HP’s YouTube Channel Is Now A Treasure Trove For Tech Support And Tinkering

Either some intern is having the most boring Silicon Valley summer or HP’s YouTube team has gone mad with power. Whatever the reason, the company has been on a YouTube flurry lately, uploading hundreds of detailed technical support videos covering countless ways to disassemble, fix, and otherwise mess with its many laptops, desktops, and other products.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say that if you’re having an issue with an HP laptop, or you want a little guidance on how to do something a bit more intense for an average user (like replace its hard drive or memory), you should ignore HP’s website completely and just go to its YouTube channel.

If you’re a more serious tinkerer, HP’s YouTube channel is a gold mine for instructional videos on how to mess with most of the important internal components of whatever HP product you own. Feel like replacing the entire display on an HP EliteBook x360 1040 G5? Easy—well, it looks easy in the video, at least:

Admittedly, HP’s videos do gloss over some important steps, like telling you to “remove the motherboard” without actually showing the person attacking the many screws that attach it to your system’s chassis. That said, I do appreciate the videos’ brevity: You’re getting the basic facts in a dry, almost How It’s Made-like fashion. Even if you don’t have a ton of experience taking apart expensive things, you (probably) won’t feel very lost—and following HP’s help might save you a costly trip to the repair store, assuming you’ve somehow acquired any replacement parts you need.

Rather than wade through HP’s many technical videos, make sure you’re using YouTube’s convenient search feature for channels. I forget about it, too, but it’s easy to find. Look for the magnifying glass to the right of “about” on any channel’s page. Click it, type in the name of whatever HP product you want to look up, and you’ll be able to quickly see whether HP has uploaded any videos about how to disassemble it.

I wouldn’t recommend subscribing to this channel, as it’s going to inundate your YouTube feed if HP keeps up its uploading pace. Bookmark it instead, so you can always remember to consult it if, or when, you want to start playing around with your laptop’s parts.