How to disassemble HP ENVY m4

posted in: 3. Compaq & HP | 18

HP ENVY m4 disassembly

In this guide I will disassemble a HP ENVY m4.

The full model number is: m4-1015dx.

STEP 1.

Turn it off, unlock and remove the battery.

Remove battery

STEP 2.

Remove one screw securing the hard dive/memory cover.

Push the battery latch all the way to the left (green arrow). The cover will slide down a little bit (yellow arrow).

Now you can separate the cover from the case and remove it.

You’ll have to apply some reasonable force to remove the cover.

HDD RAM cover

Under the cover you will find the hard drive and both RAM modules.

This laptop can handle up to 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3-12800 SODIMM RAM modules.

Memory and hard drive

STEP 3.

Lift up the hard drive and disconnect the SATA cable.

Upgrading this regular 2.5″ hard drive to a 2.5″ solid state drive will speed up the laptop significantly.

Disconnect hard drive

STEP 4.

Between the optical drive and RAM modules there is another cover. Remove it.

Under the cover you will find the wireless card and CMOS battery.

Wireless and CMOS batteryt

STEP 5.

Remove one screw securing the optical drive.

Pull the drive to the left and remove it.

Remove optical drive

STEP 6.

Disconnect both antenna cables from the wireless card.

Disconnect antenna cables

STEP 7.

Remove two screws securing the wireless card and pull it out.

Remove wireless card

STEP 8.

Remove two screws securing the keyboard.

Keyboard screws

STEP 9.

In order to remove the keyboard you’ll have to push on the back with a plastic stick (or something else).

You will find an opening in the case close to the CMOS battery.

Push on keyboard back

STEP 10.

When you push on the back of the keyboard, the front will separate a little bit from the top cover.

Insert your fingers under the keyboard and continue removing it from the case.

Lift up keyboard

STEP 11.

Separate the keyboard from the top cover and turn upside down on the palm rest.

Continue removing keyboard

STEP 12.

Now you can access and disconnect two cables.

Keyboard cables

Here’s how to disconnect the data cable.

Lift up the right side of the connector retainer with your fingernail. It will open up at a 90 degree angle (green arrow).

Pull the cable out of the connector (yellow arrow).

Unlock data cable

Disconnect the backlight cable the same way.

Lift up the retainer and pull the cable.

Unlock backlight cable

STEP 13.

Remove the keyboard completely.

Remove keyboard

STEP 14.

Remove screws from the bottom of the laptop.

You will find two screws under rubber feet (green circles).

Remove bottom screws

Here’s how to remove the foot. It’s glued to the case with sticky tape.

Lift up feet

STEP 15.

Remove seven screws securing the top cover/palm rest assembly.

Disconnect the touchpad cable.

Disconnect top cover

STEP 16.

Start separating the top cover from the bottom case.

I’m using a guitar pick for that.

Separate top cover

STEP 17.

Continue separating the top cover in the palm rest area.

Lift up palm rest

STEP 18.

Remove the top cover assembly.

Remove palm rest

On the bottom side of the cover you can access the finger scanning device and touchpad.

Finger scanner and touchpad

STEP 19.

Disconnect the following cables:
1. Display cable.
2. Speaker cable.
3. Optical drive cable.
4. Power connector cable.

Disconnect motherboard

Here’s how to unplug the display and optical drive cables. Lift it up by the black belt.

Unplug display cable

Here’s how to unplug the speaker cable. Do not pull by the wires.

Unplug it by the connector edges.

Unplug speaker cable

Here’s how to unplug the power connector (DC jack) cable.

Unplug power connector cable

STEP 20.

Remove three screws securing the motherboard.

Motherboard screws

Before you can remove the motherboard from the case, make sure the hard drive SATA cable is disconnected.

Unplug the cable from the motherboard and remove it.

Disconnect hard drive cable

STEP 21.

Start removing the motherboard as it shown on the following picture.

Lift up motherboard

STEP 22.

The motherboard has been removed from the bottom case.

Remove motherboard

STEP 23.

On the other side you can access the cooling fan assembly (fan and heat sink).

Cooling fan

In order to remove the cooling assembly you’ll have to remove five screws and disconnect the cable.

After that you should be able to lift up and separate the assembly from the motherboard.

Remove fan assembly

In HP ENVY m4 laptop the power connector is attached to a cable.

In a case of failure it can be easily replaced.

In order to remove the connector you’ll have to remove two screws securing the shield.

Power connector


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18 Responses

  1. Elizur

    Thank you very much! I found my HP Envy very difficult and scary to open but your tutorial made it very easy. I will donate but dont have any money right now. I promise though that as soon as I get I will. I love people that are ready to help others progress and this site seems dedicated to that. Thank you again very much!

    My fan stopped working and started making ver loud noises this morning. After many minutes of searching i stumbled upon your site with some skepticism because i prefer video tutorials to just pictures but like I said it was very easy to follow. It took me about 4 hours to complete opening and closing but it was very very easy. Thank you once again.

  2. Tami

    Is it really necessary to disassemble the whole thing to get the fan out?

    • IML Tech

      @ Tami,
      Yes it is. The fan is mounted under the motherboard and there is no easy way around.

  3. Sean

    Thank you for this. It’s rare to see this detailed of steps for disassembling a laptop. I didn’t need it, but you should also cover opening the screen casing. Thanks again!

  4. Guillermo

    Muchas gracias por tu tiempo, me sirvio bastante!! buen dia, dios te de mas

  5. Julia

    Will this work for any HP envy model? I have the HP envy 15 touchscreen model

  6. Kathie Bushman

    Great tutorial! I had an extra piece though. It’s a small rubber piece (about 1/2 X 1/4″). I think it’s some kind of spacer. It has a couple tips on top? Hard to describe. I think it may have been taped to the top of the thermal fan on the side? I think it came off and fell in the fan and created my fan problem. We’ll see once I reassemble.

  7. Ricardo

    Could someone help me please?
    Someone knows which ones is the connector from the webcam?.
    Because after assemble my pc the webcam stopped working, but everything else works fine.
    Thank you so much.

  8. Cris Estefes

    Gracias, hoy en la mañana derrame un poco de jugo y estoy un poco preocupado por los daños que pueda sufrir.

  9. Omar S.

    Hi, i have this Laptop and is not detecting the ethernet port (in device managment, windows 8, 8.1 and 10) is there a way to replace it or is soldered?

    Thanks in advance.

  10. Bryon May

    Hi.
    Great service which I’ll be happy to donate to. A?.
    About a day and a half after having my hp envym4 “cleaned up” professionally it suddenly stopped working and a “dialogue screen” came up. Only for 5-10 seconds but the main point was that my internal battery had failed. The page shut down and the laptop will not respond even when plugged in.
    Can’t seem to find an “internal” battery for the laptop when I refer to it that way. Have home computer services been known to create problems for dishonest purposes? I used Computer Doc for the visit. The tech was at my office for 4 and 1/2 hours.
    Thanks for your service. If I can fix this w/o going back to Computer Doc you’lol hear from me re a fair donation.

    Bryon May
    I’ll try “cmos” as a reference for the battery.
    Is that the “cmos” battery you described in your tutorial and could

    • IML Tech

      Bryon, the internal battery is CMOS battery shown in the step 4. It’s easy to replace and available in any local electronics store.

  11. Will Hobbs

    Your tutorial was almost perfect. I had a fan fail on my HP Envy m4, and I use it for recording. The fan would make lots of noise when it worked, and occasionally, the laptop would shut off without warning. Not good when you’re in the middle of recording something. I bought a new fan, and with the help of this excellent tutorial, I was able to replace it in 2 (somewhat nerve-wracking) hours. The laptop is totally silent now, doesn’t overheat, and I’m happy as a clam. The only thing your tutorial left out (aside form that little piece of rubber alluded to in an earlier comment) is that the heat sink assembly is taped to the fan, and has to be removed and taped onto the new fan. No problem at all. Thank you. I’d investigated buying a new laptop, but none had all the features that this one had, so it is a relief to be able to continue using it.

    • Bryan

      I’m replacing the fan now and am struggling with re taping it to the heat sink. Thanks for great tutorial.