How to completely disassemble the G73

This was at first intended to be a guide on how to do a swap for the 6970m in the G73JH, but there are still issues i'm working on so it may or may not end up working properly. I will add instructions for the 6970m if someone requests it or i manage to get it working properly.

Here are the tools i used including a heatsink to be modified to work with a 6970m. Note that you won't need all of those depending on what you are doing. You will not need metal working tools and a Dremel if you don't intend to do heatsink modifications. You won't need another laptop either, but it's great to check the forums and watch the video if you forgot something along the way.



You will need to disconnect the antennas on the wireless adapter. This should be done as soon as possible since you will need to pull out the cables later.

First follow this video up to the point where the motherboard is exposed by removing the palm rest area: YouTube - ‪BTOtech.com | G73Jh & G73Jw & G73Sw Disassembly Take Apart G73 g73jw service manual‬‏

Once that is done, you'll need to remove additional cables from the motherboard in order to take it out completely. The cables are circled in red in the picture below. WARNING: Do not under circumstances pull on the cables, you risk ripping them, the connectors are pushed very tightly in. You need to pull on the connectors themselves and expect some level of resistance from them. You can remove them like you did for the speaker cable in the video. If you rip those, you'll end up with non working fans, webcam/mic or led bar depending on which one gets ripped. You do not want non-working fans now, do you?



Once you have the cables out, remove the other ones live you would i the video. Those are the LVDS cable, the two cables going to the USB, LAN and audio ports on the left of the units, bluetooth module cable and the cable connecting the SATA board to the motherboard.

Remove the screws on holding the motherboard in place, one close to the LVDS cable and two on the right of the motherboard. Remove the 6 fan screws. There is a piece of black plastic tape covering the top of the fans and heatsink, remove it gently for each fan. You will want to put it back in place later on. Don't forget to pull out the antennas for the wireless.



You can now remove the fans. Pull them up gently and they should come out easily. You are now free to safely remove the motherboard. You will need to push the on the chassis where the VGA out is in order to bend it for removing the motherboard.

Once taken out, the bottom of the motherboard looks like this:



From there you can access the CPU and GPU easily. It is much easier to work on than with a partial disassembly. If you want to remove the GPU, there are two screws to remove. Removing the heatsink isn't necessary if you want to remove the GPU, but you'll have to place the motherboard high enough to be able to lift the GPU to disconnect it from the MXM socket.



The Asus 5870 is also larger than a standard MXM board.

If you want to try another GPU in it, you will need to modify your heatsink. Here are a picture of the standard heatsink along with one modified for a Clevo 6970m:



To take out the CPU, simply unscrew the heatsink that's on top of it. Once that is done, there is a screw on top of the socket you'll have to turn it (i don't remember which way though) until the CPU pops out. Do not under any circumstances try to pull out the CPU by force. Once it pops up, it should be easy to remove.