The Disassembly of a Gateway 7330 Laptop
The Gateway 7330 laptop is a model number that refers to roughly a dozen similar designs using the same case. It was, for roughly three years, Gateway's price/performance leader from 2005 through mid-2008, and had several component refreshes in that span, usually upgrading the RAM or upgrading the processor or both. One good reason to disassemble Gateway 7330 laptops is to salvage useful components from them.
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Safety Considerations
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Always follow standard procedures when dealing with electrical devices: power the device down, unplug any power cables and unplug any USB devices, Ethernet cables or modem cables that may be plugged in. Remove the battery and wait a good fifteen minutes before proceeding further. These procedures from the manual for this laptop are to prevent static electrical discharges from damaging components on the inside of the machine; they can also prevent injury to you.
Removing the RAM and Hard Drive
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Once you've removed the battery, you can turn the laptop upside-down and remove the screws over the RAM access plate, and remove the RAM by sliding the clips apart and popping it up until the memory stick slides out. Two screws Mcover the hard drive access plate, and with them gone, you can remove the hard drive in its mounting bracket. This is the farthest you can go on disassembling the laptop without voiding Gateway's warranty.
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Removing the Keyboard and Accessing the Motherboard
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More recessed screws appear on the bottom of the laptop – unscrewing each of these in turn will allow you to remove latches that hold the keyboard on the machine. Sliding your hands under the top edge of the keyboard, you can press down to release the latches, and in doing so, slide the keyboard towards you until the top edge pops up. With the keyboard removed, you can access the motherboard. You can also disconnect the cables connecting the touch pad to the motherboard from this area.
Disconnecting the Display and Disassembling the Case
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A cable runs through the hinge area of the laptop that connects the cable to the onboard video card of the laptop and powers the display itself; this cable is usually gray or blue. It can be unplugged. Doing so removes the last electrical connection between the two halves of the laptop case. Once this is done, you can, with some effort, work the levers at the back of the hinge to pop off the laptop lid. Once this is off, you can remove the display unit through unscrewing the small screws inside the laptop. You can repeat the process, disassemble all parts of the case and convert the laptop into a set of spare parts.
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