My problem: Serious amateur mistake when trying to replace a hard drive in an HP Pavilion 15-cc055od. I melted the ZIF connector and part of the ribbon cable attaching a USB port circuit board to the motherboard. This happened because I disengaged the connector before removing the battery; it literally caught on fire.
Solution: I took the whole thing to Micro Center (semi-disassembled, but protected). A tech advised me that a repair there was cost prohibitive, but I was willing to lose the USB circuit board and see if the motherboard still worked, so he just removed the components. It was easy to pop out the USB circuit board, but the ribbon cable was harder. The ribbon cable was attached to the underside of the motherboard, and the tech took about 10 minutes trying to flip the ZIF connector to disengage the ribbon. He didn't completely unscrew the motherboard; he took out a few screws near the site and "pulled" the motherboard up a bit with a plastic pointer tool (IFIXIT kit). Then he got something like a dental scraper, and that was the thing that managed to flip the ZIF connector.
Did I fry the motherboard? - In this case, no. When looking at the ribbon cable, I could see where heat had traveled from the burn site down most of the length of the ribbon. There was a visible discoloration that ended about 1.5in away from the motherboard. Still I had to test to see, and gratefully, the computer works. In theory, I could purchase both the USB port circuit board and the ribbon cable for about $120 from the HP site, and completely disassemble the motherboard to connect it, but for now, I will leave it alone.
To better understand my stupidity: This is the slimmest laptop I've worked with so far, with everything under the bottom panel, including the battery; after finally getting the bottom panel off (another story involving stripped screws), I was relieved to move forward and forgot to remove the battery. With other laptops I've worked with, removing the battery is the first step before unscrewing anything, so my brain failed me on this one.
Solution: I took the whole thing to Micro Center (semi-disassembled, but protected). A tech advised me that a repair there was cost prohibitive, but I was willing to lose the USB circuit board and see if the motherboard still worked, so he just removed the components. It was easy to pop out the USB circuit board, but the ribbon cable was harder. The ribbon cable was attached to the underside of the motherboard, and the tech took about 10 minutes trying to flip the ZIF connector to disengage the ribbon. He didn't completely unscrew the motherboard; he took out a few screws near the site and "pulled" the motherboard up a bit with a plastic pointer tool (IFIXIT kit). Then he got something like a dental scraper, and that was the thing that managed to flip the ZIF connector.
Did I fry the motherboard? - In this case, no. When looking at the ribbon cable, I could see where heat had traveled from the burn site down most of the length of the ribbon. There was a visible discoloration that ended about 1.5in away from the motherboard. Still I had to test to see, and gratefully, the computer works. In theory, I could purchase both the USB port circuit board and the ribbon cable for about $120 from the HP site, and completely disassemble the motherboard to connect it, but for now, I will leave it alone.
To better understand my stupidity: This is the slimmest laptop I've worked with so far, with everything under the bottom panel, including the battery; after finally getting the bottom panel off (another story involving stripped screws), I was relieved to move forward and forgot to remove the battery. With other laptops I've worked with, removing the battery is the first step before unscrewing anything, so my brain failed me on this one.
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