[rescue] Looking for tips and advice on laptop disassembly

[Carl R. Friend]

    On Sun, 24 Feb 2008, Mr Ian Primus wrote:

> Typically, to remove the display from a laptop, you
> need to remove the keyboard and the upper panel, above
> the keyboard (with the power button on it) I don't
> know this specific laptop, but you generally have to
> just pry out that upper panel.

    Thanks for the tips!  It took three small screws undone
from underneath the panel above the keyboard to remove said
panel, at which time the keybaord popped out by itself.  I
was then able to locate, and unhook, the two connectors for
the display.  Alas, however, I still can't get anything on
the VGA connector (or at least anything that my monitor will
recognise).

> Do you have a big hammer? <grin>

    That's pretty much what happened to this poor machine.  The
Wife got pissed one night and flung it down the front steps,
shattering the display (and CCFLs) in the process.  Amazingly,
the disk drive is OK (I've already repurposed that); I'd just
like to get as much of the thing semi-functional as possible.

    Here's what it's doing:  Immediately after inserting the battery,
the power LED lights up, the internal fan spins momentarily, and the
disk briefly spins up -- after that, nothing.  The battery seems to
take a charge, and the battery-status LED on the back of the display
changes colour to denote a full charge -- so the power bits seem to
be OK.  The lack of external video, I'm afraid, bodes ill.

+------------------------------------------------+---------------------+
| Carl Richard Friend (UNIX Sysadmin)            | West Boylston       |
| Minicomputer Collector / Enthusiast            | Massachusetts, USA  |
| mailto:crfriend at rcn.com                        +---------------------+
| http://users.rcn.com/crfriend/museum           | ICBM: 42:22N 71:47W |
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