How well I did depends on what you consider to be a good job. If all you want to know is if the thing still works or not, then I did a good job. I'm posting from the thing right now. However, if you go into details, I did <span style="voice: simon;">bloody awful</span>.
First, why I did it in the first place: the bearing in the fan had gone bad, and after about a half hour of uptime, the laptop would make an unbearable racket, plus the fan wasn't spinning fast enough to effectively cool the CPU (P3 650), causing temps to go up to 60 degrees C.
Now, on to the play-by-play:
1. Downloaded service manual from Dell's site.
2. Glanced over it to get an idea of what I'd have to do.
3. Shut down laptop, pulled out PCMCIA cards, hard drive, batteries.
4. Turned it over, removed keyboard screws, using a screwdriver that was a little too big.
5. Pried off keyboard, unplugged it, set it aside.
6. Removed display assembly screws.
7. Unplugged and pried off display assembly, bending, scratching and nearly breaking the plastic.
8. Removed palmrest screws.
9. Ripped off palmrest, again damaging and nearly breaking the plastic.
10. Removed the heatpipe contact screws.
11. Made several attemts to loosen the CPU board screws, succeeded on 2 but completely reamed out the head on one of them. CPU board is now unremovable.
(update: managed to get the screw out)
12. Broke off the CPU ESD shield.
13. After looking over the motherboard and service manual, determined that removal of the CPU board, although required by the service manual, is not actually neccessary. The screw reaming in step 11 was for nothing.:brokenheart:
14. Refastened the ESD shield and heatpipe contact.
15. Unscrewed the motherboard.
16. Rather forcefully removed the motherboard.
17. Pulled the fan out of it's rubber frame.
18. Unplugged the fan from the motherboard.
19. Attempted to remove the fan, only to find that it's stuck by the end of the cord.
20. Attempted to remove the fan frame, succeeded only in bending it out of shape.
21. Cut the cord off of the fan, removed fan and cord.
22. Refastened the fan frame.
23. Refastened the motherboard, rather forcefully shoving it into place.
24. Put the palmrest back on, snapped it into place, nearly broke cable plugging it back in, refastened screws.
25 Put the display assembly back into place, trying to realign the bent plastic, refastened screws.
26. Plugged keyboard back in, forced it into place, refastened screws.
27. Put hard drive, PCMCIA cards and batteries back in.
28. Whispered a prayer to the laptop gods, crossed fingers, hit power button.
29. Came here to post about the ordeal.
So now, until I can find a replacement 30x5mm fan, the laptop is operating on 100% passive cooling. Seems like it'll be OK as long as I don't put too much load on it. One thing's for sure, this laptop is a LOT different from my Compaq PMMX 166. I can teardown and rebuild that thing with my eyes closed.
EDIT: For the benefit of others who want or need to disassemble similar laptops, I'm putting together a web page complete with pics.
First, why I did it in the first place: the bearing in the fan had gone bad, and after about a half hour of uptime, the laptop would make an unbearable racket, plus the fan wasn't spinning fast enough to effectively cool the CPU (P3 650), causing temps to go up to 60 degrees C.
Now, on to the play-by-play:
1. Downloaded service manual from Dell's site.
2. Glanced over it to get an idea of what I'd have to do.
3. Shut down laptop, pulled out PCMCIA cards, hard drive, batteries.
4. Turned it over, removed keyboard screws, using a screwdriver that was a little too big.
5. Pried off keyboard, unplugged it, set it aside.
6. Removed display assembly screws.
7. Unplugged and pried off display assembly, bending, scratching and nearly breaking the plastic.
8. Removed palmrest screws.
9. Ripped off palmrest, again damaging and nearly breaking the plastic.
10. Removed the heatpipe contact screws.
11. Made several attemts to loosen the CPU board screws, succeeded on 2 but completely reamed out the head on one of them. CPU board is now unremovable.
(update: managed to get the screw out)12. Broke off the CPU ESD shield.
13. After looking over the motherboard and service manual, determined that removal of the CPU board, although required by the service manual, is not actually neccessary. The screw reaming in step 11 was for nothing.
:brokenheart:14. Refastened the ESD shield and heatpipe contact.
15. Unscrewed the motherboard.
16. Rather forcefully removed the motherboard.
17. Pulled the fan out of it's rubber frame.
18. Unplugged the fan from the motherboard.
19. Attempted to remove the fan, only to find that it's stuck by the end of the cord.
20. Attempted to remove the fan frame, succeeded only in bending it out of shape.
21. Cut the cord off of the fan, removed fan and cord.
22. Refastened the fan frame.
23. Refastened the motherboard, rather forcefully shoving it into place.
24. Put the palmrest back on, snapped it into place, nearly broke cable plugging it back in, refastened screws.
25 Put the display assembly back into place, trying to realign the bent plastic, refastened screws.
26. Plugged keyboard back in, forced it into place, refastened screws.
27. Put hard drive, PCMCIA cards and batteries back in.
28. Whispered a prayer to the laptop gods, crossed fingers, hit power button.
29. Came here to post about the ordeal.
So now, until I can find a replacement 30x5mm fan, the laptop is operating on 100% passive cooling. Seems like it'll be OK as long as I don't put too much load on it. One thing's for sure, this laptop is a LOT different from my Compaq PMMX 166. I can teardown and rebuild that thing with my eyes closed.
EDIT: For the benefit of others who want or need to disassemble similar laptops, I'm putting together a web page complete with pics.
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