How to Fix HP Pavilion Dv7-6000 Series Cover / Hinges / Cables

Hello everybody! GodmanGen here and this Instructable is about my little story as an owner of a Pavilion HP DV7 Laptop.

It all started back when I was looking for the ideal laptop... As a PC user previously I had the need of something powerful with huge screen, bright colors, nice look, heat resistant, speedy and because of my "job" it had to be portable as well. After some research I felt on the HP Pavilion DV7-6C06 which was and probably still is a beast based on its features:

• · Processor: Intel Core i7-2670QM (2,20 GHz, 6 MB L3 cache),
• · Memory RAM: 6 GB DDR3 (4GB +2 GB) up to 8GB,
• · Hard Disk: 2 TB SATA 5400rpm (2 x 1TB),
• · Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 7690M XT 2GB DDR5,
• · Optical Drive: BluRay Writer Disc drive with DVD SuperMulti,
• · Display: 17.3 LED TFT HD BrightView (1600 x 900),
• · Wired Network: 10/100/1000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet LAN,
• · WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n,
• · Speakers: Beats Audio with HP Triple Bass Reflex Subwoofer,
• · Bluetooth: Bluetooth with WiDi,
• · Camera: HP TrueVision HD (integrated digital microphone
• · Ports USB: 2 x USB 2.0, 2 x USB 3.0,
• · Video Output: VGA out, 1 x HDMI out,
• · Color: Silver, (Aluminum)
• · Battery: Li-Ion 6 elements
• · Weight: 3.4 Kg,
• · Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
• · Extras: Fingerprint Reader

Unboxing Video:

My experience and the issues I found till today:

Day 1: Dead pixels spotted and replaced the laptop the very next day :-P (HP Support was blind)

Day 2: Dead pixels spotted again on the replacement laptop. (HP Support was blind again)

Day 3: Everything good! Finally a nice laptop but has huge gaps between the plastic parts. (Ignored that)

Day 4: Setup and performance tests all great.

Even thought I had a need for something portable, I never moved the laptop from my desk for a long time. Rather than that, the left button of the touch pad and a front part of the housing broke within the 2nd month...not gonna say much about that...the plastic quality was terrible and confirmed it by searching on some forums. This time HP Support was there and fixed it.

Later, as a proud owner of such a portable beast. I was taking very special care of it, cleaning it every few days and sending it to the service as it was typical (within the guarantee) every 6 months to perform checks, clean it internally etc. Tiny issues were found by the support like slow hard drive and so they fixed them.

Everything was fine till an afternoon on June 2015... I had finished my work, turned off the laptop and tried to close the screen cover as usual but heard a nice crack sound! I still owned this laptop in "mint" , out of the box condition so you would never think that this was actually unboxed and in use since 2012. I simply couldn't believe it.

What was that crack?

• The right hinge broke at the right, down corner of the screen.
• The LVCD cable got caught between the left hinge and the bezel's plastic...got cut and burned...smoke everywhere! Thankfully the GPU was ok!
• The back cover's inner plastic where the screws hold on by the nuts broke as well.

What options I had in order to fix it?

1. Total cost to repair everything locally came up around 350 euros.
2. Total cost to buy just the parts locally came up around at 200 euros. *
3. Total cost to buy just the parts from the internet came up around at 100 euros.*

* (The cheapest available parts without installation costs)

Of course I chose the option 3, but almost all of the silver covers I found online were in used condition and full of scratches on the HP logo while mine was still cosmetically great like new!

(Beware of most suppliers from Alibaba and Aliexpress. A majority of them is having one specific supplier on the background and all the parts are removed from used devices. You can notice this by yourself because all of them have the same type of scratches on the logotype)

So, as a person who likes to do modifications I gave it a try!

The part numbers/codes can be found on HP's manuals. To find them simply visit their website, type in the search your laptop's serial number or model , go to the User Guides and look for the Maintenance and Service Guide.

For example the User Guides for my model 6c06ev:

http://support.hp.com/us-en/product/HP-Pavilion-dv7-Entertainment-Notebook-PC-series/5169332/model/5212208/manuals/

The service guide for 6c06ev:

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c03099448

So I was looking for:

Display Cable / LVCD - 665594-001

Hinge Set - 665599-001

Silver Cover - 665977-001 (Optional in your case...if you follow the next steps you wont need it)

I had to take it apart and start from the screen in order to be able to work with the rest of the laptop because the screen was on the air lifted only by one hinge.

The service guide from the previous step will help you as well by showing which parts must be removed first and where the screws are!

If it doesn't help you then look for a disassembly video guide for your model.

For almost all the 6000 series the process is the same.

Don't forget to do some tests! (Screen, Speakers, Camera, Mic, etc)

What you will need:

• A good drill/dremel
• New screws with nuts
• Spacers

The screws must have the thickness of the holes of the hinges and the length depends on your model. I used metal screws where was enough free space and plastic screws where I had to adjust them by cutting or melting.

How to...:

1. Place a cloth or piece of fabric on the table where you will put the cover so you don't scratch it.
2. Remove some plastic that is glued on the aluminum cover using the dremel in order to make it flat.
3. Put some tape on the cover where you will drill the holes and use the hinges in order to align where the holes will be. (In my case hot glued the broken hinges on the cover and used them to align the holes.) Remember, the new holes on the cover must have the same thikness with the holes of the hinges.
4. Now that the holes are ready start assembing the cover.
5. Use spacers where needed!
6. Put the screws on, tight them and cut the excess length.
7. Install the front bezel and you are done!

Hope this will help most of you guys out there and save some money for another useful project!

If you have already done this please post your results below at the comments.