HP ZBook 15 Fan and Heatsink Replacement

Geschrieben von: Grant Terris

Kommentare: 13

HP ZBook 15 Fan and Heatsink Replacement

Schwierigkeitsgrad

Difficult

Schritte

Zeitaufwand

30 - 45 Minuten

Einleitung

Does your computer feel warmer than usual? Here are some reasons why your laptop might be running hot. If you determine that you need to replace the fan or heatsink assembly, follow this guide!

Werkzeuge

Ersatzteile

HP ZBook 15 Fan and Heatsink

Schritt 1

Flip the laptop over.
Slide the lever with the battery symbol beside it firmly until the battery pops out.
Remove the battery from the laptop.

Schritt 2

Slide the right lever firmly to the right.
Slide the cover towards yourself to remove it.

Schritt 3

Remove the two 16mm screws with a Phillips #0 screwdriver.
There are two sets of threads to get past. Once unscrewed from the first thread, lift the screw up until it hits the next set and begin unscrewing again.

Note that it is not necessary to completely remove these screws. They are meant to be 'captive' and not removed completely. If you unscrew them to that 'first thread' so they are loose and floppy, they are no longer holding the keyboard in place and it is safe to continue to the next step.

Joe Kyle - 17/03/17

Schritt 4

Do not try to pry the keyboard from the bottom. The keyboard is attached by clips on the left, top, and right side. Metal inserts on the bottom side lock the keyboard in place until they are slid up and out.
Be careful not to scratch or chip the computer when prying. If you have a plastic tool that is long enough to gain leverage, use that instead of a metal tool.
There are ribbons secured underneath so be careful not to pull the keyboard out too hard, breaking the connections to the ribbons.
Flip the laptop over so the keyboard is visible.
Insert the spudger under the left side of the keyboard.
Carefully raise the side of the keyboard and firmly pull the left corner of the keyboard until it pops up.
Run your fingers under the edges of the keyboard along the top edge of the keyboard, from the top left to the top right, to separate it from the remaining clips.
Carefully slide the keyboard up toward the screen and out of the case.

Please keep in mind that the keyboard comes with a metal plate. If you managed to pry one of the plastic rivets out of the keyboard, you've damaged the keyboard...

(I should have read the comments about taking the optical drive out first, haha...)

Brandon Lu - 07/08/16

that you for the info…. have a HP Zbook 15 G2 of my own.. this site is.. so.. helpful :)

josephwin - 07/12/20

Schritt 5

Gently lift the two tabs on either side of the black ribbon with a spudger until the ribbon comes loose.
Disconnect the black ribbon by pulling the blue tab hanging off of it.
Repeat with the white ribbon.

Schritt 6

Unscrew the captive screw shown near the battery compartment with a Phillips #0 screwdriver.
The screw does not come out all the way and stays attached to the computer.

Missed 3 screws to be removed before pushing the optical drive!

Vincent Rouillard - 23/01/17

Actually there are 4 screws

Vincent Rouillard - 23/01/17

Schritt 7

Push outward on the metal optical drive tab with a metal spudger to unlock the drive from its position in the case.
Once the drive is protruding from the side of the computer, pull it the rest of the way out.

Schritt 8

Unscrew the three captive screws holding the drive in place with a Phillips #0 screwdriver.
The screws will remain inside the springs of the hard drive caddy cover.

Schritt 9

Pull the green tab away from the metal casing and lift the drive out.

Schritt 10

Unscrew two 3mm screws from the hard drive bay with a Phillips #0 screwdriver.

Schritt 11

Remove the eight 6mm screws with a T8 Torx screwdriver.

Schritt 12

Rotate the laptop so the battery compartment is in front of you.
Remove the four 4 mm screws under the battery with a T8 Torx screwdriver.

Schritt 13

Remove three more 4mm screws from the optical drive compartment with a T8 Torx screwdriver.

Schritt 14

Flip the laptop so it is keyboard side up.
Remove the 6mm screw with a T8 Torx screwdriver.

Schritt 15

Use a spudger to lift the edges of the connector up so the white ribbon can slide out.
Pull the ribbons out by the blue plastic tab on the cable at each connector site.

Schritt 16

There are still ribbons that need to be removed before the top cover separates completely; do not yank the cover off after it is separated to prevent ripping the cables out.
Start at the front of the latop and run a plastic spudger between the top cover and the case to undo the clips holding it together
If there is difficulty separating the top cover from the computer, do not force it. You might have missed a screw.

Schritt 17

Angle the top cover so you can see the white ribbons shown in the picture.
Carefully slide the top cover toward you to expose the white ribbon connectors.
Use a spudger to lift the connectors and slide out both ribbons.

Schritt 18

Unscrew the eight captive screws with a T9 Torx screwdriver.
Undo the screws in the order represented by the small numbers next to the screw on the heat sink assembly. Repeat this while reassembling to prevent damage to the components underneath.
These screws will also not unscrew all the way.

Schritt 19

Gently pull up on the 4 pin fan power connector cable to unplug it from the system.

Schritt 20

Gently lift the fan and heatsink assembly straight up and out so you do not smear the thermal paste.
Thermal paste is a heat conductive gel applied to the underside of the heatsinks. Be careful not to wipe any off or else the components within the laptop will not cool properly and could become damaged. It also makes a big sticky mess if it smears or gets on any other components.

I’m planning to upgrade the GPU on my Zbook. Do you have any idea what thermal pads should I use?

As far as I know, there are different components that require pads of different thickness (memory modules, VRMs, etc). I dont remember reading about this in HP’s official service guide for this model, perhaps because they sell the GPU and heatsink with those pre-applied.

Also, I would like to be recommended a thermal pad brand if possible.

Thanks in advance!

Luis Alejandro Araúz - 02/03/20

Is it always necessary to replace the heatsink, or can I just replace the fan and reseat the heatsink with a good thermal pad? I am seeing the fan sold separately and not sure why the heatsink itself might need replacement—didn’t thin k they “wore out”.

Spud Chick - 22/01/21

Abschluss

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

Tinte & Feder

Grant Terris

Mitglied seit: 31/01/15

2795 Reputation

6 Kommentare

Wow, looks like that graphics card is actually user replaceable? That’s really awesome to see, with both the CPU being socketed and GPU being on a slot, that makes this system super upgradable and (hopefully) long lasting. If you manage to burn your GPU out, you don’t have to replace the entire motherboard.

Shane Roeseberg - 16/10/17

I performed this procedure to replace the fan/heatsink assembly, and used the HP maintenance and service guide for this machine which can be found at http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c03... - it differs from these instructions (an improvement) is two ways - first, the optical drive should be removed before the keyboard, and then the keyboard can be pushed up from below to get it started, which is much better than forcing the whole thing from above. Secondly, removal of the top cover does not start with separating the front edge as these instructions show, but by lifting the back edge and then sliding the cover forward, which takes very little force. The Ifixit instructions were a good start, but I was glad I had the real stuff from HP.

Steve Reynolds - 21/11/18

What about electrostatic discharge though? How does it fit into the picture, and how does one protect against it?

croassassinvk - 04/09/19

I did this in order to clean up the innards and apply thermal paste. I gotta say it’s a hastle compared to the older EliteBooks where all you had to do to access the CPU was to open the service door/cover.

But eh, what can you do, right?

Luis Alejandro Araúz - 10/03/21

Great write up. However, these copper pipe type coolers don’t fail unless you’ve busted the fan somehow. For those of you with this overheating problem, just take it apart and put new thermal paste in there.

My 6yr old machine was overheating badly, and would BSOD on occasion. A quick look with hwinfo revealed a cpu that was hitting 100°C.

Too hot!

I blew in the vents with some light compressed air and this blew out a small slug of lint.

Didn’t help much.

Ran Aida64 FPU and it would immediately overheat and throttle

I went by the pics on here and knew that my fan was operating normally so I figured I’d try new paste before dropping $50+ on a new fan.

Pulled the heatsinks out, put some new Artic Silver on there and put it back together.

Now even under Aida64 FPU it’s only hitting 93°C now and no throttling.

Robin Oury - 05/05/21

This is the best set of instructions I have had the pleasure to work with. Laptop had an overheating issue. The fan worked fine so this led to the only other issue, the thermal grease was no longer working efficiently. I disassembled the lap top per your great and accurate instructions cleaned off the old thermal grease and replaced it. Reassembled Laptop by reversing your instructions and all works fine. No more overheating issues.

Mitchell -