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In the following guide I will take apart a Dell Vostro 1510 notebook. You can use this guide for removing almost all internal parts from the notebook base. I think these instructions might work for some other Dell Vostro notebooks, not just a Vostro 1510. If it fits your laptop, please mention the model in the comments below.
If you need spare parts for your Vostro 1510 laptop, you can search for used and new parts here.
Before you start the disassembly process do not forget to unplug the power adapter and battery.
STEP 1.
Remove hard drive and memory covers.
STEP 2.
Pull the hard drive to the left and disconnect it from the motherboard.
Remove the hard drive. As you see it’s a SATA hard drive. If you are replacing the hard drive, any large 2.5″ SATA hard drive should work just fine.
STEP 3.
Remove both memory modules. In a Dell Vostro 1510 you can install up to 4GB RAM (2GB module into each slot). You should use DDR2-667 modules.
STEP 4.
Remove three screws securing the cooling fan. Unplug the cooling fan cable from the motherboard.
Remove and lift up the cooling fan.
STEP 5.
Loosen four screws securing the heat sink.
Carefully lift up and remove the heat sink.
STEP 6.
Disconnect two antenna cables from the wireless card. Grab the golden connector on the end of the antenna cables with your fingers and pull it up.
Remove one screw securing the wireless card and remove the card.
STEP 7.
Lift up the keyboard cover with a small screwdriver or another sharp object.
Remove the keyboard cover.
STEP 8.
Remove two screws securing the keyboard.
Lift up the keyboard so you can access the keyboard cable connector underneath.
Very carefully unlock the connector and release the keyboard cable.
Now you can remove the keyboard.
If you are replacing the keyboard, you don’t have to through steps 1-6. Simply remove and replace the keyboard as it shown in steps 7 and 8.
STEP 9.
In the following three steps I’ll remove the display panel assembly.
Remove one screw securing the right hinge.
STEP 10.
Disconnect the video cable from the motherboard.
Pull both wireless antenna cables through the opening.
Remove five screws securing both display hinges.
STEP 11.
Remove the display assembly.
If you would like to know how to take apart the display panel and remove the LCD with inverter, check out other disassembly guides in the Dell category. The LCD screen removal instructions will be similar for most Dell (and other ) laptops.
STEP 12.
Disconnect three cables and remove three screws from the top cover assembly.
STEP 13.
Remove all screws from the bottom of the notebook.
STEP 14.
Start separating the top cover assembly from the base assembly. You can use a small flathead screwdriver.
Continue separating the top cover assembly with your fingers.
Remove the top cover.
STEP 15.
The CD/DVD drive is mounted inside the base and can be removed only after you remove the top cover.
Disconnect the CD/DVD drive cable from the connector on the motherboard.
Lift up and remove the CD/DVD drive.
STEP 16.
Remove three screws securing the motherboard.
Unplug the USB board cable from the motherboard.
Lift up the motherboard as it shown on the picture below.
Remove the motherboard.
The processor (CPU) is locked in the socket. In order to remove the processor, you’ll have to unlock the socket first. There is a small screw on the side of the socket. This screw locks/unlocks the socket.
In this notebook the CMOS (RTC) battery is replaciable. You can unlug the old CMOS battery from the motherboard and replace it with a new one.
If you find this article useful, please consider making a donation to the author. Thank you!
July 2nd, 2009 at 8:19 am
Hi, I have a Latitude D610 laptop, the hard drive is dead. I tried to recover the data through an external enclosure, but the disk was not recognized. I checked Dell for D610 hard drives, it costs around $175, can I find cheaper?
July 2nd, 2009 at 8:26 am
Michelle,
$175 for a laptop hard drive? That’s too much.
Is it an IDE hard drive in there? IDE vs SATA hard drive.
You can find a brand new 120GB IDE hard drive for about $60.
July 2nd, 2009 at 8:57 am
It’s an ATA/IDE 60GB, can you please help with some links I can check?
Thanks
July 2nd, 2009 at 10:27 am
Michelle,
You can search for a new ATA/IDE hard drive here.
July 6th, 2009 at 7:58 am
I’ll check it out, thank you!
July 26th, 2009 at 3:32 am
Hello I have a dell vostro 1510. Is there anyway I can isolate and replace the receiving end of my power chord? a few prongs broke in the socket in the laptop where the power plugs in and I can’t get a charge. Any thoughts?
July 26th, 2009 at 3:40 am
I realize now I’m asking if I can replace my AC adapter connector. Any ideas?
August 3rd, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Have experience with Acer Aspire One 1542 series. How I can to clear cmos over this model.
thanks.
August 10th, 2009 at 12:35 am
hi can i do that with my self if am no profisional
August 13th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
rafi,
That’s the reason I published this disassembly guide, so you can decide you you can do it yourself or not.
August 15th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
I just bought my 1510 at a garage sale. The screen is cracked, I’ve removed it.
I’ve connected to my desk top monitor and there the hard drive is locked…. There is no sound from the Disk drive + won’t accept cd/dvd’s.
All the memory, and diagnostic checks are ok. – one – which I can’t remember at the moment as I’ve been at this for many hours now… If needed I can aquire it… ‘ ITC’ or something the like…
I removed the Bios battery for 20 seconds. it re-set the clock and I thought that it may cause the default settings for the hardrive to return. It asked for the hard drive pasword to be ’set’ in the Bios. I put in ‘pheonix’ as this is the default for the Bios lock. I read this on a site that this might also be the default for the Hard drive. I booted, it gave me an error with ‘ Windows system 32 [.......] ‘ + asked to reinstall Vista. I had shut te comp down and rebooted and the Hard drive, in the Bios said ‘HD locked’ again. Is there a way to correct the password ? or by pass, reset the lock for the hard drive?
Problem # 2
The computer had sustained a drop as I noticed a bit of a bent housing on the Disk drive. The disk drive is not recognised in the Bios.
I had taken the computer apart a couple of times thinking maybe the ribon connection was incorrectly placed. Each time there was ‘not installed’ listed in the Bios. My question is – the computer should recognise somethings there even if it’s not connected properly – correct?
thanks for any help…. I found a Display for about $100.oo new, but will try to find used…. so if you might now of one too…. also thinking I might need a Disk drive…..too tired to look right now….
please send any and all to- quantum19 AT hotmail DOT com
Thanks
September 15th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
My speakers are not working but thr headphone I am able to hear the sound. Can you guide me to troubleshoot? Mine is VOSTRO 1500.
September 19th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
SASIVARDHAN,
Check out this post about speakers problem. Might help.
September 25th, 2009 at 10:15 am
Do you know whre the cmos-ram is located. Have to reset or replace it after wrong bios update.
September 26th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Bysoftie,
Sorry, cannot help. I don’t work on component level.
October 13th, 2009 at 11:18 am
how to activate my laptop dell vostro 1500 model mini hsdpa slot , i insart mobile 3g SIM card but not detect i allredy down load all driver ,but not working , so how to use this mini slot , mini [sim] slot near to battery
As per Review Dell Vostro 1500 laptop
{In terms of communication the laptop can be equipped with a HSDPA mini-PCI card that will allow 24 hours free access to the internet without any annoying external hardware. }
October 19th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Hi!
I’m looking for some specification about put 2 hard drives in Vostro 1510. It’s possible? Thanks for advices.
October 20th, 2009 at 8:44 am
Anibal,
I doubt it. It looks like this model has only one hard drive connector.
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:11 am
Hi,
Is it possible to change the graphics card on Vostro 1510 or is it integrated to the motherboard? The 8400 VGA of my notebook is damaged and I need to replace it.
November 2nd, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Afshin,
I doubt that you can upgrade the card. I just looked and the service manual for Vostro 1510 and they don’t mention the VGA board anywhere. I guess it’s built into the motherboard.
November 17th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Hi,
Do you have any suggestions on resolving a bad flash? Is there any way to reset the BIOS memory to factory?
November 18th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Pranav,
If the laptop was flashed with a wrong version or failed while upgrading the BIOS, most likely you’ll have to replace the motherboard.
You can try removing the CMOS battery for a while.
November 19th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Pranav,
. I’m trying to fix it now.
I managed to reset the bios (or cmos, I don’t really know the difference) by disconnecting the cmos battery.
Follow the guide above, but skip step 3 (removing the ram) and step 6 (removing the heat sink).
Careful with the cable connectors. Some of them work like the penultimate picture of step 8 (removing the keyboard) where you need to hinge the black bit away from the board. I didn’t realise this and broke the connector for the touchpad
When you get to the cmos battery, leave the battery where it is (stuck to the board with a pad) and pull out the wires where they go into the white connecter on the board. I thought that part of the connector was a plug and /nearly/ broke it, but it isn’t, just pull the wires straight out.
I left it unplugged for about an hour and a quarter. I’m sure you don’t need to leave it that long, but after taking so long just to get to the battery, I didn’t want to risk having to take it all apart again.
Plug the wires from the battery back in and put it all back together.
Next time it started up, it gave a checksum error and reset to the factory defaults.
Hope this helps! It’s a hell of a job just to reset a bios, but better than losing 450 quid’s worth of lappie!
December 9th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
My daughters Vostro 1510 has a damaged a/c plug (where you plug the charger cable into). How hard is it to remove/reinstall this $25 part. Thanks.
December 12th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
hi.i have a vostro 1510 laptop.it has 8400 GS graphic card.i play games too much with it.at last when i played for a long time with my laptop in the middle of the game suddenly system halted and graphic of the game changed.when i restarted my laptop , windows didn’t start and the screen became black.wt happened to my laptop ?
(
December 12th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Hello,
I have the same problem with the video card like Mm4. I was playing a game and then the video card freez everything is black and I have to restart computer but then windows is freezing at starting…some help pls ? do I have to get it to service ?
December 12th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Hey,
I forgot to mention that this happend yesterday and the laptop is vostro 1510… Mm4 this is so strange, our computers broken in the same day in the same way……….omg wtf
December 30th, 2009 at 5:55 am
A 13 month old Vostro 1510 shuts down by itself, restarts and hangs up. Upon entering set-up, it says I have no hard drive. I changed the settings to ACH, to no avail. I replaced the hard drive, reinstalled Window 7 Ultimate, worked fine for a couple of weeks, now the same problem is occuring, and more often. I’ve cleaned the contacts for the hard drive. Before replacing the motherboard, what are my other options to check/replace?
December 30th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Keith,
This is kinda strange that your laptop worked fine for 2 weeks after reinstalling the operating system. Are you sure it’s not a software related problem? Maybe you should try reinstalling Windows again and see if it fixes the problem?
Just in case, check memory modules. Do you have two modules installed? Remove them one by one and run the laptop with only one module installed. It’s possible that your laptop restarts and hangs up because one of the memory modules is bad.
December 30th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
I’ve reinstalled, or tried to reinstall Windows 7. The problem seems to exist before Windows loads. Happened with the old HD, which had XP Pro on it. I’ll check the memory moduals. I have 4 gigs of RAM, so I assume there are 2 strips. The problem I will have is that I’m running the 64-bit version of W-7.
January 4th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
i have a vostro 1510. something fell on it while it was open and put a kink on the right side to the right of the touchpad. now when i turn it on the dell screen comes up and it only gives me options for f12 setup or f2. i dont know what that is but does anyone know what could be damaged? and is it fixable? the comp is less than a year old. email me w a solution if possible…thanx…
January 4th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
kismet,
Not sure what is wrong with your laptop. Try reseating memory module, maybe one of them got knocked out of the slot.
Reconnect both memory modules and try turning it on again.
January 10th, 2010 at 12:17 am
Hi,
I want to replace my optical DVD drive in my 1510 with a caddy that can house a hard drive. What is the model number or could you post a bigger picture of the DVD drive? I need to know what it is before I order the caddy so I only pull my laptop apart once.
In case you’re interested: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=388625&page=14
Thanks.
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:36 am
Hey there, great guide. I am having a lot of trouble with my graphics card, it blue screens before login. Was thinking of replacing it. Is it somewhat possible or is it attached to the motherboard? You didn’t mention it on the guide.
January 23rd, 2010 at 8:23 pm
I had a vostro 1510. The DVD unit refused to liberate one DVD, resulting in the need to remove the unit. The little retainer/pressure clips on the keyboard and toch pad connectors were not released before removing the cables. Result: they now do not lock. How can i get replacements? David
February 18th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
hello. please i use dell vostro 1510, suddenly, the dvd stoped swallowing my cdsor dvds, it only goes half way, i dont knw wat is wrong with it, but it sounds just fine. Its as if a lens is blocking it from enetering…. pleaseeee helpp….. thankxx
February 18th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
kosi,
I cannot tell what’s going on without looking at the DVD drive. Apparently something got stuck inside or it’s broken.
It’s necessary to remove the DVD drive and take it apart.
February 19th, 2010 at 6:57 pm
my power input that is inside the vostro 1510 has broken ( not the supply cord) what can i do? can i replace it? can i fix it and how do i get to it in the quickest steps? cheers and thanxs for your instructions.
March 1st, 2010 at 5:21 pm
Hi,
Stunning guide! one question though, do you know if it is possible to change the amount of shared memory? I haven’t been able to do so…. thanks in advance!
Best regards.
March 2nd, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Victor,
Do you mean shared memory for video? You cannot change it.
March 3rd, 2010 at 10:59 am
I have vostro 1510 with NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS graphics card in it. It gives me 1280×800 resolution. I want to increase it. Whats the best way to do it. Do I have to get a new graphics card to boost the resolution or can I do any setting change or install any software to do it. Please help.
Thx.
March 5th, 2010 at 2:53 am
Are you sure that there is no faster way to remove the CD/DVD drive ? Is it necessary to remove all the components mentioned to have access to it ?
March 5th, 2010 at 10:51 am
Marco,
I think it’s possible but…
As you can see on the step 15 the CD/DVD drive is connected to the motherboard via ribbon cable.
Without removing the top cover assembly you’ll get very limited access to the connector. Take a look at the step 8, you can see the connector in there under the keyboard. Without removing the top cover assembly it’s still easy to disconnect the CD/DVD drive but it will be harder to connect it back, even though possible.
Here’s what you can try for removing the CD/DVD drive without taking the whole thing apart.
1. Remove the battery.
2. Remove keyboard. Step 7-8.
3. Disconnect the CD/DVD drive cable.
I don’t remember where CD/DVD drive screws are located. Could be on the bottom or under the keyboard.
Remove those screws and remove the drive.