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In this guide I explain how to take apart a HP Pavilion dv6000 series laptop. I’ll be removing memory, hard drive, wireless card, CD/DVD optical drive and keyboard. Please use this guide at your own risk and only if your laptop is out of warranty.
In the next post I’ll be removing the LCD screen and inverter board.
STEP 1.
Turn off the laptop, unplug the AC/DC power adapt and remove the battery.
Remove screws from the memory and hard drive covers. Remove both covers.
STEP 2.
Lift up the right side of the hard drive and disconnect it from the motherboard. Remove the hard drive.
STEP 3.
Remove one screw securing the CD/DVD optical drive. Pull the drive to the left and remove it from the laptop.
STEP 4.
In order to remove the memory module, spread latches on both sides from the memory module. The memory card will pop up at a 20-30 degree angle. Carefully pull the memory module from the slot by the edges. Remove both modules.
There are two wires connected to the wireless card (Wi-Fi card). These wires are antennas. In order to disconnect the antenna cable from the card, grab the gold connector with our finger tips and unsnap it from the card.
Remove two screws securing the wireless card. Pull the wireless card from the slot.
STEP 5.
Now I’m going to remove the keyboard.
Remove three screws securing the keyboard bezel, I marked them with red circles.
Remove three screws securing the keyboard, I marked them with green circles.
By the way, if you are replacing the keyboard, you don’t have to remove memory, CD/DVD drive and wireless card. Simply go from the step 1 directly to the step 5.
STEP 6.
Turn the laptop over and start lifting up the bezel. Be careful, do not lift it up to far because there are wires connected to the bezel. You can see these wires on the last picture.
STEP 7.
After you release the bezel, you’ll be able to lift up the keyboard as it shown on the picture below. Leave the bezel attached to the laptop.
STEP 8.
The keyboard is connected to the motherboard via a flat ribbon cable. Before you pull the cable you have to unlock the connector.
STEP 9.
Here’s how to unlock the keyboard connector on the motherboard.
Very carefully move the connector locking tab to the direction shown by two red arrows using your finger nails. Move it abut 2 millimeters, not more. The tab must stay attached to the connector. All you have to do is release the cable.
WARNING! If you destroy the connector, the internal keyboard will not function anymore. You’ll have to either use the laptop with an external keyboard or replace the motherboard. The keyboard connector is permanently soldered to the motherboard.
After the cable has been released, you can pull it from the connector and remove the keyboard. Replace the keyboard with a new one if needed.
Here you can find new replacement parts for your HP Pavilion dv6000 laptop.
On the picture above you can see how the keyboard bezel is attached to the laptop. Be careful when you lifting up the bezel, you can accidentally disconnect the cables.
Static electricity can kill your laptop. I recommend wearing an anti-static wrist strap while working with internal parts of your laptop.
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November 4th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
ellen-grieves,
Yes, in order to use the laptop with an external monitor you have to be able to turn it on first.
If the laptop is completely dead and there are no lights when you plug the AC adapter and push on the power button, check the AC adapter. Maybe it’s just a bad adapter.
November 4th, 2009 at 10:57 am
I have a problem with this model. It won’t turn on at all anymore and it’s been almost a month and I found no problems I could identify. I want to connect my laptop to an external monitor but doesn’t it need to be working for me to do that?
November 2nd, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Jeremy W,
It looks like in HP Pavilion dv6000 laptop the power jack is located on a separate power board and the jack is soldered to that board.
1. If you purchase the entire power board, you don’t have to solder anything. Just unplug the old power board and replace it with a new one.
2. If you purchased just the power jack, you’ll have to desolder the broken jack from the power board and solder the new one.
The complete laptop disassembly instructions could be found in the maintenance and service guide (click on the link).
October 31st, 2009 at 11:40 pm
Hi guys,
I have pulled my dv6000 apart twice now. I believe if you follow the manual and proceed with care its is quite easy. I thought I’d let you know what I did.
I had the wireless stop, then the display disappear, so the computer wouldn’t boot.
These are classic symptoms of a problem with the NVIDIA graphics processor chip.
HP know about this problem, they replaced my mainboard once, but didn’t connect the heatsink to the graphics processor, so it died again. It was now out of warranty so I decided to fix myself.
HP are completely uncaring, and totally unhelpful. So screw them.
I always wore my anti-static wrist band, to protect items like the RAM memory.
Once I had the main board out, I did a “reflow” on the graphics chip. This chip is the one not quite as big as the main AMD processor chip, and has NVIDIA printed on it.
The problem for me, and commonly for others, is the graphics chip overheating and coming un-soldered off the board. You can’t see this, as its underneath the chip, where it sits on little balls of solder that connect it to the board. The symptom may be intermittent red, blue or green tinges to the monitor before it dies.
The reflow involves getting the chip hot enough to remelt the solder and reconnect to the board.
There are plenty of guides if you google. I protected plastic parts on the board with foil, warmed the non-chip side of the board for a minute with a heat gun on low, then gave the chip area about two minutes with the heat gun on high. It is then important to let the board cool down completely before touching it again. I also made a disc of copper, by coiling thick wire, some people use a penny or similar, to put between the back of the chip and the copper heat sink. I also used lots of heatsink paste to get a good thermal link.
I think a solid piece here, rather than the silly piece of foam material placed there in manufacture, also helps press the graphics chip to the board and stop it rising off again.
So far this cure has worked for me. Do this reflow if you have nothing to lose. It could be hit or miss, but if your computer is dead anyway….
October 30th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Hello,
I have a problem with my Power jack inside my computer and i was wondering how to get to the braces that hold it on the inside off. I already ordered the part i need off ebay and also was wondering if i need to solder the new part to it also. So far i got the Bezel and keyboard off, but don’t know where to go from there. Thx for any help that you give.
Jeremy W