X31 Case: A first - perhaps stupid - question

[X-Man]

First post here from an X31 and T60 owner, both happily running Ubuntu.

This morning my X31 got knocked off a worryingly high shelf onto a hard wooden floor. Peering at the case in alarm I was relieved to find just a slight buckle around the screen surround and no actual cracks.

I thought I could just twist and snap the thing right back into place without any further damage occurring, and this did in fact seem to work out except I was left holding an apparently intact right sided screen release catch with a little spring assembly.

My thinking is that I should be able to put this back and restore the thing to pristine condition, but having had a look at the hardware manual I am unsure how to get the screen disassembled. In particular I believe I have identified the screws that secure the casing, but they are covered by little rectangular bits of plastic, that I can’t seem to get off.

Anybody know how to do this? (I don’t want to force the stressed case more than necessary). Any other tips or thoughts?

[rkawakami]

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

The plastic covers are simply held in place by a self-adhesive backing. You should be able to pry them off with a thin, flat-bladed screwdriver or an X-Acto blade. However, be very careful when prying them up as they have a tendency to fly across the room and be lost forever . From your description it sounds like the lid latch has separated from the laptop. It can be replaced by removing the LCD bezel (Section 2010 of the Hardware Maintenance Manual). There's three screws below the screen that are behind round plastic covers. The hard part is actually getting the bezel to disengage from the lid. The technique that I use is to carefully slide a fingernail between the bezel and the lid.

[mediasponge]

Or a guitar pick or an iPod opening tool. The idea is to avoid leaving scratches and distorted plastic afterwards.

[Harryc]

+1 for using a guitar pick.

[X-Man]

Many thanks for the feedback guys.

I must say prior to seeing your replies I tried a less sophisticated approach involving - aherm - manually disengaging the plastic trim with all screws in situ and simply trying to cram the pesky little thing back in.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t seem to seat it properly despite fairly strenuous efforts not at all compatible with my prior intent to avoid further case stress.

And since the by the book operation sounds like it could take a while with further risk of damage, I might just leave this project for now and take extra care handling the machine.

Anyway, thanks again for the tips; I’ll certainly bear these in mind if/when I have a go.