How To Disassemble Laptop (Dell XPS M1210)
February 19th, 2009 by James | This article was viewed 23,213 times.
As words spread about me disassembling and cleaning many laptops and making guides along the way. A few friends of mine gained confidence in me and asked me to clean their laptops as well. Of course, I agreed and I was lucky enough to get my hands on a dirty Dell XPS M1210. Thanks to Fooshen.
This guide will explain detailed step by step sequence to dismantle a Dell XPS M1210 laptop.
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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 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 (around 2.5 mm will do)
- Flat Blade Screwdriver
- A brush (about 1 inch would do it)
I usually have 2 Philips screwdrivers, one for disassembling (big), one for reassembling (small), paired with a test pen and a brush for cleaning.
Before You Start
There are a few things you’ll need to do before you start disassembling your Dell XPS M1210.
- 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 dropping off the table. - Remove the battery
To remove the battery from your Dell XPS M1210, slide the battery latch until it clicks. Then lift it up from it’s 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.
And you’re set to disassemble your Dell XPS M1210.
Step 1: Remove Harddisk, RAM, Communication Cards and Optical Drive
Removing these small but important things would help ease up your disassembling experience. What is most crucial is you even get to protect these components from disassemble scratches and bumps.
How to remove Harddisk?
- Located the harddisk at the bottom right (base up) of your XPS M1210.
- Remove four M3 x 3mm screws with a “container” label.
- Slide the harddisk out from the compartment.
Treat your harddrive with extreme care! Do not bump it or apply any impact on it. It’s best to contain it in an electrostatic bag to prevent electrostatic discharge.
How to remove RAM?
The RAMs in your M1210 is located at 2 places.
One is at the bottom of the laptop, at the compartment right below the battery latch. Another is located under your keyboard. What a fuss … The good thing is the method to remove the RAMs is still the same.
- Use 2 fingers to pull the clips apart.
- The RAM will pop up. Release it by pulling it forward.
How to remove Communication Cards?
Your Communication Cards are located in the compartment with a “C” label at the top left hand corner (base up) of the laptop.
- Unscrew the screw of the cover.
- Gently pull out the connecting antennas to the cards.
- Removing the card is a little similar to the RAM’s. Pull the pins that is holding the communication cards apart.
- The card will pop up.
- Remove it without bending the card.
How to remove Optical Drive?
The Optical Drive is located at the bottom left (base up) of your XPS M1210. To remove the optical drive,
- Unscrew the M2.5 x 8mm screw with the lock label.
- Use the screw driver to push the metal tab outwards
- The metal tab is connected to the drive thus the whole optical drive will move out. Pull it from there.
Step 2: Remove The Hinge Cover
- Note the little indent at the right side of the hinge cover.
- Use your test pen (or any flat bladed screw driver) to pry open the hinge cover from there.
- Be extremely gentle and do not bend the hinge cover too much to avoid it breaking.
Step 3: Remove The Keyboard
- Remove three M2.5 x 5mm screws located at the top of the keyboard.
- Carefully lift the keyboard until you can have a clear view of the keyboard connector.
- Lift up the tab to free the cable.
Step 4: Remove The LCD Screen
- Still remember the antennas you had just unplugged earlier? Push them through the hole located at the upper left hand side of the WLAN bay.
- Unroute all the cables from the routing lines.
- Disconnect the display cable.
- Unscrew four M2.5 x 8mm screws located at the back and at the bottom of the laptop.
- Gently lift the LCD screen support out from the base of the laptop.
Step 5: Remove The Palm Rest
The palm rest is always the hardest part to remove. Always keep in mind that Dell made your laptop in such a way that technicians can open it without breaking any components. That means there’s definitely no need to use too much force to pry or lift any part.
- Note the “P” label for Palm rest on the palm rest.
- Unscrew all seven “P” labeled M2.5 x 5mm screws.
- Unscrew another four M2.5 x 8mm screws at the bottom of the laptop
- Loosen the captive screw located at the most bottom right (base up) of the laptop.
- Remove the little Bluetooth component located under the battery.
- Disconnect both the Coin Cell Battery cable and the Touch Pad cable.
- Separate your palm rest from the base starting from the back of the laptop.
Some Cleaning Tips
Here are the components where I always clean when cleaning a laptop.
- The fan
Where most dusts are collected. - The air vents
To improve air flow of the laptop. Here’s how dirty the air vent can be.
- Motherboard
Gently brush the dust away with a paint brush, not too hard unless you wanna break those little chips. - Covered part of the palm rest
- Keyboard
You will be amazed with how many things that was hid under the keys.
There you go, another Dell XPS m1210 disassembled. I’ve got another Dell XPS M1530 coming so stay tuned!
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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February 21st, 2009 at 5:37 am
Lingdaowen, i thought you are the one requesting for this guide?
February 24th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
hey brother, thx to help me clean my laptop…… haha^^
May 23rd, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Hi, I have a question.
when I disassemble my notebook, the appearance is exactly the same as the fist figure of Step 4: Remove The LCD Screen.
Does that mean that I don’t have a graphics card ?
Where does graphics card sit ? (mine is Nvdia GeForce 7400 probably.)
Another question is…
My monitor doesn’t display anything..
Even external monitor doesn’t either.
Probably, the graphics card has problem.
Do you know how can I replace it with a new one?
Thank you so much.
- Kim
May 23rd, 2009 at 1:01 pm
@Sehwan Kim,
Your laptop will definitely have a graphic card. Even the one I disassembled up there has one.
But if I’m not wrong, most Dell laptop graphic cards are integrated with the motherboard. So if there’s something wrong with your graphic card, I guess it’s time to call up Dell to have it changed.
Your monitor does not display anything? Check …
1. If it’s a graphic card problem, you might be able to listen to the theme song of Windows XP when you start your laptop
2. Reseat your RAM to see if it works or not
If step 2 doesn’t work. Phone up Dell.
May 28th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
where does the back light go????
May 28th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
@Jon, hmm the 1210 I disassembled does not come with a back light. So I have no idea where it’ll go.
June 15th, 2009 at 2:44 am
Hi,
Any way to increase graphic card memory
June 15th, 2009 at 2:50 am
@Rizal
Hmm, the only way to increase a graphic card’s memory is to change the graphic card.
However, that only applies if you are using a desktop PC. For a laptop like XPS M1210, the graphic card is actually integrated with the motherboard.
So there is no possible way to increase the memory of the graphic card in this laptop.
June 16th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
Thanks for the tutorial.
Do you know if the DC power jack can be unplugged or is it soldered to the motherboard?? This is an area of frequent problem with the M1210.
June 17th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
@Duguyisheng
Looks like the DC power jack is also a problem for this M1210. It has been confirmed a frequent problem in my another post Dell Latitude D610.
Yes, I think it’s soldered in the motherboard, could you refer to the D610 article?
I’m wondering if it is the user’s problem or not … Because I have never encountered this problem with my Inspiron 6400.
June 18th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Im planned to upgrade my harddisk, What is max capacity can support? Can I used SATA Harddisk? Any requirement. Thanks
June 18th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
@Rizal
I think the laptop comes with a SATA harddisk as well. So I’m quite certain that a SATA harddisks is supported.
Read your manual to confirm
July 26th, 2009 at 8:19 am
I was wondering if the laptop automatically comes with a bluetooh or if you have to purchase one. If you have to purchase one, do you know what it needs? I would love to have this laptop communicate with my printer. Thanks
August 9th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Hi! We just tried to remove my hard drive and it will not slip out of the compartment. My husband has done this before and our other XPS 1210 slides out perfectly. We do not want to damage the hard drive and are concerned as I need the hard drive to switch into another machine.
Any advice is welcome. Thanx!
August 9th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
@Phyllis,
Make sure all the screws are removed? It shouldn’t be too tight.
August 30th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
dear friends
i just cleaned my dell xps m 1210 laptop and when i assembled back nothing get back again when i power it on all the light blinking and nothing is working what dose that mean and how to fix it
August 30th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
@Bashar
Hmm, try cleaning the copper area of the RAM then put it back ?
September 8th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
FYI, to clean the RAM connectors, you should lightly rub them with a rubber/eraser, from what i’ve been told.
Do i really need to disassemble the LCD in order to clean out the fan and air vents?
I plan on replacing the thermal paste with Arctic Silver on the CPU, but can i do this on the GPU too? I think i saw some sort of silicone panel on the GPU heatsink instead of thermal paste, is that right?
Have you replaced the heatsink with a better one, or modded the heatsink before? Cause i know the M1210 has some heat problems.
September 8th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
@Josh
Yes, that is how you do it. But not really recommended as you can easily spoil the RAM. I would suggest using alcohol (not the one you drink) and rub it along the copper connectors.
Yes to disassemble the LCD in order to clean the fan.
I did not take out the heat sink so I did not replace any of the thermal paste on the CPU. On top of that, it is not my laptop so I did not know if the M1210 experiences heat problems or not.
October 1st, 2009 at 3:07 am
I cleaned the copper area of the RAM and still have the same problem. do you think it might be the motherboard
October 1st, 2009 at 8:59 am
@Bashar
Phone up dell and ask them for the LED code.
October 17th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Great that I found this……. I’m about to open a 1210 to check the cpu fan, because it isn’t spinning…… if the fan doesn’t work, were I can find a replacement?
Thanks in advance.
October 17th, 2009 at 11:55 am
@sub_drift
Ebay should have it :)
October 19th, 2009 at 10:45 am
Thanks a lot. I opened and closed it in less than a hour. The fan was ok, just a looooooot of dust. and the fan was loose.
November 20th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Hi i have a few questions to ask
I have a Dell XPS M1210, have gfx issues and ran the dell diagnostic and stops on Video controller that’s failed
My dell, when i had it built had the Nvidia Ge Force Go 7400 GPU
Question 1: Can i pull my laptop apart and pull out the heat-sink and locate the GPU and replace the GPU with a new one of same type?
Question 2: How dose the GPU come out?
is it like a CPU in the older Desktops computers, a squire Chip with one pin missing so it only fits one way in a socket ?
tnx for any help
K4eeZ.
November 20th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
BasHar i had an issue like that, it was a dislocated ram board inside the dell xps 1210, this one was under the keyboard, you need to remove the plastic strip where the power button is located then take out the keyboard, locate the ram and take it out and re insert, make sure it lines up and snaps down all the way
put it back together and your good to go
let me know if this works out for you and post
I have a call sign K4eeZ, not a handle :0) Smiles
November 20th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Hi Phyllis
on then under side of your laptop there is a small screw remove it, it is located around the hard drive area once removed you should then be able to pull out the caddy for the hdd and remove it taken note what way round the drive goes
Let me know if this works out for you and post
Quote “I have a call sign K4eeZ, not a handle :0) Smiles”
November 20th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
Hi suv_drift, look around on Ebay type in your model and see if you can get a fan if not order it from DELL but it will coast you an arm and a leg.
Let me know if this works out for you and post
Quote “I have a call sign K4eeZ, not a handle :0) Smiles”
January 19th, 2010 at 1:01 am
Hey James! Great tutorial. I haven’t tried it yet, but will do tonite.
Just one question: my motivation for diassembling my XPS is that the power connector has intermittent contact issue – probably the solder joint is broken. Seems duguyisheng had the same issue. I am wondering if you could provide some information on how he solved this issue.
This connector doesn’t seem accessible easily. Do you have some recommendations on how to access it?
Thanks for your help!
February 12th, 2010 at 2:01 am
Thanks so much for this article! It made disassembling this old thing so easy. I was wondering why cpu temps were reaching 80+ degrees. I’m guessing it had something to do with the impenetrable wall of dust and dirt and the dried out CPU paste. I’m now staying at 15-20 degrees :-D
February 13th, 2010 at 3:58 pm
maaaaann…, thanks a lot…
it really works…, now i can feel the breeze of my fan…!!
February 14th, 2010 at 11:11 pm
Hey, good guide. I recently took apart my M1210 and the laptop lcd screen won’t shut off when I close it. I think the lcd lid switch is broken or something? Do you know where this is located??
February 28th, 2010 at 12:59 am
When I boot my M1210 on battery it boots normally. When I boot on power of if I connect the power the screen goes black. What do you think it is?
March 6th, 2010 at 12:18 am
My Dell won’t power up. When I hit the ‘on’ button, there are blinking lights but the hard drive isn’t spinning. I’ve changed the hard drive but the same problem persists. Any clues??? Thanks in advance!