How To Disassemble Laptop (Dell Latitude D620)
May 3rd, 2009 by James | This article was viewed 22,481 times.
This week’s laptop disassembly guide will be to disassemble a Dell Latitude D620, a slight upgrade of the previous model the D610. This guide is made possible thanks to a friend of mine Cklim.
This guide will explain detailed step by step way on how to dismantle a Dell Latitude D620 notebook.
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.
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 or 2 cm wide would do it, not too big)
- Hex Nutdrivers (about 5 mm)
- Thermal Compound
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.
For this guide, because disassembling the motherboard is necessary, that is why you’ll need a hex nutdriver. A pair of pliers could do the job perfectly as well.
Before You Start
Here are a few things you’ll need to do before you start disassembling your Dell Latitude D620.
- 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. - Prepare a Small Container for Screws
Every single screws taken out from the laptop has their own job in keeping the computer intact. Don’t lose them. - Disconnect all the Cables & Components
It’s wise to disconnect all usb cables, pendrives, power cords. - 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 D620, unlock 2 of the latches and remove the battery out from the battery bay.
- 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.
Are you ready now? Before you move on any further I have to warn you that the D620 is not easy to disassemble. To clean the fan (which is my main purpose of disassembling this notebook) I have to disassemble even the motherboard. Don’t risk it unless you suspect something is wrong with your fan (not functioning, dust clotting the air vent, etc).
Step 1 : Remove The Harddisk
A wise move when disassembling laptops is to remove the harddisk first to protect your data from possible bumps during the disassembling process. Store the harddisk inside an antistatic bag if possible.
- Search for the “Container” labeled screws.
- Unscrew 2 screws.
- Slide the harddisk out from it’s compartment
Step 2 : Remove The Hinge Cover
Compared to removing the motherboard, the hinge cover should be considered easy. However, this will still pose a challenge to first timers.
- Note the indentation at the right side of the hinge cover, that’s the place where you start.
- Pry up the hinge cover using your test pen.
- Slowly lift up the whole thing from right to left.
NOTE: Be gentle to the hinge cover as it’s very fragile. Trust your instincts.
Step 3 : Remove The Keyboard
- Unscrew all the 3 screws located at the top of the keyboard.
- Lift the keyboard up slowly because the keyboard connector is still connected to the motherboard.
- Unlock the locking arm (blue color) by pulling the retaining bracket (black) sideways.
- Disconnect the cable by pulling the pull-tab.
- Remove the whole keyboard.
Step 4 : Remove The RAMs
These 2 RAMs are located at opposite sides of the laptop. DIMM A is located at the top of the touchpad and DIMM B is located right behind it.
Removing DIMM A
As soon as you removed the keyboard, DIMM A is reachable from there. Just push the pins sideways and the RAM will pop up.
Removing DIMM B
DIMM B is located at the back of the laptop, so you will have to reach in from the base of the notebook.
- Note the small compartment above the battery.
- Unscrew it.
- DIMM B is inside, use the same method of RAM removal with DIMM A.
Step 5 : Remove The DVD/CDROM
- At the bottom of the DVD/CDROM, remove the screw if it is there.
- push the CDROM as shown from the picture below.
Step 6 : Remove The LCD Screen
- Disconnect all the cables from the WLAN card and the display cable.
- Unroute all the cables linked to the LCD screen.
- Turn the laptop around (bottom), unscrew two M2.5 x 8-mm screws labeled “D” .
- At the back of the notebook (where all the ports resides), remove two M2.5 x 8-mm screws.
- Lift the LCD screen from the base of the laptop.
Step 7 : Remove The Palm Rest
Note that this is also quite a hard part to disassemble. Be extremely careful and not to break any parts.
- Remove three M2.5 x 8-mm screws labeled “P” from the palm rest.
- Disconnect the Coin Cell Battery cable, Touch Pad cable and the Bluetooth Card.
- Loosen 2 captive screws at the hard drive compartment.
- Unscrew seven M2.5 x 8-mm screws located at the bottom of the notebook.
- Starting from the back of the laptop, carefully separate the palm rest from the base of the laptop.
Step 8 : Remove The Speaker & Modem
Removing Speaker
Just disconnect the speaker cable and your speaker is out. There’s no need to remove any screws.
Removing Modem
- Remove the M2 x 3-mm screw that secures the modem.
- Disconnect the modem cable
- Pull the modem out using the pull tab (star labeled).
Step 9 : Remove The Card Reader
- Unscrew four M2 x 3-mm screws.
- Pull the card reader out using the blue colored pull-tab
Step 10 : Remove the Heat Sink
I am sorry that I do not have a proper picture of the removal of heat sink. But I do have pictures of the heatsink when I was removing the palm rest though, that should be enough.
- Remove four captive screws according to the sequences 1, 2, 3, 4 written on the heatsink.
- Lift the heat sink assembly out from the motherboard
NOTE: Can you see the blue substance in between the processor’s core and the heatsink. Those are called thermal compound that helps heatflow from the processor’s core to the heatsink. It’s always better to scrap it off and replace it with new thermal compound.
Step 11 : Remove the Motherboard
You are almost there, just the last piece of component (the motherboard) that is the most fragile due to the amount of chips on it. Please, anything you do, don’t break any of the microchips on the motherboard.
- Disconnect the fan cable.
- Disconnect the other two cables circled in the picture below.
- Remove 4 hex screws on the serial ports.
- Remove four M2.5 x 5-mm screws as shown below.
- Gently and slowly lift the motherboard out from the laptop.
Step 12 : Remove & Clean the Fan
Congratulations you have disassembled one of the hardest notebook disassembly process. Well, the most tedious I would say.
- Just remove one M2.5 x 5-mm screw for the fan
- Remove the fan from the base of the laptop
Damn I spent my whole afternoon writing this guide. I seriously hope it will help those D620 notebook users. Alright, this is all for How To Disassemble Dell Latitude D620.
Please inform me if I missed any of the crucial steps during the disassembling process.
More laptop disassembly guides at the Laptop Disassembly Archive.
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.
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May 4th, 2009 at 3:09 am
Thanks for this! One thing you forgot, you have to remove the 4 hex screws on the serial ports to remove the motherboard.
May 4th, 2009 at 9:28 am
No problem Matt and thanks for the feedback! I’ve updated the post.
May 17th, 2009 at 4:51 am
This was very useful. We had a guy from a Dell subcontractor come to our office yesterday, to replace the motherboard on two Latitude D630s, my colleague’s and mine. He managed to forget to mount the cable to the fan on both. I didn’t notice this before trying the PC today at home. I first tried to disassemble the machine on my own, but I wasn’t able to figure it out. Then I found your excellent guide, and it went like a charm. I have never tried this on a laptop before. Thank you very much for the effort!
May 27th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
Extremely helpful. Thanks a lot !
June 2nd, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Its very nice and informative post, its realy helpful for those who are looking for these kind of information. it extremely useful,
June 13th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
I thinks you can do it in record time. Am i right about. you looks very cool and comfortable with this work. Its very helpful thanks for sharing.
June 15th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
thanks :D, it’s really helpful ><
June 18th, 2009 at 2:51 am
Thank you for the detailed instructions.
My 3 yrs old D620 was so hot that I can even feel the heat on the keyboard and the fan spins frequently without any feeling of hot air being purged out.
After disassembly, found a piece of “sponge” between the heatsink vent and fan.
After removing it, cleaning up the fan and vent, re-application of thermal compound on the heatsink and processor, it is quieter and cooler now.
June 22nd, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Wow quite a lot of steps. I am the type of person who loves to take things apart, sometimes in attempt to fix it, and sometimes just for the heck of it.. however there are times I cannot put it back together in working condition for the life of me, lol. But it’s a learning experience after all!
-Randy
July 16th, 2009 at 6:14 am
Excellent article. Used it and reversed the procedures and all worked without getting lost! Thanks for posting this!
July 27th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
I met similar problems with Wilson, the fan was spinning all the time. After reading this article I cleaned the fan and now my laptop is quiet again. Thank you very many!
July 28th, 2009 at 3:14 am
You should detail removing the screen from the bezel. Replacement screens from Dell come without the bezel.
July 28th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
@pr0curve,
Really? I didn’t know that and I did not create guides for the bezel is mainly because I have never taken apart the bezel before.
Anyways, I will try to take it apart the next time I clean my 6400. Thanks for telling me mate.
July 30th, 2009 at 6:23 am
Great. Fully detailed, better than Dell’s own manual. I needed to repair a small component in the PC Card slot that required I remove the wrist guard. Your guide got me right to it, I got it done and got the user on their way. Thanks!!
July 30th, 2009 at 8:40 am
Just got my hard drive reconnected by looking at your post. Thanks very much. IT would have never gotten around ot it.
August 10th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Thanks for this guide, it was really helpful.
But I’ve got a bit of a problem now. I’m not able to turn on my laptop. After I cleaned out the heat sink and reassembled everything, I was able to turn it on just fine. Everything seemed to be working fine.
A while later, I closed the top of the laptop thinking that it would go into standby mode. I came back and opened the laptop but it wouldn’t come out of standby. I tried pressing the power button or the esc key, but neither did anything. Then I just gave up and pulled plug and removed the battery to turn it off. But now I can’t even start up the laptop. I’m not sure what the problem is.
August 10th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
@Peter
Before you pulled the plug, is the power LED on?
My Inspiron 6400 sometimes would go into stand by mode and not turn on the monitor when I open up the screen. To revive that I usually would try to turn on presentation mode then back to LCD.
But since I have no idea whether your laptop is still working or not when the screen is off. I don’t know what to tell you.
August 10th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
James,
The power LED was flashing on and off to indicate it was on standby.
August 10th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
@Peter
So is it still dead now? That shouldn’t happen if you force a shutdown.
Try to test if all the power suppliers (battery, adapter) are working or not.
August 11th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Turns out the cable from the palm rest wasn’t properly folded underneath itself. Without noticing I jammed the palm rest so that it wasn’t lying flat on top of the bottom portion of the laptop. There wasn’t much of a gap but I guess it was enough to prevent the keys from working properly.
Thanks for your help, and thanks again for the guide.
August 22nd, 2009 at 10:20 am
Thanks a whole lot. This really guided me step by step and worked out perfect.
Thanks James
August 29th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
i have got to this point but my fan is burnt out .can u help me find one.please!!!!
August 30th, 2009 at 2:09 am
@Kevin
I think you could always visit ebay and buy there. What you need to know is the fan size (in inches) and voltage (usually 12V? If I’m not wrong).
September 3rd, 2009 at 1:55 am
Great looking guide. My fan comes on and off as expected but when it runs it’s got that kind of loud hum like a dirty fan gets. When I’m in class, people look over at me and give me “the stink eye” whenever my fan comes on. My PC did that and cleaning the fan took care of all the noise so now I’ll try the laptop using your guide. Thanks.
September 12th, 2009 at 12:38 am
I am happy you put this guide on. It will help a lot next time I need to clean the fan. Do you know what would cause number keys to not work after a wipe? Only 5 and 6 work. I had to put the drivers on in an odd order. Help please.
September 19th, 2009 at 7:03 am
I took the notebook apart, replaced the fan, put it back together. When I press power, the power light comes on for about 3 second then shuts off and nothing happens. Any ideas? Rechecked the lcd connection and memory seating. Do I need to flash cmos or something?
September 19th, 2009 at 8:01 am
@Power
You don’t need to flash cmos.
1. Try removing all power sources from the laptop (battery, power cord).
2. Press the power button for 10 seconds to ground it.
3. Clean the copper connectors of the RAM/s
4. If you have 2 RAMs, try with one RAM to see if it works or not.
5. Start your computer.
If it works with 1 ram, try the second one individually.
If both works then slot both in and continue using your laptop as per normal.
If only 1 works, then the other one MIGHT be malfunctional.
If all the rams don’t work, maybe there is something wrong with your power source
September 19th, 2009 at 8:35 am
Thanks for the reply. I checked the rams and they both are good. I put them in another notebook to check. I think the power supply is okay but I do have concerns about the connection to the laptop. The battery has a charge indicator on it and there are no lights on the indicator when it is plugged in. Is there anything I could have accidentally disconnected in this regard.
When I press power, the power and indicator lights on the hinge cover light up just for a few second. I also can hear the laptop spin r—- then it just shuts off. Really strange…
September 19th, 2009 at 8:54 am
Could the CMOS battery be fully discharged? Do you think replacing that will help?
September 19th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Replaced the CMOS battery but still the same problem. I don’t get it…ugh
September 19th, 2009 at 11:13 am
@Power,
Actually there is a LED code for the 3 seconds power LED light. Try phoning up Dell to ask for the LED code.
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:46 am
This is one of the most detailed manuals I have ever used. I spent hours trying to find one to show me how to replace a dead heatsink/fan and this help greatly. Thanks for putting your time into this because it save mine. Thanks
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:21 pm
THanks, and thanks again.
it really helped me not to break anything, especially on the palm rest. just needed to pull it towards myself to release the latches at the base.
my boss is happy because his laptop is working again, replaced his motherboard toward
thanks
September 28th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
I disassesmbled and now, while assembling it, the disaply doesn’t come up. I check the display connector and it is all connected fine. What else should I look for? Experts, please advise.
Thanks in advance
October 24th, 2009 at 9:53 am
Excellent article. Used it and reversed the procedures and all worked without getting lost! Thanks for posting this!
dude this was the bbest info ever………..
October 29th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
My hard drive will NOT slide out. I’ve removed screws and am trying to pull the hard drive out but it only moves about 1/4″. Any suggestions?
October 29th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
@Patti
Hmm, you could try lifting it up a little or push it sideways to see if it can come out or not.
October 30th, 2009 at 7:29 am
These are excellent instructions, only i had a hard time removing the palm rest, don’t know if there is an easier way?? But thanks for the very useful and detailed instructions.
November 1st, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Thanks for your effort in creating this, it really was easy to follow and helped enormously.
Only issue i had was my mousepad didn`t work on rebuild but i had not noticed the motherboard plug from the mousepad on disassembly – must have pulled out as i lifted the keyboard, the cable is very short.
Replugged the pad and all works again !
Thanks again.
November 1st, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Thanks for the instructions.
I had a water spill on the laptop, and have used the instructions to pull the unit partially apart to dry out. Hopefully everything will be ok tomorrow!
As many have already said, easy to follow instructions, time and money saving advice. Thanks again!
November 5th, 2009 at 12:49 am
I also had the problem starting computer after assembly. I had to remove keyboard and doublecheck all the connectors. Removed RAM and cleaned contacts. I also unscreewed the heatsink and then tighten it in numbered order. After assembly I started the laptop again and everything worked fine.
Even if it works I dont know what caused the problem when assembled for the first time.
Thank a lot it is the best guide I have ever seen.
November 11th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Hello,
I too must say great article, however
I have done this before to a laptop that had that infamous grey screen Password. I was unable to locate the chip to spark. From reading many posts everywhere I came to the conclusion that this model and another didn’t have it. QUESTION: Is there such a chip on the Dell d620 that that could have solved my password problem. (stored in ephrom chip I think) Just a YES or NO is fine. It’s since been stolen from me.
Thanks
Rick
November 24th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
November 25th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Greate instructions:
I have I problem > My D620 screen is dead, It is powered on, but when the laptop is booting, no Dell logo will be show. When I connect an exturnal screen, the output is good. I swapt an screen from a good working D630, same problem. I placed my d620 screen on the D630 body and it is working good.
I flashed the d620 bios with the exturnal screen, and after reboot I san on the laptop screen ” hardware mailfunction: And the screen whent dead again.
Can somebody help my
November 26th, 2009 at 12:30 am
@Rick
I can’t exactly say the problem of your D620. It doesn’t seems like the screen in your D620 is dead, it worked in the D630. Chances is that the connector is dead or something. Try cleaning it.
Having said that I am pretty sure changing the D620 motherboard would solve the problem. But don’t take my words for granted :)
December 1st, 2009 at 9:10 am
Do I need to open whole the computer to clean the CPU fan or can i open the computer on one place and clean it ? :)
Sorry about my english.
December 3rd, 2009 at 4:28 pm
great article… is this process apply to Dell D820?
i am trying to clean fan and heat sink…
December 6th, 2009 at 2:31 am
First of all, congrats on publishing such an informative guide. This guide helped me tremendously in disassembling my Chief’s (local fire dept.) personal laptop. Unfortunately I don’t think it is going to do any good, I believe his motherboard is in dire need of replacement. If you know of any cheap Dell Latitude D620 motherboards out there, please by all means contact me. I think he has a GPU problem as the LCD screen doesn’t work and when an external display is connected, there appears to be strange vertical lines. All in all, just wanted to say thanks for publishing this very helpful guide
December 16th, 2009 at 12:25 am
Thanks! $15 for a fan, $4 for thermal compound and your instructions which without I would still be trying to figure out how to take the thing apart, let alone put it back together – added new life to my laptop… you rock!
December 17th, 2009 at 5:27 am
This is a wonderful article. Very detailed, very specific. I followed the instruction and can disassemble my D620 in 30 mins. Thank you
December 23rd, 2009 at 9:25 am
This was a great help. I was able to order a replacement board for much less than dell was charging and do it myself instead of having to bring it into a shop. Thank you for such a detailed walkthrough.
January 6th, 2010 at 9:20 am
This is a great guide, might try it if I have the materials and time alone :P.
I do have one question though, would I have to follow all 12 steps in order to get to the fans??? I’m not much of a computer assembler and I also have graphics frame rate troubles which I’m suspecting is that the computere is overheating in just two~five minutes (which is outragious but it’s the only option I have right now). So do I have to get through all those steps in order to get to my fan and heatsink???
January 12th, 2010 at 10:46 am
I’ve been looking at different power supply units for my Acer model; it’s strange because the model it says my notebook requires is different from the model that came with the notebook, maybe I should get in contact with Acer to solve this issue. Anyway, I found your blog post very insightful.
January 19th, 2010 at 11:04 am
Thanks it has been a great help. I combined it with info on the dell website and it took me less than 45 minutes :)
here is the link; http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/latd620/en/SM/index.htm
January 20th, 2010 at 6:02 am
Excellent guide (how to disassemble laptop (Dell Latitude D620).
I am not a newbie in this field, but I had never open a D620 and I simply follow the guide like a newbie, no error, everything is perfect
January 25th, 2010 at 3:25 pm
You might want to add “Therman Compound” to your “Tools You Need For Dismantling and Cleaning.” I think the old thermal compound we contributing to the heat problem in my laptop, which was causing my CPU to be worthless. I replaced the fan and added new compound, and now it seems to be good as new.
January 25th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
@Mike S
Apparently, the original thermal compound does not contribute as much heat problem compared to the dust.
I have tested this on an Asus laptop of my friend’s before and the heat problem was still solved after cleaning the fan.
Having said that, if you have extra thermal compound lying around, do use it to replace your old one. And thanks I will add it into the “Tools You Need For Dismantling and Cleaning.”
January 27th, 2010 at 9:01 pm
i had taken my laptop apart because i kept getting this I/O card parrity error, when i put it back together now the lcd screen and fan wont come on but the lights do. i had followed this guide and cant figure out what happen
February 28th, 2010 at 8:48 am
About to tear into laptop, Thanks for instructions. Need your opinion on 3.5 yr old D620 that freezes up and makes a loud long beep tone and then crashes. Been told that possible System Board. Options: 1) Replace System Board (refurbished) @ $250, or 2) buy off lease refurbished D620 (Staples) @ $392 and swap over hard drive and new 4G RAM from old one, Keeping old D620 for parts, 3) Put the money toward new laptop? Would appreciate your opinion
February 28th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
@Garry
It is ideal to change laptop once every 3 years if you are financially capable of doing so.
March 3rd, 2010 at 7:37 pm
Thank you for this guide. I really appreciate it!
March 10th, 2010 at 11:13 am
thanks for this excellent work. every step clearly explained. I have all parts out now and can begin to sort out the power problem. Thanks again.