Trying to clean out my old HP Pavillion DV6000...

The fan is clogged with dog hair in the back. I unscrewed all of the screws on the backplate, yet I cannot for the life of me figure out how to pull it off. I don't want to get take the memory, harddrive or cd drive out. I just want to clean out the fan. Whoever helps me will be rewarded with pictures of the most dog hair filled computer... In the world.

 

I was able to pop the keyboard off, hand fulls of dog hair under it. The keys weren't going down anymore either, because of... you guessed it, dog hair. I have a shedding husky/corgi that used to sleep on my computer at night (I'd leave it running on my bed). I can see globs of dog hair in the fan, but I cannot figure out how to access it to clean it out. I tried under the keyboard bezel, but there is nothing there either.

 

I really am suprised that your relatively new notebook survived all this time without frying? + for HP.
What I read a lot about in this forum is psi and the can of compressed air.
It seems to work miracles? You should give it a try.

 

Too much dog hair. Won't blow out.

Also, I have been having tons of issues with it. Battery has gone out on it 4 times. The harddrive keeps failing. The screens backlight is completely dim. Although, it did survive a 6 foot drop into concrete while open. Props to HP for that. Things durable as a brick.

The one in my sig isn't my HP, its my Asus. I bought my HP the day Windows Vista came out! I figure three years is about average for a laptop, no?

 

Using compressed air on a machine that hasn't been disassembled does NOTHING but to blow the debris further into the chassis.

 

Exactly... But I can't get the back off

 

Wow, well, in that case.. tell me you own a vacuum-cleaner!

 

I AM SO IRRITATED. They made it impossible to get it off!

 

Handy checklist:
www.hp.com/hpinfo/globalcitizenship/environment/productdata/pdf/disassembly_notebo_2006921123518.pdf

All I could find:
www.ehow.com/how_4828891_disassemble-hp-pavilion-dv.html

& this youtube channel dude who seems to be a pro, take a peek:
www.youtube.com/user/reply4reply

 

I am able to get the keyboard up and everything, but the ribbon connection isn't budging. I can't get it off, the tabs are stuck in place. Is this the kind of computer where everything is accessed via the space under the keyboard, and I literally have to take everything apart to get to the fan?

 

HP has some online service videos that anyone can access, but it's down ATM...

Here's the link:
http://h20181.www2.hp.com/plmcontent/NACSC/SML/

 

fans and heatsinks are not intended to be user-servicable items. No sense griping about it.

 

Even cleaning out the fan? I haven't had a issue with it before... At this point, I just need to figure out how to get to it.

 

Get the HP service guide for your notebook. It'll walk you through the disassembly process. Sadly, you're going to have to completely take apart the notebook.

The keyboard cable uses a ZIF socket. You'll need to release the latch, then the cable will come out easily. I think all of the ribbon cables use similar sockets. Other cables need to be pulled out by the cable, pulling up slightly to get them unstuck, since pulling them by their connectors will often break the connectors.

If your notebook has a NVIDIA graphics chip you'll want to replace the thermal pad with a copper shim while you're at it. A copper penny (pre-1983) will work for the thick pads but the thin ones used by the 8400GS require something... else. I bought one off eBay.

 

Hows it going? Did you throw it against the wall already?

 

You have no idea. I gave up. The hair is in the little input for the ribbon cable, right into the little tabs. They won't budge, and I don't want to fudge it up because it is soldered to the mobo. It didn't look like I could take apart the area under the keyboard to get to the fan either. The fan is on the back right area of the computer, there is a touchpad bezel in the way that is wired to the mobo, and I have to lift that up and take the wires off to get a better look if I can pop it open. It loooks like I can't get to it from there though. No idea what all the 20 screws on the bottom of my computer do either. They are too small to hold the mobo afaik, otherwise it would be awfully close to the backplate. The harddrive and the CD Drive and the Ram doors are not being taken into account when I am talking about all of these screws. The backplate doesn't split apart from the silver top when I unscrew them either... I am getting so irritated. It is basically enclosed in a plastic shell that won't come off...


/rant