This guide will help you to take apart a Sony Vaio VGN-S460B laptop. The main idea of this guide is replacing the internal memory module and hard drive. In order to replace these parts, you’ll have to take the whole laptop apart.

On this laptop, there is no access to the hard drive without removing the keyboard and a lot of plastic. There are 2 memory slots, but only one is accessible from the back cover. The other must be accessed by removing the keyboard.

1. Removing keyboard.
Follow steps 1-4. Be very careful when you disconnecting the keyboard from the motherboard. You can find a new keyboard using this part number: 1-479-166-21.

2. Removing internal memory module.
You can access the internal memory slot under the keyboard if you remove the cover shown in the step 5. Carefully remove the original 512MB memory module and replace it with a new one.
You can install maximum 2GB into this laptop, up to 1GB into each slot. Use either PC2-3200 or PC2-4200 memory modules.

3. Removing hard drive.
In order to remove the hard drive, you’ll have to remove the top cover as it shown in the step 9.

The hard drive is in the lower-right corner of the machines base. There are four screws holding the hard drive enclosure in place. Remove these screws, and the drive cable from the motherboard.

This laptop comes with a 80GB SATA (Serial ATA) 5400RPM hard drive. You can easily replace it with a bigger and faster SATA drive.

4. Removing DVD drive.
This guide doesn’t explain how to remove the DVD drive but it shouldn’t be very difficult. As you see on the picture above the DVD drive is located in the lower left corner of the laptop.
You can find a new DVD+-RW drive using this part number: 1-797-272-11. It’s a UJ-832B drive.

5. Cleaning or replacing cooling fan.
After the top cover is removed, you get an easy access to the cooling fan and heat sink.
If the heat sink is clogged with dust you can clean it with compressed air. You can find a new cooling fan using this part number: 1-787-301-11.

You can search for spare parts here.