CF-51 MK3 No display

Purchased another CF-51 hoping to score a complete caddy and perhaps some other useful spares. Seller was as usual pretty vague about the description although it was advertised as spares or repair.
Its a CF51SCYDNBE. Upon arrival, a quick inspection showed up the battery cover held on with duct tape and evidence of a possible spill on the bottom of the keyboard/top of the touch pad area.
So the good news was a complete caddy with a 80GB HD, 2GB of RAM, a yellow tab battery and a working DVD drive. Bad news was it would not display either through the LCD or an external monitor using the F3 key. Its not completely dead as the power light at the front illuminates as does the one in the bezel. The DVD chatters when switched on and removal illuminates the MB light in the bezel. The battery charges and the illumination changes colour when fully charged. I changed the RAM to a known working one with no change. Put the complete LCD unto another MK3 and it lit up although the LCD itself is damaged and unreadable.
Decided that I had nothing to lose by taking it apart. First thing I noticed was what looks like 3 antennas! One being taped up and covered. So perhaps they were anticipating upgrates to the wireles which is a bit ironic considering how fussy Toughbooks are about the wireless cards!
From the front, I can only see what looks like corrosion in the bottom right hand corner of the MB. Is that enough to kill the MB?
The other thing that annoys me on this model is the method of retaining the battery cover with those plastic teeth. This is the second MK3 I have had with this problem. Basically repeated cover removal breaks the teeth off leaving nothing for the cover to grip. Anybody solved that elegantly? Obviously does not effect function as the battery is latched, just looks a bit ugly and hardly Tough!

 

I wonder if that third antenna is for bluetooth? Just a thought... No clue about the rest.

 

Yep, think you are right there looking at a parts diagram!

 

Is the cable blue?

 

No, its black the same as the other antenna cable!

 

Last year I gave a 51 to a girl in foster care. She brought it back to me because the cover was falling off and she was worried that she would lose it. What I did was use my girlfriends hair dryer on "high heat" and pointed it at the battery opening and heated it up for a minute or so then applied pressure on it. It took me a few tries to get it but it worked for me. There is another way but it would mean taking it ALL apart.

 

Not sure a hairdrier, however powerful is going to help once the teeth are yanked off!
The problem is that the teeth or serrated plastic in the top cover are damaged by hamfisted PO's. This is due to the battery cover tang and the arrow on the cover indicating that it needs to be pulled down I guess.
I noticed on the CF-52 which is a similar design it says Push on it! I think that is probably the correct technique. You need to push the tang away from the teeth before pulling the cover down otherwise you are just pulling against the teeth.
I was just wondering if there is a strip of teeth that could be stuck back in somehow as the only other solution would be to replace the top cover.

Anyway, seem to be dead. Always nice to salvage as much as possible. Will dismantle the screen to verify what make/model it is in case that helps somebody source a replacement.

 

Maybe epoxy a tab where the original was, and then drill a small hole in the base and screw the cover in place through the epoxied tab. The average user won't remove the battery that often anyway. I just leave the covers off on mine.