Gateway/NV54/innards/reassembly

About

These were the steps I finally used to reassemble a Gateway NV54 laptop. Reassembly began on 2010-08-27, was complete on 2010-08-31, and took about 5 hours due largely to uncertainty about the cable brackets.

Steps

1. place system board in bottom part of case
2. attach 1 back screw (top left -- seems slightly smaller than others)
   • there were 2 "slightly smaller" screws left over at the end -- maybe these should have been used at this point
3. re-attach small subboard at lower right (1 screw only : lower left)
4. insert DVD drive (comes in from outside of case)
5. re-attach USBCN1 connector (see photo)

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   USBCN1 connection

6. route black and white wire pair so ends poke out near where they will be plugged in (but don't bother plugging in yet)
   • these attach to the wireless network card (look for "MAC ID")
   • I suspect they are the antenna for the wireless
7. reattach the wider of the two ribbon cables labeled "MB" to the socket labeled "MMB1" on the system board
8. lower the keyboard tray and snap it into place
9. plug the black wire into PWRCN1 (see photo)

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   PWRCN1 connection

   • socket is keyed, can't be plugged in the wrong way
10. plug in video cables (1 wide, 1 single black wire)
11. reconnect narrower "MB" ribbon cable (goes to touchpad)
    • I had serious difficulty with this one because the retaining bracket apparently got broken during disassembly, but was able to get it to work somewhat erratically
12. reattach display assembly (2 screws, attaching hinges to base)
13. route video cables (1 thick, 1 single-wire)
14. reattach keyboard ribbon cable
    • this was the only ribbon cable with the separate-bracket-style connector that I was able to reattach with some semblance of correctness
15. lower the keyboard into the keyboard tray
    • clicks into place at top left & right, with not much pressure
    • top middle remains somewhat bowed out -- this can be fixed after indicator panel is in place
16. reinstall indicator panel
17. snap top of keyboard into place (about 3 snap-points)
18. turn laptop upside down
19. reattach black & white wires to WLAN card (see photo)

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    wire pair which attaches to WLAN card

20. put screws back in everywhere, not forgetting:
    • 2 inside battery compartment
    • 2 odd-looking silver screws which seem to belong to the hard drive caddy
    • up to 5 slightly smaller black screws which go in the Z-shaped HD/plugins cover (some screws may still be in their holes in the cover)
      • note for disassembly: keep these screws separate next time

I had 1 leftover regular-sized screw and 1 mini-sized; came up short 2 regular screws, but these were probably missing before I got the unit. Mini-sized screws might belong on system board -- look for any additional arrows I might have missed, next time this model gets disassembled.