[silvergoat]

So I just opened up and disassembled my first laptop and managed to put it back together---- for the most part.

In the past week or so I had been working on a friend's laptop and I was about to junk it since I could not get it to stay on long enough for an OS install.

I found a few things-

I need a set of very small screwdrivers- Have small ones already, but they are low quality and some screws are smaller and they need a very shallow philips head and I need a screwdriver that is strong enough not to strip and wear that very shallow point.

I also discovered that I either need to learn to resize my hands or I need some kind of tweezers or extensions to grip the "ribbon" type connecters that have literally no slack to put back in place when re-assembling.

Can someone chime in with some tips?

The reason I post is that I got the laptop working, but the wi-fi adapter isn't being recognized during the driver install and 2/3 USB ports don't work (this one I know for sure is a ribbon because they worked before, but I removed the dangling adapter because it was interfering with the insertion of the other ribbons during reassembly) I guess I couldn't get that one back in well enough during reassembly.

Overall there were 2 ribbons I had a terrible time with (because it seems that they are put together with the keyboard out of the way, and I could not figure out how to remove it since it seemed to be held in with melted plastic rivets) and only 2 issues.

 

[etaf]

Re: Laptop repair kit?

you may be interested in this web site
Disassemble, repair, take apart, upgrade, clean Toshiba laptop or notebook yourself.

 

[silvergoat]

Re: Laptop repair kit?

you may be interested in this web site
Disassemble, repair, take apart, upgrade, clean Toshiba laptop or notebook yourself.

great site to reference, thanks!!

I found a video on youtube earlier that showed a top panel above the keyboard---sure as can be, it was there and I removed it, allowing access to 2 screws holding in the keyboard- after I removed the keyboard, I was able to set the ribbons in place correctly and I fixed the USB ports.

The only problem left is that no wifi is detected even though the adapter is there, securely in place.

 

[etaf]

Re: Laptop repair kit?

check the aerial connections to the wireless adapter , also if you can take it out and put it back in a couple of times - just to clean off the connectors and also make sure it is seated correctly

 

[joeten]

Re: Laptop repair kit?

Here is a tool kit which is usefull About.com: http://www.streettech.com/archives_DIY/stToolkit.html as a starting point you will find many other tools to add to it as you go along like jewlers precision screw drivers, and they vary greatly in price About.com: http://www.streettech.com/archives_DIY/stToolkit.html

jewelers precision screwdriver set - Google Search

 

[silvergoat]

Re: Laptop repair kit?

I've got most all of those tools listed on that page-

Problem is with the really small stuff. I may have to look at those jewelers tools....they probably get small enough to use.

 

[joeten]

Should do ok