How to disassemble a Compaq Armada M700

Table of contents

• Disclaimer
• The System
• First Steps
• Disassembling
• HDD
• Modem
• Keyboard
• RAM
• Display
• Cover
• Mainboard
• Removing the CPU cooler
• Put it together again
• This article is listed at...

Warning: The following instructions are given without any warranty. They are not necessarily complete or correct. Do not do any of the following steps if you are not sure of what you are doing. You might damage your notebook and you WILL lose your warranty. Everything you do is on your own risk. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at mk(at)mk-stuff(dot)de or take a look at http://repair4laptop.org/.

I think it's best to start with a few words about the system itself. In this Compaq Armada M700 works a Pentium II processor with 366 MHz. It has 128 MB RAM, a DVD drive and a 14,1" display.

It is really important to remove the accumulator and all other power connections. It is also a good idea to remove the DVD drive / floppy disk drive.
Mind that the notebook consists of various screws! Not every screw fits in every hole.

Removing the HDD is really easy: Remove the single screw in the centre of the underside of the notebook and pull out the HDD. Ready.

There are two screws at the left-hand side of the bottom of the notebook. Remove them and open the cover. Now you can easily remove the modem by lifting the one side of it, which was next to the HDD. Now pull out the two remaining wires and you're done.

Removing the keyboard is easy, too. There are four little holders at the top of the keyboard (between ESC and F1, F6 and F7, F12 and PageUp, Ins and Del). Pull them back and you can lift the top of the keyboard. Be careful, there are two wires, which can easily be broken. You can remove them from the mainboard. Pull up the upper side of the plugs. They will take off a few millimetres, which will loosen the cables. Now you can remove the wires without any violence.

After removing the keyboard you can see the RAM. It's the green thing with black chips on it at the left side. You can lift up one side as shown in the picture. Now it's easy to remove the RAM.

There are four screws at the backside of the M700. - Remove them. Then fold up the notebook as far as possible. Now you can remove the plastic ledge between the display and the keyboard. There are three cables which go from the motherboard to the display. You can remove them by pulling the plug out of the mainboard. Now it is possible to pull the display out of the rest of the notebook.

Under the plastic ledge you just removed are three screws. - Remove them. Then turn around the laptop and remove further six screws. Turn it around again and separate the upper part from the lower part of the case. The best place to do it is at the backside of the system. It is a bit fast, but it works. Be careful, there are four wires from the upper part to the lower part of the case. Don't damage them! You can easily pull them out. Now you divided the case of your notebook into two parts.
Important: The little plastic cover of the infra-red adapter is loose now. Don't lose it!

There is something wrapped into black tape at the centre of the mainboard. I don't really know, what this is, but Christian Pieket Weeserik wrote me that it might be some kind of power supply controller. You can just pull it up.

Removing the rest of the mainboard is a bit more complicated:

• Disconnect the cable you see in the hole, where the modem was in.
• Remove the upper RAM bank by pulling it up and remove the screw underneath it.
  
• Remove all eight screws from the backside of the notebook. Use pliers.
  
• Disconnect the cable near the USB port.
  
• Remove the screw near the USB port and remove the small part of the mainboard which provides the TV-Out ports and the USB port.
  
• Remove the two screws at the left and right side of the PCMCIA ports. Now there are four screws left. Remove them, too.
  
• Grab the serial port at the backside of the notebook and lift it up. There is a connector which will loose.
  
• Now you can pull out the mainboard.
  

Disconnect the plug near the RAM banks. Turn around the mainboard and remove the three screws underneath the CPU. Get rid of the triangle, too. Don't lose the wearing parts underneath the screws! Now you can remove the whole CPU cooler including the fan. Don't touch the white thermal compound, which was on the CPU.
If you want to open the cooler, just loose the screws.

You disassembled your notebook successfully, now you can put it together on your own. The photos on this site might help you. Remember: Violence is not necessary and there are several kinds of screws.  Good luck!

• http://repair4laptop.org/