HP Laptop Basic Problem

[ddvlad]

OK, a little background first: an acquaintance recently received an HP notebook from Italy. Since I am the local computer guru (although I personally do not refer to myself as that), she came to me for advice (she's absolutely clueless). Every manual is in Italian and it's been almost impossible to make anything useful out of it.

Now, after the first "lesson", I came the second day to find that a little plastic thing was sticking out of the bottom left side of the laptop. When I press it, a small tray comes out and I managed to read something like "PC Card" about it in the manual. Now, the issue is I can't get the small part to "stay inside". I am quite afraid to force the device, since I am hardly familiar with laptops and I would be held responsible for breaking anything. The owner does not recall how she got the part out and carrying the laptop in it's current state would be risky in my view (small part could break). Now, if anyone please knows what that is and how I can fix it, I would be very grateful.

I am sorry for my unspecific language (I am not a native English speaker) and for the rather silly question -- I could not find a more suitable forum and I have zero experience with laptops.

Thanks in advance,
Vlad.

 

[KenB]

This sounds like a brand new from the factory HP laptop. If I am correct then the plastic peice is just the device to eject the PCMCIA cards from the slots on the side of the laptop and the little trays are just the slot fillers as there are no cards in the slots yet. The plastic button will usually lock in place if you push it back in while holding the tray in place.
If you are not familiar with the PCMCIA cards or slots they are used to add devices to the laptop that are not built-in to already (network, wireless, modems ETC.)

HTH
Ken

 

[dglienna]

With no card, it is like a toggle switch, you can just click it back into the recessed position. If you insert a card, then it acts like a floppy drive, and will let you eject the card. Be aware that these pieces break off easily.

I'm having the same problem with my HP laptop. I've messed around with it, but still have to take it apart so that I can insert another card. Something is blocking it, and I think that it's another piece of plastic from the second slot.

Just push in the tab. It should lock into place without the card. If you put in a card, you will be able to push in the tab to lock it, with no effort.

-David
2006 Microsoft Valueable Professional (MVP)
2006 Dell Certified System Professional (CSP)

 

[ddvlad]

So, I can just take out the card, ask the owner to hold on to it, and push the button back? It kept springing into place when I tried that, but I haven't been that persistent. Thank you for your advice; I will keep you posted as to how thigs go.