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All but one of the screws are M2.5. Most are 10mm or 5mm. There are a few 4mm, and one M2 x 5mm. One small Phillips or Pozi will do them all.

Start: flip over

Remove battery and external covers

Remove top upper bezel cover - screws inside battery compartment. Note the single M2 screw for the keyboard. M2, not M2.5

Important: The screw holding the keyboard down is tiny and not obvious. It's an M2, located in the battery compartment.

Push or prise keyboard toward screen by 5mm to unhook

Lift keyboard free carefully. NB: Short cables underneath!

Keyboard lifted to show two ribbon cables. Clips on the side of the connector must be pushed back to release ribbon.

Keyboard flipped over, showing cables and filth

Wireless aerial cables freed on top side

Wireless aerial coax unplugged on bottom side - tiny pop-off coax plugs.

Raise screen to vertical, unscrew silver 6mm screws, and lift away

Releasing DVD drive screw (marked ODD)

Open DVD drive door with special tool (You won't have one of these, so use a paperclip). You don't HAVE to do this to remove the drive, but it helps..

DVD Drive removed, exposing 3 x 4mm case screws

Underside view, showing hidden 4mm case screws. Sneaky!

Top view showing mousepad ribbon connector removed from board

Top case & speaker grille unclipped from bottom case. See the hooks: slipping a knife in to pop them loose is best.

Upper case removed. See that big open area on the board where HP could have given us^h^h ME a PCMCIA cardbus? Swine!

ExpressCard & Phone connectors removed. Remove screw holding metal coverplate, and another holding the board.

Board lifted free (still connected via power cable, so no yanking). If you've successfully removed all the screws, judicious wiggling should do it eventually.

Board flipped to remove power connector

Board free at last! Thank Dawkins Almighty!

Lousy Sunon fan exposed

Gently pry up heatsink assy by a mm or two to let fan cable connector pass. It will thoop free as the heatsink compound comes loose. Don't worry about it

Indicate your displeasure to the lousy Sunon fan. This may also be done less symbolically by setting fire to it and jumping up and down - though this will cost stupid money to replace later.

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