Getting the back off the hard way

Not sure which section this should go under - devices? Anyway. Quite a while back I posted about the old HP Spectre X360 which wouldn't charge up after getting damage (someone tripping over the cable). At the time it was a spare laptop belonging to another family member who hardly used it, but I had to use it while looking for a replacement for my own. It was a total pain wiggling the cable around to keep it charging. And of course eventually that did work any more and I had bought a replacement charger socket but couldn't get the back off. Mostly posidrive screws but two torx screws. I bought a set of torx and torx plus screwdrivers. But nothing worked. The threads were stripped. Clearly someone had had the back off before and stripped the screw threads.

It has been sat there like a paperweight for months as had bigger things going on. But today I got the back off. OH got his drill out and drilled out the torx screws. It wasn't easy! No damage but the cosmetically it doesn't look that great on the back - the screw holes are a bit larger than they were.

Anyway - my job this week is now to replace the charger socket. When I have a quiet couple of hours. It just means removing the wifi card and the fan first.

Last time I did that job in a computer, the new charger socket then shorted and fused the Motherboard. Hope that doesn't happen again! But it's not usable as it is so I'll give it a go. It's not worth that much in it's current state and it's hard to find good used laptops. And this one is quite funky with its touch screen and folding hinge etc. I prefer my bog standard laptop, but we do need the second laptop for various things - and it's the one that has Windows 11 on ......

Which model x360 is this?

13 - 4007na - it's about 6 old now. Bought it used when it was about 3 years old. Originally came with Windows 8.

I should add that last time I replaced a charger socket was in a much older computer and the spare part was possibly a bit dodgy in the first place, hence it blew and fused the motherboard when switched on. I have a genuine part so hope that doesn't happen this time!

In the realm of esoteric knowledge, the screws in question are "Torx Screws", not `tork [sic] screws'.

There are better ways to remove them than drilling, such as using a Torx screwdriver.

Yep thanks for the correction - I keep getting the words tork and torx muddled up but have the correct screwdrivers - but no good as the threads were already stripped from someone taking those screws out before. I have the ifixit set plus some individual torx plus ones just in case the standard torx ones didn't do it. "Tork" is the paper towel manufacturer we use! Torx are the screwdrivers - I know :)

Originally bought the torx and torx plus for a nintendo switch and a surface laptop which also had the annoying little xxxx screws.

Drilling was an absolute last resort! Did the job anyway - I just need a couple of little rubber covers to fill the screw holes.

I've gone back and corrected the spelling now in case anyone else makes the same comment reading it!

This was an update from a few months back when I couldn't get the back off/screws out. Can't find the original thread!

Fingers crossed charger socket replacement sorts it out. It would be nice to have it working again.

Given the description of the tools you have, I conclude that you have a "Torx Armada," which is not to be confused with Torquemada.

Well I've replaced the charger socket. Wasn't too difficult. Plugged it in and it's still dead. So will have to try getting another charger. It was definitely the charger socket that was damaged because the old charger worked before if you could wiggles the angle the socket went in and held it in position. But I've noticed the charger block itself makes a clunking noise - as if there's something rattle around inside! So maybe it's both. Or neither.

Last used it in January when I backed up anything on it, just before the battery went flat because couldn't get the charger to work at all any more then.

Are you trying to do this ?

Already swapped it over :) Not soldered. Watched a video first to check what to remove and in what order. It wasn't difficult. But perhaps hasn't worked! Used an antistatic wrist band as well.

Presumably it should still work off mains if the battery is dead (internal battery).

If it won't power up when the new charger arrives I reckon the new socket wasn't right. It was supposed to be for that model of computer but did look a teeny bit different. The plug in end with the wires had extra small plastic lugs at the side that stopped it fitting in the socket. Shaved a bit off them - just a teeny bit of plastic. Maybe it just wasn't the right part.

I have had two different laptops that would not turn on with a dead battery in them. I removed the battery, and with mains plugged in they started right up. No guarantee but it would be worth a try.

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Thanks. I'll try that. New charger coming tomorrow so might wait for that. If that makes no difference I'm sending it back again!

Our laptops end up lasting for many many years usually (at 6 years old this one is only half life!) UNLESS someone trips over the cable. Lost three to damaged charger sockets. The moral of course is keep laptops out of the living room (or only use laptops with long battery life - which my current one has).

You'd think by now there'd be better ways than cables trailing across the room! Like an external battery charger and easily swappable batteries. Oh yes we used to have easily swappable batteries, I forgot! Not externally charged ones though.

Aha. New charger arrived, plugged it in and have lights. And it turned on. But didn't boot up. Instead I get a black screen with white writing saying something about drive error - press F2.

Pressed F2 and had the option to do a drive test. Selected the short test. Result says Smart check passed. Short DST failed. Then Failure ID and a serial number and Product ID and a serial number "Hard Drive 1".

So looks like the M2 drive has failed.

Now this computer was working perfectly fine in January. The only issue was - couldn't get it to charge without wiggling the cable around to the right position. The battery went flat so then couldn't turn it on to see what position to get the cable into to charge it.

I replaced the charger socket thinking that would solve it. It didn't. I've replaced the charger and it has solved it. So presumably both the internal and external charger pins/socket were damaged. But why would the hard drive just die? Maybe some kind of short?

Exited that test screen and now it says "Boot Device not found - please install an operating system on your hard disk" And press F2 for system diagnostics again. So presumably it can still recognise the hard drive?

The only spare M2 drive I have is the Optane one taken out of my current computer. Would the optane drive work in a non optane designed laptop? Could be interesting.

I guess it's possible I wiped this drive after backing it up thinking I wouldn't repair the computer. And may have forgotten. So first thing to try is intalling an operating system I guess. Before changing the drive.

Ok it's passed the memory test but failed both the long and short dst so not much point installing an operating system on this drive as it seems it's failing. A bit of a coincidence when it's just been sat doing nothing since January. But there you go.

Thought I'd try installing on the 500gb optane drive. At install Windows is only seeing it as a 27GB drive.

Hazel123 said:

Thought I'd try installing on the 500gb optane drive. At install Windows is only seeing it as a 27GB drive.

Click to expand...

Is it really a 500GB drive, or a smallish Optane cache for another drive?