Taking apart HP EliteBook Folio 9470m

posted in: 3. Compaq & HP | 5

HP EliteBook Folio 9470m disassembly

In this guide I will be taking apart a HP EliteBook Folio 9470m Ultrabook.

I will show how to access both RAM slots, remove the hard drive and keyboard.

Also, I will show a shortcut for removing the cooling fan and DC jack.

Make sure the laptop is turned off before you start the disassembly process.

You’ll need a small Phillips screwdriver and Torx 8 screwdriver.

STEP 1.

Unlock and remove the battery.

Remove battery

STEP 2.

Loosen two screws securing the hard drive cover.

Slide the cover to the left and remove it.

Hard drive cover

STEP 3.

Loosen four screws securing the hard drive.

Loosen hard drive screws

STEP 4.

Pull the hard drive assembly up by the black tab located on the top.

You’ll have to disconnect the hard drive connector from the motherboard.

I recommend replacing this regular 2.5″ SATA hard drive to a 2.5″ SATA solid state drive. Doing so will improve the laptop performance significantly.

Disconnect hard drive

The connector can be easily removed from the hard drive if necessary.

Remove hard drive connector

Also, under the hard drive cover you can get access to the mSATA slot and CMOS battery.

In this particular case HP EliteBook Folio 9470m came without mSATA solid state drive installed.

mSATA and CMOS battery

STEP 5.

Loosen five screws securing the bottom cover.

Loosen five screws

STEP 6.

Remove the cover.

Remove fan cover

Now you can access both RAM modules, Wi-Fi card and cooling fan.

This laptop supports up to 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3-12800 SODIMM RAM modules.

Access Wi-Fi and fan

STEP 7.

Loosen four screws securing the keyboard on the bottom.

Loosen keyboard screws

STEP 8.

In order to separate the keyboard from the top cover you’ll have to use a knife blade.

Insert the blade between the keyboard and top cover. Be careful. Try not to scratch the cover.

Removing keyboard

There are a few plastic tabs securing the keyboard.

You’ll have to disengage these tabs and lift up the keyboard as it shown on the following picture.

The official HP service manual shows a different keyboard removal technique on the page 55.

You’ll find a link to the official manual at the end of this guide.

Lift up keyboard

STEP 9.

Continue lifting up the keyboard while disengaging tabs.

Continue removing

STEP 10.

Separate the keyboard from the top cover and place it upside down on the palm rest.

Turn keyboard upside down

STEP 11.

There are three cables connecting the keyboard to the motherboard.

Access keyboard cables

Here’s how to disconnect two narrow cables.

1. Lift up the connector retaining tab with your fingernail (yellow arrow). The retainer will open up at a 90 degree angle.

2. Pull the cable from the connector (green arrow).

Disconnect small keyboard cable

Disconnect the wide cable the same way.

Open up the retaining tab (yellow arrow) and pull the cable out (green arrow).

Disconnect data cable

STEP 12.

Now you can remove the keyboard completely.

Remove keyboard

Here’s the laptop with the keyboard removed.

Top cover

STEP 13.

There are two screws securing the cooling fan.

Loosen one screw (red) and remove another (yellow).

Remove fan screws

STEP 14.

Disconnect the cooling fan cable from the motherboard.

Disconnect fan cable

STEP 15.

According to the HP service manual, you’ll have to remove the base enclosure in order to remove the cooling fan but here’s a shortcut.

Remove five shown screws securing the base enclosure.

Remove bottom screws

Now you will be able to lift up the enclosure just enough to get access to the fan.

Lift up bottom cover

STEP 16.

With the enclosure lifted up, pull the fan out of the case.

Now you can clean it up or replace if necessary.

Remove cooling fan

STEP 17.

Disconnect the DC jack cable from the motherboard.

Again, with the enclosure lifted up, pull the DC jack harness from the laptop.

Disconnect DC jack cable

The DC jack is ready for the replacement.

Remove DC jack


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5 Responses

  1. tom

    Well written, short, clear. Good instuctions, thank you !

  2. Carrie

    I have a HP Pavilion dv9000 laptop for some reason it says no software detected and that’s is far as it go’s I can’t seen to do anything with it.