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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.
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October 24th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
Hello is there away to unlock my memory bios in my dell 1720? the specs say it can use pc-6400 but when i install them they still read pc-5400 and when i go into the bios there no option to change the settings
October 21st, 2009 at 12:17 am
Dell stopped making my charger but they reccomended “Kensington chargers” to me, first charger i got off ebay wasnt an origional, and the kensington one i got works on 2 other laptops we have but not mine.. so im getting some parts and things off ebay to sort it out
thanks for the reply anyway
October 20th, 2009 at 9:02 am
JesusLuvsU,
Did you buy the original Dell replacement adapter or a generic one? Maybe that’s the problem.
October 19th, 2009 at 3:38 am
Hey im loving the tutorial, just wondering if you can help me.
My origional charger got eaten by a rabbit and so i bought a new one.
The new charger only worked if the battery was in and had charge.
The new charger wont charge the battery, and now the battery is dead the new charger wont work as the laptop needed the battery to start up the laptop before the charger would work.
Basically as the battery is now dead it wont turn on the laptop and give chance for the new charger to start working.
Any idea whats wrong? or what needs to be replaced..
October 11th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
I dropped my Vostro 1700 laptop with a headphone jack in the jack. It landed on the floor on the jack and jammed it into the laptop. My sound does not work anymore with either a headphone jack or through laptop speakers. Any idea on a fix for this? Thank You.
October 9th, 2009 at 2:31 am
Hi, thank you for your reply!
The audio jack is come loose, it still works, but I have to put the earphones plug in and move it around to get the sound in both sides (left and right). It’s just come off the main thing, where it was glued before, and where the microphone jack is glued right now. I just want to glue it back. Do I just have to solder?
/Silas
October 7th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Silas,
You have to have some soldering skills. It’s not difficult, but only if you have some experience.
I have a guide you are looking for. I posted it here: How to replace laptop power jack. It should be similar to resoldering the audio jack.
I don’t know. It depends on the damage. If the audio jack is broken, you can replace it with the microphone jack (if you don’t use it). Just an idea.
October 7th, 2009 at 1:11 am
My audio jack is loose, and I can open the notebook easily (I have already done it earlier using your guide, thanks), my question is, is it easy to resolder the jack? What do I need for that, and do you know any good guides for that?
Just the jack in which I put my earphone plug is lose, do I have to take the entire audio thing out, or just resolder the little jack on it’s mothership?
September 19th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Nik,
For your convenience, here’s a link to the official service manual for Dell Vostro 1720.
You can use Dell instructions instead of my guide.
Let me known if I missed something in my guide.
September 19th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Nik,
I thought my guide is pretty mush straight forward.
Yes, you have to take apart the bottom part before you can remove the top cover. Just follow the instructions step by step.
September 19th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Bobby,
I don’t really trust third party adapters. I would suggest buying a replacement adapter from Dell.
September 19th, 2009 at 6:29 am
You guys are awesome! This is so well done – thank you so much!!!
September 14th, 2009 at 5:57 am
Hi, great site!
On a side issue: my vostro 1700 power adapter has gone caput! Do you know of any alternative power adapters I could buy ? Or does it have to be a specific voltage only Dell knows how to supply!
September 14th, 2009 at 2:06 am
hey,
so i tried taking my top part apart, but it isn’t working.
I have two questions…
do I have to take apart the bottom of my laptop, before I can take apart the top of it?
my real problem, with taking apart the top, is that I can’t remove my lcd panel… I did everything you said, but it wouldn’t work, and I have a screw, that doesn’t show up in your pictures. It is underneath and a bit to the left of the screw of the grounding cable. I can’t remove it, since it isn’t cross shaped or anything but star shaped… you think that is the problem?
August 18th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
Farmer_ron_99,
I assume the AC adapter works fine and the laptop gets power from the wall outlet.
If the laptop stopped charging the battery and an new battery didn’t fix the problem, you have a problem with the motherboard. The whole motherboard has to be replaced.
August 18th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
Where is the battery charger located? Where can I find a replacement? The laptop stopped charging the battery, and I have already tried to replace the battery at Dell’s suggestion.
August 9th, 2009 at 5:55 am
My second hard drive just died in my 1720, is there a secret to getting it running again, of course, it wasn’t backed up.
August 6th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
I can’t remove the palm rest from my Dell Inspiron 1720. I have removed all of the screws, but something seems to be holding it down around the touchpad, it seems if I try to force it it will break the touch pad
July 30th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
I currently have a 1720 with a 1440×900 matte screen. Would a 1920×1200 WUXGA glossy screen directly swap with that if I wanted to upgrade?
June 24th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Tom,
You don’t have to solder or unsolder anything while removing antennas from the card. Simply grab the small connector with your fingernails and pull up. It’s a small connector which you can unclip from the card.
June 19th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
once again please how can i unlock bios for my dell vostro 1700 manually . anyone can help us please i heard about paperclip but i dont know what chip i shd short
June 19th, 2009 at 8:15 am
Hi there, To remove the wireless card, dod you actually need to snap the two wires? Can the be fixed back on without soldering or anything? And what tools do you need?
Thanks.
June 17th, 2009 at 9:37 am
please can you just tell me where is the location of the 24C02 chip. and thanks for
your appreciated help
June 15th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Hey,
Thanks for this wonderful toturial webpage. It has come such a very useful source for a side needed done for a laptop I’m working on. Big props.
June 15th, 2009 at 5:58 am
I took aport my computer now the lcd doesnt work. I have some cables by the wlan i dont know where they go can you help?
June 6th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Stan,
The Bluetooth module mounts under the keyboard cover close to the right hinge. You can see the Bluetooth card location on this picture.
June 3rd, 2009 at 6:56 am
Where inside is the bluetooth? I need to replace mine…
Thanks.
May 16th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
I have a Verizon Wireless broadband card in my Inspiron 1720. Can anyone tell me where it is and how it may be removed?
May 6th, 2009 at 1:42 am
Hi everyone,
thanks for the nice post. I have a Dell Vostro 1700 and want to replace the optical drive with a blue-ray drive. Does a standard slim optical SATA notebook drive fit? From the pictures posted here I cannot clearly identify the shape of the removed drive. The reason why i ask is the shape of the blind of the drive, which does not look standard. Can it be mounted on the new drive?
May 5th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Shawn Graves,
Yes, you’ll have to disassemble the laptop and remove the motherboard.