Gateway 9550 disassembly help

[Fark_Maniac]

You guys would laugh if you saw it...but I need help taking this thing apart so that I can keep hobbling it along.

First for your amusement, here's what it's got going against it (I must note that I bought it off some guy here on the forums...he trashed it and tried to sell it to me for 500...I told him 400 or I'm sending it back! ):
- Paint mist of hot pink and pukish green (I have no clue what that guy was painting...I got most of it off)
- Obvious screwdriver marks where someone didn't know how to take it apart (I didn't do this)
- Power brick has bent plug
- LCD top cover has cracks where hinges are (he said he dropped a book or two on it)

---- Now what has failed on me ----

- Battery died...so now it is a wall outlet only mobile computer!
- Multiple 5px wide dead (white) columns...I refer to them as racing stripes. They go away if you touch the LCD part.
- Mainboard memory channels has a bug in it. It drops 1MB from each stick of memory. Memory passes multiple hour memtest. Not a big deal and have not experienced any problems other than only having 510MB of ram...hehe

And now for the one that really makes it hard to use...
- The power adapter socket is loose...so if you move the cable a certain way....instant loss of power.

I've found a place where they sell these adapter sockets, however I cannot get the chassis apart around where the power adapter is. I've gotten every visible screw out. I've been able to take the LCD completely off. I just cannot get it seperated (see above screwdriver marks...I think someone has tried this before I have)

So what I'm looking for is if anyone knows of a place online or someone knows how to take these things apart correctly, I'd love to get my laptop back to a point where I don't have to position it a certain way on the couch just to get it going.

Yes, I've thought about getting a new one...but I cannot justify the money right now. All other internal parts work great. It has been a good little laptop.

Edit: DC Power Jack website:
http://www.excelcomputerinc.com/html/xlsearchdcjack.asp

 

[Javelin3o4]

can you post pics of the laptop as far as where you are at? if taken several laptops apart but sometimes just seeing it helps.

usually there are screws,

around the bottom
under panels such as hdd, memory
under the keyboard,
under lcd
backside of lcd hinges

sometimes after you remove it the top half just snaps together to the bottom half of the laptop and you half to seperate it using something small and flat and just go around the edges.

 

[Fark_Maniac]

honestly, it has been several months since I've attempted to take it apart just for the fact that I don't have room to do much of anything in my new apartment.

and like I said, I've taken every visible screw out. from all panels. LCD & bracket have come off (even that was missing screws when I got it...found one inside the hinge of all places), I've taken all rubber plugs out to see if there were any screws underneath.

I suppose what I'm wondering is would they make it so you have to slide the top cover one way a short distance before it all comes apart. I'm only getting stuck around where I plug the power in, which is also where it is marked up so badly by a screwdriver. I'll see if I can get some pics of the area in question.