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In this guide I explain how to disassemble a HP Compaq 6730s – 6735s notebook and remove the cooling fan which is mounted under the motherboard. Basically I will take the whole notebook apart and remove all internal components one by one.
Why wouldn’t HP make a door for the cooling fan? Why should it be so complicated to replace the cooling fan?
Let’s start to disassemble the notebook.
If you need new replacement parts for you HP Compaq 6730s-6735s notebook, you can find them here.
STEP 1.
Remove the battery.
Remove covers from the hard drive, wireless card and memory.
STEP 2.
Remove one screw securing the DVD drive (red circle) and pull the drive from the notebook.
Remove memory modules (in my laptop I had only one module installed).
Remove the hard drive, you’ll find details instruction on the sticker glued to the hard drive caddy.
Unsnap two antenna cables from the wireless card. Remove two screws securing the wireless card (green circles). Remove the wireless card.
STEP 3.
Remove five screws securing the switch board cover (red circles).
Remove two screws securing the laptop keyboard (green circles).
Remove eleven screws securing the laptop bottom cover (yellow circles).
STEP 4.
Lift up the switch board cover. You can separate the switch board cover from the bottom cover with a piece of soft plastic. I’m using a guitar pick.
Be careful, the switch board cover is attached to the motherboard. Do not pull the cable from the connector yet.
STEP 5.
Lift up the keyboard and place it on the switch board cover so you can access the keyboard cable connector.
The keyboard is connected to the motherboard via a flat ribbon cable. Before you pull the cable and remove the keyboard, you’ll have to unlock the connector.
On the picture below you can see the keyboard connector unlocked. Now you can pull the cable and remove the keyboard.
STEP 6.
After the keyboard has been removed, you can release the switch board cable and remove the cover.
STEP 7.
Remove four screws securing the notebook speakers.
Unplug the speaker cable from the motherboard.
Remove both speakers.
STEP 8.
Release the wireless card antenna cables.
Unplug the webcam cable from the motherboard.
Remove four screws securing the display hinges (red circles) and one screw grounding the video cable (green circle).
STEP 9.
Lift up and remove the display panel assembly.
In the next guide I’ll explain how to get inside the display panel and remove/replace the web camera module.
STEP 10.
Remove two screws securing the top cover assembly.
STEP 11.
Carefully lift up the top cover assembly.
Be careful, the touch pad cable is still attached to the motherboard.Release the touch pad cable and remove the top cover assembly.
STEP 12.
Now we can access the motherboard.
Unplug three cables pointed with arrows.
Remove three screws securing the motherboard.
Lift up and release the RJ11 (modem) jack.
STEP 13.
Start removing the motherboard from the laptop case.
The motherboard has been removed.
STEP 14.
Finally, you can access and replace the cooling fan.
Simply remove one screw securing the cooling fan to the laptop base and replace it with a new one if needed.
If you are replacing the motherboard you’ll have to transfer some parts to the new board.
Transfer the DVD drive connector, modem card, heat sink, processor and modem cable.
July 2nd, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Joe,
Most likely you can but I’m not sure which one you can use. I don’t think that upgrading the CPU will boost the laptop performance a lot, you might never see any improvement at all. Instead of a very expensive CPU upgrade, max your RAM and install a faster (7200RPM) hard drive.
1. Remove the heat sink shown on the last picture.
2. Unlock the CPU socket by turning the screw into “Open” position.
3. Lift up the CPU from the socket and replace it with a new one.
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:16 am
Can you upgrade the CPU to a more powerful one? What is the procedure to removing the CPU from the motherboard? Thanks.
July 1st, 2009 at 8:37 am
Yolanda,
Spray compressed air into the fan, it has to rotate very easily. If it doesn’t, the fan has to be replaced.
June 30th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Great guide. The fan in my Presario A900 stopped working while blowing canned air into it. Thought maybe it was damaged and needed replacing. I just took the laptop apart and see a huge mound of dust (as well as more dust all around it) trapped inside the fan. Maybe this stopped the fan from working? Is there a way to test the fan (first) other than putting the whole thing back together and finding out that it is broken. Don’t want to disassemble this thing again.
June 13th, 2009 at 5:33 am
I have recently got one of these laptops and I’m looking to upgrade the memory. I have you used Sandra and CPUZ and it shows two memory slots. Slot 0 & 1 and the memory is in the slot 1 where you can easily replace. Is the other slot somewhere under the keyboard?
June 7th, 2009 at 9:24 am
hi I spilled ice tea on my laptop keyboard and everything turn off, i took it to bestbuy they they said i fried the mother board. is that true,and if i did what else would i have to replace to get working or eat my loses and another one. can’t afford to buy a new. AL
June 6th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Sean,
Can you pull the screw out using a magnetized screwdriver?
June 5th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
hello i haver the compaq presario CQ60 with the side keypad and i have a small screw in my fan. is there a easy way i can push it out?
May 25th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Ryan,
The LCD screen removal steps are very similar for most laptops. Basically you’ll have to remove the screen bezel, unplug the screen and replace it.
Check out the “LCD screen” category, you’ll find a lot of guides for HP laptops.
May 19th, 2009 at 4:55 am
I want to replace a cracked LCD. When I get to step 9 how do I go about removing just the LCD screen from the display case?
Thanks