I'm having trouble opening this laptop. I have out all of the visible screws and it seems like there are a couple in the middle that I can't see to remove. I also can't figure out how to take out the DVD-ROM drive. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Hi dwmlr, many of laptops have a lever to remove the CD/DVD drive.

There is normally only 1 screw. All you need to do, is take that screw out (located on the underside of the laptop, and about near the end of the drive). Take the battery out (possibly the HD, I can't remember 100%) and then on the edge there should be a button/lever you can push that will eject the CD.

Another thing to check - I'm pretty sure HP do this one after writing that above..Next to the eject button on the drive itself, there should be a small square eject symbol on the right side of the drive..once the afor mentioned screw has been removed, push that and it should eject the drive for you.

Hey, this may not be exactly like the laptop you have but it should help. Most laptops dissasemble basically the same way (you might have to use a bit of common sense for some extra things). This guide is on a different HP Pavilion laptop but I recently dissasembled a Toshiba Satellite and it came apart just about the same way. Like I said, most laptops disassemble the same way. First take out all the bottom screws, then pull off the faceplate around the bottom of the screen which should reveal some screws holding the keyboard down. Once you unscrew them and get the keyboard off you can basically get to everything easily. Heres the guide.

http://www.madmastersmachines.com/HPnotebookrepair.html

Thanks guys for trying to help me...after contacting HP, they e-mailed me the repair manual for that model. It turns out, that you have to take the whole thing apart practically to get at the Optical Drive. Go figure huh?

oohh so it's not an easy one...bugger

Good work thou.