HP Pavilion dv7-1020us Upgrade and Cooling Mod

I got a hold of an old HP Pavilion dv7-1020us that was having video stuttering problems. Generally, it worked, but the occasional video lag was starting to get out of hand. Since it's an old computer, my first instinct is to open it up and clean it out since it's out of warranty and the thermal compound needs to be upgraded anyway. Here's a picture of what I found.

Horrifying, isn't it!

Logitech MX518 Optical Gaming Mouse Repair

I'm at it again and this time, I fixed the mouse buttons on the Logitech MX518 Optical Gaming Mouse. I had a problem with this one in that the left mouse button wasn't mounted all the way down and when I desoldered the left mouse button, one mount came completely off and another one was on it's way off, but I soldered everything back on and it worked just fine. I used the same Omron D2F-T that I used to repair the Logitech V550 Nano Cordless Laser Mouse. The 3rd mouse button below the left mouse button is for the wheel. That particular button doesn't get used much so I didn't replace that one. Again the new mouse buttons are stiffer than the original clicky mouse buttons.

Finally, an upgradeable Tablet PC

As you can probably tell by now, I have a affinity towards Sony products. Don't get me wrong, I get annoyed when Sony doesn't deliver the goods, but when they do, the result is just beautiful.

Many of high end (non-Intel Atom) Tablet PCs are not upgradable or repairable because they are GLUED together.

Microsoft Surface Pro disassembly
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Microsoft+Surface+Pro+Teardown/12842/

Microsoft Surface Pro 2 disassembly
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Microsoft+Surface+Pro+2+Teardown/18604/

Lenovo Helix disassembly
No teardown information available. The only other high end Tablet PC other than Sony to offer an Intel Core i7. The Lenovo Helix offers an Intel Core i7-3667U Processor (4M Cache, up to 3.20 GHz) with a battery life of up to 10 hours.

Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T (XE700T1C) disassembly
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/samsung/54457-ativ-700t-question-anyone-open-unit-yet-3.html
In all fairness, the Samsung  ATIV 700T isn't glued together; it snaps together. There's not a lot of good information out there regarding how to pry it apart, but it's doable.

Now let's compare this to the Sony VAIO Tap 11 disassembly
http://blog.sony.com/2013/10/vaio-tap-11-teardown/
5 screws and the device comes apart without a fuss. In my opinion the differentiator is that you can configure it with an Intel® Core™ i7-4610Y (1.70GHz / 2.90GHz with Turbo Boost). Pair that with an aftermarket 480 GB mSATA SSD (as of 2013-12-08, http://www.crucial.com/search/searchresults.aspx?keywords=msata) and you've got a powerful tablet. You can purchase the unit with a built in 512 GB SSD, but that's $700 (as of 2013-12-08). The battery life is mediocre at up 5.75 hours.