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In this post I explain how to remove and replace damaged keyboard in an HP Pavilion dv3500 (dv3000 series) notebook. It’s not difficult and if you are careful enough, you can swap the keyboard in about 10-15 minutes.
It’s possible that my guide fits some other HP Pavilion models in the dv3000 line. If the guide works for you, please mention the notebook model in comments after the post.
Before you start, turn off the laptop and remove the battery.
STEP 1.
Remove four screws securing the hard drive and memory covers. Remove both covers.
STEP 2.
One of the keyboard screws is located under the hard drive and it has to be removed.
In order to remove the hard drive, slide it to the left until the hard drive is disconnected from the connector on the motherboard. Now you can lift up and remove the hard drive.
It’s not necessary to remove memory modules.
Remove four screws (green circles) securing the keyboard.
STEP 3.
Carefully lift up the top side of the keyboard as it shown on the picture below.
STEP 4.
Move the keyboard in the direction shown by the yellow arrow.
Be careful, the keyboard is still connected to the motherboard.
STEP 5.
Turn the keyboard upside down and place it on the palm rest.
As you see, the keyboard is connected to the motherboard via two ribbon cables.
Let’s disconnect the small cable (Connector 1) first.
STEP 6.
Before you pull the keyboard cable from the connector, the connector has to be unlocked.
In order to unlock the connector, move the black clip about 2 millimeters in the direction show by two arrows.
On the picture below the connector is shown in the unlocked position. Now you can pull the ribbon cable from the connector.
WARNING! The locking clip (black plastic piece you move) must stay attached to the connector base. If you break the connector, you’ll have to replace the entire motherboard.
STEP 7.
Turn the keyboard over again and access the second connector.
STEP 8.
Unlock Connector 2 the same way you unlocked Connector 1.
Move the locking clip about 2 millimeters in the direction shown by two arrows. Pull the keyboard cable from the connector.
Again, the locking clip must stay attached to the connector base.
On my picture the connector is shown in the unlocked position.
STEP 9.
Remove the damaged keyboard from the notebook and replace it with a new one.
STEP 10.
You can find a new replacement keyboard by the HP spare part number printed on the sticker.
In my case the keyboard part number is 496120-001.
Some sellers reference by the keyboard model number and in my case it’s 492991-001.
You can find a brand new keyboard for HP Pavilion dv3500 dv3000 notebooks here.
June 27th, 2012 at 11:17 am
i use hp laptop dv 3000. my problem is when i use only one hour after than my laptop is to hot.
December 20th, 2011 at 1:59 pm
I just installed a back-lit replacement keyboard into what I think is a Pavillion dv 3000 (purchased in Australia). The HP product id tag underneath says dv 3500, however the label on top right the screen has Pavillion dv 3000. The tag number below has DV3540TX. I purchased a replacement backlit keyboard from the USA and installed as per the very helpful guide above.
The key bit was Monty’s very important tip to press FN+SPACE. I had almost given up until I noticed his comment this morning. Thanks Monty. Now I can finally use this otherwise great machine. The factory supplied non-lit bronze keyboard with black lettering was unusable.
November 18th, 2011 at 4:17 am
This is just to confirm that a backlit keyboard for a DV3500 will fit and work on a DV3000.
The job takes only about 5 mins as outlined by this article by Laptop Tech. The hard drive on my DV3000 is slightly smaller that the one shown above and so it does not need removing to get at the 4th keyboard screw.
The backlit DV3500 keyboard has white letters in place of the black ones of the DV3000 and completely transforms the DV3000 which was just impossible to use in low and medium ambient lighting.
Yay for Laptop Tech!
November 15th, 2011 at 7:45 am
@ anahuacv,
Just remove the keyboard and blow air into the fan. This should remove most of the dust from the cooling module and should be enough.
November 15th, 2011 at 12:44 am
Thanks for the link to the “disassembly instructions”, but opening the lap to clean up all the dust seems to demand a lot of effort, but I don’t have any other option than give it a try. I’ll try to capture the all process for further reference.
November 7th, 2011 at 4:13 pm
Hey, thanks for your kind reply.
Since writing my first comment, I stripped down the laptop following your instructions and saw there is indeed the connector for the smaller wire. My current keyboard is 496121 – B31 which is the standard non-lit international version. So I’ll have a look on ebay to see if I can pick up a backlit one.
Thanks for your great webpage Laptop Tech!
November 7th, 2011 at 3:40 pm
Monty,
Cannot tell. I guess you can remove the original keyboard and look if your motherboard has connector for the second keyboard cable. If not, probably you cannot use keyboard with backlight.
November 7th, 2011 at 1:58 pm
To turn on the backlighting on a DV3500 you use Fn + Space bar, I believe.
My question is can I fit a DV3500 keyboard to a DV3000, connect the second cable and get backlighting?
February 28th, 2011 at 4:34 pm
hi
my problem is different. my laptop is hp dv 3500. how do i turn on the keyboard backlit. the keys are really hard to see.
thanks
February 3rd, 2011 at 7:19 pm
I have a question about replacing the touchpad (mouse) and buttons on my laptop. Is this possible? difficult? It just moves by itself and one button is really loose. I have a hp dv5.
thanks. P.