How to open an HP Pavillion Lap Top??

HELP!!

I have what is probably a classic problem, of having a Laptop which
has had the Power Plug line yanked severely.... pulling out the center pin
and destroying the female jack. It would seem that replacing said jack would be a simple task.... IF you could gain access.

How do you open the case up?? I have an HP Pavillion xt178.
I have removed the HD, battery, access panels and all visible screws.
I've lifted the labels in the center of the bottom, looking for hidden screws and found none. Something still has a firm attachment to the center and I can see what looks to be a stand off, located in the center, but have no clue as to where to access it. I've trolled through the HP website, but can not find much more than rec.s to send it in for repair.

How and where does one gain the secret key??

 

Compaq (now owned by HP) has detailed manuals for all their laptops, I'm somewhat surprised that HP doesn't have them...

 

I have done exactly that repair on my zt1170. What a pain in the BUTT!!!!!

Basically you have to strip it down to the chasis, including removing the monitor. It is not so terribly hard to do, but time consuming since you want to keep track of all the pieces. If you have a videocam, you may want it running while you do it.

It's been a few months since I did this, so I can't give you a step by step. Just flip it over and start taking out screws. As I remember there were a couple "hidden" ones under rubber plugs or such? Maybe even one under the HP designation above the touchpad? It's a little foggy now. I didn't have any diagrams to go by.

I do remember my son telling me I would never get it back together....and if I did it would never work. Well as he would say "BooYah!" I did and it does.

The female jack and plastic housing were broken, and the solder connection to the MOBO was busted loose. I resoldered the connection and rebuilt the housing with 'JB-Weld' (like expoxy). I must have down a better job reassembling it than HP, because I used 2 less screws than they did ;^)))

I do have one problem though and it may be that I missed a solder connection? The power pack does not charge the battery. So I always use the cord, which I did before anyway. But now if I want to go in another room I have to 'Hibernate' first, because unplugging is an instant power failure.