How to Take Apart a Laptop

For whatever reason, you need to take apart your laptop. Here's how to do it, without losing any pieces (or ending up with extras)

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• A laptop
• Plastic baggies/small containers
• Permanent marker
• Small screw set

1. If you're under warranty, check with the manufacturer via telephone before you begin. With most laptops, breaking into the case will void your warranty. If you aren't under warranty, just be sure to back up first.
2. Check the manufacturer's website. Every laptop is assembled in a different way, so you'll need to know the best order to take them apart in before randomly removing screws. Almost all laptop manufacturer's make user technical guides available online, which give a step-by-step breakdown on how to remove each piece.
3. Remove the battery and remove the hard drive. Of all the things you absolutely must do, these are the most important. If everything goes terribly wrong with your fiddling, you'll still have your system and files intact.
4. While following the manufacturer's instructions, place the screws removed in a small baggie or container clearly marked with that piece's name (eg, "monitor", "keyboard"). If there is more than one screw type per piece, give it its own labelled baggie.
5. Put the laptop together in exactly the opposite order you took it apart, taking care to reconnect any cables, and using all screws for each piece.
6. Replace the battery, and boot it up. If it doesn't error, fail or explode, turn it off again and replace the hard drive.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep canned air and a soft, barely damp cloth nearby.
• If you use the nearly damp cloth to clean something, let it sit and dry before continuing (don't use the canned air - you'll just freeze the water)
• Ideally, you should wear a short sleeved cotton shirt - fuzzy sweaters don't go well with computers parts.
• Don't smoke while you're doing this
• Don't drink while you're doing this (alcohol or otherwise)
• Don't eat while you're doing this
• Ground yourself - either with a wrist strap or by touching a piece of metal.