six screws securing the video card (VGA board) and processor (CPU) heat sinks.

Remove the heat sink.

STEP 11

Remove two screws securing the video card.

The video card will pop up at a 15-20 degree angle. Carefully pull the video card from the slot by the edges.

STEP 12

Now I’m going to remove the laptop top cover. Remove all screws from the bottom of the laptop. The orange screw securing the touch pad. There are two more screws (marked with green squares) hidden under rubber seals.
As you see, you can access the Bluetooth card through the hard drive compartment.

STEP 13

Lift up the touch pad assembly as it shown on the picture below. Place the touch pad upside down on the palm rest.

Disconnect the touch pad cable from the motherboard. Remove the touch pad.

STEP 14

Start removing the keyboard bezel with a small screwdriver. Do not forget to disconnect the cable the same way as you disconnected the keyboard cables.

Continue separating the keyboard bezel with your fingers and remove it from the laptop.

STEP 15

Unplug the LCD cable from the motherboard.
Unsnap three wireless card antenna cables from the wireless card.
Unroute the wireless card antenna cables.
Remove five screws securing the display hinges (two from the left hinge and three from the right hinge).

STEP 16

Remove four screws securing the display hinges on the back of the laptop.

STEP 17

Remove the LCD screen (display) assembly.

STEP 18

Remove six screws securing the top cover assembly.
Unplug the CMOS (RTC) battery cable from the motherboard.
Unplug the finger scanning device cable from the motherboard.
If you wish, you can remove the wireless card here. I’ll do it later.

STEP 19

Start removing the laptop top cover assembly. It could be a challenge.

The top cover is still attached to the bottom with a cable pointed with the red arrow. Unplug this cable. By the way, you can access the Bluetooth module from here too.

Remove the top cover assembly.

On the picture below you can see the finger scanning device attached to the top cover.

STEP 20

Remove two screws securing the speaker assembly to the motherboard (I don’t remember if I had to remove three screws).
Unplug the speaker cable.

Lift up and remove the speaker assembly.

STEP 21

Remove two screws securing the wireless card. Remove the wireless card from the motherboard.
Remove two screws securing the modem card. Unplug the modem card cable from the motherboard. Remove the modem card.

STEP 22

Remove two hex studs from the VGA port (two orange arrows on the top).
Unplug cables pointed with red arrows.
Remove five screws securing the motherboard.

STEP 23

Start removing the motherboard from the laptop base.

The motherboard has been removed. If you are replacing the motherboard, transfer the processor (CPU) to the new board.

This tutorial explains how you can upgrade your Dell Inspiron E1705 a.k.a. Inspiron 9400 by replacing the graphics card and installing more memory.

Dell has done something great here, a laptop that is user-serviceable and user-upgradable…Tonight, I ventured into wild with a few components and upgrades not normally available.

Dell Inspiron E1705/9400 laptop has two user-accessible memory slots. According to Dell specifications, you can install up 2GB into this unit (up to 1GB into each slot). You should use PC2-5400 DDR-II 667MHz modules.

Even though Dell says that you cannot install more then 2GB, the author of this tutorial installed 4GB (two 2GB modules) into his laptop.

The issue with a lot of bios’ out there (desktops, laptops, and even the XPS-line of previous laptops) is that they do not allow full access to all 4096 MB of ram – if you were to stick in 4GB of ram. The E1705 is one of them, and limits you to utilizing only 3.2 GB of ram available to the OS.

In addition to memory upgrade, the author was able to replace his ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 graphics card with a more powerful nVidia Quatro FX2500m 512MB graphics card. In order to install new graphics card, you’ll have to modify the laptop case.

Make sure to read through comments posted after the tutorial. You’ll have to install modified drivers to make your new graphics card to work correctly.

What you want to do is download a special “hacked” set. It’s basically the highend drivers from nvidia “desktop only” series of cards (laptops have lower-end versions). But with a slight tweak to the INI files to allow you to install it for your 2500m Quatra mobile edition.

Here’s another tutorial for upgrading the graphics card in a Dell Inspiron E1705 laptop, you’ll find it here. The author explains how to replace ATI x1400 graphics card with NVIDIA 7800go. In this tutorial you’ll find step-by-step laptop disassembly instructions, graphics card installation instructions and a few benchmarks to show you of the difference in performance.

The top picture in the x1400 that we removed, and the bottom picture is our new baby that is going into the e1705. The 7800go, while not the top of the line for NVIDIA mobile graphics anymore should be more than enough for the gamer that is taking his laptop on the road and will do some gaming. The installation of this card is no different than the x1400 as they use the same heat sink and assembly, so just pop it in, and then put everything back together.

ATI x1400 graphics card

NVIDIA 7800go graphics card

UPDATE: I just found another guide for Dell Inspiron E1705 (9400) users. This guide explains how to disassemble the laptop and replace the video card.

Originally, my notebook, a Dell Inspiron E1705 (9400), was equipped with a NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 video card. In order to improve its graphical performance, I decided to replace it by a NVIDIA Geforce Go 7900 GTX.

Also, check out my new instructions for replacing a damaged keyboard in a Dell Inspiron 9400 laptop.

These disassembly instructions will be very useful for all Compal CL50 Intel Centrino notebook owners. The guide for designed to help with the wireless card replacement, but wireless card is buried deep inside the notebook, so basically this guide explains how to take the whole thing apart.
Step-by-step disassembly guide explains how you can access and remove almost all major notebook components such as: battery, memory, display panel, keyboard, heatshik with fan, graphics card, CPU and wireless card.

Is it possible to make your Gateway 8550GB laptop run faster? Can you replace stock CPU, graphics card, memory with faster replacements? According to MXM-Upgrade the laptop upgrade is possible. Fortunately, you can easily access all three components (CPU, memory, graphics card) if you remove the memory bay cover from the laptop bottom. You can find disassembly instructions in the Gateway user guide.

Laptop specifications before the upgrade:
CPU: Pentium M740 1.73GHz
Memory: 1GB DDR2 PC4200(533MHz)
Graphics card: ATI Mobility Radeon X700 128MB

Laptop specifications after the upgrade:
CPU: Pentium M780 2.26GHz
Memory: 2GB DDR2 PC4200(533MHz)
Graphics card: ATI Mobility Radeon X1900 256MB

This upgrade will speed up your laptop significantly, but it’s not cheap.
Also, don’t forget about the hard drive-the slowest part in the laptop. A faster 7200RPM hard drive will improve the laptop performance too.

This guide shows how to replace and upgrade the graphics card on a Dell E1705 notebook. Fortunately, in this notebook the graphics card is not integrated into the motherboard and it’s a discrete module witch plugs into a socket on the motherboard. All you have to do is remove the notebook cover, so you can access the graphics card and replace it.

So, what kind of upgrade is the Nvidia 7800go compared to the ATIx1400? I would say it is a major upgrade! Since this is not a full review of the graphics card, we only have a few benchmarks to show you of the difference in performance, but I believe you will see that there is a HUGE difference between the cards.

OK, let’s say you’ve replaced the graphics card in your notebook and now it will not start or you have a different issue. Here are some quick troubleshooting tips for you:

You have no video or the laptop will not start at all.
- make sure the graphics card is properly connected to the motherboard
- check the connection between the video cable and the motherboard
- reconnect the memory stick

Everything works fine except the touch pad
- check if the touch pad cable is plugged, reseat the cable just in case

The keyboard stopped working
- check if the keyboard ribbon cable is properly seated inside the connector

You can use the above mentioned guide for replacing the keyboard, graphics card fan and processor fan.