If you don’t know why you might want to care about this, here’s the introduction to HP 14-an013nr.
One of the biggest hurdles in upgrading or modifying the HP 14-an013nr is just getting the case open. HP doesn’t have any incentive to make this easy, they want to sell you more computers, having you upgrading them interferes with that.
Here are a couple of videos showing the case being opened. I seem to be linking to these two a lot, and it’s pretty good info. Hopefully I can provide more myself:
Here are a couple of links for resources I’ll be referring to:
The manual for this and some similar models available for download:
http://www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c05227925
Here’s the link to the HP parts sales site… pray you never have to use it:
https://parts.hp.com/hpparts/default.aspx
Unlike one of the gentlemen in the videos, I really wanted to remove the bottom of the case with as little wear, tear and damage as possible, and I think I managed that from the first time, just by taking my time and working patiently.
We get into the case from the bottom, so it needs to be turned upside-down, hopefully on a nice flat working surface with something on it to act as padding.
The first step is to remove the two rubber feet on the rear bottom of the case. Unfortunately, you have to do this, there are four screws hidden under these feet, two under each. They can be pried loose with your fingers if you have some strength, and there’s no way to finesse them off, so may as well just go for it. YOU REALLY WANT TO CAREFULLY SAVE THESE. I mentioned elsewhere that HP charges absurdly high prices for replacement parts, and I wasn’t kidding. Moreover, for some reason many of them don’t seem available on eBay from machines being parted out the way parts for other brands of notebooks are. I’ve mentioned that specifically in regard to the hard drive “bracket”, HP part 859126. It’s a mystery. Clues welcome.
The “rubber kit” for this model, which as far as I can tell is only the two adhesive rear feet and nothing else, part 862192-001 in the manual, is sold at the HP Parts site (at this writing) for $21.50. The cheapest domestic (US) shipping offered is $11.25. That’s right, they’re serious… $32.75 for two little stick-on rubber feet. CAREFULLY SAVE THE FEET.
Playing HP’s game with regard to parts is clearly a losing strategy- just a couple of orders like that for trivial little parts would wipe out any savings in buying and modding this computer in the first place. It’s also insulting- those feet that they are charging more than $20 for almost certainly cost less than ten cents in quantity. I’d rather fabricate my own from scrap tires with a Swiss army knife than than pay that.
Once the feet are off and carefully set aside (preferably somewhere where the left-over adhesive won’t get dusty), there are a total of 14 screws to be removed. Thankfully, unlike the screws in the bottoms of some other brands of notebook, all of 14 of these screws are identical. That there are so many of them is both good news and bad news. It’s bad news because it takes a while to remove them. It’s good news because the case bottom is otherwise a snap-on fit, of the sort that incorporates lots and lots of little plastic hooks which tend to wear and round out if the bottom is removed roughly or often, so it is a very good thing that we do have all those screws and we’re not really relying on the hooks to hold the bottom in place. Again, be sure to carefully save these, I haven’t looked up the price of the screws but I’m sure it’s insanely high (Later: $21.50. I’m guessing that’s their minimum price for any part). I have seen (purportedly) full-screw kits for this model for sale on eBay, but it’s much better to avoid the problem.
COUNT THE SCREWS. You need to double-check the holes to make sure that they are empty, and count the screws to make sure you have 14. It’s very easy to miss one, and if you do there is a very good chance that you’ll crack the case bottom getting it open.
Once the screws have been removed, it’s a matter of slowly working the case open along the edge seam. My impression was that I had to have the lid open part way to really get at that seam. On one side are the “ports” that protrude through the case bottom, so that side cannot be removed first, the other side and the front and back edges must be loosened and then the bottom can be swiveled away from the protruding ports. The trick is just to get it started, and that’s a matter of prying the top and the bottom apart with your thumbs along the edge seam until you find a spot where they separate a bit, then using that separation as leverage to “worry” the parts apart further along the seam. At first it felt like nothing was giving way at all. I started using a plastic guitar pick. I do NOT believe in using metal tools on plastic parts, you mar or scratch them every time, but it really didn’t help with the initial separation, it was just something I could shove into crevices that opened up to keep them from closing again. Probably a plastic “spudger” would have been better, and I own a few, but I had this on-hand at the moment. The first part is by far the hardest, once it starts separating anywhere along that seam it’s just a matter of being patient and going slowly and gently, and the entire bottom will soon be off without any telltale cracking noises indicating some level of damage.
In putting the bottom cover back on, it’s important to “hook” the edge with the VGA and HDMI ports in place first. The VGA port protrudes enough that whether it’s in it’s opening is obvious, but the HDMI port is especially important, the entire edge has to be within the opening. Once that’s true, you can gently “hinge” the bottom cover down into place, making sure that there are no hangups or protrusions. If you’ve fitted a hard drive or SSD into the hard drive bay this is a bit tricky, there are matching flanges around the bay in both the chassis side and the cover, and it may need to be carefully worked and eased down. Don’t force it.
When it comes time to put the rubber feet back on I’m going to have to make a decision. It may be that the original adhesive will still work well enough that I feel secure using it… or it may not. Given the cost of losing one, I’m a bit apprehensive about this. I may opt for using new adhesive. For things like this I generally use rubber cement- not the kindergarten kind, I recommend Barge if you can find it, and following the directions. It’s widely used, and sometimes sold at shoe-repair places, and there’s a reason, it’s strong and reliable. Of course, that’s going to make it more difficult to remove them the next time… mutter, mutter… maybe we need to improve on them, not just put them back… hmm…
– Robert the Wombat
Intro to the HP 14-an013nr, the hardware hacker’s bargain notebook
Happy Hacker’s Notebook: Mysteries of the HP 14-an013nr: RAM