I received a unit that had a manufacturing defect in the bottom cover. (Magnet on right side was glued in the wrong spot causing the input cover to bow upward on that side after closing the case.) I’ve worked with Framework to get a replacement bottom cover, and have finally received it. Has anybody replaced their bottom cover yet, and if so, do you have a checklist/order of operations I can follow to transplant the hardware to the new unit?
UPDATE: Special thank you to @freesh for coming up with this guide. It was exactly what I needed to complete this task!
I think you would pretty much have to remove everything from the bottom cover, so I would follow the battery, mainboard and hinge removal guide, then assemble those parts onto your new bottom cover. Speakers should be included in the new bottom cover kit, but if not then you’d also have to remove those. Most of the guides should have instructions to replace the components, just do that in the new shell.
At this point, the only thing connecting the Top Cover to the Bottom Cover should be the hinges. The display cable, WiFi card, and webcam cable should be dangling. Free the Top Cover from the Bottom Cover by following this step. You shouldn’t need to remove the bezel, display, or hinges from the Top Cover.
Reconnect the display cable, webcam cable, WiFi card, memory, and storage by following the Mainboard guide, starting at step 22 and stopping after step 27.
At this point, everything but the battery should be connected. Connect it following this step.
Finally, transplant the Input Cover and Expansion Cards starting at step 28 and continuing until the end.
Couple notes:
Make sure you block off some time for this as it won’t be trivial and you don’t want to rush this process.
Before working, touch a grounded metal object to be sure that you won’t fry anything with static discharge.
Read the entire step before starting each one, as some include really important warnings.
Find a compartmentalized container or bunch of containers to hold and organize the various fasteners and small parts you’ll be removing. Best practice would be to label where your component came from as you remove them. If you don’t and later forget what fasteners go where, use the Fasteners Guide.
It looks like the Bottom Cover Kit comes with the audio board, speakers, and WiFi brackets already installed so once you’re done, keep your now-backup components somewhere safe.
Hope this helps. Again, I wrote this up without trying it myself so if anyone spots any issues/mistakes with the above let me know!
There should be a guide from @nrp where he posted about getting a more “DIY” experience when they realized the cost difference to ship boxes of parts, rather than a mostly assembled laptop.
@feesh – You, my friend, are a lifesaver! Thank you for pointing the steps out in the order you did. Because of your assistance, I was able to complete the transfer in under 20 minutes; this included all the step-by-step reading. The best part is that I only had to undo 12 screws to complete the swap-out portion of the task, and they all used the T5 torx!
In comparison, it took me almost an hour to swap out my stock keyboard with the clear keyboard, thanks to all the screws involved.
We need to get somebody to make this the default guide for swapping the bottom cover.
