Home
In this guide I explain how to remove and replace the display panel from a HP Compaq nc6320 (nc6300 series) notebook. Most likely this guide will work for some others HP Compaq notebooks, feel free to mention your model in the comments.
Also you can use this guide for:
1. Replacing or upgrading the memory module installed in the internal memory slot.
2. Removing and replacing the keyboard.
3. Removing and replacing the cooling fan.
4. Cleaning the heat sink.
5. Removing and replacing the CMOS (RTC) battery.
STEP 1.
Remove the battery. Under the battery you’ll find two screws (red circles) securing the switch board cover. Remove these screws.
Remove the memory cover. Under the memory cover you’ll find two screws securing the keyboard. Remove these screws.
STEP 2.
Turn the notebook over and release four latches securing the keyboard.
STEP 3.
Lift up the keyboard and place it upside down on the palm rest.
Move the keyboard carefully, it’s still attached to the motherboard via a flat ribbon cable.
Now you can access and replace the internal memory module. This laptop can handle up to 2GB RAM total, so you can install up to 1GB RAM module into each slot. You should use PC2-5300 SODIMM memory.
You can remove the cooling fan and clean the heat sink.
The CMOS (RTC) battery – a yellow battery on the left side from the keyboard connector. If your laptop sets default date and time after each reboot, apparenlty the CMOS battery is bad and has to be replaced. Simply unplug the old battery from the motherboard and plug in a new one.
STEP 4.
In order to remove the keyboard, you’ll have to unlock the connector and release the cable first. Very carefully lift up the brown part of the connector about 2 millimeters. The brown part must stay attached to the base.
On the picture below you can see the connector in the unlocked state. Now you can pull the cable.
Remove and replace the old keyboard with a new keyboard.
STEP 5.
Unplug the switch board cable from the motherboard.
STEP 6.
Lift up the switch board cover with a sharp object and remove it from the laptop.
STEP 7.
Remove four screws securing the display hinges.
STEP 8.
Release the Wi-Fi card antenna cables.
Unplug the video cable connector from the motherboard.
Remove two screws securing the display hinges.
STEP 9.
Remove the display panel from the laptop and replace it with a new one if needed.
You can find a new display panel using the HP SPS part number witch could be found on a sticker located close the video cable connector.
In my case the SPS part number is 413677-001. If you search by the part number here, you can find the whole display panel assembly (includes LCD screen, video cable, Wi-Fin antenna cables, inveter and plastic covers) or just a new screen.
If you find this article useful, please consider making a donation to the author. Thank you!
April 26th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
I had a few stuck keys on my laptop but didn’t know how to replace the keyboard. Thank you for the guide. A new keyboard is coming. I’ll replace it myself.
April 28th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Man U Amazing.Thank U very much for Your Guidness.Keep It Up.God Bless U.
May 16th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
hey there.love your site very good. I have a problem here.I have a 2100 compaq persario ..the problem is my monitor was working the other day.it was black but when i put a new mother board in..it went white.I look at the wire but it looks great.dont see nothing much wrong with it.Any sugguesting? If you can thank you donna
May 18th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
This article is very helpful.
Thanks.
May 23rd, 2009 at 8:59 pm
Awesome guide! You really know what your doing there man! I appreciate it. Thanks a ton!
Keep the good work up!!!
May 24th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
I have an HP zv6000 series laptop. The display cover does not stay in an upright position but the display panel does work. I noticed a small crack in the outside cover where it attaches to the hinge. I can’t seem to find info on your website regarding this issue 1). how do I remove the display cover? 2). where can I get a replacement cover / hinges? 3). Should I have someone else do it?
May 24th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
J.Fisk,
Apparently one or both display hinges are broken.
You can take a look at these instructions for HP Pavilion zv5000 notebook, should be pretty similar.
Also, you can read through the official service manual for Pavilion zv6000 notebook from HP website (it’s a pdf file and might take some time to load). They explain how to replace the whole display assembly.
You can find new hinges on eBay for about $25.
This is up to you. It’s not very difficult but…
June 12th, 2009 at 6:24 am
Is there a guide to getting to the motherboard? Or is the motherboard in one of these pictures? (if so which one?)
July 1st, 2009 at 7:08 am
I was referred to this site because I purchased new 1GB sticks for my HP Pavillion dv8125nr notebook, and I can’t find the exact configuration explained anywhere…not the HP Manual, which I downloaded, or any other site except those that show me models that don’t have the same setup. I can surmise that the memory modules are beneath a cover, I remove the cover and see two compartments, one is the mini-PCI communications device, and hopefully, the other contains the memory modules. There are two screws which appear to be those that one would loosen to remove this memory shield, but with strong-arming the shield, it won’t come off.
July 1st, 2009 at 7:31 am
Ricardo,
Apparently you downloaded a wrong manual. You’ll find instructions for accessing and removing both memory modules in this maintenance and service guide. You are correct both memory slots can be accessed from the bottom and located close to the Wi-Fi card. Check out the service guide on the page 98.
August 24th, 2009 at 6:18 am
I have a nc6320 that needs the screen replaced. By chance do you know what size torx screwdriver you need to remove the screws under the battery securing the switch board cover? Thanks for the how-to!
October 18th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Came across this site and Glad I did saved me hours on ..trial and error …technics.
Hope donation helps as much as you helped me
October 18th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Alex,
I’m glad to help. Thank you for your generous donation!
November 6th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Thank you
November 23rd, 2009 at 5:39 am
Can you please show a photo of the back of the keyboard. I want to know if its worth removing it to clean the keys.
November 27th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Krisjan,
You will not be able to access keys from the back of the keyboard.
December 18th, 2009 at 7:20 am
how do i replace the two usb ports on the left side of nc6320
December 18th, 2009 at 9:21 am
steve,
I believe these USB ports are soldered directly to the motherboard. It’s necessary to remove the motherboard, unsolder damaged ports and replace them with new ports. Finding new USB ports could be (and will be) a problem. I doubt that you can find them.
Using a USB PCMCIA card could be a good cheap alternative.
February 11th, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Thanks, your step by step instructions really helped me to clean my fan, due to dust it was making loud whirring sound, but now the noise is normal. Thanks for posting this instructions.
March 8th, 2010 at 7:49 pm
I broke my sons DC connection on his nc6320 laptop, can I buy a docking station to charge it. Instead of replacing the motherboard or the dc connector.
March 11th, 2010 at 8:50 am
Thanks to whoever wrote this article, as it has just saved me heaps of cash and a great deal of time. I had a keyboard that was falling apart and with your help I have replaced it & as you can see it works fine.
Many thanks
Gerry
April 6th, 2010 at 11:48 am
It is always nice to have nice pics to go along with directions for the imagination impaired. I would like to replace my display with a higher resolution display. Do you happen to know where I can get a direct replacement with a higher resolution?
ACE
June 26th, 2010 at 9:55 am
Hey Man,
Your site has saved me a hours of trying to replace my nc6320’s LCD panel when I couldn’t find anything on HPs site. You’re a lifesaver. Please keep up the great work. I have referred others to your site. Thanks a million.
July 22nd, 2010 at 5:27 am
can i change my wga low resolution screen/display assembly for the higher resolution swga display by a simple swap without changing the video card or motherboard?
July 22nd, 2010 at 1:31 pm
marcus,
Not sure about that. If you change LCD and video cable, it might work.
August 2nd, 2010 at 7:44 am
Hi,
i have these same model of laptop (NC6320) The problem is when i turn on its keep restart every 5 secs… They said motherboard is the problem. Please help me…Thanks
August 11th, 2010 at 12:07 pm
Ryan Marcelo Says:
August 2nd, 2010 at 7:44 am
Hi,
i have these same model of laptop (NC6320) The problem is when i turn on its keep restart every 5 secs… They said motherboard is the problem. Please help me…Thanks
Here’s my opinion on checking out your issue Ryan…. Read these notes FULLY before starting anything… The resolution could be simple, and you don’t want to blow anything away or do anything you don’t need to…
– Things to narrow down the issue.. First, If you’ve got a Windows or Linux CD, boot the system from that, and see if the pc stays up and running for longer. You may want to pull the hard drive out before this test to narrow down the issue. If it stays up, the hard drive or OS may be the issue. Another check is to bring it up and F10 it into CMOS and see if it sits at that for a while (longer than the 5 seconds..). Another issue could be a BIOS problem, (or CMOS battery issue – you could disconnect the battery and see if the issue changes.. this will clear you cmos also, which could have a bad setting – reset to defaults, just in case, and reboot.) and you may want to go to HP and see if they have a flash bios update. (there are a few ways of running them, but the easiest are the one run from inside windows… if available and needed, which may require an OS reload..) Final Option: If it hasn’t got data you want, blow it away and reload, (format the drive in the process). Although, you could just find a USB drive, pull your hard drive out, and boot from a CD and temporarily load a windows OS on the USB drive to do this process.. (I wouldn’t register anything on that windows OS so you don’t bump licenses and shaft thyself though..) (Linux won’t allow you to do the bios updates, I believe, but I’ve been wrong before..maybe under Win for Lin or something…) I had a similar issue and booted my system with a Linux (ubuntu) cd and was able to run from that, which told me moreso that my hard drive OS load was hosed. Another issue could relate to the memory. If the issue still occurs after the other tests, and before doing any destructive tests (blowing away the OS, etc.) you may want to pull all but one memory chip and see if it comes up, if not, swap that chip for the other, and try again. (actually, either way, swap it and boot it again to make sure both work fine) A little due diligence never hurts.. If it’s the motherboard, someone may have a system they dropped and blew out their display, and you might be able to pick it up cheap. (although with an impact, the motherboard may be damaged… you never know. If the OS is the problem and you need the data and have to reload the drive, pick yourself up a 2.5 inch hard drive to USB enclosure and (first make sure you have up to date AV on the second system!) connect the usb drive to a second system, scan it for virus’ and then back up your data to the other PC. If the problem is the motherboard, take the writer of the articles advice and be wary of static, and take off any metallic jewelry (rings, bracelets, etc… anything that might give you a electrical short.), and remove the system battery and power before beginning. I hope this info doesn’t confuse you. I just happened to be looking for a written up script for replacing batteries for my techs to review. Peace and good luck, SA – network engineer
August 25th, 2010 at 8:20 am
Thanks, this was exactly what I needed to do. Clear, easy to follow.