I can't disassemble my g73fh without breaking something...

*g73jh

I would be eternally grateful for any advice. My hard drives keep failing; first my secondary then my primary. I think it's just the cable gets loose from my pressing down on cable between the disk controller and the logic board.

I've broken off the small black tab that connects different ribbon cables. The first is for the buttons at the top left of the keyboard and they caps/num lock light, that black piece flips up and down on a hinge. The second is for the keyboard led back light, that black piece pulled in and out and one of the arms broke off.

This last time all hell broke loose. I started it up after attempting to reset my disk cables again and smoke came out of the power button/ac plug. I couldn't see any damage but when i tried to turn it back on, my laptop kept resetting after the asus logo screen. A couple times the screen would turn blank, all the lights would be off but the fans would keep running. I could open the bios and boot list but that was it.

I took my laptop apart again and the only thing i noticed was a scorch mark on the cable and the end of the cable for my touch pad was messed up, I tried to scrap away the black crap from inside the connector and replaced the wire. Then I pulled the battery on the logic board for a minute and hooked everything back up. I was still rebooting after the asus screen. I'm not sure if it happened when i pulled the battery or before, but I also lost all light from my computer, nothing from the power button, nothing from any of the icons on the front of the laptop.

I then tried a windows install disk, it worked. I just used it to install the intel drivers then windows booted right up. My touch pad is not working, as well as the two other cables that I broke the latch off of the connector. Also the light from the power button and the lights on the front of the laptop are not working.

Please advice me

 

Golly gosh I think the silence you have faced since posting is out of respect from the other members on the forum!

Firstly time is of the essence it is easy to panic go back in and break something else and you appear to have made a good attempt at breaking most connections. However you have strangely not broken the Audio cable connection which is impressive

The little plastic holders that lock the cables into place can be bypassed by just inserting the cable and applying tape to hold it secure. The HDD SATA ports are built to the mobo I am unsure what black cable you are referring to however in the area of the touchpad you have two.

In the picture below the Yellow cable is the touchpad connection and this is always very tight and can be a pain to get in properly, if you have broken the connector you will need to tape it very securely. The Red is the audio board cable left side and the subwoofer.

​

In regards to the keyboard and the lights on the top again these slot into the motherboard by the cables built into the top casing. The Keyboard the same however if you have broken a cable on the keyboard it would be easier to just buy a new one. In regards to the smoke coming out this could be something simple or major if you have fully shorted the board you could not only have blown the components but you may never get it working correctly if certain sections of the board are damaged. Normally a short should not cause smoke it should not turn on or switch off so for smoke to come out something is or was not right with it but without being able to see the laptop it is difficult to diagnose, if anything be careful.

If you are within warranty leave it alone and send it straight in for repair.

 

That's too bad. Taking the lid off to replace HDDs would have been simple and not sure where you are, but HDDs are really cheap on NewEgg.

These laptops were not meant to be taken apart, Asus does everything possible to dissuade you from doing it. In future, if you want a laptop that you can disassemble and do maintenance yourself, make sure that laptop allows you to do that. Pretty much ALL laptops except Asus for gaming/high performance machines do... It's sad Asus is like that.

 

The G73JH are located directly under the panel unlike the G53 so it is a simple 2 screws and then 4 screws and they are out so I am sure the OP must have been trying to fix something else inside. I assume

 

Any advice on tape that has worked good for you? I've tried three and the cable keeps falling out as I close it :S might be that I'm applying the tape poorly.

I think you are referring to this comment: "I tried to scrap away the black crap from inside the connector and replaced the wire." I think it was burnt plastic or something. The cable that was inserted into it was damaged, a couple of the metal contacts were destoryed. After I scraped it, I was able to see the metal contacts in the connector. But a new cable didn't fix it

I thought that was the cable which connects to the small disk controller circuit board between the hard drives. I believe the touch pad connector is just above the audio cable. btw I was trying to reach the cable which connects into that hard drive disk controller board, one side gets tugged a bit because of how the cable is twisted. If it keeps happening I could either use tape or try a longer cable.

It wasn't a big cloud but it was thick and smelled strong...

The front leds for battery/hard drive/wifi aren't through the audio cable are they? Anyone mind telling me how they are connected? Or the light for the power button? I don't understand how they broke...

no warranty


Thanks for the replies ^_^

 

Any electronic cloth tape will do as long as it is strong enough to hold it in place.

No you mentioned that you think the cable came loose between the disc controller and the logic board, unless you mean the SATA port connection there is no other cable that will effect the HDD as mentioned above they are a simple plug and play replacement to change.

Sorry maybe you are right it has been a long time since I got inside my one that would explain your HDD problem if that is the cable that fried, the Red is definetely the audio board and sub. The touchpad slots in below the Audio plug however the cable to the left of the audio plug is a long strip that takes a left turn and that controls the 3 lights/buttons at the top left of the top casing.

From telling me that it does not fill me with anymore hope than before any type of smoke is bad is shows something has fried or melted and if it is just the HDD cable as you mentioned the black burn residue then just replacing that may help but it does sound as though there are deeper problems here. At this stage you have three choices.

1 - Attempt to fix it yourself using second hand parts or AsusParts
2 - Send it in for repair to Asus and pay them to fix it
3 - Learn from your mistakes and sell it as spares/repairs and buy something new.

Personally, 3 for me

 

Is it possible to have one of those plastic connects on the board replaced? It might be possible there's no damage on that part of the board and the short was contained to just that plastic thing sitting on top of it...

Surprisingly my laptop has been running perfectly so far, excluding the obvious broken parts of course. Actually better than before, not a single crash. Also, I may have misspoke since I'm bad at communication, but there's no damage to my hard drives or their path to my logic board; I actually tried using electrical tape on that wire and bent it a different way back when I fried my laptop I'm hoping they won't act up again; if it does, I'll try a different tape and longer cable. Not that I'm looking forward to taking this thing apart again.