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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.
July 2nd, 2012 at 6:47 am
I have a 1721 that is lagging horribly when connected to the internet. I suspect the WiFi card. Can anyone tell me if thee is an available upgrade to this?
June 10th, 2012 at 11:18 pm
i want to put on a new lcd back cover (ie the colored top of the laptop) of my inspiton 1721. how do i remove the existing back lcd cover? thanks
June 4th, 2012 at 7:42 am
Extremely helpful, thank you! My laptop was in use since 3 years now and was in urgent need of a complete clean-up.
May 25th, 2012 at 5:28 am
I have two questions: 1. Has anyone gotten Windows 7 fully working on the 1720 with the 8400M including all drivers working properly? 2. What is the best graphics card that can be put into this laptop? I currently have the 8400M and want to upgrade to something stronger. Thanks.
May 12th, 2012 at 12:36 pm
I used this guide to disassemble my 5 year old Dell inspiron 1720. I removed a heap of dust from the cooling fan exhaust area, and now my good ol’ Dell is running quite smoothly. Thank you for this useful guide!
May 9th, 2012 at 12:28 pm
Can you tell me locating the position of the jumper that resets the BIOS? I need to reset the masterpassword, dell support refused to help me because the warranty has expired.
May 6th, 2012 at 4:04 am
@ daniel
I had the same problem. I fixed by plugging in again the lcd plugs. They must have been removed without noticing it. Then everything was fine again. Good luck!
April 10th, 2012 at 5:30 pm
i got a dell inspiron 1720 its got a 100% charged battery etc. i turn it on and the monitor won’t turn on it stays black but the light on the side say on and the hard drive it able to be read i’ve tried to connect a vga monitor to the external and nothing there either. i just recently replace the hard drive the old one went corrupt. any help or suggestions would be awesome.
thank you for your time
March 15th, 2012 at 11:06 am
@ argie,
I believe as long as it’s designed for Inspiron 1720 laptop, it should work.
You can find a new replacement audio board here.
March 15th, 2012 at 12:24 am
Thank you!
And is there any way to discover what model of audio jack board I have on my laptop, before to disassemble it?
Because googling I found two different models of that board, and I like to buy the right one…