Help me remove the top cover of this Clevo p170sm-a

Hello, I'm trying to access the left hinge portion of this Clevo p170sm-a and I'm running into difficulties and questions.

Here is the broken hinge in question





When accessing it I'm following the p170sm-a service manual at
http://www.e-weekly.co.uk/download/RnD/DRIVERS/CLEVO/P1x0SMA/P170AESM.pdf
but I'm running into several issues.

First, I've been able to remove most of the cabling but this secondary keyboard cable remains stuck. Nudging the sides which works on the other cables and in videos doesn't seem to budge it at all.



Also any technique to getting these white fan connectors off?



I remove the screws according to this picture. However, even though the instructions don't mention removing the GPU and CPU, screw 17 and 19 seem to be underneath them. Is it mandatory that I remove the GPU and CPU?



Here is a corresponding pic of my computer for comparison.



When I finish as much as I can and I lift the cover there is more resistance at the right hand side that I feel comfortable powering through.

So my questions in summary are:
1. Do I need just a hinge or do I need a new back cover and/or other parts as well? Can I just superglue or plasticweld the plastic piece back on? Will it matter?
2. What are good techniques to get off the cables above? I've tried slowly levering the sides and it works for most cables but not for those. They are missing the overhangs that a lot of other cables have.
3. Do I have to take the gpu and cpu off? If so do I have to do a full repaste and what paste would you recommend?
4. How would you loosen without breaking the top cover to get it off? I ran my fingernails through the edges but that didn't work too well.

 

1. hard to say but I think if you aim to completely disassemble you'll find it easier. Don't try to bend that hinge unless you absolutely have to as you may just do more damage where it's anchored to the base. I have a w110er I'll be fixing with a hinge that's broken its mounts on the base and I'll just be epoxying it all back together, it's 5 years old and I got it cheap so meh
2. that one looks like one of the ones that flip upwards, get your fingernail upside down under the black part between it and the ribbon and pull upwards. All the stubborn or inaccessible fan connectors I've done survive being pulled by the cable, you can try wedging it up a bit frst by getting your fingernails in the join
3. screws 16 17 and 19 look like theyre under where the rads are so yes, they both need to come out. Good old AS5 is fine if you don't overclock and don't heavily use the CPU. ICD, Gelid extreme, Kryonaut, etc all pretty similar within a few degrees of each other. Liquid metal's the best but the risk is higher. I heavily OC my P170EM on liquid metal (940+mhz gpu, 3.8+ghz i7-3720qm) and load temps in the low-mid 70s on full fans, high 70s-low 80s on the stupid auto fan profile. You may need new thermal pads too if they are all dried out and flaky (cheap ebay silicone ones do the job fine IMO)
4. find the most flexy part of the join between the two bits and use a pry tool (plastic preferably but a thin screwdriver also works) to undo one of the clips. Underneath where the screen panel sits usually has smaller/weaker clips and/or further apart. Where you can push the top case upwards from underneath is also a good starting point. If any clip doesn't undo with only moderate force - you've probably missed a screw still holding it on.

 

The LED cable for the keyboard doesn't remove quite the same as the data cable. Flip the small retaining clip up at a 90 degree angle, then you can pull the cable out.

Just pull up. They're a stiffer connection than the keyboard cables. Try to pull from the connector and not the cable, and be careful not to pull on the connector attached to the circuit board.

If the screw standoff that the hinge secures to is broken, then you need a replacement bottom cover - or you can try an epoxy to reaffix whatever is broken. See above responses about the cables. As for the CPU and GPU, they don't need to be removed, but you do need to remove the heatsinks (there are screws underneath them that need to be removed, and the screw at the top of the vRAM heatsink also holds the cases together). A repaste is a good idea while you're at it.

With all of the screws out, and with the cables you're already working on out, you'll also need to remove...

- Speaker cables
- WLAN cables (routed through the top case)
- Cable between power button board and main board

I think that should do it.

 

I have same laptop with a similar issue if you are still trying only way is to do a complete disassembly and if bottom case is cracked that will need to be fixed or replaced as well.