In this guide I will be taking apart a Sony Vaio VGN-SZ series laptop. In my case I’m working with a Sony Vaio VGN-SZ330p laptop but the guide should work for the entire VGN-SZ line.

In you need replacement parts, search here.

STEP 1.

Turn off the laptop, unplug AC adapter and remove battery.

Remove one screw securing the keyboard.

STEP 2.

There are two latches securing the keyboard. They are located above the F2 and Insert keys.

STEP 3.

Using a small screwdriver press on the locking latch above the Insert key and lift up the right side of the keyboard.

STEP 4.

Do the same with the second latch and lift up the keyboard from the laptop base.

STEP 5.

Place the keyboard upside down on the palm rest so you can access the cable connector underneath.

STEP 5.

In order to unlock the cable connector move the black clip about 2 millimeters towards the touch pad. The clip must stay attached to the connector base.

If you break the connector, you’ll have to remove the motherboard. Work very carefully.

STEP 6.

Release the keyboard cable. Remove the keyboard and replace it with a new one if needed.

STEP 7.

Remove four screw securing the heat sink cover. Remove the cover.
Remove two screws securing the memory cover. Remove the cover.

STEP 8.

Remove two screw securing the CPU heat sink.

STEP 9.

Remove heat sink from the laptop.

Now you can clean the cooling fan and heat sink with compressed air.
Also, you get an access to the CPU.

STEP 10.

Both memory modules could be access through the door on the bottom of the laptop.

STEP 11.

Remove four red screws securing the switch cover.
Remove three yellow screws securing the palm rest.

STEP 12.

Carefully lift up and remove the switch cover.

STEP 13.

Remove three screw securing the palm rest.
Unlock the touch pad cable connector and release the cable.

In order to unlock the connector simply lift up the right side of the locking clip with your finger nail.

On the picture below the connector is shown in the unlocked state.

STEP 14.

Release the touch pad cable and remove the palm rest assembly.

When the palm rest assembly is removed you get an access to the hard drive, DVD drive, wireless card and CMOS battery.

STEP 15.

Remove three screws securing the hard drive assembly.

Disconnect the hard drive cable connector from the motherboard.

STEP 16.

Remove the hard drive assembly from the laptop.

If you are replacing or upgrading the hard drive you’ll have to transfer the mounting bracket and cable from the old drive to a new one.

STEP 17.

Remove one screw securing the DVD drive.

STEP 18.

Slid the DVD drive to the right to disconnect it from the motherboard.

There is an adapter between the DVD drive and motherboard. This adapter has to stay attached to the motherboard.

STEP 19.

Remove DVD drive from the laptop.

STEP 20.

In order to remove the wireless card, disconnect two antenna cable from the card, remove two screws securing the card and pull the card from the slot on the motherboard.

If you would like to replace the CMOS battery, simply unplug it from the motherboard and replace with a new one.

In one of the previous guides I explain how to remove the LCD screen and inverter board from a Sony Vaio VGN-SZ series laptop.

In the following guide I will remove and replace the power board in an Acer TravelMate 3260 series laptop. Most likely my guide will work for some other Acer TravelMate laptops but I don’t know all models. If this guide fits your laptop, please mention the model number in comments after the post.

In Acer TravelMate 3260 laptop power from AC adapter goes to the motherboard through the power board. When the power board goes bad, the laptop stops working at all and appears to be dead. In order to get access and replace the power board we’ll have to disassemble the entire laptop.

STEP 1.

If you need spare parts for your Acer TravelMate 3260, you can find them here.

First of all, turn off the laptop and remove the battery.

Remove two screws securing the switch cover on the back of the laptop.

STEP 2.

Start removing the switch cover and lift it up by the hinge cover.
Continue removing the cover with your hinges.

STEP 3.

Remove the switch cover.

STEP 4.

Remove two screws securing the keyboard.

STEP 5.

Carefully lift up the keyboard from the laptop base and place it upside down on the palm rest so you can access the cable connector underneath.

STEP 6.

You have to unlock the connector before you can pull the cable and remove the keyboard.

On the picture below you see connector in the unlocked position.
Pull the cable and remove the keyboard.

The keyboard has been removed.

STEP 7.

Remove the hard drive and memory/Wi-Fi covers.

STEP 8.

Remove one screw securing the hard drive assembly.

STEP 9.

Pull the hard drive to the left and disconnect it from the motherboard.
Remove the hard drive from the laptop.

STEP 10.

Remove one screw securing the optical CD/DVD drive to the base.
Push the drive from the laptop with your finger.
Remove optical drive from the laptop.

It is not necessary to disconnect memory modules, wireless card, modem card and CMOS (RTC) battery for the purpose of my guide . You can leave them connected to the motherboard.

STEP 11.

Remove all marked screws from the bottom of the laptop.
Disconnect cables I pointed with yellow arrows.
Disconnect two antenna cables from the wireless card (green arrows).

STEP 12.

Remove one screw from the back side of the laptop.

STEP 13.

Disconnect the video cable connector.
Unroute both Wi-Fi antenna cables and pull them through the opening in the motherboard.
Remove four screws securing LCD panel hinges.

STEP 14.

Remove the LCD panel.

STEP 15.

Remove five screws securing the top cover assembly.
Disconnect the touchpad cable.

STEP 16.

Start separating the top cover assembly from the laptop base.

STEP 17.

Remove the top cover assembly.

STEP 18.

Remove two screws securing the motherboard.

STEP 19.

Start removing the motherboard from the top left corner.

Release and lift up the top right corner of the board.

Carefully pull the motherboard from the base assembly.

STEP 20.

On the picture below you see the power board attached to the motherboard.

The DC power jack and power switch are located on the power board. If the DC power jack is broken, you can repair it using this technique.

Remove two screws securing the power board.

Disconnect the power board from the motherboard.

The power board part number is printed right in the middle. It’s DA0ZR1PB6D1 (REV:D). You can find a replacement power board here.

STEP 21.

While the motherboard is removed from the base, you can clean the cooling module.
Loosen six screws securing the heat sink assembly.
Disconnect fan cable from the motherboard.

Remove the heat sink assembly and blow off dust using compressed air.

In this guide I will disassemble a HP 530 Notebook PC and remove the top cover assembly. I’m replacing the top cover assembly because one of the touch pad buttons is broken. When you press on the button it feels loose and sometimes will not click. The plastic button is a part of the top cover and when it gets broken you have to replace the whole top cover.

In order to replace the top cover I will have to disassemble the whole notebook. I’ll be removing all internal parts including hard drive, keyboard, motherboard, cooling fan and other key components.

It’s possible that my guide will work for some other HP notebooks. If it works for you, please mention the notebook model in the comments below and help other people.

First of all, turn off the notebook and remove the battery.

STEP 1.

Remove the memory and hard drive covers from the bottom of the notebook.

You will find the wireless card under the memory cover.

STEP 2.

Remove one screw securing the CD/DVD optical drive. Push the drive from the laptop with a small screwdriver.
Remove the optical drive.

STEP 3.

Pull the hard drive assembly to the left to disconnect it from the motherboard. Remove the hard drive assembly.

STEP 4.

When you replace the top cover, you don’t have to remove memory modules and wireless card, but it’s necessary to disconnect the wireless card antenna cables from the card.
Disconnect both Wi-Fi antennas from the wireless card.

STEP 5.

Remove eleven (yellow) screws from the bottom of the notebook. These screws are securing the switch cover (power button cover).
Remove two (red) screws. These two screws securing the display panel assembly.
Remove two (orange) screws. These two screws securing the keyboard.

STEP 6.

Turn the laptop over and start removing the switch cover. If you cannot separate the cover from the base, you can use a piece of plastic (I’m using a guitar pick).
Insert the guitar pick between the switch cover and base and carefully lift up the cover. Continue removing the cover with your fingers.

The switch cover has been removed.

STEP 7.

You removed two screws securing the keyboard in the step 5. Now you can lift up the keyboard from the base.

Place the keyboard so you can access the cable connector underneath.

In order to unlock the connector, you’ll have to move the brown locking clip towards the display panel. Move it about 2-3 millimeters, not more. The locking clip must stay attached to the connector base.
Now you can release the keyboard cable and remove the keyboard.

WARNING! If you break the keyboard connector, you’ll have to replace the motherboard.

Need a replacement keyboard for HP 530 notebook? Find a new keyboard here.

STEP 8.

Disconnect the video cable from the motherboard.
Pull the wireless antenna cable through the hole in the motherboard. You disconnected these cables from the wireless card in the step 4.
Remove two screw securing the display panel hinges. You removed two more screws securing the display panel in the step 5.

Remove the display panel assembly from the notebook base.

You can find the LCD screen removal instruction in the official service guide for HP 530 notebooks. Take a look on the page 49.

Search here for new LCD screens.

STEP 9.

Disconnect the switch board cable from the motherboard. Unlock the connector the same way as you unlocked the keyboard connector in the step 7.
Remove one screw securing the switch board.
Remove the switch board.

STEP 10.

Remove all remaining screws from the bottom.

STEP 11.

Disconnect the touch pad cable from the motherboard.

STEP 12.

Start separating the top cover from the notebook base.

Continue separating the top cover from the base.
By the way, in a HP 530 notebook PC the motherboard is attached to the top cover, not to the base assembly as a most other notebooks.

Remove the base cover.

STEP 13.

The base cover has been removed.
Now you can access and replace the RTC (CMOS) battery if needed.

STEP 14.

Remove one screw securing the cooling fan.
Disconnect the cooling fan cable from the motherboard.

Remove the cooling fan.

Here are replacement cooling fans.

STEP 15.

Loosen four screws securing the heat sink.

Remove the heat sink.
In my laptop the heat sink was clogged with dust and needed a good cleaning.
After the heat sink is removed, you can access and remove the processor (CPU) if needed. I’ll leave the processor attached to the motherboard.

STEP 16.

Disconnect the speaker cable.
Remove one screw securing the motherboard to the top cover.

Start removing the motherboard from the top cover.

The motherboard has been removed.

STEP 17.

The touch pad is attached to the top cover and secured by a metal bracket. I’m not removing the touch pad because when you buy a new top cover it comes with the cover.

Now you can replace the top cover assembly with a new one.

You can find a new top cover assembly (with touch pad) using the HP spare number. In my notebook the part number is 441626-001.
I think you can use the same top cover for all HP 530 Notebook PCs.

You can find a new or used top cover assembly here.

In the following guide I will take apart a Dell Vostro 1510 notebook. You can use this guide for removing almost all internal parts from the notebook base. I think these instructions might work for some other Dell Vostro notebooks, not just a Vostro 1510. If it fits your laptop, please mention the model in the comments below.

If you need spare parts for your Vostro 1510 laptop, you can search for used and new parts here.

Before you start the disassembly process do not forget to unplug the  power adapter and battery.

STEP 1.

Remove hard drive and memory covers.

STEP 2.

Pull the hard drive to the left and disconnect it from the motherboard.

Remove the hard drive. As you see it’s a SATA hard drive. If you are replacing the hard drive, any large 2.5″ SATA hard drive should work just fine.

STEP 3.

Remove both memory modules. In a Dell Vostro 1510 you can install up to 4GB RAM (2GB module into each slot). You should use DDR2-667 modules.

STEP 4.

Remove three screws securing the cooling fan. Unplug the cooling fan cable from the motherboard.

Remove and lift up the cooling fan.

STEP 5.

Loosen four screws securing the heat sink.

Carefully lift up and remove the heat sink.

STEP 6.

Disconnect two antenna cables from the wireless card. Grab the golden connector on the end of the antenna cables with your fingers and pull it up.
Remove one screw securing the wireless card and remove the card.

STEP 7.
Lift up the keyboard cover with a small screwdriver or another sharp object.

Remove the keyboard cover.

STEP 8.

Remove two screws securing the keyboard.

Lift up the keyboard so you can access the keyboard cable connector underneath.

Very carefully unlock the connector and release the keyboard cable.

Now you can remove the keyboard.

If you are replacing the keyboard, you don’t have to through steps 1-6. Simply remove and replace the keyboard as it shown in steps 7 and 8.

STEP 9.

In the following three steps I’ll remove the display panel assembly.

Remove one screw securing the right hinge.

STEP 10.

Disconnect the video cable from the motherboard.
Pull both wireless antenna cables through the opening.
Remove five screws securing both display hinges.

STEP 11.

Remove the display assembly.
If you would like to know how to take apart the display panel and remove the LCD with inverter, check out other disassembly guides in the Dell category. The LCD screen removal instructions will be similar for most Dell (and other ) laptops.

STEP 12.

Disconnect three cables and remove three screws from the top cover assembly.

STEP 13.

Remove all screws from the bottom of the notebook.

STEP 14.

Start separating the top cover assembly from the base assembly. You can use a small flathead screwdriver.

Continue separating the top cover assembly with your fingers.

Remove the top cover.

STEP 15.

The CD/DVD drive is mounted inside the base and can be removed only after you remove the top cover.
Disconnect the CD/DVD drive cable from the connector on the motherboard.

Lift up and remove the CD/DVD drive.

STEP 16.

Remove three screws securing the motherboard.
Unplug the USB board cable from the motherboard.

Lift up the motherboard as it shown on the picture below.

Remove the motherboard.

The processor (CPU) is locked in the socket. In order to remove the processor, you’ll have to unlock the socket first. There is a small screw on the side of the socket. This screw locks/unlocks the socket.

In this notebook the CMOS (RTC) battery is replaciable. You can unlug the old CMOS battery from the motherboard and replace it with a new one.

In this guide I explain how to disassemble a HP Compaq 6730s – 6735s notebook and remove the cooling fan which is mounted under the motherboard. Basically I will take the whole notebook apart and remove all internal components one by one.

Why wouldn’t HP make a door for the cooling fan? Why should it be so complicated to replace the cooling fan?

Let’s start to disassemble the notebook.

If you need new replacement parts for you HP Compaq 6730s-6735s notebook, you can find them here.

STEP 1.

Remove the battery.
Remove covers from the hard drive, wireless card and memory.

STEP 2.

Remove one screw securing the DVD drive (red circle) and pull the drive from the notebook.
Remove memory modules (in my laptop I had only one module installed).
Remove the hard drive, you’ll find details instruction on the sticker glued to the hard drive caddy.
Unsnap two antenna cables from the wireless card. Remove two screws securing the wireless card (green circles). Remove the wireless card.

STEP 3.

Remove five screws securing the switch board cover (red circles).
Remove two screws securing the laptop keyboard (green circles).
Remove eleven screws securing the laptop bottom cover (yellow circles).

STEP 4.

Lift up the switch board cover. You can separate the switch board cover from the bottom cover with a piece of soft plastic. I’m using a guitar pick.

Be careful, the switch board cover is attached to the motherboard. Do not pull the cable from the connector yet.

STEP 5.

Lift up the keyboard and place it on the switch board cover so you can access the keyboard cable connector.

The keyboard is connected to the motherboard via a flat ribbon cable. Before you pull the cable and remove the keyboard, you’ll have to unlock the connector.

On the picture below you can see the keyboard connector unlocked. Now you can pull the cable and remove the keyboard.

STEP 6.

After the keyboard has been removed, you can release the switch board cable and remove the cover.

STEP 7.

Remove four screws securing the notebook speakers.
Unplug the speaker cable from the motherboard.
Remove both speakers.

STEP 8.

Release the wireless card antenna cables.
Unplug the webcam cable from the motherboard.
Remove four screws securing the display hinges (red circles) and one screw grounding the video cable (green circle).

STEP 9.

Lift up and remove the display panel assembly.

STEP 10.

Remove two screws securing the top cover assembly.

STEP 11.

Carefully lift up the top cover assembly.

Be careful, the touch pad cable is still attached to the motherboard.Release the touch pad cable and remove the top cover assembly.

STEP 12.

Now we can access the motherboard.

Unplug three cables pointed with arrows.
Remove three screws securing the motherboard.
Lift up and release the RJ11 (modem) jack.

STEP 13.

Start removing the motherboard from the laptop case.

The motherboard has been removed.

STEP 14.

Finally, you can access and replace the cooling fan.
Simply remove one screw securing the cooling fan to the laptop base and replace it with a new one if needed.

If you are replacing the motherboard you’ll have to transfer some parts to the new board.

Transfer the DVD drive connector, modem card, heat sink, processor and modem cable.

In this guide I explain how to remove and replace the motherboard in a Dell Latitude D500 laptop. Also, you’ll see how to access and replace all other internal parts in this laptop.

I had two different problems with the laptop.
1. The power jack was damaged. I could have just resoldered the jack but the second problem was more serious.
2. The motherboard couldn’t charge a known good battery. Apparently it had a problem with the battery charging circuit.
So I decided to replace the motherboard.

Instead of buying just a single motherboard, I bough the whole motherboard assembly (you can see it on the first picture) which includes the board itself, mounting frame, cooling fan, speakers, hard drive bracket, PC card slot, modem and power button board. I purchased a good working motherboard assembly for my Dell Latitude D500 here for the same price as they asked for a single motherboard.

OK, let’s start taking it apart. Before you start, turn off the laptop, unplug the AC adapter and remove the battery.
Here I’m taking apart the laptop battery.

STEP 1.

Lift up one side of the keyboard cover with a small flat head screwdriver. Remove the cover.

STEP 2.

Remove two screws securing the motherboard.

STEP 3.

Disconnect the keyboard cable from the motherboard.

STEP 4.

Disconnect the video cable connector from the motherboard. Remove three screws securing the display hinges.

STEP 5.

Carefully remove the display assembly. In one of the previous posts I explain how to remove the LCD screen from a similar Dell laptop. It’s not necessary to remove the display panel from the laptop in order to remove the screen. You can do it while the display panel is still attached to the laptop.

STEP 6.

Remove one screw securing the CD/DVD drive and pull the drive from the laptop.
Remove both memory (RAM) modules.

STEP 7.

Unsnap both antenna cables from the connectors on the wireless card and remove the card the same way you remove memory modules – spread latches on both sides of the card and when the card pops up, pull it from the slot by the edges.

STEP 8.

Remove one screw securing the hard drive assembly and pull it from the laptop.

STEP 9.

Remove all screws from the bottom.

STEP 10.

Remove three screws securing the top cover assembly.
Disconnect the touch pad cable from the motherboard.

STEP 11.

Start lifting up the top cover assembly as it shown on the picture.

STEP 12.

The top cover has been removed.

STEP 13.

Remove two screws from the motherboard assembly.

STEP 14.

Start removing the motherboard assembly as it shown on the picture below.

STEP 15.

I noticed that it’s easier to remove the motherboard assembly if you remove the RTC (CMOS) battery cover first. It’s located in the battery bay.

STEP 16.

The motherboard assembly has been removed.

STEP 17.

Loosen four screws securing the CPU heat sink.

STEP 18.

Remove the heat sink. In my laptop the heat sink was clogged with dust and needed a good cleaning.

STEP 19.

Now you can access the CPU (processor). Unlock the CPU socket by turning the screw-lock into “Open” position. Carefully lift up the CPU and install it into the socket on the new motherboard. Do not forget to lock the socket after the CPU is installed or your laptop will not start.

You can search for a new motherboard by the part number from the old motherboard. The part number is located on a sticker glued in the RAM slot area. The second set of number in a long string is the part number.

In the next post I will explain how to remove the motherboard from the mounting frame and prepair it for the power jack repair.

In the following guide I will be removing the keyboard from a Gateway MT6704 (Model MA7) laptop. I believe this guide will work for many other Gateway laptops. Take a look at the sticker on the bottom of your laptop. If you can see Model MA7 under the Gateway logo, most likely you can use this guide.
First of all, turn off the laptop, unplug the AC power adapter and remove the battery.

Now remove covers from the wireless card and memory. I mentioned the hard drive cover, but I’m not going to remove it.

There are two screws securing the keyboard. Remove both screws.

Now remove two screws securing the hinge cover.

Lift up one side of the hinge cover with a sharp object as it shown on the picture below. Continue removing the cover with your fingers.

On the picture below you see the hinge cover removed.

Lift up the keyboard and place it upside down on the palm rest. Be careful, the keyboard is still attached to the motherboard with a cable.

On the picture below I circled the keyboard connector. In order to disconnect the keyboard, you’ll have to unlock the connector first.

On the picture below you see the keyboard connector in the locked position.

On the next picture, the keyboard connector is shown in the unlocked position. Now you can pull the cable and remove the keyboard.

The keyboard is remove and you can replace it with a new one. You can buy a new keyboard for your Gateway MT6700 series laptop here for less than $20.

Would you like to know how to remove the motherboard and replace broken power jack? Take a look at the Gateway NX570X disassembly guide. This laptop has the same body (Model No MA7).

Also, in the next post I explain how to remove the LCD screen from the same Gateway laptop.

If you have a different Gateway laptop and my guide works for you, please mention the laptop model in comments.

In the following guide I will disassemble a HP Compaq 8510p notebook PC and remove all main parts. According with the HP specifications, my disassembly guide should work for a HP Compaq 8510w mobile workstation. If it works for any other model, I would appreciate if you mention the model name in the following comments.

In the next guide I’ll explain how to remove and replace the screen inverter.
Before you start, you should turn off the laptop and unplug the power adapter.

STEP 1

Remove the battery.
Remove the hard drive and memory covers.

STEP 2

Remove the memory module.
Remove the hard drive as it shown on the sticker. Simply remove one screw securing the hard drive, slide the hard drive to the left and remove it from the laptop.

STEP 3

Remove one screw securing the optical drive (CD/DVD drive). Push the drive from the laptop with a screwdriver. Remove the drive.

STEP 4

Loosen two screws securing the keyboard. Both screws will stay attached to the laptop bottom.

STEP 5

Slide four latches securing the keyboard to the direction pointed by red arrows.

STEP 6

Lift up the keyboard with a sharp object, you can use a small flathead screwdriver.

STEP 7

Continue removing the keyboard. Place it upside down on the palm rest.

STEP 8

The keyboard is connected to the motherboard via two flat ribbon cables. Unlock both connectors by lifting the locking tab about 2-3 millimeters up with your finger nails. Be very careful with the connectors.

On the picture below you can see both connectors unlocked and keyboard cables removed. The locking tab must stay attached to the connector base.

STEP 9

Remove two screws securing the cooling fan. Unplug the fan cable from the motherboard.

Remove the fan.

STEP 10

Remove six screws securing the video card (VGA board) and processor (CPU) heat sinks.

Remove the heat sink.

STEP 11

Remove two screws securing the video card.

The video card will pop up at a 15-20 degree angle. Carefully pull the video card from the slot by the edges.

STEP 12

Now I’m going to remove the laptop top cover. Remove all screws from the bottom of the laptop. The orange screw securing the touch pad. There are two more screws (marked with green squares) hidden under rubber seals.
As you see, you can access the Bluetooth card through the hard drive compartment.

STEP 13

Lift up the touch pad assembly as it shown on the picture below. Place the touch pad upside down on the palm rest.

Disconnect the touch pad cable from the motherboard. Remove the touch pad.

STEP 14

Start removing the keyboard bezel with a small screwdriver. Do not forget to disconnect the cable the same way as you disconnected the keyboard cables.

Continue separating the keyboard bezel with your fingers and remove it from the laptop.

STEP 15

Unplug the LCD cable from the motherboard.
Unsnap three wireless card antenna cables from the wireless card.
Unroute the wireless card antenna cables.
Remove five screws securing the display hinges (two from the left hinge and three from the right hinge).

STEP 16

Remove four screws securing the display hinges on the back of the laptop.

STEP 17

Remove the LCD screen (display) assembly.

STEP 18

Remove six screws securing the top cover assembly.
Unplug the CMOS (RTC) battery cable from the motherboard.
Unplug the finger scanning device cable from the motherboard.
If you wish, you can remove the wireless card here. I’ll do it later.

STEP 19

Start removing the laptop top cover assembly. It could be a challenge.

The top cover is still attached to the bottom with a cable pointed with the red arrow. Unplug this cable. By the way, you can access the Bluetooth module from here too.

Remove the top cover assembly.

On the picture below you can see the finger scanning device attached to the top cover.

STEP 20

Remove two screws securing the speaker assembly to the motherboard (I don’t remember if I had to remove three screws).
Unplug the speaker cable.

Lift up and remove the speaker assembly.

STEP 21

Remove two screws securing the wireless card. Remove the wireless card from the motherboard.
Remove two screws securing the modem card. Unplug the modem card cable from the motherboard. Remove the modem card.

STEP 22

Remove two hex studs from the VGA port (two orange arrows on the top).
Unplug cables pointed with red arrows.
Remove five screws securing the motherboard.

STEP 23

Start removing the motherboard from the laptop base.

The motherboard has been removed. If you are replacing the motherboard, transfer the processor (CPU) to the new board.

Here are instructions for taking apart a Dell Inspiron 1720/1721 or Dell Vostro 1700 laptop.

You can use these guide for removing and replacing:
1. Laptop memory, hard drive, wireless card, modem.
2. CD/DVD optical drive.
3. Laptop keyboard.
4. LCD panel.
5. Heat sink, CPU, motherboard and other internal components.

Are you looking for spare parts for your Dell Inspiron 1720 laptop? Search here.

First of all, turn off the laptop, unplug AC power adapter and remove the battery.

Turn the laptop upside down and remove Wi-Fi, memory and hard drive covers.

Disconnect (unsnap) two antenna cables from the wireless card. Remove the wireless card.

Spread latches on both sides of the memory module and carefully pull the RAM module from the slot.
You can access only one memory slot from the bottom of the laptop. The second memory slot is located under the keyboard.

Remove three screws securing the hard drive. In order to disconnect the hard drive from the motherboard, lift it up by the black tab attached to the hard drive caddy. Remove the hard drive.

As you see, Dell Inspiron 1720 can handle two hard drives. You can increase laptop storage space by installing a second hard drive.

The BIOS (CRT) battery is located right under the memory slot. By the way, disconnecting the battery will not clear the BIOS password, don’t even try.

Now I’m going to remove the CD/DVD optical drive. Remove one screw securing the CD/DVD drive to the laptop base and open the drive with a paper clip.

Carefully pull the CD/DVD drive from the laptop.

Remove all screws from the bottom.

Remove two screws securing display hinges.

In the following four steps I explain how to remove the laptop keyboard. If you are replacing the keyboard, you can skip all previous steps.

Lift up the keyboard bezel with a flathead screwdriver. Remove the bezel.

Remove four screws securing the keyboard.

Slide the keyboard to the direction shown by the red arrow.

Lift up and remove the keyboard. Now you can replace it with a new one if needed.

As you see on the picture below, this keyboard doesn’t have a flat ribbon cable as most laptop keyboards do. The keyboard connector is a part of the keyboard base.

Unplug two LCD cables from the motherboard and remove one screw securing the grounding cable.

Remove the LCD panel.

Remove six screws securing the top cover assembly and unplug one cable pointed with the red arrow.

As I mentioned before, the second RAM slot can be accessed when you remove the keyboard.

The internal Bluetooth module can be mounted in the top right corner. My Inspiron 1720 came without internal Bluetooth module but it had the Bluetooth cable installed.

Lift up and remove the top cover assembly.

The top cover has been removed.

Loosen four screws securing the CPU heat sink.

Remove the heat sink. Do not forget to apply new thermal grease when you install the heat sink back.

Remove four screws securing the cooling fan. Unplug the fan cable from the system board. Remove the fan.

Remove two screws (blue circles) securing the dial up modem. Remove the modem.
Remove six screws (red circles) securing the PCMCIA slot board.

Remove the PCMCIA slot board.

Remove all screws securing the system board. Unplug three cables on the bottom (three red arrows). Unplug and remove the Bluetooth cable (yellow arrow).

Start removing the system board from the left side.

The system board has been removed.

In order to remove the CPU, you’ll have to unlock the CPU socket first. Turn the screw into the “Unlocked” position. Carefully lift up the CPU from the socket.

If you are replacing the system board, you’ll have to transfer the hard drive connector board to the new system board.

Is it possible to upgrade the processor in a Dell Vostro 1500 laptop? Apparently it is, check out this post. MikeT was able to upgrade his laptop from Intel Celeron M540 processor to Intel Penryn T9300.

I would assume that this upgrade could work for Inspiron 1500/1521 witch is the same laptop with a different name.

In order to remove and replace the processor you’ll have to disassembly the whole laptop, there is no easy access from the bottom. The processor is hidden inside the laptop under the heat sink.

The GPU sink assembly should be removed before the CPU one as its added last and just traps the CPU sink on the outgoing side of the fan but I was a bit loath to remove it and found I could just about jiggle the CPU sink out from under it, though putting it back was a bit more of a struggle. With hindsight I might take the GPU sink off next time.

I would suggest removing the GPU heat sink before removing the CPU heat sink.

You’ll find step-by-step disassembly instructions for a Vostro 1500 laptop in the official service manual.