Looking for a disassembly or service manual on the internet during the past few days and not finding anything but forum posts of other people on the same issues that I encountered with this notebook, I decided to try it for myself. After succeeding, I now want to post my own “Service Manual”, hoping that it may help somebody else struggling with this device.
The first step is, of course, disconnecting the device from power and take out the battery. This is easy and you still dont need a screw driver for this. Just make sure it is unlocked and push it out.
After this you can remove the DVD drive, unscrewing this screw, holding the unlock slider and pulling it out.
Then you can continue by removing the panel that covers the hard disk, memories and wireless adapter. You have to unscrew the 6 screws that hold this panel. Then take out the memory bars and disconnect (just pull the golden connectors up) the wireless adapter, so you can remove it as well.
Then remove the 2 screws holding the hard disk, pull it out to the right side and remove it. You have now uncovered 6 screws you need to remove as well.
After this you can remove all the remaining screws on the bottom of the device, including the 4 + 2 silver screws that had been covered by the battery and the DVD drive and the 2 dark ones that were covered by the panel.
Once you removed all the screws, you are ready to turn the device around and flip back the screen. You will have to start by removing the upper silver/grey panel that contains the power button and all the fancy lights. This is done pulling it up on the corners with slight force (maybe use a flat screw driver as lever). Try not to break it ;) There is a “Flexible Flat Cable”(FFC: Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexible_flat_cable) that you have to disconnect, before you can fully remove this panel.
You can then remove the keyboard. There are some small plastic “holders” on the upper side, you need to push back one by one while you hold it on the corner with your nail or a screw driver or anything. Once the upper part is all out, you can push from the lower side. I found it helpful to stick a screw driver under the keybord from its upper edge. Once it out, you need to disconnect it from the board by pulling the brown plastic part of the slot out on both sides, so you can remove the FFC.
Once you successfully removed the keyboard, you need to unscrew the one screw you uncovered.
You also have to remove the 4 large screws that hold the screen. Once you finished that, unplug the cables on the left side carefully (the large one can be pulled out using the plastic thingy on it). Also you need to pull out the wireless antenna cables you disconnected before and remove them from the silver panel. Then, finally, remove the screen and lay it aside.Also remove the other screws marked red on the image (one red highlight is not a screw but the place where you will remove an FCC in the next step).
Disconnect the small FFCs that connect the board on which the power button is located (I thought the name of it was “launch board” but I'm not quite sure), the touchpad and the fingerprint sensor to the main board.
Once that is done, you can again use a flat screw driver or something similar as a lever to remove the big silver panel. This will give you access to the main board. You will have to disconnect another FFC (for USB), and the modem, speaker and fan connectors.
Then you need to unscrew the 2 screws that hold the small board with the sound IO connectors (Line In, Line Out and Mic). Carefully pull the panel up. It ist connected to the main board by a number of small pins which you probably don't want to break.
Once you removed that, unscrew the last screw that holds the board in place. After that you can take the board out and look at it from both sides.
If you want to clean the fan, which is probably why you wanted this thing open, you will have to unscrew the 5 screws holding the heat sink, until it is released. Note that the screws dont have to come out, they're secured on the heat sink. Turn the whole thing around and remove the 3 screws which still hold the fan inside of it. Now you have the fan seperated from the heat sink and you can give them a good cleaning. I suggest, you use an air compressor to get rid of the dust.
When you put the fan back into the heat sink, make sure to put it in the right way, so the cable is in the right position to connect it to the mother board later.
If, while you're at it, you want to replace the thermal paste, you should remove the old one using a clean fluffless cloth. Possibly you can use some product for cleaning of electronic components. Make sure to clean the CPU as well as the place on the heat sink, that sits on the CPU. Then put the thermal paste on the CPU and carefully place the heatsink back in place. Make sure the small fan connector goes through the hole in the motherboard.
Now it is time to put everything back together. Reconnect the fan to the board, put the board in its place inside the notebook skeleton (make sure it does not cover the modem and speaker connector cables, and its firmly in place). Connect the modem cable, the speaker, the USB FFC on the upper right side of the board.
Maybe at this point you are not sure, which screws to use where. If you didn't keep track of that yourself, I will try to tell you which ones to use. I have no idea how these screws are called correctly or officially or under which name they are sold, so I am going to use my own screw naming system: S or G (silver or grey) and a number, describing the size (smaller number meaning smaller size).
So there are:
S1 and S2
G1, G2, G3 and G4
This does not include the screws on the heatsink and the fan. Because if you didn't know how to tell that difference, I fear I am not able to help you ;)
Return the sound connectors to their place and place the pins inside the motherboard's slot for it. Put back the 2 screws that were holding it. And the one screw that was holding the board before. All these are G2 type screws.
Then place the silver panel on top again and pull the FFCs through the corresponding holes in the panel. Reconnect the touchpad and fingerprint sensor, the “launch board” (or whatever). Return one screw (type G3) to its place onder the keyboard and put the screen back in place where it belongs. Connect it and pull the antenna cables on the right back onto their way to the wireless card. The screws for the screen are G4, the largest.
Next to the left screen cable socket goes another G3 type screw.
You can now close the screen and turn the notebook upside down again. Return the wireless card where it belongs (secure it with G1 type screws) and connect it (pushing the golden connectors onto their sockets.
Return the memory bars into their sockets. Then you need to screw in 4 type G2 screws and two S2 screws on the hard disk slot. Once these are in, you can return the hard disk to its place and fix it there with two S1 screws.
You should have 6 remaining S1 type screws. They belong under the DVD drive (two of them) and under the battery (the remaining four). Put them in.
You can return the DVD drive into the laptop and introduce all the missing G3 type screws. If you care about it, the G3 screws with red paint go in the upper right and left corners of the notebook.
Once all the G3s are in and there are only 6 G2s left, put back the small panel to cover the hard drive, memory and wireless card and insert the battery into its slot.
Now you are ready to turn the device around once more and insert the grey panel and the keyboard.
First you need to connect the keyboard FFC. Afterwards just start with the lower part of it next to you, insert it underneath the large silver panel and press the rest down into the place where it belongs. It's a lot easier than trying to get it out.
Now you may try to turn your device on and hope that you didn't forget to connect anything before you put the box back together...
For me, this worked perfectly with two notebooks of this model (mine and my mother's) that now run perfectly without heating up so much and quite silent because the fan runs a lot slower.
I wrote all the text myself, and took all the pictures. I am distributing this under the license mentioned below.
Update: The pictures are available here as a 7zip-file: LINK
If you have any questions or suggestions, doubts or any other feedback, just let me know on:
medionportalde.4fc@gishpuppy.com
License:
