Random Fix – Computer Help

I’m writing to say merry Christmas to everyone and have a happy New Year!  Sorry so late, I’ve been busy with family stuff, you know how that goes.  I would just like to say thanks to all the loyal readers out there who have found this site through whatever means.  Each and every day I wake up and read the stats, I am just happy that there are people who actually come and read what I have to say.  I’m glad that this site has helped some and has given hope or delight to others. 

I haven’t really thought of what is in store for next year, 2007 but I can assure you I will continue to write and update regularly.  I notice a drop off in posts and often times a drop off in traffic.  Obviously more news and updates will keep people coming back.  I will try my best to update and hope to see more people come by and get help.  I would definitely love to implement some type of contact form for those who may need advice and or help.  Anyhow, thank you for the loyal readership and again, merry Christmas and have a happy NEW YEAR!

I had to change out a screen on this little laptop.  Like my prior procedures, removing everything was a breeze.  The hardest part was putting everything back together.  And although I thought I had learned and said I would take more photos, I did the exact same thing.  I told myself I had enough pics when I really didn’t and had the hardest time putting it back together again.

Just to warn you, the part where I messed up was trying to take the LCD casing apart.  On the bottom, there is a black plastic piece which slides to the right, I believe, and then you can pull it off.  In doing so, you’ll see two screws that you have to remove in order to fully split the LCD casing in half.  Otherwise, you’ll be pushing and pulling and eventually if you pull too hard you’ll break the fragile clips in there.

My honest suggestion is if you do this for a living or for a business, I’d recommend having the client not only buy the LCD but also the entire casing.  You will be hard pressed to NOT break any of the extremely fragile plastic pieces that hold the casing together.

My hats off to you if you’re able to do that but it’s a tough job.

Also another thing you want to watch for is the placement of the wireless card wires.  There are two antennas.  One on the left and one on the right.  Those two plastic things on each side, near the bottom of the screen cover the antennas for the wifi card.  You have to remember exactly how the wires were run otherwise you’re going to have a hard time closing up the casing.  Also, you’ll have a hard time trying to get them back into place and have them stay in place!

I have pictures but this blog of mine doesn’t like when I post large pictures and I’m too lazy right now to resize them and then post up the smaller versions that link to the bigger versions.  I will eventually get around to it.

If you need to ask questions or anything, just send an e-mail to ryan@[remove][remove]random[remove]fix[remove].com.

Sony PCV-V100G

This is a brief run down on how I tore the computer apart to get to the LCD.

I took apart a lot of unnecessary things that I shouldn’t have that only added to the time and the complex process of trying to put it back together.

Also be forewarned that there is different screw sizes used in this unit.  There are a bunch of silver screws that look the same but are different in size.

First I removed the back panel which covers the power supply and the hard drive.  There are two clips in which you push down, I believe and pull back on the entire cover.  Once you remove that cover you’ll have access to the hard drive as well as the power supply.

Next, there are two side panels which cover the HDD and the PSU, on the left and right sides respectively.  You need to remove two screws that are holding each piece into place.  Once you remove those two screws you can easily remove the side panel, one by one.

Now you want to remove the actual motherboard/LCD portion from the bottom base.  In order to do that you need to remove six screws total, three on each side.  You will see the LCD attached to the base and you will see the exact three screws I am talking about.  Remove those three and with a little bit of muscle grease you should be able to detach the motherboard/LCD portion from the base.

Next you want to remove the entire black back plate that is covering the upper portion of the computer.  In order to do that you need to remove two screws.  There is one on each side, left and right.  If you look at the very left and right edges on the bottom you will see two deep holes.  You need a #2 Phillips screwdriver in order to remove each screw.  Once you remove both screws you can gently remove the back plate, it should come off with ease.

Now you should see a metal cage.  This is covering the motherboard and everything else underneath the hood.  You need to remove two screws.  In order to remove these two screws though, you may need to remove the PSU.  In order to remove the PSU there are two screws on the right hand side.  Remove those two and you should be able to slide the PSU to the left a little and it should come right out.  BEWARE: the cables connected coming out of the PSU are SHORT; that means you have to be gentle as you can damage components if you yank the cables out on accident.  This is also going to be a little bit harder to work with as you try to put everything back together again.

Once you remove the PSU or move it to the side, you’ll see two screws holding in the metal cage.  Remove those two screws. Once you’re done with that, you’ll need a small flat tip screwdriver to disengage the metal clips that hold the metal cage in place.  You’ll see them at the very top and then again at the very bottom.  Gently remove those little clips and take the metal cage off.

Now you should have access to the entire motherboard.  There are a few more steps to go.

You see what looks like an expansion card sticking up to the right of both fans?  That is what I believe to be the video card or some type of video expansion.  You need to remove four screws, one on each corner in order to remove that board.

Once done with that, you’re almost there.  You now need to remove FOUR BLACK colored screws from each of the four corners surrounding the motherboard.  Done?  Great.

Now you see the black piece of plastic on the right hand side which is like a cover for the expansion video card?  You need to gently pry the plastic pieces that hold it down, up, so that it comes off.

Once that is done, you’re about two steps closers to getting access to the LCD.

You will see that there is a big plastic piece surrounding the entire LCD.  This piece is one piece and comes off like so.  Again you’re going to use a flat tip screwdriver, gently pry up the plastic pieces that are holding it into place.  Once you’ve done that, you’ll have access to the LCD screen.  There are two screws one on each side, remove both and the LCD will come off; however, there are two plugs, one blue/white and one pink/white that plug into the inverter.  Remove those two gently again and then one more cable which connects to the rear of the LCD.  You need to remove that and the LCD will come right off.

I hope this helps you with your disassembly; however, putting it all back together is a bitch.  Especially trying to remember where the longer silver screws go.  I took as many pictures as I thought I needed with my digital camera but that still wasn’t enough.  What I will probably do and recommend you do too is that you take a piece of white paper, and as each screw comes out, mark it on the piece of paper (the height of the screw) so that you know if a long one came out of this area or if it was a short one and take a digital picture.

I hope this helps, if it does, feel free to leave a comment.

I’m trying to uninstall this trial from a brand new Toshiba laptop and once I try to uninstall it it says that McAfee antivirus is still running, please exit out of that and try again.

I close the program in the system tray.  I try again, still telling me that there is a problem with the antivirus still running.  I try ctrl-alt-del to see if I can kill off the process, guess what happens?  I kill off a few McAfee processes and it locks the computer up.  I fucking hate McAfee.  They are much worse than Symantec.  At least Symantec lets you remove their piece of shit software.  McAfee is like really anti-intuitive.  It’s a POS.  Don’t buy it.  If you really insist on buying a suite of programs which include a firewall, buy Microsoft’s OneCare.  I’ve been using this thing for roughly one year, ever since the closed beta began and let me tell you, it’s much nicer than the bloated crap McAfee and Symantec puts on your computers.

Just an update about an update, I have been using the JIS screwdrivers that I was able to find online for almost two weeks now.  I just can’t stop and think that the screwdrivers I have don’t look like the ones my friend had.  I found out last night that there is another size #1 with a smaller shank diameter which is 1.0mm bigger than the #0 that I have.  So, I contacted the supplier of the screwdrivers and sure enough, they have them in stock.  I’ll be purchasing several of them and hopefully be receiving them sometime next week or the next.

I also wanted to say I picked up another set of the same exact ones I purchased but for home use.  I like to have two sets as I don’t bring my tools home and then back to work everyday as that is very time consuming for me.