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View Full Version : Not as tough as it looks



McGary911
05-03-2008, 09:55 AM
I've been having problems for a while with my laptop. My hp zx5000 is infamous for the female power socket on the mother board coming loose. HP fixed it for me 4 years back, but it still never worked right. I picked up a real beefy connector from RadioShaft, and set to work dismantling my laptop. Most important thing, I searched HP's site until i found the service manual for my laptop. http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00212209.pdf

I actually had to have one of the HP online chat people send me the link (of course they wanted me to send it in initially, but gave up and gave me the link).

A laptop is nothing like a desktop. Everything is super small, and you must know the process, or you'll break countless plastic tabs, and constantly be fighting the one screw that you didn't know held on the part you're trying to pry out. I took my time, and followed the instructions. Had to hacksaw a metal frame inside to fit my new connector. I cleaned out all the air passages in the fan shrowd. Tons of dust in there. My machine now runs about 15^ C cooler, and the noisy fan runs only about 1/4 as much as it used to. Put it all back together (no spare or missing screws), and making my first post on my non work laptop in quite a while.

Here's a pic of my blown up laptop.

My computer works better than ever. With the right docs, and a little patience, it's a project anyone with a touch of tinkering ability (most boat owners) can tackle.

Marlin275
05-03-2008, 11:00 AM
I cleaned out all the air passages in the fan shrowd. Tons of dust in there. My machine now runs about 15^ C cooler, and the noisy fan runs only about 1/4 as much as it used to..

My noisy old computer had dust and grime covering the back air ducts and as soon as I cleaned them off the fans slowed down and the machine is half as quiet . . who knew ?