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In this guide I explain how to disassemble a Compaq Presario F700 notebook. The guide might work for some other Compaq and HP models. I think the disassembly steps will be very similar for Compaq Presario F500 and HP G6000 notebook PC. If this guide works for your notebook, please mention the model name in the comments below.
You’ll find tons of spare parts for Compaq Presario F700, F500 notebooks here. As an example I took a Presario F730US notebook.
Before you start, turn off the laptop, unplug the power adapter and remove the battery.
COMPAQ PRESARIO F700 DISASSEMBLY GUIDE.
STEP 1.
Remove three screws securing the memory cover and two screws securing the hard drive cover. Remove both covers.
STEP 2.
Lift up the right side of the hard drive by the plastic tab to disconnect it from the motherboard. Remove the hard drive.
STEP 3.
Remove both memory modules.
STEP 4.
Disconnect both antenna cables from the wireless card. Remove two screws securing the wireless card in the top left and right corners. Pull the wireless card from the slot and remove it.
STEP 5.
Remove one screw securing the CD/DVD drive and pull the drive from the notebook. Remove the drive.
STEP 6.
Remove all marked screws from the bottom of the notebook.
Yellow screws securing the switch cover (keyboard cover).
Green screws securing the keyboard.
STEP 7.
Start lifting up the switch cover as it shown on the picture below. You’ll have to work with your fingers to disengage small plastic latches holding the switch cover.
Be careful, there is a thin ribbon cable running from the switch cover to the motherboard.
STEP 8.
Now you can lift up the top side of the keyboard and access the connector underneath the keyboard.
The keyboard cable connector is located above the touch pad. Before you pull the cable and remove the keyboard you have to unlock the connector.
Move both sides of the locking tab about 1-2 millimeter up and release the keyboard cable. Now you can pull the cable and remove the keyboard.
STEP 9.
Disconnect the switch cover cable from the motherboard.
Remove the cover.
STEP 10.
Unplug the LCD cable from the motherboard.
Release the wireless card antenna cables. Pull them through a hole in the motherboard.
Remove four screws securing the display panel.
STEP 11.
Lift up and remove the display panel assembly.
In the next guide I will explain how to access and remove the LCD screen with inverter board.
STEP 12.
Remove four screws securing the top cover assembly.
Disconnect the power button board cable.
Disconnect the touch pad cable.
STEP 13.
Remove all screws securing the top cover assembly from the bottom of the notebook. Do not forget three (green) screws in the CD/DVD drive bay.
Remove two hex studs located close to the memory slots.
By the way, the RTC (CMOS) battery can be accessed when you remove the memory cover.
STEP 14.
Start separating the top cover assembly from the bottom assembly. You’ll have to work with your fingers to disengage plastic latches securing the top cover.
Carefully lift up and remove the top cover assembly.
STEP 15.
Now I’m going to remove the motherboard.
Remove one screw securing the motherboard. In other Compaq/HP models there could be more then one screw securing the motherboard.
STEP 16.
Lift up the right side of the motherboard as it shown on the picture below.
Before you remove the motherboard from the base assembly you have to disconnect the audio board cable.
STEP 17.
Remove the motherboard and turn it upside down. There are two more cables to disconnect.
These cables connect the motherboard to the USB/Power connector board.
Finally, the motherboard is removed. As you see on the picture below, the audio board and USB/power connector board are secured to the base assembly.
The motherboard has been removed. Now you can access and replace the cooling fan if you have to.
You can access and replace the processor if you remove the heat sink.
Static electricity can kill your laptop. I recommend wearing an anti-static wrist strap while working with internal parts of your laptop.
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November 4th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Zig90tsi,
New AC adapter, new battery and still same issue? Man, sounds like a problem with the motherboard. Apparently the battery charging circuit is not working properly anymore. That would be my best guess. Of course, I assume your new power adapter and battery are good.
Check the BIOS update. I know that on some Toshiba laptops had a similar problem and Toshiba fixed it with the BIOS update.
Here’s something else you can try. Remove the battery, start the laptop from AC and then insert the battery while the laptop is on. It might shock the motherboard and the battery will start charging.
I’m typing on a laptop with a similar problem right now (Satellite X205). I know it needs a new motherboard, but works absolutely fine from AC with the battery removed. There is no way I’m replacing the motherboard in this thing.
I really doubt that replacing the power board will make any difference. I think it’s just a board where the DC jack is mounted.
You shouldn’t. Without any test equipment I would do exactly the same. But when I’m not sure what the problem is, I always mention all possible needed parts upfront.
Just talk to the customer, explain what’s going on. If he’s going to approve a new motherboard, make sure to include the power board price into your quote for a new motherboard. I would.
November 4th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
I’ve been working on a Compaq f700 that also has a power issue, but this one is different. The laptop has not been charging the battery, but it would run off the AC adapter. The owner stated that it would “shut down” on him while he was using it. I have not been able to reinact that symptom(I don’t think he understands that it hibernates, because if you let it sit, it shuts the screen off), but I have discovered another symptom. First thing that happened was the plug on the AC adapter came apart, the wire was weak and worn out and the plug was pretty much dangling. After I unplugged it a few times trying to diagnose it, the plug just came apart. I thought I had figured it out, but replacing the AC adapter doesn’t seem to help. The laptop will run, but the battery never charged. According to Vista, the battery was charging, but the percentage would never go above zero. My first instinct now was that the battery must be dead, but I was wrong again. A new battery changed nothing. At this point, having the battery in it is almost worse than not having it. With the battery in, the laptop will never shut down, it only goes to hibernate because its trying to charge the battery, which never happens. I noticed that the HP battery checker was not working either, so I reinstalled that from the utility and now Battery Checker will open, but lists an “invalid battery” for both the batteries I have for it. As soon as I take the battery out, the laptop works like it should. If it were my laptop, I wouldn’t care because I never take mine anywhere. I feel terrible that I already ordered a battery that didn’t fix the problem, and now its still not fixed. Is it possible that the power board needs to be replaced? The laptop still works, so I figured if that was the case, the laptop would not work at all. Any ideas?
November 3rd, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Bill,
SPS:441696 is the part number.
Google 441696 or look up the same number on eBay.
November 3rd, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Per your response to my comment #65
I removed the memory from the mother board of my Compaq Presario C502US looking for the “Motherboard” part number and I found a lot of barcodes and numbers on one sticker.
The bigger sticker had these numbers.
2064704701066
1 of 2
1BL30LA2 [in bold letters]
46145932L02
CT:OU003F21UU6YMH [also in bold]
The smaller sticker had these numbers
SPS441696
Date code 7J0724
Are any of these the motherboard part numbers or should I look somewhere else?
Thanks
Bill
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Alien, good luck with that fix. Sounds like it’s do or die.
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:11 am
Really appreciate ur efforts.
All these manuals really assist me in my training and repairs.
more grace to ur elbows.
October 29th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Bill,
Find the motherboard part number (probably on a sticker in the memory compartment) and google it.
Find the seller with good return and exchange policy.
October 29th, 2009 at 6:34 am
I was just about ready to tell my daughter that we probably ought to purchase a new motherboard for her Compaq Presario C502US when I read comment 61 from the “Alien” , so now I am not so sure? I have purchased a few things from Tiger Direct and they were fine and were reasonably priced, but I have not checked to see if they sell motherboards for this laptop. Any suggestions where I might get a good deal on a motherboard that would work right out of the box would be appreciated.
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Cameron,
This is not related to the battery or hard drive, that’s for sure.
1. It’s not likely but possible that one of the memory modules is bad. Try removing memory one by one and test the laptop with each module separately. This way you can find which one is causing the problem.
2. Most likely (I would say 95%) you have the motherboard failure. You’ll have to replace the motherboard.
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:41 am
These instructions worked for my Compaq Presario V6000 model.
October 21st, 2009 at 1:03 am
Great, I ordered a new mainboard. I didn’t realize that it was coming from china when I ordered. I mean it’s okay, it was shipped to my door in less than 7 days and it was pretty cheap. I installed it and it seems to work (windows runs) . But it has the wrong Bios on it. It doesn’t recognize my CPU, WiFi module and some keys are not working. So I belive that this mainboard has a ‘chineese’ or whatever version of the Bios on it. (it is exactly the same mainboard as the original (same product, serial and HP replacement number)). So I downloaded the bios from the compaq website. But not matter what I try, it wont flash because the stupid flash program thinks it is the wrong bios file for the wrong PC (recognizes the wrong bios on the board and wants to flash the same crap only on it). But it’s not.
I don’t know how to use the swinflash.exe in vista to force it to flash. ANOYING ! And I cannot find a dos flasher that runs of from an USB stick…
I am so close to get this notebook running again…