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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.
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. [...]