How To Disassemble Laptop (Dell Latitude D610)
April 5th, 2009 by James | This article was viewed 20,726 times.
Let’s step a generation back for laptop computers, where we will see these not-so-stylish (I’m just being honest here) Dell Latitude D610. Unstylishly as it looks, the performance of the laptop should not be disregarded as it is built to strike a balance between performance, size and battery life. I have to give thanks to my friend, Thomas and HQ who allowed me to disassemble this D610.
This guide will explain detailed step by step sequence on how to dismantle a Dell Latitude D610 laptop.
READ ME
Advices taken here are taken at your own risk. AhWee.com will be held no responsibility if you break any of the hardware and lose your warranty.
NOTE: Even though Dell said disassembling laptop yourself would lose your warranty, but I haven’t void anybody’s warranty in any possible way yet.
Contents
Tools You Need For Dismantling and Cleaning
- Philips Screwdriver (M2.5 will do)
- Flat Blade Screwdriver (usually a test pen)
- A brush (about 1 inch wide would do it)
I usually have 2 Philips screwdrivers, big one for more unscrewing force, small one for less screwing force (so that I don’t spoil the screws), then a test pen for prying up parts and a brush for cleaning.
Before You Start
Here are a few things you’ll need to do before you start disassembling your Dell Latitude D610.
- Clear your Table
Ensure that you have plenty of space (1 meter square would be great) to put all the components so they won’t go missing or falling off the table. - Disconnect all the Cables & Components
It’s wise to disconnect all usb cables, pendrives, power and HDMI cables. - Put Some Cloth or Thin Sponge Under the Laptop
To make sure that the rough table surface would not scratch your laptop. - Remove the Battery
To remove the battery from your Dell Latitude D610, unscrew 1 screw and pull the battery latch outwards. The battery will automatically be lifted up.
- Ground the Motherboard
When the battery is removed, simply ground the motherboard by pressing on the power button for a few seconds. - Ground your Hands
Ground your hands by wearing a wrist grounding strap or touching an unpainted metal surface from time to time.
All preparations done. Unfortunately, this laptop is designed by dirty people who doesn’t clean their laptops. So we’ll have to disassemble all the way to split the laptop into half in order to reach the fan (which contains the most dust).
Step 1 : Remove The Harddisk
This step is unnecessary. However, for the sake of your business data stored inside the laptop, I strongly suggest the harddisk to be removed and placed somewhere safe. Preferrably inside an antistatic bag.
- Locate the harddisk that is just beside your battery.
- Unscrew two M3 x 3-mm screws.
- Pull the Harddisk handle and remove the harddisk.
Step 2 : Remove The Hinge Cover
For starters disassembling the hinge cover would always be a challenge. But as you get used to disassembling your laptop, this becomes as easy as eating peanuts.
- Open your LCD screen as far as possible, all the way to 180 degrees.
- Use your flat blade screwdriver (or testpen) to pry open the hinge cover from the right side.
- Carefully unsnap the hinge cover starting from the right side.
You will hear a few popping noises indicating that the hinge cover is disconnected from the base.
Step 3 : Remove The Keyboard
After your hinge cover is off, you will have access to the screws securing the keyboard.
- Remove two M2.5 x 5-mm screws located at the top of the laptop.
- Slowly lift up the keyboard (make sure you don’t snap the cable beneath).
- Make sure you have enough room for your hand to go below the keyboard, then disconnect the cable by pulling the blue tag.
Step 4 : Remove The LCD Screen
Great job! You’ve disassembled 50% of your Dell Latitude D610. I know the lcd screen is heavier than the laptop base now. It’s irritating, let’s remove it.
Remove the Mini PCI Card
- The Mini PCI Card is located bottom of the fan and left side of the RAM (DIMM A).
- Unplug the antennas labeled “MAIN” and “AUX” and unroute them from their routings.
- Pull the tabs located at the sides of the PCI Card, the card will pop up and ready for removal.
Remove the LCD Screen
- Disconnect the display cable by pulling the blue pull-tab.
- There’s also a captive screw right beside the display cable, unscrew it.
- Remove four M2.5 x 5-mm screws located at each side of the lcd screen support.
- Life the LCD screen out from the laptop base.
Step 6 : Remove The Palm Rest
This is the real challenge in disassembling laptops usually. During my first laptop disassembly I spent couple of hours only on this step, maybe because there isn’t a guide to help me out.
NOTE: If you have a CD/DVD ROM installed, just push it out like this.
Now let’s continue our Palm Rest disassembly.
- At the top side up of the laptop, note 1 touchpad cable and two M2.5 x 5-mm screws.
- Disconnect the cable and remove the two screws.
- Turn the laptop upside down, remove thirteen more M2.5 x 8-mm screws.
Pain in the ass I know, but not the hard part yet - Make sure all the screws are removed.
- If everything is clear, separate the palm rest from the laptop base starting from the back. This is the hard part for every laptop, keep an eye on the force you exert here.
Just be careful not to break any components or hooks.
Step 7 : Remove & Clean The Dirty Fan
Removed the Palm Rest already? Cool, how long did it take you to do that? Anyhow, it’s time to clean the fan.
- Unscrew two M2.5 x 8-mm screws.
- Pull out the power cable.
- Lift the fan off the base.
Cleaning Tips
Here’s a few places you need to pay more attention when cleaning your laptop.
- The Fan
Where most dusts are collected. - The Air Vents
To improve air flow of the laptop. Would also collect a lot of dust. View here for example. - Motherboard
Gently brush the dust away with a paint brush, not too hard unless you wanna break those little chips. You could also use a blower to blow all the dust out. - Covered part of the palm rest
- Keyboard
You will be amazed with how many things that was hid under the keys.
Extra: How To Remove The Latitude D610 RAMs
In your Dell Latitude D610, the RAMs are located at 2 parts of the laptop. DIMM A is located right beneath the keyboard and DIMM B is located at the bottom of the laptop.
Remove DIMM A
Follow the step by step instructions until Step 3 : Remove the keyboard. After Step 3, you can clearly see DIMM A. So what you do is pull the pins located at both sides of the RAM to remove it.
Remove DIMM B
This can be reached from the bottom of the laptop.
- Locate the cover with a “M” label for Memory.
- Open it and DIMM B is inside.
- Pull the pins at both sides of the RAM to remove it.
I guess this is all for How to Disassemble your Dell Latitude D610. Have fun disassembling.
More laptop disassembly guides at the Laptop Disassembly Archive.
Updates
It has been confirmed the Latitude D610 is prone to the DC power jack problem.
Thanks to Ken, who provided us a link to the problem which is located here.
Thank you for reading. I appreciate any Comments, Complaints and Advices that you might have. And if anything I wrote isn't clear enough. Please Tell Me about it.
If you love this post, please help to share it to the world simply by Submitting it to StumbleUpon OR ReTweet it on Twitter. It takes only 30 second to do that.
Otherwise, you could also share this link to other websites as well.
April 15th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
I have always opened up my desktop up, and messed around with it but, I’ve never tried opening my own laptop up, I am going to work on that this weekend, as I am really curious, and plus I wanna to clean out the fans, and what not, because its 1+ years old, so I’d imagine its got alot of dust built up inside. hopefully everything goes well, hehe.
April 16th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
1+ years old, I don’t assume you’re using a Dell Latitude D610 ?
April 17th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
You are right James, I have a Dell Inspiron, it’s a typical really ugly looking dell laptop hehe.
April 17th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Oh? I’m using an Inspiron 6400 and I’ve disassembled it and posted a guide here already as well. Whats your model?
Oh and it’s not as ugly as D610.
April 19th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
The model is a Inspiron 1051 with the AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60, it originally came with Windows Vista…. but yeah… I reformatted it into windows xp, and it ran much faster after that :)
April 19th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Give me 5, I did that to my 6400 as well.
Vista is not a good OS, wait for Windows 7 that is expected to outpace Windows XP.
By the way, are you interested in sharing your disassembling experience here?
April 20th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Yeah, I had windows 7 on the laptop when the beta first came out just to try it, but later on I reformatted it back to windows xp, since my mom was going to use the laptop. I am pretty pumped about windows 7.
I am not sure James… I mean I am not going to take my Laptop apart to the extend that you did here, I don’t think I am brave enough to do that, lol. Especially because I have always had a problem with the keyboard area whenever I try to mess with it. It took me a while to get the backspace key on the keyboard assembled back together lol. So.. I am not sure if my “small” endeavor into opening up the laptop to try to do some cleaning will serve as a very good post for your blog, lol.
Actually… if I do decide to open up my laptop, I will probably attack it from the back… as I don’t want to touch the keyboard area. Although.. it will probably be rendered a useless thing if I do that. Sorry to disappoint you James :( but I don’t think my little experiment will be of any worthy content here.
April 20th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
No worries, but if you do open the whole thing out. Do take some pictures ya.
For the memories and the knowledge.
May 20th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
I have a D610 with and intermittent power input connector on the board. I have never seen the internals of this connector but the internal plug is not fixed, it moves back and forth when the power plug is pushed in or pulled out. I suspect this is a common problem. I need a little guidance on whether it can be repaired or replaced and a part number. The Dell service manual doesn’t show anything about it. Can someone help?
May 20th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
@Bill Kennedy,
This is not a common problem for laptops, not even in the D610.
If it can be fixed, the first person I’ll seek help is from Dell. I’m sure they will provide you a decent solution to this problem.
June 2nd, 2009 at 5:44 am
I need to install a new motherboard for a D610. It was still underwarrenty last year, and the service guy put in a new board. Soon after it also failed and guess what.. the warrenty was over.
June 2nd, 2009 at 10:36 am
@Dave, ouch, that sucks. Anyways ..
Start from the fan removal step
1. Remove the processor’s heat sink. (You might want to have your thermal compound ready)
2. Remove speaker
3. Remove bluetooth card
4. Remove the whole PCMCIA slot
5. Unscrew five M2 x 3-mm screws labeled “B” at the bottom of the laptop.
6. Lift the motherboard together with it’s separate casing out from the base of the laptop.
I hope this helps :)
June 5th, 2009 at 2:21 am
Thanks for the disassembly advice, was very helpful. My laptop stopped working suddenly yesterday. Its 3 1/2 years old, 6 months out of warranty. The problem appears to be with the power lead input connector – when I plug in any power adapter it appears to short ciruit it and the green led on the power supply goes out – comes back if you unplug it then plug it in again (without connecting to the pc). This connector has always been a problem as it is misaligned – you have to bend it slightly to plug the mains lead into it.
I took it apart and everything looks fine except the back of this connector which looks like it may have short circuited. The connector has a part number 0531(?)4 and tyco on it. It is soldered directly onto the motherboard.
What would you recommend next?
June 5th, 2009 at 2:31 am
@Ken,
This is quite a common problem huh? If you read above, Bill Kennedy has sort of the same problem as you are.
If you still want your Latitude D610 to live, call up Dell for advice. I’m sure they can give you advice even though your warranty is over.
And since it’s 3 years old already, I guess it’s time to change a laptop.
June 5th, 2009 at 11:52 pm
Thanks for your fast reply James.
Sounds like its a common problem!!! I will be getting a new one but it would be nice to try to fix this one cheaply, by replacing the faulty component, as sort of a challenge lol. I suspect the motherboard might need replaced though – if that is the case then its not worth repairing. If I manage to fix it I’ll let you know.
June 10th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Just a quick update. Managed to source the part for about $3 and it arrived today – its a Power Jack, just google Power Jack and your Dell model and you’ll find one easily enough. Comparing the old and new parts its obvious that this is the problem. Also found this good article on the best way to replace it http://www.laptoprepair101.com/laptop/2007/12/06/dc-power-jack-repair-guide/comment-page-25/.
Just waiting for a soldering kit to arrive and we’ll give it a bash. Remembering where everything goes to put it back together might well be harder than changing the part lol
June 15th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
hi, all i would like to do is change the palmrest piece. I plan to but a dell d610 replica from ebay. i messed up the finish near the pentium sticker as i was trying to super glue it back on. the touchpad, etc. is all fine. anyone know what i need to do to just change that palmrest piece? Will i have to change the touchpad too? Thanks!
June 15th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
@Mike
The touchpad comes together with the palm rest if I’m not mistaken. So even though everything (touchpad) is fine and you want to change your palm rest, you will have to change everything that comes together with the palm rest.
June 16th, 2009 at 6:14 am
thanks james. but what are the steps to just change the entire palmrest piece?
June 16th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
@Mike
Follow the step by step guide until step 6. That would be enough.
June 30th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
wow this is very helpful. i should visit ur blog more often. step-by-step for dell inspiron 1420?
June 30th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
@Bayu Aditya
I’m still searching for a volunteer to have his/her Inspiron 1420 cleaned. It will definitely be up here in the near future. No worries
July 10th, 2009 at 11:19 am
James,
Thank you for your excellent guide. It was uite helpful as i disassembled my 610, although mine was somewhat different from yours (perhaps a lightly different model?).
I took it apart hoping to fix it. A week or so ago it stopped booting. No bios boot, no intel logo, nothing. The only signs of life are the flashing caps lock key, and the green light on the power adapter.
I read a few posts elsewhere that suggested that this proble was caused by bad solders on the motherboard, and at least one savy individual seems to have cured his by resoldering something on the motherboard.
Alas, now that I have it completely apart, I have absoloutely no idea what it is am looking for. Most likely I will just put it back togther and hope that the problem just magically healed itself (not very likely, I know).
In any case, thanks for the helpful guide.
Jim
July 11th, 2009 at 12:27 am
@Jim
That is not bad solders of motherboard. Try reseating your RAMs to see if it works. Those LEDs flashing indicates something which is not available in the online support.
Dell customer support have the LED codes, try to phone and ask them for the problem.
August 19th, 2009 at 7:54 am
Opening the case is a snap with the hard plastic tool that comes with the IPOD battery change kits. Took me 3 minutes – tops.
September 3rd, 2009 at 10:30 am
need help pin pointing the problem for my dell 610. it seem to always get hot near my fan after being on for 10-15 min. i recently cleaned the fan and use an air spray to get rid of dust. fan is also making some noise. any help would be appreciated.
thanks
nye
September 3rd, 2009 at 11:50 am
@Nye,
That is the exact same problem I had with my Inspiron 6400 (The first laptop I have disassembled).
I have asked people and they claimed that that is normal fan noise. The fan will reduce its noise when it is dust filled (I wonder why).
October 5th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Hi
I enjoyed reading reading your article about disassembling Dell Latitude D610 and started doing the same to my to my computer, only the back side for cleaning.
It started geting really hot near the fun and the ram. Now every thing is fine except the touchpad and the pointer is not working I might have diconnected something without knowing about it. Can you help?
TIA
Seifu
October 5th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
@Seifu Abdunabi
At Step 6, there are three pictures right? Look at picture 2, right at the bottom I have circled a connector. That is the connector for the touchpad.
Make sure that is connected.
October 11th, 2009 at 10:54 am
James – The touch pad only works occasionally. The work-around is to use a USB mouse, but this can be a pain. I replaced the touch pad (palmrest and touchpad), but it did not solve the problem. Dell thinks the problem is with the motherboard. Before I attempt to replace the motherboard, do you have any other suggestions?
October 11th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
my DELL LATITUDE D610 couldnt startup. when i am press the power button
at that time green light is glowing for few seconds and then automatically power down, and i cant get any display from laptop screen
October 11th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
@Matt
If Dell claims that it is the motherboard, I don’t think there is anything you can do to fix the touchpad.
@Vipin
Those are LED codes for various hardware malfunctions. Only Dell has the complete list of their LED codes. You should try asking them.
By the way, do try reseating your RAM to see if it works or not.
October 12th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
I asked some doubts about my DELL latitude D610, i cheched my RAM,and the
system fan not working. the main problem is when i press yhe power buttom
that time lights blinking for few seconds and down the power ,this is the main problem of my laptop,give me your help
October 13th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Thank you Sir,
You saved me a lot of time and money. I found the disconnect wire as per your instruction and reconnected it. Now everything is working.
I would like to inform that it was much easier to disassemble the second time.
thanks again for your well writen blog specially the picture lay out
Seifu
November 16th, 2009 at 5:08 am
Hi,
I am an IT Technician and followed your instructions. There is something I like you to clarify please. I remove the hinge cover and underneath there is something like an inveter am not really sure if it is. similar to illustration 3.
Thanks !
November 16th, 2009 at 11:23 am
@Deji
I am not sure that piece of PCB board is an inverter or not. But yes, (if it is an inverter) it is under the hinge cover.
And you do not need to remove that at all.
November 24th, 2009 at 9:22 am
Does anyone know how to open the module bay so I can fit a new dvd burner in it?
January 8th, 2010 at 6:08 am
I was wondering if it was possible to replace the screen with a better one? Mine is pretty old and I’d like to upgrade to a higher quality one.
January 8th, 2010 at 9:25 am
@Adam,
You can definitely replace the screen but I’m not too sure Dell have upgrades for the screen itself.
It is better if you phone up Dell to see if they have upgrades or not.
January 17th, 2010 at 12:46 pm
For the life of me I could not figure out where the internal wireless card was and I was trying to avoid taking the whole thing apart to try and find it. Your demo pictures showed it right there under the keyboard! 1 cover, 2 screws and voila – presto chango. Thanks a lot for posting this! ( I do realize that this laptop is a bit on the old side, but it is a work horse and I don’t want to part with it just yet) :)
January 29th, 2010 at 2:44 pm
I think I’m in trouble I disassemble my Dell D610 but don’t know how to put it back together. Can anyone help me out with this. I’ve searched everywhere but found no answer. Any help would be appreciated
January 29th, 2010 at 11:31 pm
@Vollo,
How do you propose I help you? Just do it backwards?
February 4th, 2010 at 3:35 am
Hello! I was wondering if you had any advice on replacing the cpu. I have the Pentium M 750, and I’d like to put in the M 780.
Thanks!
February 10th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
Hello,
I am trying to put together my laptop after disassembling and forgot which color cable goes into the main and aux slot of the Mini PCI Card. Does it matter? One cable is black and the other white. They are both coming form the LCD screen.
Thank you.
February 24th, 2010 at 1:18 pm
I wanted to replace the both DIMMS in a Dell D610, but did not know how to get to the “A”. Slot.
Thank you for the time you put in to support this site James.
V/r
Al
February 28th, 2010 at 1:25 am
I have a Dell laptop D610. It will not start. No signs of life. No lights, no nothing. This is true whether I’m trying to power it up with just the battery, the power adapter plugged in, or if the laptop is in the docking station. The power adapter has the green light on, and the docking station has the green docking light on. Any help would be appreciated.
March 8th, 2010 at 4:09 am
hi, I have a d610 and thepcmcia slot has just stopped working. My wireless card used to work but now doesn’t light up and system doesn’t recognise it. Do you think it could be a power issue?