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In this guide I’m taking apart an eMachines 250 netbook.
I’ll show how to remove the hard drive, memory and keyboard.
Before you start taking it apart, make sure the netbook is turned off.
STEP 1.
Remove the battery.
Remove two screws securing the hard drive cover and remove the cover.
Remove one screw securing the memory cover and remove the cover.
Remove one screw securing the WWAN (wireless wide area network) card cover and remove the cover.
eMachinges 250 netbook has a standard 2.5″ SATA hard drive installed.
There is only one memory (RAM) slot.
In my case I didn’t have WWAN card installed.
STEP 2.
Remove one screws securing the hard drive assembly to the netbook case.
STEP 3.
Slide the hard drive towards the battery and disconnect it from the motherboard.
Remove the hard drive assembly.
STEP 4.
If you are replacing or upgrading the hard drive, you’ll have to transfer the mounting bracket (caddy) to the new drive.
Simply remove four screws securing the caddy (two from each side) and separate it from the hard drive.
Again, in my eMachines netbook I had a regular 2.5″ notebook SATA hard drive.
Any large SATA hard drive should work fine in this netbook.
STEP 5.
Spread latches on both sides of the memory slot and the memory module will pop up at a 30 degree angle.
Pull the memory module from the slot by the edges.
REMOVING THE KEYBOARD.
In the following steps I’m explaining how to remove the keyboard. It’s not necessary to go though all previous steps in order to remove the keyboard.
There are four knobs and one spring loaded latch securing the keyboard.
The spring loaded latch located above the F8 key.
STEP 6.
Insert a knife blade between the keyboard and nebook base and lift up the left side of the keyboard.
Push the keyboard through small knobs on the left side.
STEP 7.
While lifting up the keyboard, push on the spring loaded latch with a sharp object and release the keyboard.
STEP 8.
Lift up the keyboard.
STEP 9.
Place the keyboard so you can access the cable connector underneath.
STEP 10.
Before you can remove the cable, you’ll have to unlock the connector.
On the following picture the keyboard connector shown in the locked position.
To unlock the connector, move the brown clip about 2 millimeters towards the LCD screen.
Works slowly. Do not apply too much force to the clip.
The brown clip must stay attached to the white base.
On the following picture the keyboard connector shown in the unlocked position.
As you see, the brown clip still attached to the base.
Now you can remove the ribbon cable from the connector.
STEP 11.
Finally, remove the keyboard and replace it with a new one if needed.
You can search for a new keyboard by one of the part numbers printed on the sticker.
Here’s wide selection of replacement keyboards for eMachines 250 netbooks.
The keyboard has been removed.
Here you get some limited access to the cooling fan. If the fan is dusty, you can blow it off using canned air.
January 2nd, 2013 at 2:09 pm
Thanks for the great description on getting the keyboard out and the case apart. I am having a problem with the connections to my screen. When I move the screen ( open or close) even a little the picture disappears and is filled with lines or is solid white. I suspect this is from bad connections to the motherboard. Is there a replacement for the cable that attaches them and can it be replaced or is a whole new screen necessary? Thanks!
December 29th, 2012 at 10:38 am
I am inquiring if anyone has replaced the hard drive with a ssd device. If so how faster did it make the netbook? I have an old dell d620 that i am inquiring whether it would run faster than it. Any responses very much welcome. Happy New Year all!!
December 18th, 2012 at 6:06 pm
@ Sebastian,
There is no way, it’s built into the motherboard.
December 18th, 2012 at 4:50 pm
Is there a way to replace or improve the graphics card/accelerator?
September 14th, 2012 at 6:36 am
Hi, whilst I was removing the keyboard on my emachines em355 netbook I think I pushed the latches in too far because they won’t come back out when I push the keyboard down. Is there any way to get the latches back out? I have tried pushing the flathead screwdriver back into the holes but they just won’t pop out at all.
May 6th, 2012 at 6:30 pm
Thank you for this fine tutorial. My laptop’s fan was beginning to make strange noises and I didn’t know how to open it up to reach the fan section so I could inspect it and clean it. I saw that by removing the keyboard, I will have access the fan without opening the main casing of the laptop.
February 10th, 2012 at 10:56 pm
thanks, worked perfectly for The e350, THE TABS ARE IN A DIFFERENT LOCATION, THOUGH THE process is the same.
February 9th, 2012 at 11:59 am
Alex,
Installing more memory will not hurt for sure.
It’s possible youtube videos running slow because you have many other programs running on your laptop and they are taking all CPU and memory resources.
February 8th, 2012 at 6:07 am
Im having a bit of trouble with the spped of my internet video’s, e.g. youtube. Sometimes there fine, but sometimes the sounds sound like there going in slow motion, i think its the memory, i know you can upgrade it from a standard 1gb memory to a 2gb memory, so i assume its that. If anyone has any other ideas, would be greatful if you could share.
December 5th, 2011 at 5:03 pm
I was having a problem with the power jack coming loose so when I got my netbook apart I put a couple of dabs of super glue on the bottom of the jack it. I also cut a couple of very small pieces of velcro, (very small), and put behind the jack to try to keep it from moving back inside. Seems to be working so far. I am being more careful also about moving my netbook around when it is plugged in as I am pretty sure that’s the cause of the jack coming loose.