HP Pavilion 15t - Disassembly Tips (disk drive)

I've put the dimensions in for HP part "DVD/CD REWRITABLE DRIVE", model DU-8A6SH, part number 700577-HC2

My intent is to replace it with a hard drive "caddy", such as these links from amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Unibody-MacBook-SuperDrive-Replacement/dp/B0058AH2US/

http://www.amazon.com/Adapter-Special-Designed-macbook-SuperDrive/dp/B0057V95M6/

http://www.amazon.com/WoneNice-caddy-9-5mm-Universal-DVD-ROM/dp/B004Y8SGXW/

Figure 1: Measurements of original drive

If anyone knows how to keep the drive secure in the chassis, that would be great. Is the tab in Figure 1 "top" something standard?

USB3 Ethernet Adapter

Just bought Vantec CB-U300GNA based on this review. I have need of one because my old laptops only have 10/100 ethernet and the standard RJ45 plug gets stuck in my computer jack. I worry about the 100Base-T since I am paying for 50Mbps connection speed. For $18, it's not too risky an investment and should give me plenty of overhead for my 50Mbps internet connection and any other sharing I want to do behind my ethernet hub.

One thing nice about having a USB ethernet module is being able to have one single MAC address to access my router's administration page (that is, blacklist all other MAC addresses to keep it relatively secure). Now whenever I need to access my router's administrative page, I plug in any computer to that USB ethernet adapter and I'm off and running.

The adapter claims to have wake-on-LAN, which is a feature I always wanted to test out. Never tried waking a computer up over USB, but there's always a first for everything? Will update in the future if I ever get around testing it.

Handy Window Scripts

Here's my script that I run on my computers to standardize my home experience:

@echo off
rem map router's network share to the same letter drive on every computer
net use z: \\192.168.1.1\volume1\local_share

rem create shortcut targetting my plex server web interface
rem this assumes that you will only have one user
echo start iexplore.exe http://192.168.1.254:32400/web/index.html >.\Desktop\launch_plex.bat

Converting Windows Laptop to 2k8r2 Server

I got this idea from the official blog. I can think of an improvement though: why not just copy over those directories before installing the new OS? That way, you don't have to deal with partitions.

If you can install an OS, then you have a media that is accessible to load all the drivers (even better to make a disk of just the bare drivers, even if only one instance of time).

The steps would be something like this:

1. Create/Obtain installation media for target OS.
2. Transfer contents of C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository to the same media type as target OS installation media.
3. Boot from installation media of new OS.
4. Install the new OS
5. Go to device manager of new OS and for each missing driver, load from exported data of step 2

I will try this in the future and let you know how it goes. Right now, I have a Lenovo Z580 Win7 machine that I only access via VNC: no point in dedicating resources on the machine for a GUI that's never used, right?

HP Pavilion 15t - Disassembly Tips

For the laptops first released in 2015-Q3: please be careful not to damage the hinge when removing the chassis cover.

The new bottom cover now wraps around the laptop. It makes disassembly more challenging as it is not just pull up or push in a certain direction. I had been following another guide, youtube1, youtube2, but the instructions don't match so I probably wasted upwards of two hours before wiggling the bottom lid finally detached.

The plastic tabs held up OK considering how much abuse I had given them.

See the pictures below:

Figure 1: new chassis, notice vent pattern to identify from other models

Figure 2: close up on bottom cover in the entire laptop assembly

Figure 3: inside of bottom cover at the left hinge wraparound, picture taken from center above keyboard

Figure 4: inside of bottom cover at the right hinge wraparound, picture taken from center above keyboard

 PS, I have not been on blogger for a very long time, the edit interface is very amazing from what I remember from years ago