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In this guide I will disassemble a HP 530 Notebook PC and remove the top cover assembly. I’m replacing the top cover assembly because one of the touch pad buttons is broken. When you press on the button it feels loose and sometimes will not click. The plastic button is a part of the top cover and when it gets broken you have to replace the whole top cover.
In order to replace the top cover I will have to disassemble the whole notebook. I’ll be removing all internal parts including hard drive, keyboard, motherboard, cooling fan and other key components.
It’s possible that my guide will work for some other HP notebooks. If it works for you, please mention the notebook model in the comments below and help other people.
First of all, turn off the notebook and remove the battery.
STEP 1.
Remove the memory and hard drive covers from the bottom of the notebook.
You will find the wireless card under the memory cover.
STEP 2.
Remove one screw securing the CD/DVD optical drive. Push the drive from the laptop with a small screwdriver.
Remove the optical drive.
STEP 3.
Pull the hard drive assembly to the left to disconnect it from the motherboard. Remove the hard drive assembly.
STEP 4.
When you replace the top cover, you don’t have to remove memory modules and wireless card, but it’s necessary to disconnect the wireless card antenna cables from the card.
Disconnect both Wi-Fi antennas from the wireless card.
STEP 5.
Remove eleven (yellow) screws from the bottom of the notebook. These screws are securing the switch cover (power button cover).
Remove two (red) screws. These two screws securing the display panel assembly.
Remove two (orange) screws. These two screws securing the keyboard.
STEP 6.
Turn the laptop over and start removing the switch cover. If you cannot separate the cover from the base, you can use a piece of plastic (I’m using a guitar pick).
Insert the guitar pick between the switch cover and base and carefully lift up the cover. Continue removing the cover with your fingers.
The switch cover has been removed.
STEP 7.
You removed two screws securing the keyboard in the step 5. Now you can lift up the keyboard from the base.
Place the keyboard so you can access the cable connector underneath.
In order to unlock the connector, you’ll have to move the brown locking clip towards the display panel. Move it about 2-3 millimeters, not more. The locking clip must stay attached to the connector base.
Now you can release the keyboard cable and remove the keyboard.
WARNING! If you break the keyboard connector, you’ll have to replace the motherboard.
Need a replacement keyboard for HP 530 notebook? Find a new keyboard here.
STEP 8.
Disconnect the video cable from the motherboard.
Pull the wireless antenna cable through the hole in the motherboard. You disconnected these cables from the wireless card in the step 4.
Remove two screw securing the display panel hinges. You removed two more screws securing the display panel in the step 5.
Remove the display panel assembly from the notebook base.
You can find the LCD screen removal instruction in the official service guide for HP 530 notebooks. Take a look on the page 49.
Search here for new LCD screens.
STEP 9.
Disconnect the switch board cable from the motherboard. Unlock the connector the same way as you unlocked the keyboard connector in the step 7.
Remove one screw securing the switch board.
Remove the switch board.
STEP 10.
Remove all remaining screws from the bottom.
STEP 11.
Disconnect the touch pad cable from the motherboard.
STEP 12.
Start separating the top cover from the notebook base.
Continue separating the top cover from the base.
By the way, in a HP 530 notebook PC the motherboard is attached to the top cover, not to the base assembly as a most other notebooks.
Remove the base cover.
STEP 13.
The base cover has been removed.
Now you can access and replace the RTC (CMOS) battery if needed.
STEP 14.
Remove one screw securing the cooling fan.
Disconnect the cooling fan cable from the motherboard.
Remove the cooling fan.
Here are replacement cooling fans.
STEP 15.
Loosen four screws securing the heat sink.
Remove the heat sink.
In my laptop the heat sink was clogged with dust and needed a good cleaning.
After the heat sink is removed, you can access and remove the processor (CPU) if needed. I’ll leave the processor attached to the motherboard.
STEP 16.
Disconnect the speaker cable.
Remove one screw securing the motherboard to the top cover.
Start removing the motherboard from the top cover.
The motherboard has been removed.
STEP 17.
The touch pad is attached to the top cover and secured by a metal bracket. I’m not removing the touch pad because when you buy a new top cover it comes with the cover.
Now you can replace the top cover assembly with a new one.
You can find a new top cover assembly (with touch pad) using the HP spare number. In my notebook the part number is 441626-001.
I think you can use the same top cover for all HP 530 Notebook PCs.
You can find a new or used top cover assembly here.
If you find this article useful, please consider making a donation to the author. Thank you!
August 5th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Well…
I got the whole computer apart and the fan and heatsink cleaned out… the processor popped out attached to the heatsink so I left it attached and re-installed the heatsink and fan.
got everything back together no problem and powered it up… no display, not beep, power light on and a amber/orange charge light…. the Wifi blue light would not stay on either. I really screwed up…
Can you offer any advice on what to check before I take it to a repair center? I dis-assembled the whole thing again and checked the LCD connector and still the same problem.
A friend said I may have installed the processor wrong, but it just fit easily by lining up the heatsink screws, so I thought this would be ok. Also, I did not clean off any of the compound for the heatsink from the video processor or the CPU.
Please let me know what I can do next to trouble shoot/…. thank you
Ed
August 4th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
Hello…
Do you have to removed all the screws and the display section just to remove the back cover to get to the fan ?? I cannot get the back cover off… please help !!
Your site is an excellent resource !
Thank you
Ed
August 2nd, 2010 at 2:15 am
Hi there, great tutorial. Quick question. I took out the touchpad with the intention of wiring it to a ps/2 cable to use it as a modded touchpad for a desktop pc. I removed the touchpad from the top cover (it was glued or something) Does the glue serve a function with regards to proper functioning of the touchpad or is it just to hold it in place? Will i be able to go ahead with my mod? because all i see on the toufhpad now is the green board with criss-cross wires on the surface. Thanks a million.
July 31st, 2010 at 3:25 am
I really can’t thank you enough. you are the man. I disassembled my notebook to clean clogged fan, and it was exactly as you mentioned. I got a problem though which is not related to the disassembling procedure, I have two banks of memory , one of them is not working anymore, do you have a clue what might be happening ?? is it a bad memory bank or what? to fix it, Do i need to replace the mother bored ? thanks
July 27th, 2010 at 10:05 am
Thank you very much for your help
I have a hp 530 and by following your indications I could clean the fan (which was really dearty) and now the computer is not making noise (silent at long last!)
Thanks very much
July 22nd, 2010 at 10:54 am
Asish,
Most likely this is LCD screen failure. You’ll have to replace the screen.
July 20th, 2010 at 9:02 am
I have HP 530 Laptop. From few days back I am experiencing a thin white colored vertical line on right hand side of my laptop screen…. I have tried to re-installing video driver and also cleaned up the screen very well but the line has still remain there….I dont know what should I do now. Please suggest me any solution and also an idea of replacing cost of the screen. I am from New Delhi. Waiting for your valuable response….
July 14th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
@ganesh #28
there’s a bios option that switches the fn and ctl keys. press f10 while booting
July 14th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
@Alex #29
remove the dvd drive and you should see where those two little screws go
July 13th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
I have the Hp530 and the laptop fan started to make noise. I was kind of afraid to do the whole process of taking the cooling fan out but i managed to take the keyboard out and from there I just used a brush and cleaned it out a little. After that I put it back together and vacuumed the cooling fan from the bottom of the laptop. After starting the laptop after half an hour, I noticed that the fan wasn’t spinning.
I was wondering if I should just replace it or is there a way to fix it?
July 12th, 2010 at 9:04 pm
Jay,
Make sure the memory modules are seated properly. Most likely you just didn’t install them correctly.
July 12th, 2010 at 7:54 pm
Hi I uprgaded this laptop’s memory and now the screen won’t turn on
Even when I switched back to the 512 the screen stayed blank. Basically the fan in turning on, but nothing else is. Is there anything I can do?
June 28th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
Mitch,
Check it out: http://www.laptoprepair101.com/laptop/2007/03/20/key-fell-off-keyboard/
June 28th, 2010 at 11:31 am
Please de F1 key from my hp550 fell off the keyboard i have 2 pieces of plastic but dont know how to put it back, need to know which pieces are connected to the key and into the keyboard, please please help me with this..
June 23rd, 2010 at 5:19 am
Hello, I have this exact model and I plan to upgrade CPU. Do you know the compatibility of this motherboard? Can you send me high def picture of cpu, so I can check version?
Thanks!
June 16th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
hi, do u know where I can buy H530 casing? also LCD replacement part. Thank you
June 6th, 2010 at 8:15 pm
Mike Moorcroft,
Yes, there is an easy way.
Find an air compressor and blow air into the fan grill on the bottom of the laptop until all dust gone.
June 6th, 2010 at 12:55 pm
This article helped me remove a jammed CD on my HP 550 laptop, by showing me how to remove the DVD drive. Unfortunately, it appears it is the drive itself that has the problem.
June 4th, 2010 at 7:14 am
My wife has an Hp530 which has just started to overheat and powerdown. The machine is 2 years old and we live in a very dust enviroment in southern Spain; is there an easy way to clean the fan and filters? I am technically competent but the disassembly process seems daunting and if I were to bugger it up my life wouldn’t be worth a sou. Thanks in anticipation
June 4th, 2010 at 5:31 am
hi,
Thanks for this tutorial; it came in extremely handy when I had to fit a replacement keyboard to my girlfriends Hp530. Which also may have saved me having to buy a replacement laptop.
Thanks again!
ps
I didn’t remove the wireless connections as I didn’t see how it would affect keyboard removal. Having tested it just now everything seems ok.
April 20th, 2010 at 4:59 am
Hi, I have a question, I have a bluetooth that I removed from my friend’s hp6720s. Can i put it in my hp530 T2400? Is there a place for that in my hp base?
April 13th, 2010 at 6:38 pm
George,
Here’s the best image I have.
http://www.insidemylaptop.com/images/HP-530-Notebook-PC/mobo.jpg
April 13th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
Hi again,
my laptop had the same power fault as Ben’s. The solder-through plate from the power in socket -pin had fractured right through at the base where it goes into the motherboard.
It was not hard to repair. I just removed the old broken off end of the plate by de-soldering it, pulling it out, and then bridged the back of the plate to the motherboard with the wire.
Now, if I could just get my headphone sound working.
Cheers…George S.
April 13th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Hi, thanks for the fantastic guide. My problem is my HP530 has no sound from the headphone socket. It had a broken off headphone plug in it when I purchased it from a friend, and he had tried to pick it out, and damaged the old socket in the process. After my first attempt I ended up with no more speaker sound at all but left side headphone working. I took the motherboard to a local tech who replaced the socket for me, but still no sound from headphones, but now speakers work again on laptop. I need headphones working on both sides. I’m wondering if a microscopic resistor or cap has been lost during the socket change-over.
Could someone please post or email me a macro close up of the motherboard in the sound socket area so I can compare the layout of the micro components. This might be very helpful…thanks. George S.
April 9th, 2010 at 9:40 am
Hi, thank you for taking the time to make this informative post. I took apart my 530 for cleaning (surprising how much gunk there was on the fan and the vent) thanks to your guide.
I must have rushed the reassembly though, as I ended up with two tiny screws left (different from all the others) :-S No idea where they belong. (I didn’t take the computer all the way apart like you did, either.) Everything seems to be working nonetheless, so I’ll stow them aside.
Cheers.
April 2nd, 2010 at 3:29 pm
DjDraid,
It’s hard to tell what this error message means. Could be memory failure, video card failure, motherboard failure.
Try memory first. Do you have two memory modules installed? Remove them one by one. Test the laptop with each module in either slot.
April 2nd, 2010 at 6:03 am
Hi!
I have a hp530, it’s almost the same as the one u have…
but I have a little problem, the god damn laptop won’t start. The “power” / “battery charging” light just blinks 8 times. Can anyone help me?
March 31st, 2010 at 3:42 pm
Benjamin,
Maybe the AC power adapter died while the laptop was working? The laptop worked until the battery discharged and turned off.
Can you test the AC adapter?
March 27th, 2010 at 3:28 am
Hi there,
Thank you for the very informative guide, my HP 530 gave up living a while ago and I fear I cannot fix it.
I tried having a look inside with the help of your guide but now I have it open and don’t know where the problem lies.
It starts here: one day during normal usage of my laptop it just cut out, turned itself off for no reason. Power was still plugged in etc. When I turned it on the charge light came on and it worked fine for a minute or two then powered down again.
A few tries after that showed a charge light but it only lasted for short bursts before dying again.
Now there is no charge light and not a sogn of life out of it at all, when inspecting the insides I found the fan to be a little clogged and cleared it, will this simple process have resovled the issue or could I be dealing with something else?
Thanks for your time and input,
Ben.
February 24th, 2010 at 2:33 pm
Mark,
Did you connect Wi-Fi card antenna cables shown in the step 4?
I pointed to the speaker cable in the step 16. Take a look at the yellow arrow.