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In this guide I explain how to disassemble an HP Pavilion dv7 notebook.
This is my first disassembly guide for HP pavilion dv7 series.
To be precise, I’m taking apart an HP Pavilion dv7t-1000 notebook.
UPDATE. READ THIS: I found that HP Pavilion dv7 notebooks come in different body types. If your laptop doesn’t look like one shown in this guide, check out my second complete HP Pavilion dv7 disassembly guide (for dv7-3000 and dv7-4000 series) or my third HP Pavilion dv7 disassembly guide (for dv7-6000 series).
The guide will show how to access both memory modules and hard drives if you are upgrading the notebook, remove most internal components, access and clean the cooling fan.
Before you start, turn off the notebook and remove the battery.
If you need spare part for your HP Pavilion dv7 notebook, you can search here.
STEP 1.
Remove (loosen) four screws securing the hard drive and memory cover. Remove the cover.
STEP 2.
Remove four screws securing hard drives (two screws per hard drive).
Slide the hard drive 1 to the left until it’s disconnected from the motherboard. Remove the hard drive 1.
Slide the hard drive 2 to the right until it’s disconnected from the motherboard. Remove the hard drive 2.
STEP 3.
Remove both memory (RAM) modules.
Disconnect two antenna cables from the wireless card. These laptop has three antenna cables but only two are used.
One of the antenna cables connected to the main contact on the wireless card and the second one is connected to the auxiliary contact. All three antenna cables are labeled.
Remove two screws securing the wireless card. Remove the card.
STEP 4.
Remove one screw securing the CD/DVD drive.
Slide the CD/DVD drive to the left to disconnect it from the motherboard.
Remove the CD/DVD drive.
STEP 5.
Remove all marked screws from the bottom of the notebook.
The green circled screw secures the keyboard.
Don’t forget to remove two screws hidden in the CD/DVD drive bay.
STEP 6.
Start separating the speaker cover from the notebook base.
You can use a guitar pick as a case cracker. Insert the guitar pick between the speaker cover and case and slowly move along the side.
STEP 7.
Lift up the speaker cover. Be careful, it’s still connected to the motherboard.
In order to remove the cable, you’ll have to unlock the connector first.
Move the brown clip about 2 millimeters in the direction shown by two arrows. The clip must stay attached to the connector base.
On the picture below the connector is shown in the unlocked position.
STEP 8.
Now you can remove the speaker cover.
STEP 9.
Remove four screw securing the keyboard.
STEP 10.
Lift up the keyboard from the base and access the cable connector underneath.
STEP 11.
Carefully unlock the keyboard cable connector.
Move the brown clip about 2 millimeters in the direction shown by two arrows. The brown clip must stay attached to the connector base.
If you damage the connector, the keyboard will not work when you assemble the notebook back together.
Well… I broke the connector. I removed thousands of laptop keyboards before but I broke this connector!
As you see, the left pin on the brown clip is missing.
No panic! I still can use this clip to lock the connector.
You’ll find more info here: Fixing damaged keyboard connector on a laptop motherboard.
STEP 12.
Pull Wi-Fi antenna cables though the opening in the cover.
Remove three screws securing the speaker assembly.
Disconnect the speaker cable (green arrow) from the motherboard.
STEP 13.
Remove the speaker assembly.
STEP 14.
Disconnect the video cable from the connector on the motherboard.
Remove six screws securing display hinges (three screws per hinge).
STEP 15.
Separate the display assembly from the notebook base.
In the next post I will explain how to take apart the display panel assembly and remove the LCD screen with inverter board.
By the way, it’s not necessary to separate the display panel assemble from the base in order to take it apart.
STEP 16.
Disconnect and remove the CMOS battery.
Remove all marked screws from the bottom. The green circled screw is hidden in the CD/DVD drive bay.
STEP 17.
Remove all screws securing the top cover assembly.
Disconnect the touch pad cable from the motherboard.
STEP 18.
Start separating the top cover assemble from the notebook base.
You can use same trick with the guitar pick shown in the step 6.
STEP 19.
Remove the top cover assembly.
Here’s the back side of the top cover assembly.
STEP 20.
Disconnect the USB and audio board cables from the motherboard (green arrows).
Disconnect the cooling fan cable from the motherboard (yellow arrow).
Remove four screws securing the motherboard.
STEP 21.
Lift up the right side of the motherboard as it shown on the picture below and disconnect the DC-IN jack cable.
STEP 22.
Remove the motherboard from the notebook base.
On the opposite side of the motherboard you can access the processor (CPU) when the heat sink is removed.
By the way, the best way to find a replacement motherboard is searching by the HP part number. The part number should be located on a sticker in the memory compartment. The HP part number looks like XXXXXX-001.
Here’s the notebook base without motherboard.
The USB board, audio board, cooling fan and DC-IN jack are mounted on the base.
The DC jack attached to a harness. New jack harness for dv7 notebooks available here.
In order to remove the cooling fan, simply remove two screws securing the fan.
As you see, the cooling fan is dusty and has to be cleaned.
UPDATE:
There are only two fans listed in the service manual for HP Pavilion dv7 series notebook. They are listed on the page 27.
488885-001 for laptops equipped with AMD processor.
480481-001 for laptops equipped with Intel processors.
One of the DIY-ers had trouble searching for a new replacement fan for her AMD notebook. After the notebook was disassembled, she found that it had an Intel fan installed.
Here’s her comment:
Forget the question I just asked…We opened up our laptop and found the fan for the Intel processor installed instead of the fan for the AMD…apparently these ARE interchangeable…FYI
Check out comments 29 and 30. Thanks to Liz for this information.
June 28th, 2011 at 2:03 pm
I had my laptop Hp pavilion DV7-126FWM updated from vista to win 7.. I am not sure that all things are working as they should and when i play my world of warcraft game the screen will freeze go black then show my desktop then the game will show back up, however it does not do this all the time.. I have been told could be my motherboard, video card,, not enough memory so i am a little at my wits end…. also i have my laptop up on a laptop holder with built in fan but when playing my game the whole left side of comp gets extremly hot.. can u possibly help me out here
June 25th, 2011 at 11:38 am
ENORMOUSLY helpful!!! THANK YOU.. My wife’s laptop runs like a charm now.. and is now the quietest computer in the house… Great directions. Really, I cannot say enough. Thanks again. Scot
June 15th, 2011 at 9:28 am
Wow thanks for this guide! i spilled soda on my laptop and i was able to take it apart and clean it and now it works just fine aside from a few sticky keys. without this guide i wouldn’t have been able to do it
June 6th, 2011 at 9:42 pm
This page has been of major help. My MB went out and through this page I was able to easily and properly disassemble that laptop and send my MB to this repair guy on Ebay and I got it fixed for $50 saving me hundreds. Thanks a lot for that. I feel obligated to donate a little something if you take donations. I have 1232nr which slightly different from this one. When I was putting it back together, there is this wire running from the Ethernet port beside where the charger plugs in and I can’t figure out where it plugs in on the MB. I took about 15mins looking for it and decided to give and not have the ability to use the ethernet port(I’ve owned the laptop for 2 yrs and I’ve only had to use it once). The problem is that now I don’t have the ethernet capability or wireless network capability. I expected the not to have ethernet capability but not wireless. Could the wireless not working be connected to the ethernet cable no being plugged in? And where does the wire running from the ethernet port connect to?
June 5th, 2011 at 9:05 am
@ 9ja,
Possible memory failure. Maybe one of the modules failed.
Try removing memory modules one by one and test the laptop with only one module installed.
June 2nd, 2011 at 3:45 am
hi. . . my hp dv7 wont boot. . . wen i turn on the power all i hear is the fan n the cdrom working. .. . the screen remains black, the harddisk dont work. . . but wen i removed the hdd and tested in noda laptop, it worked fine . . . wat could be the problem? n wat can i do???
May 26th, 2011 at 5:38 pm
Amazing! Tools required: Small phillips screw driver, credit card (worked better than guitar pick for me, was only hard part prying off speaker covering.) Patience.
Replaced a DC power jack I bought off ebay through your link for $6.95. Worked perfectly. Took me about 2 1/2 hours though! Had this guide up, and small pieces of paper marked with the number of each step, placed all the screws / pieces from each step on the associated piece of paper.
At the end, worked backwards.
Again, thank you, probable saved me $150.00.
May 24th, 2011 at 3:22 pm
John
have you tried putting the drive in a usb inclosure? then run a chkdsk or sfc /scannow?
sounds as if the os partition is corrupt. Let me know if you have fixed it.
May 22nd, 2011 at 4:23 pm
( or you can see the part im talking about on step 8 ) *
May 22nd, 2011 at 4:20 pm
Hey, im having a problem with the pin set on my power button cover( or you can see the part im talking about on step 8) the problem im having is that the pins cracked while i opened the pannel. im having a hard time trying to reconnect them but now i just want to figure out what pin(s) are the ones to turn the computer on. if you have any information on what pins that i need to repair the power button or if you know someone who could help me that would be great. thank you.