Compaq V2000 laptop lid stuck!!!

Ok my laptop lid is suddenly stuck shut and I can't seem to pop it open. For a long time the lid hasn't latched properly...one side would latch but the other would not latch (seems this model was made poorly as I have always been very careful handling it) but today when I went to open the lid the side that does latch was completely stuck and I still have not been able to unlatch it. I tried sliding a coin into the stuck area and playing around with the unlatch button on the front but I am afraid of pulling very hard on the lid for fear of damaging the screen. Can anyone think of a way to unlatch the lid? Too bad there aren't any buttons on the outside (power button would be very helpful!) because then I could hook it up to an external monitor but right now my laptop is stuck in sleep mode until I can get the lid open and I have important documents on my hard drive that I do need to access.
Thanks
Dan

 

well short of taking the whole thing apart to get inside from under, i dont see any other way.....

if u need those documents, you can take the drive out and hook it up via an external usb enclosure

 

Thanks SideSwipe...I was afraid I would have to do some disassembly...anyone know where I can find a manual or something that would show me the easiest way to disassemble it from the back so I could access the place where the lid is stuck (if its even possible).
Thanks
Dan

 

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...en&product=500508&lc=en&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

try the service manual here

 

Thanks for the manual...unfortunately all the procedures I see that would possibly allow me to access where the lid latches require the removal of the keyboard which of course I have no way of getting at Guess I will have to contact customer support or something...too bad my 1 year warranty has been up for a few months already.

 

So I tried to find a way to contact Compaq or HP about my problem and the only way I could find was the online chat...here is my conversation with the technician I gave up pretty much after the first response lol. After this technician wanted me to keep trying the power button I tried to explain again that the lid was stuck so there was no way to access it and it has nothing to do with my problem...I then asked who I could contact to help me with the problem and the technician said that I could send it in and they would perform a diagnostics on it and try to repair it for a fee of almost $300! So here is the conversation:

Dan: Hi, I have a problem with my compaq v2000 a few days ago I shut the lid and when I went to open it in the morning it was somehow stuck shut and I still havent been able to unlatch it...I checked the service manual but all the procedures that might help me get at the latch require removing the keyboard which of course I can't access

Response: Dan, may I know what happend when you are pressing the power button?

Dan: um...the laptop lid is stuck shut I have no access to the keyboard, power controls, etc

Response: Do you have the computer with you now?

Dan: yes

Response: Please perform these steps and let me know the result:

1.Disconnect the AC Adapter.
2. Remove the battery
3.Hold the Power button down for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
4.Reconnect the Battery and AC adapter.
5.Turn on the notebook power.

So clearly their online chat with a technician thing is not going to help me lol.

 

Ouch. I hope you stayed calmer than I would have in the same situation.

I believe there is a V2000Z at home which should be mechanically identical. Unfortunately, if I remember correctly, the latch mechanism is in the chassis and the only thing on the screen is the metal loop which doesn't bode as well for self repair. But I'll take a look when I get home.

 

Yeah, the latch mechanism is in the top-half of the chassis for the V2000 series. And I don't have it with me right now, but I'm fairly certain the latch mechanism runs the depth of the laptop (not side to side hooks like most) and is set in the case, so you will have a hard time manually unlatching it like you would with most laptops.

http://cgi.ebay.com/COMPAQ-PRESARIO...yZ140082QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
If you are lucky, you will get a Turion with it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/COMPAQ-PRESARIO...yZ140082QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
This is slightly cheaper, only includes the top half of the case (with the latch assy included). Not bad for $28 shipped.

Good luck!

 

i dont think that was a technician, i think HP have started hiring brain dead people! i mean it's cheap, they dont have to pay them much if anything and theyre too stupid to know better

well if ur warranty is gone and u can get replacements that cheap then u shud try and open it urself and see if u can? just do it as carefully as possible

 

Yea, this is ugly. On the lid are the loops, the mechanism is recessed into the bezel and retract toward the keyboard. To pop it, you *might* be able to use say a paper clip with a 3/16 bend on the top, insert and rotate 90 degrees. I couldn't get it to work though -- the tollerances are a bit too tight.

I do find it hard that no one at HP could have thought of this problem -- so maybe, just maybe the loops on the screen itself can pop off?

But unless HP can help, writing off the plastics and moving the system over to a new case like Kubel suggested makes the most sense. Thay way you only have to worry about damaging the components instead of the bezel...

Sorry dude.

 

Thanks for all the input everyone...I finally determined that the only way to open my lid was to remove the metel clip that was stuck. So last night I went to walmart and picked up a metal cutting kit for my dremel tool, wedged the lid open enough with a screwdriver and bamboo skewers, and cut away the metal clip in about a second I expected there to be some screen damage or something but I blew off the metal dust, fired it up and everything seems to be working well just a little cut up around where the metal clip/latch was.
Dan

 

Glad to hear it -- so now that you can see inside can you tell what happened? Was it only one side that was stuck or were both side? And were you going to try and replace the bits to get the latch working again?

 

Hard to tell since nothing was really left of the latch but the clip on the right side (side that got stuck) is stuck out and the latch button has no effect on it so I guess somehow when I last closed it the right side somehow got stuck underneath that clip.

 

Hi, I found this thread while looking for keyboard fixes for the V2000. I can tell you exactly what happened, as this also happened to my V2042AP. The wedge shaped clips inside the body of the computer are made of plastic. There's a mechanism inside that when you press the release button, the wedges retract and release the lid. That much is obvious. When I opened mine up to attempt a fix, the wedge that was stuck (kept hold of the metal loops) had broken away from the main mechanism and as such, the spring was holding it in the closed position. I wedged some paper in there, so the wedge remains retracted.

The wedge on the other side is still functional, albeit with a reduced range of movement due to the inserted paper.