Home
In this guide I will disassemble a Dell Inspiron 17R N7110 laptop.
My goal is to access and replace the hard drive which is mounted inside the laptop case. But I will disassemble it even further. I will show how to remove the motherboard and other internal components.
This laptop has two different names: Dell Inspiron 17R and Dell Inspiron N7110.
Before you start make sure the laptop is turned off.
STEP 1.
Remove laptop battery.
STEP 2.
There are four locks securing the keyboard on the top.
STEP 3.
Each lock has a spring behind it.
Push the lock into the case with a small screwdriver.
STEP 4.
At the same time lift up the keyboard a little bit. You can use a knife blade to lift up the keyboard.
While the keyboard is lifted, push in all other locks.
STEP 5.
Finally, lift up the top side of the keyboard and place the keyboard upside down on the palmrest.
STEP 6.
Now you can access the keyboard cable which is connected to the motherboard.
In the following two steps I explain how to unlock the connector and release the cable.
STEP 7.
On this picture the keyboard connector shown in the locked position.
Lift up the left side of the brown tab with your fingernail. The tap will open up at a 90 degree angle.
STEP 8.
On this picture the same connector shown in the unlocked position.
Now you can pull the cable from the connector.
STEP 9.
Remove the keyboard.
If you would like to replace the keyboard, you can find a new keyboard for Dell Inspiron 17R N7110 here.
STEP 10.
Remove one screw securing the memory cover on the bottom of the laptop.
Remove the cover.
STEP 11.
You’ll find both memory modules under the cover.
For the purpose of my guide it’s not necessary to remove memory modules.
By the way, Dell Inspiron 17R N7110 laptop uses PC3-10666 DDR3-1333 204pin SDRAM SODIMM memory.
It can take up to 8GB RAM total. It means you can install up to 4GB RAM module into each slot.
STEP 12.
Remove one screw securing the optical DVD drive.
Pull DVD drive from the laptop and remove it.
STEP 13.
Remove all screws from the bottom of the laptop.
STEP 14.
Remove four screw securing the palmrest assembly.
Disconnect the following cables:
1. Power button board cable.
2. Touchpad cable.
3. Hot key board cable.
STEP 15.
Separate the palmrest assembly from the bottom case with a piece of soft plastic.
I’m using the guitar pick.
STEP 16.
Lift up and remove the palmrest assembly.
STEP 17.
When the palmrest assembly removed you can access the following laptop components:
- Cooling fan.
- CMOS battery.
- Hard drive.
- Speakers and subwoofer.
- I/O board. Both wireless cards mounted on this board.
- Motherboard.
STEP 18.
Remove three screws securing the hard drive.
Slide the hard drive to the left to disconnect it from the motherboard.
Lift up and remove the hard drive from the laptop.
In my Dell Inspiron 17R N7110 I had a regular 2.5″ SATA hard drive installed. It’s possible to replace it with any other large capacity SATA hard drive or SDD.
STEP 19.
Remove two screws securing the cooling fan.
Disconnect fan cable from the motherboard.
STEP 20.
Lift up and remove the cooling fan.
New cooling fans for Dell Inspiron 17R laptop available here.
STEP 21.
Remove four screws securing the motherboard to the laptop base.
Disconnect the following cables:
1. DC power jack cable.
2. Webcam cable.
3. LCD screen cable.
4. Status light board cable.
5. Laptop speaker cable.
6. Subwoofer cable.
STEP 22.
Carefully lift up the left side of the motherboard and disconnect it from the I/O board.
STEP 23.
Remove the motherboard.
STEP 24.
On the bottom side of the motherboard you can access the heatsink and processor (CPU) which is located under the heatsink.
April 15th, 2013 at 10:00 pm
Do you have a page with info on how to disassemble the screen side? Or is it a no-brainer once the other side is done? I’ve done a lot of work on desktops but never a laptop.
April 12th, 2013 at 10:54 am
Excellent post your article was very informative. It really helped me dismantle my Dell computer. Thanks again.
April 11th, 2013 at 8:59 am
Tonight, I installed a backlit keyboard from China. I was apprehensive because this laptop did not come with the option for a backlit keyboard, so I was worried there would be no power source on the motherboard.
But, it actually did. There was some sort of special edition that had one, or this model uses the same motherboard as an XPS with one. Either way, there is a small connection for power right beside the keyboard ribbon’s port.
Just wanted to let anyone know who might be searching Google or whatever for backlit keyboards for the Inspiron N17 N7110. As you can see from these pics, there is power.
-Sharpe
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19404778.aspx?PageIndex=2
March 13th, 2013 at 12:55 am
Hi,
My motherboard got problem, No display coming, service person suggested to change the mother board. Currently I have the motherboard with integrated graphics card. Can I change the board with dedicated graphics card. Do I want to use new power card with new heat sink. Please give me the details any other components I want to alter. Your answers will be appreciated. Thanks.
March 5th, 2013 at 12:41 pm
Hi there! I have one of these machines. It is equipped with an Nvidia Geforce GT 525m which generates humongous quantities of heat resulting in the laptop overheating every time I try to play a game. What do you think the chances are of fixing this if I clean out all of the dust and put fresh thermal compound between the CPU/GPU and the heatsink?
February 9th, 2013 at 6:52 am
Hi. I am currently looking if it is possible to fit a baklight keyboard on this computer. So far I’ve only found one keyboard, a Russian version… I’m looking for a French version. Do you know if there is some kind of connector to plug a backlight on this laptop ?
Thank you.
January 14th, 2013 at 1:47 pm
@ JennCan,
First of all, test your laptop with an external monitor. Check the external video. If external video works fine and the problem appears only on the laptop screen most likely it’s either failed LCD screen or the video cable problem. If you have to guess between the screen and cable I would try replacing the screen first.
Check out this service manual for Dell Inspiron N7110 notebook. The manual has step-by-step display removal and disassembly instructions.
January 14th, 2013 at 10:35 am
hey i have the inpiron n7110 and im having screen issues….the screen is got lines in it and u can barley see the picture. is their a way for me to take appart the screen to check the wires?? or how can i check my self??
December 2nd, 2012 at 6:38 pm
Excellent instructions! They worked like a charm. I disassembled my laptop to put new thermal compound on, and then reversed the steps to put it back together. The only problem I had was with steps 2-5, removing the keyboard. I had a hard time springing the locks, and the keyboard doesn’t feel like it’s locked back in place. Other than that, thank you!
October 28th, 2012 at 7:27 am
can i put a half mini ssd in dell inspiron n7110 instead of the wwan card.