When I painted the LCD cover of my mini, I took pictures along the way. Hopefully these are helpful for someone....

So many people are curious about the Bluetooth module... location, ease of installation, etc... so I pointed out where it is in some of the pictures.

I followed the steps outlined in the online manual, so if you go by those steps and look at my pictures, things will be easy to follow.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/s ... /index.htm

There were a few times where the manual says to just use your fingers to pry something apart, and I thought I was going to break the plastic but if you keep using a little more force until the connectors snap apart, then it'll come apart. Once you get a part of it apart, the rest comes easy.



To Begin: Remove the Battery!


Next remove the back cover with two screws


Remove screws from bottom, including two that hold the keyboard on:


Once the keyboard screws are out, you can lift the keyboard back... don't pull too hard, the ribbon is still attached.


pull back to expose the ribbon... to remove it you'll need to push the two connector tabs back on each side, which is easier to get to from the other side of the keyboard, not how it's pictured here:


here's the keyboard connector... push the two grey tabs straight back, the ribbon will now slide out. To install, slide the ribbon in, and lock the tabs back in.


Now disconnect the three cables shown here... two use the same type of connector as the keyboard, by pushing tabs back, but the Bluetooth connect just comes out with some light force.


Remove the seven screws securing the palmrest to the base [added by holmes4]

now you have to start popping the palm rest loose... once you pry one part up the rest come easy. I started at the top right near the LCD.


Once you have the palm rest loose, you can turn it over and see the Bluetooth module, held on with two screws.


Now admire the mini motherboard!


a look underneath, with my 2gb upgrade of memory installed. You need to unplug the WLAN antenna wires now, they just come straight up from the board.


an up close shot of the Bluetooth:


And the motherboard connector for the Bluetooth:


once you disconnect the WLAN wires, you can feed them through the hole in the base and pull them out.


Remove two screws from the hinges that connect it to the base, and you now have the two halves apart.


With the LCD apart, you can then pry the LCD trim off. Same as the palm rest, it just snaps on there, and you only need your fingers to remove it. This one I thought I was going to break because it took quite a bit of force in spots to get it apart. It survived ok though.


Backside of the LCD Trim piece.


LCD Trim removed, you can now see the two speakers, marked L and R, and the built in Camera at the top.


Remove some more screws, unplug the camera and speaker wires, and you can now pull the LCD from the LCD cover.


The LCD cover all by itself.... camera and speakers still installed.


Back of the LCD... with DO NOT TOUCH warnings at the base, where the LED lights are I guess.

[jerseydan31]

great pics.....should be STICKY post!

[cmarcho]

I updated the post with instructions before each picture... as well as resizing the pictures because the right edge was getting cut off in the formatting.

[tangus]

This post helps a lot.

[strider_mt2k]

Massively cool and well timed too.
THANKS!

Looks like I can use this as a guide when I replace my motherboard.

[cmarcho]

Originally Posted by strider_mt2k

Massively cool and well timed too.
THANKS!

Looks like I can use this as a guide when I replace my motherboard.

it's really not as hard as it looks.... just take your time and follow the Dell manual and you'll be good to go.

[yakker.yak]

Thanks for this, much appreciated.

[CMcCane]

Amazing work! Great photos for everyone to reference when doing some work under the hood.

[onefish2]

Gotta throw in my kudos as well. Awesome post. Thanks for sharing.

[wglr13mwz]

I always find a way to pry on something and scratch it or mar it. These are great little tools used in body shops when they are working with dashboards, switches, and other soft plastic pieces to keep from screwing them up to get underneath. If you search a little harder they are all sold individually as well. These are made of composite where as others might be made of plastic.

http://www.toolweb.com/itemDetail.cfm?partno=SKT90110