Disassemble a Gateway 610 Media PC (Elonex Exentia)

I was looking to 'fix' my Gateway 610 it stopped booting, or mearly started to freeze up 5 minutes or 40 minutes after boot, mid-video playback. I assumed a background task, or maybe a virus. Soon the reboots messed the boot drive, and sometimes it wouldn't recognise the drive. 

http://www.laptops-we-r.com/610%20MEDIA%20CENTER%20OPENING%20REPAIR.htm

Time to Dismantle!

Around back, the back part of the system has a subwoofer, the top of which tilts up and out from under the handle.
This reveals two silver screws in the black plastic, with rubber grommets under the mount to reduce vibrations from transferring. It's tricky, cause the screws come out of the metal, but are held in with the rubber, so tugging them out with pliers after you have loosened the screws is fine.

The subwoofer tilts off the back, disconnect the 4-sets of connectors. I'll give credit to the design engineer, there a a bunch of connectors in this thing, and each one seemed to be unique enough to allow anyone to reassemble. Most connectors are wired the same, and or are one of a kind. I wrapped the subwoofer wires together, as one is signal to all speakers, two are feeds to the left and right over the main, and the fourth (i think) is power.

The disassembled subwoofer with plastic top part on top. Save the subwoofer, you'll want it later.

The back, with subwoofer removed. There are 2 screws (circled in red) holding the plastic to the metal frame. Remove them.

There is a light-grey plastic piece between the handle and the monitor. Tilt it up, and let the plastic snaps come out to remove this plastic.

Place the machine face down on a towel, so you have access to the base of the machine. There are 6 screws (circled in red) holding the plastic top to the metal foot. Remove them.

This allows the plastic on the bottom to wiggle a bit, and allow you to remove the plastic backing. Use a putty knife to slip into the creavice on the left and right side to slowly pry it open. There are snaps inside that will give way easily. You need to remove the plastic up and away from the base in the end. I ended up breaking the plastic around the mount of the firewire port.

The back without the plastic covering, now just the metal shield around the power supply. It pries off from top to bottom. It's keyed inside the base, so be careful when getting of off the back.

The metal shield, removed and set aside. See the tabs along the bottom? They're tricky to get out.

The Power Supply

The back, without the metal shield. Revealing the power supply. According to this guy, REV.00 sucks, and that's what I have. Oh well. It still works, for now.

There are 4 screws holding the power supply in. You can see 3 circled in red in this picture, the fourth is under the cables. You'll need to wiggle them free to access it. Once the power supply is free, you can disconnect the cables and set it aside for later.

The back with the power supply removed. Next up, remove the daughtercard on the bottom with all the ins and outs for this machine.

The Daughtercard

See the black dot under my finger? It's a compression holder. Grab a set of needle-nose pliers and pull it out.

Slightly farther angle for perspective. The tiny AV board comes out, revealing a SINGLE SCREW underneath the black compression holder holding the base to the back. Remove the screw, and hold the base as it's coming off and it's heavy!

The base, removed. See the single post in the middle?

The bottom with the base removed. There is a daughtercard that holds all the ins and outs for this machine. Remove the two screws circled in red.

The daughtercard will be loose, but until you remove the shielding from the two sides of the base, you won't be able to get the card free. Here I'm pointing what a pain it is to get it off the firewire/USB side. I ended up ripping it off.

The dangling daughtercards.

Closeup of the daughtercard with all the cables (except for the ethernet cord) connected for reference. The thernet cord is strictly a passthrough. The 'real' connector is deep inside the machine, with a foot length cord running from it to this jack.

Remove the Tower

Remove the six screws circled in red. the metal back will come off the back, and you have a free-standing monitor with a bunch of cables coming out the back.

The metal frame holding the monitor up. I had to feed the wires through the handle hole area. Worked fine.

Remove the Plastic Backing

There are 8 screws holding the back plastic onto the monitor. They're circled in red in the following picture.

Remove the Metal Shielding

Once the back plastic is off, there are 2 things to watch for. In the left of the following pic is the radio antenna hookup. It's a simple RCA connector, feel free to loosen it. Second is the cord that goes from the top of the monitor to the top switch subassembly.

You can see it here better it's comes out of a connector easily. Just above it is one of the screws that holds the metal shielding on the back of the case.

There is another screw here, on the DVD Drive side, and several obvious ones on the back.

The metal shielding from off the back. The bottom is keyed, and requires a putty knive to spread the keys and release the shield from the metal housing of the monitor frame.

Remove the Metal Backing

There are 5 screws holding the metal back frame to the rest of the frame. They are circled here in red. One is a mistake. I think you'll figure it out.

Just the metal frame. It's actually two parts, and a single screw holds them together.

The metal frame, in it's two seperate parts.

Still working!

Front view of it booted up and running. It's behaving nicely today, and booting. It seems quicker, and more stable. It's certainly quiet for an open machine. Not bad!

Back view of the frankenstiens monster that it is! You can see the two parts of the AV daughtercard on the left, and the powersupply on the right. The Hard drive is just underneath the subwoofer, which is propping it up.