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In the following guide I remove the motherboard from a Compaq Presario CQ50 laptop. Also this guide should work for Compaq Presario CQ 60/CQ70 and HP G50/G60/G70 laptops.
If you need replacement parts, you can find them here. Just search by the part name and laptop model.
Start laptop disassembly with removing the battery.
STEP 1.
Remove memory, hard drive and wireless card covers.
STEP 2.
Remove three screws securing the hard drive assembly.
Slide the hard drive assembly to the right, disconnect it from the motherboard and remove from the laptop.
STEP 3.
Remove both memory modules.
Disconnect two antenna cables from the wireless card. Remove two screws and remove the wireless card from the laptop.
STEP 4.
Remove one screw securing the DVD drive.
Pull the DVD drive from the laptop.
STEP 5.
Remove all screws from the bottom of the laptop.
Disconnect the CMOS battery cable from the motherboard.
STEP 6.
Carefully lift up the keyboard as it shown on the picture below.
STEP 7.
Access the keyboard cable connector underneath the keyboard.
Unlock the connector before removing the keyboard.
In order to unlock the connector you’ll have to move the locking clip (white) about 2-3 millimeters towards the LCD screen.
The locking clip must stat attached to the connector base (dark brown) as it shown on the picture below.
Now you can release the cable and remove the keyboard.
STEP 8.
Unlock the power button cable connector.
On the following picture you can see the connector in the unlocked state.
Now you can remove the power button board cable from the connector.
STEP 9.
Remove the plastic cover.
STEP 10.
Disconnect the video cable connector from the motherboard.
Disconnect the webcam cable.
Pull the wireless card antenna cable through the opening in the top cover.
STEP 11.
Remove screws securing the display hinges.
STEP 12.
Remove the display assembly from the laptop.
In the next post I explain how to remove the LCD screen, inverter board and hinges from the display assembly in HP G50/G60/G70 laptops. It’s similar for Compaq Presario CQ50/CQ60/CQ70 laptops.
STEP 13.
Disconnect the touch pad cable from the motherboard.
Remove screws securing the top cover assembly.
STEP 14.
Start separating the top cover assembly from the laptop base.
You can use a guitar pick in order to split the laptop case.
STEP 15.
The top cover assembly has been removed.
STEP 16.
Remove one screw securing the left speaker.
Remove the left speaker from the base.
STEP 17.
Remove four screws securing the motherboard.
Disconnect four cables from the motherboard.
STEP 18.
Remove the motherboard from the laptop base.
STEP 19.
Disconnect the cooling fan cable from the motherboard.
STEP 20.
Loosen four screws securing the cooling fan assembly.
STEP 21.
Remove the cooling fan assembly from the laptop.
STEP 22.
In this model the power jack is not soldered to the motherboard.
You can unplug the power jack cable from the motherboard and replace it with a new DC jack harness if it’s bad.
November 10th, 2011 at 3:50 pm
Hi Sir,
The DC jack in Laptop Compaq CQ50 Presario, has six poles in colors (Black, Orange, Yellow, Black, Red, Red). So please what is the voltage power of each pole when the input power is 220V AC..
Thank you..
November 2nd, 2011 at 2:09 pm
@ Tariq,
I’m not fixing motherboards on component level. If it fails, I replace the whole motherboard or advice my customers just buy a new laptop. Replacing the motherboard on some laptops is not cost effective.
November 2nd, 2011 at 1:33 pm
Hi Sir,
If you think that the problem is related to motherboard so which part of motherboard you think is most likely is damaged and can be repaired or replaced with new one?
Thank you..
November 2nd, 2011 at 10:43 am
@ Tariq,
It’s very unlikely that both memory modules failed at the same time, so I assume it’s not memory related problem.
I think this could be motherboard failure.
Just in case, test your laptop with another AC adapter if you can. It’s possible the AC adapter failing and doesn’t provide enough power for the laptop. Not likely but possible.
November 2nd, 2011 at 9:34 am
@ Thomas Fort,
You’ll find new replacement speakers here.
Also, you can go though the pictures and some of them are large enough to see the wire order: blue-white-red-black.
If moving the screen temporarily fixes the issue, probably this is cable related failure.
1. Could be bad connection between the video cable and LCD screen or motherboard. You can try reseating connections.
2. Could be failing video cable. You can try replacing the cable.
I don’t think this is graphics card related failure.
November 1st, 2011 at 8:33 am
My fiances has one of these I took it apart using this guide (to clean a half inch of dust from it) but made a mistake. I somehow broke the harness for the speaker wires so now I have to put them back not knowing which goes where. Can anyone tell me the order? Also great guide! Very helpful in the whole process. Also also the monitor will randomly artifact purple, green, random lines seems moving the screen back and forth fixes it but is this the graphics card going bad?
October 31st, 2011 at 10:11 am
I did what you said.. I removed both memories one by one and tested the laptop with each memory module separately but still same problem.. what do you think Sir. ?
October 29th, 2011 at 7:12 pm
@ Tariq,
Could be memory problem.
Most likely you have two memory modules installed. Try removing them one by one and test the laptop with each memory module separately. If one of them bad, the laptop will start with another one.
October 29th, 2011 at 2:13 pm
Thank you very much for these information. it is stunning explation. my Laptop Compaq CQ50 suddenly won’t turn on. I removed the battery and kept on charger.. but same problem.. please any help?
October 9th, 2011 at 4:05 am
update ive contacted a guy on ebay who was selling this mainboard and he was kind enough to send me a detailed pick of the chip its a ch8i-a15a was wondering if you knew of any where i could source replacement chip i think its just a 15 amp fuse because once i removed it from the board the laptop boots up ok but i would rather replace it than leave it with out the protection this chip provides, ive tried google but cant seem to find anything ;(