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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.
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.
May 5th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
I have to go inside my laptop and fix the audio/headphone jack – it has broken loose – either fix the plastic casing and/or resolder the jack on the board – will I need to break the laptop all the way down?
April 25th, 2009 at 3:11 am
Does the 1721 model have 2 batteries on it for clearing the cmos. I guess i didn’t see any battery locations as my friend had told me. TIA
April 19th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
lphylosoph,
I think you can do that if your laptop with a bad motherboard is Dell and the Bluetooth card is compatible with your Inspiron 1721.
The Insprion 1721 in my example also came without the Bluetooth card but it had the Bluetooth cable attached to the motherboard. So it was Bluetooth ready. All I had to do is find a new Bluetooth card, plug in the cable and secure the card under the keyboard bezel (picture 15).
April 18th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Thank you so much!
My laptop was overheating and I wasn’t sure why though I had my suspicions it had something to do with my cat who constantly sits on my laptop because it’s warm. I found your site and printed off the directions and preceded to take apart my laptop. For someone who’s never replaced anything on a computer it seemed like a daunting task and I was worried the my computer wouldn’t work after I put it back together. I got down to the fan and found a big clump of cat hair stuck to the side of the fan. I cleaned it out and put the computer back together and now it works wonderfully! No more overheating and thanks to your wonderful directions and pictures I didn’t have to pay someone a fortune to do it for me.
The red circles showing you where the screws were was the best help of all, especially when it came time to putting it back together.
April 18th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Much appreciated! I need to replace a hinge and the pictures and Dell link are awesome =)
April 14th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
hi.i got a inspiron 1721 whiout the bluetooth the bios tell me that dam it..and i got another laptop qhit a motherbord problem…then my question is if it is possible to connect the bluetooth of the other computer in my inspiron and if yes please tell how…it really s..k they say the bluetooth come whit but not
tks a lot jonathn
ps powerfull tutorial u good u good
April 14th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
wow thanks ill probably use this later on
April 2nd, 2009 at 4:42 am
I want to take this opportunity to let you know how valuable is the information that you provide in this website. We need this kind of support on the internet to educate the users and people that work very close with hardware. Manufacturer should pay you guys because you are doing their job. Thanks a lot for your help and support