Take It Apart dot net

Thanks to Thomas Palmer, we have a winner in the contest for user-submitted disassembly guides. Here is Thomas’s disassembly guide:

Taking apart a Compaq Presario R3000

Background information: I have two Compaq Presario R3000’s. The screen on my first one broke, so instead of spending a crap load of money, I bought a second of the same laptop (cheaper model) and swapped the screens. I never took apart a laptop before and because of the lack of instruction on the Internet (like this), I had no guidance. Naturally I approached the problem the wrong way and almost messed up my laptop. Well, I finally figured it out and now I take it apart sometimes just for fun!

Since I am writing this on my good laptop I will demonstrate on the laptop without the screen. Oh, both laptops work, I just have to plug a monitor into the one without the screen.

The Screen!

Step 01: The Screws

The screws are located in the corners underneath the rubber/friction pads. Those can be removed by using your finger nails and pulling them out. Unscrew those screws with a medium sized Phillips head screw driver.

Step 02: The Faceplate

Once the screws are out you can remove the faceplate by sticking your finger nail between the plastic and the screen and pulling. Once that section is pulled out you can run your fingers around the faceplate to completely pry it away.

Step 03: The Screen Itself

There are six screws that need to be removed now, they are circled in red. These six places are at the top of the screen, the bottom of the screen and where the metal “arms” are attached to the plastic casing. Please note that when I did this originally I lost some screws, that is why you don’t see a few of them were there are circles.

Step 04: The Screen Connections

There are two things that need to be disconnected before completely removing the screen. The first item is the video cable which can be removed by pulling it out from the back of the screen. The second item is the power cable which can be removed by pulling it out from the power module thing. Both places are noted by red boxes.

An Overview of the Screen Deconstruction

The screen is pretty simple to take apart. If you really wanted you could remove the latch, but what is the purpose of that? Oh, I forgot to mention that on the sides of the “arms” there are screws connected to the screen. You might want to removed those too .

At this point you can now swap screens if necessary or replace it with a piece of cardboard it necessary. P.S.: I’m thinking about drawing some kind of funny pretend desktop, either Windows or OSX, anybody have any ideas? Thanks.

Now for the MORE FUN Part!

The Back Where All The Important Components Are Located!

Step 01: The Removal of the Battery and Hard Drive

To remove the hard drive, unscrew the two screws noted in the upper-right of the laptop. Please note that these two screws are attached to the case so they will not come out. Once those two screws are unscrewed, use your finger nail and place it in the groove and pull out. To remove the battery, slide the button up. When the battery ejects, remove it completely.

Step 02: The (Many) Screws

I counted 30 screws! That’s a lot! Anyways, all of those screws can be removed with a medium sized Phillips head screw driver. Please note that if you with to put this laptop back together you need to figure out some way to remember which screws go where. (There are two different length screws.)

Step 03: The (One) Screw

Once you loosen all the screws as shown in Step 02, you need to pull out the disc drive to access and unscrew the last screw to remove the back cover.

Step 04: The Speakers

To remove the speakers, unscrew the noted screw and unplug the wire where noted.

Step 05: The Heat Sink

To remove the heat sink you need to remove the four screws. These are special screws which have springs or shocks on them, why? I have no idea. However I suggest taking them off and putting them on in order as they are numbered. (Off: 4, 3, 2, 1; On: 1, 2, 3, 4)

Step 06: The CPU

To remove the CPU, get a small flat head screw driver and unscrew the screen on the CPU mount counter-clockwise one-half rotation. Now you can use your finger nail and place it between the CPU and mount to pull it away.

An Overview of the Back Deconstruction

The back was a little harder to take apart. If you really wanted you could remove the motherboard, but my head hurts and it’s late, plus you have no reason to remove it anyway. Actually, the only reason you might have to remove it is if it trash, and at that point I’m sure you could have a lot more fun that using a screw drive to take it apart .

Congratulations! If you have a laptop of this make and you successfully took it apart like I did: Kudos. If you really want to put it back together just reverse the same process. This is my first post here so I would gladly appreciate any comments or questions. Thanks.