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In the following guide I will explain how you can replace broken display hinges on Dell Latitude C640 and Latitude C540 series laptops. Replacing and removing hinges is not a difficult task if you are careful and pay attention to details. I’m not sure if you can use the same hinges for both Latitude C640 and C540 but the following removal and replacement instructions should be the same for both models.
1. Find new replacement hinges.
2. Follow the laptop disassembly instructions below.
Proceed on your own risk and do not blame me if you destroy the laptop.
Before you start, remove the laptop battery.
Remove five screws securing the keyboard. These screws are marked with a letter K stamped on the base.
Remove five screws securing the display hinges. Three screws on the left side and two screws on the right side.
Carefully lift up and remove the keyboard bezel with a flathead screwdriver or another sharp object.
Lift up and remove both hinge covers.
Lift up the keyboard from the base. Be careful, the keyboard is attached to the motherboard with a flat ribbon cable. Disconnect the keyboard cable and remove the keyboard.
The keyboard cable had been disconnected from the motherboard.
Remove four screws securing the video cable.
Carefully disconnect the video cable from the motherboard by the yellow belt on the connector.
Remove six rubber screw seals with a sharp object. Remove six screws located under these seals.
Insert your fingers between the display bezel and the LCD screen and carefully separate the bezel from the display. Keep separating the bezel from the display with your fingers until you can remove it. Remove the bezel.
Remove two screws securing the LCD screen to the display hinges. You’ll find two screws on each side of the screen.
Remove the LCD screen from the display cover. Be careful the screen is attached to the video cable.
Unplug the video cable from the LCD screen (Green Arrow).
Unplug the video cable from the inverter board (Red Arrow).
Remove the screen.
After the LCD screen had been removed you can remove two screws securing both display hinges.
Remove both hinges from the display cover. Now you can replace both hinges, or just a broken one.
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May 16th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
I was able to pull the hinges apart and tighten them on a c640.
Turn the riveted cast piece back and forth and pull away from the long part.
Once off, there is a pin on the long bit that has a slot in it.
The grease made it hard to see the slot at first.
I put a screwdriver blade in the slot, wedged it open and put it back together.
There is now more tension on the hinge.
March 7th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Jerry Shed,
Can you test your laptop with an external monitor? Find out if the distortion appears on the external monitor or not.
If the external video works fine, it’s possible that you accidentally damaged the video cable while replacing hinges.
March 7th, 2009 at 9:50 am
Great article on hinge replacement. The replacement went very well, however the screen display is now distorted and nearly unreadable. I went back to be sure the video cables were secure but still have a distorted image on the LCD. Any ideas?
February 28th, 2009 at 11:34 am
dennis walstrom,
I guess you want to replace the power jack.
In order to access the jack you’ll have to remove the motherboard. Follow instructions posted in the service manual for Dell Latitude C640/C540, here’s the link.
The power jack is soldered to the motherboard. The following instructions will explain how to remove the broken jack and solder a new one.
How to remove and replace laptop power jack.
February 27th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
I need to replace the electrical conector on the back of my daughter’s Dell Latitude. I removed all the screws on the bottom(base), but it won’t come off. I can’t otherwise get at the connector. Any ideas would be appreciated!
February 20th, 2009 at 6:20 am
fantastic tutorial….thanks
please advise – my hinges are loose, not broken….any way to tighten them?
February 9th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Thanks for the great step-by-step guide. Made the hinge renewal very easy!!
February 3rd, 2009 at 11:05 pm
Rhonda,
You’ll find instructions for taking apart a Latitude D600 here. Very similar to my disassembly guide.
I don’t know.
I guess it depends.
February 3rd, 2009 at 10:34 pm
Need to replace the hinges on a Dell Latitude D600, which I have ordered from Dell. Do you have instructions? Is this an easy job for a female or would I do better taking it to a repair shop?
Thanks in advance
Rhonda
January 24th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Thank you very much, my laptop has been this way for SOOO long and its just so irritating, I might actually have to replace both because it was broke for so long.
January 21st, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Hey, just wanted to say thanks for putting this together. My 600m was working swimmingly except for the fact that the screen had started flopping around like a fish. I bought hinges for $15 on eBay, printed out this page and sat down at the coffee table. The whole thing took 20-30 minutes and I didn’t have to go through the pain and expense of buying (and transferring my stuff to) a new laptop. Thanks again for doing this!
January 19th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Thank you, Thank you, your details made it a very easy repair
January 16th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Awesome, thanks for the help
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Bruce Mac,
I don’t think that you can tighten them up. I guess it’s time to replace hinges.
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:25 pm
the hinges in my c640 are so loose / slack that the lid will not stay up, it falls back unless i prop it up. any way to tighten them up
December 1st, 2008 at 12:02 am
Thanks John. Fixed!
November 30th, 2008 at 7:39 am
Thank you – excellent step by step plans.
One minor observation: in the caption regarding the keyboard screws, there are not four, but five as circled on the photo.
November 22nd, 2008 at 9:27 am
Thank you very much for this tutorial! I have removed my hinges sucessfully. Is there a way I can tighten up the swivel on the hinges so the display will stay where ever I put it. The hinges appear to be in great shape just loose.
November 22nd, 2008 at 8:38 am
Have you seen these instructions for an Inspiron 6000? Thanks
November 7th, 2008 at 8:39 am
Thanks so very much for a well written tutorial on the hinge replacement. My laptop was dropped and a hinge was broken in the process. I hated to have to replace the whole laptop just for going through the hassle of intstalling new software for my vinyl cutter. Belive me when I say it. You saved me some serious bucks!
September 18th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
[...] Reading through the disassembly guide I noticed that this guide has a lot of similarities with the Dell Latitude C640 hinge replacement guide witch I posted last month. [...]
September 10th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Ray MacClanahan,
You’ll find instructions for your Dell Precision M65 notebook in the official service manual. Go to the “Display Assembly” chapter.
September 10th, 2008 at 5:47 am
I have loose hinges on my Dell Precision M65. Do you have a repair article for this machine?
September 6th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
These directions also work for the C-610 (the laptop I actually fixed) and probably also the C-510. The only difference is that the keyboard bezel looks a little different. Directions were great and the whole job – start to finish took under 2 hours. My daughter will be happy that the screen will finally stay where she wants it rather than falling down all the time. Thanks for the detailed directions and great pictures.
August 8th, 2008 at 3:03 am
My hinges are still in one piece, but after a fall the laptop case broke. I want to repair it, but therefore I need the hinge to be less tight. Is there a way to loosen up the hinges?
Thanks!
July 10th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Thanks for the prompt reply and the advice. I just thought the problems were related because the LCD problem started to happen a couple of days after the hinge was broken. Thanks again.
July 9th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
abdul razak,
No, replacing hinges will not fix this problem.
Most likely you have a problem with the screen inverter and it has to be replaced. The inverter board is a power supply for the backlight lamp and it’s located inside the display pane. Take a look at this post. The inverter is cheap and most likely it will fix your problem. You can find a new inverter here. If you replaced the inverter but still have the same problem, apparently the backlight CCFL lamp is going bad.
You’ll find more information in the LCD screen category on the right side of the website.
July 9th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Thank you for this article as I’m thinking of replacing the broken hinge on my C640 myself. However I have another problem where after using the notebook for a few minutes the screen will be turned off. Actually it is probably not turned off but extremely dim, and I could see (barely) shadows of windows and moving cursors on it. If I close the LCD lid, which will put the notebook on standby, and re-open, the screen will be on again but only for few minutes before the same thing happens. I can however use it with external monitor.
Would replacing the broken hinge (and tightening things up) solve this or could there be other reasons?
July 9th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
C. Ryder,
I think so. If you install new hinges they should fix the problem.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Your article on hinge replacement for the Dell C640 is quite helpful. However, I do not believe I have a broken hinge(s) but rather a loose one(s) for my 640. The screen tends to be very easy to position but drops thoughout the horizontal to vertical range (30 – 75 degree). Would I be better off just replacing the hinges?
Thank you for your input.