debaucher Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 OK, people have been asking for this for a while so I thought since I can tear this down in about 10min, I should do a quick write-up. Like the title said, I did this quick so pictures wont be the best but you will get a better understanding on how to teardown the system enough to at least repaste etc.. Here we go 1 - Shot of the underside 2 - Remove battery and the 4 screws in red to remove bottom cover 3 - Bottom Cover Off: Remove Screws Labeled I (5 of them in Red), P ( 5 in Blue), and HD Bay screws (4 in Green) 4 - Remove Hard Drives 5 - Remove Screws In Empty Hard Drive Bay (4 in blue) 6 - Remove the LCD Hinge Screws ( 4 in Red) and disconnect the wireless antennae (circled and traced in Red) 7 - Flip System over and open screen 8 - Pop off the media control panel by lifting the back right and left corners until it "pops" off. I find using my guitar pick helps with this 9 - Once the back corners have popped loose, run the guitar pick around the edges to loosen the rest (around the keyboard) 10 - Picture of the media panel loose but still connected with the ribbon cable (disconnect this now) 11 - Remove the Keyboard and macro keyboard screws ( 6 in Red) 12 - Disconnect all cables from the motherboard and graphic cards ( 11 in total) and 2 more lcd screws ( 2 in blue) This includes: 2 ribbon cables for the macro keyboard 2 ribbon cables for the keyboard 3 for the handrest/trackpad (2 on bottom, 1 near the right crossfire cable connector) 2 for the screen (one toward the bottom left, one at the top left) 2 for the crossfire cable (labeled L and R on the cable) 13 - Remove 3 more screws securing the cover ( 3 in Red). You will need to pop off this cover starting at the back... just lift until it pops off. If it is being difficult, make sure all screws labeled "P" on both the top and bottom are removed. 14 - Once the cover is off, remove the screws (going from #1-4) on your heatsinks.... clean and repaste. If anyone wants pics of the heatsinks removed just let me know (I took a couple but not really necessary for this guide). Once again, I did this all very fast so I know it is not as polished as it could have been.... but I wanted this out sooner than later for everyone to use. Let me know if anything is unclear etc... D. 29 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Founder StamatisX Posted July 29, 2011 Founder Share Posted July 29, 2011 @debaucher Thanks! (+rep for your effort) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wbabt007 Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 nice guide + rep Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 Amazing guide Debaucher +1. With your guide it makes it seem a little less daunting opening the M18x up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debaucher Posted July 29, 2011 Author Share Posted July 29, 2011 Glad it is helpful.I learned how to take it apart by reading the dell manual which can be confusing.Then after taking it apart 5x I pretty much had it down.D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svl7 Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 Awesome job!! Wish I had a heatsink with 3 heatpipes for my M15x... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 Thanks mate, +rep This will be very handy when I get mine, the stack of things waiting for it keeps getting higher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rawhide85 Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 Great job. +1 rep Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest koelle Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 Thank's man for the tuto. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debaucher Posted August 1, 2011 Author Share Posted August 1, 2011 Glad people are liking the write-up.Thinking I might do the same for my Elitebook 8540w if I decide to pop my 920xm OEM into it (since nobody seems to want to buy it) even if it is 10w higher than the system heatsink is supposed to handle (what with the quadro 1800m in it).Heck, maybe I will buy a secondary heatsink from hp and mod it up..... hmmmmm possibilities:29_002:D. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debaucher Posted August 3, 2011 Author Share Posted August 3, 2011 Couldn't help myself... went ahead and ordered a spare heatsink for my 8540w.SO, will mod it up and do a teardown guide for my 8540w in the coming weeks.D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 Couldn't help myself... went ahead and ordered a spare heatsink for my 8540w.SO, will mod it up and do a teardown guide for my 8540w in the coming weeks.D.Nice looking forward to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G8GT Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 I was just about to start a thread asking where i could find nekid pics of the M18x. thanks for the tear-down! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sev7en Posted August 12, 2011 Share Posted August 12, 2011 Hi!thanks for the quick guide! I have to replace the keyboard and the question is... can I start from step 8 directly or I have to remove the back screws too?Cheers, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debaucher Posted August 12, 2011 Author Share Posted August 12, 2011 Hi!thanks for the quick guide! I have to replace the keyboard and the question is... can I start from step 8 directly or I have to remove the back screws too?Cheers,You need to do these steps..1,2, The red screws in 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11Hope this helpsD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiru Posted September 7, 2011 Share Posted September 7, 2011 Great guide!Will definitely come useful when I decide to get my lazy bum off the couch to do a repaste XD.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 So I've done the teardown, everything bar the SSD is in and repasted. When I try to boot I get a black screen and two loud beeps (repeated). Quick search tells me this is likely memory related, Is it because I tried to be smart and put the ram in the slots under the keyboard to make future upgrades easier? Or have I killed my new 1866mhz ram? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debaucher Posted September 18, 2011 Author Share Posted September 18, 2011 Ram should be fine.. .but you need to use the ram slots on the bottom of the laptop first (dimm slots 1 and 2) The slots under the keyboard (dimm slots 3 & 4) are for expanding to more than 2 sticks of ram. SO, either pull it apart and put the ram back into slots 1&2 (bottom of the system) or buy 2 more sticks of the same ram and put those into dimm slots 1&2 and have more fun D. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 GODDAMNIT!!!! Thanks for the info, but now I have to pull the whole freaking thing apart again. +rep because you refrained from excess teasing 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 Okay, up and running, thanks debaucher. All clocks stock so far, wprime1024 255 seconds. Let's get cracking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techbear Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 Thanks man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanXbix Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Thanks for post mate! Helped with my CPU repaste Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Ive used this guide everytime... I even made PDF out of it to load on something else while im working... At this point its commited to memory one great guide Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorpheusKiller Posted August 5, 2012 Share Posted August 5, 2012 Nice Guide, will be helpfull at some piont. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debaucher Posted August 5, 2012 Author Share Posted August 5, 2012 Glad people are still finding a use for this.Sent from my ISW11SC (Galaxy S2 Wimax) using Tapatalk 2 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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