Advent 6441 - Taking apart and removing the motherboard

I'm posting this not because it'll help any of my clients but, if I have to do another of these, it'll help me!  This describes how to strip down an Advent 6441 laptop in order to remove the motherboard so the power jack could be replaced.

This is not totally detailed... things which should be obvious have been left out!

Start be removing the two covers  on the bottom and taking out the battery and disk drive.

1. The first step is to open the screen fully and unclip the panel above the keyboard.  Unclip from the top and remove the ribbon cable connecting it to the motherboard below.

 2. Unplug the three connectors exposed and remove the four screws holding the keyboard.

 3. Disconnect the ribbon cable from the motherboard

4. Remove two screws from the disk drive bay and another two from the battery bay

5. Remove all 16 screws holding the bottom case and push out the CD drive

6. Starting at the CD edge of the case,  at the back, start detaching the case bottom from the laptop and remove it.  It needs to be done from this side in order to release it from the PCcard holder.

7. Underneath, remove the antenna connector from the WiFi card.  There's no need to remove the card itself.

8. From the top, remove 5 screws which hold a metal frame in place under the motherboard.

9. Underneath, remove the 3 outer heatsink screws and undo the 3 main captive heatsink screws and remove the heatsink.  For convenience, also remove the 3 screws holding the fan and remove it (not shown).

10. Unfasten 3 connectors on the motherboard; 2 plugs and 1 ribbon.

11. Peel back two black plastic strips which cover two ribbon cables

12. Remove two hex standoffs, one on each side of the video connector

13. Remove motherboard screws, including 2 hex standoffs, and slide motherboard out (there may be more screws than those shown!)

14. Flip the motherboard over and remove the two ribbon cables.

15. Slide the motherboard out! 

Putting it all back is a matter of reversing the procedure however a few things to watch (from experience!) are

• Remember to bring out the WiFi antenna before screwing the motherboard in place.
• Make sure only screws which were removed from the motherboard are replaced.  The are some places where the screw comes down through the case.

Replacing the screen looks like it MIGHT be simple, though not actually tried.  The potential problem may be the fact that in order to free the WiFi antenna cable, the motherboard needs to be removed.  If this is not the case then just removing the top panel and unfastening the three sonncetors (Video, Mic, Webcam) should be enough to gain access to the lid fastenings.