**XPS M1730 Disassembly Guide**

Dell XPS M1730 Disassembly Guide
(Use at your own risk, I'm not responsible for any damage to your computer or parts.)

Time required: 1 hour +

Items required: Small screwdriver set, torx T9 (Only needed for GPU).

Ok, lets get started. This doesn't require a lot of skill, but patience is a must, so take your time going through all the steps. I recommend using separate ziplock bags to sort your screws from each step so you don't mix them up, and mark the bag for each step. If you are applying thermal paste, I recommend using lint free cloth or coffee filters and 91%+ isopropyl alcohol to clean the components. Use gloves to keep oil from your fingers off the components, also watch out for static (if you don't trust yourself, invest in an anti static band.).

**Unplug your computer, remove the battery, and hold the power button for 30 secs to discharge any power in the system**

Step 1:
Start by removing the panel above your keyboard, there is a notch in the right side. Once you get it started gently pop the tabs up down the length of the panel, don't break them.


Step 2:
Remove the four screws that hold the keyboard in place.


Step 3:
Gently slide the keyboard towards the LCD, after its free, remove the ribbon cable underneath.


Step 4:
Disconnect the LCD ribbon/cables and the wireless card cables.


Step 5:
Unscrew the LCD hinges and remove the LCD lid. Place it somewhere out of the way for now.


Step 6:
Remove the 2 screws holding the Logitech LCD in place, disconnect the cable and remove it, also disconnect the other marked connections. Then remove the screws marked in green, I left this out in the original post by mistake, so marked these by looking back at my pictures, so I may have missed one or marked a hole that is not screw.


Step 7:
Flip the notebook over, open your HDD bay and remove the drives (one screw is hidden in here), then remove the 15 screws marked, this includes the one with the lock symbol, this frees your dvd drive, go ahead and pull that out after the screws are removed.


Step 8:
Flip the notebook back over, disconnect the touchpad cable and gently remove the cover. It should come up without too much force, be careful of the plastic tabs, don't break them.


Step 9:
Ok, now that the top is off, start by removing the GPU in the top left corner. Pull up where it says “Push Here”, should come up easily. Sit it to the side for now.


Step 10:
Remove the 5 cables/ribbons marked.


Step 11:
Remove the 6 screws holding the motherboard down, 2 are underneath the GPU, it should be removed already, but wasn't in this picture.


Step 12:
Remove the motherboard, and flip it over, now you should see the cpu, remove the 5 screws and remove the heatsink.


Step 13:
Now you can change the cpu, turn the screw to unlock the cpu, make sure to lock it back when the new one is in place. Don't forget thermal paste, I recommend ArcticSilver5. You want an even paper thin layer on the die of the cpu, less is more. Use Google or http://www.arcticsilver.com/ for detailed instructions.



Step 14:
Clean up the heatsink, get all the old thermal paste off.
Before

After


Step 15:
Back to the GPU, start by removing the 6 screws holding the fans on. Then flip them over, leave the cables on until you get the heatsink off, much easier to disconnect then.


Step 16:
Remove the 8 screws holding the heatsink down and remove it.


Step 17:
Now disconnect the fan cables, and clean up the GPU dies.



Step 18:
Clean up the GPU heatsink.



GPU with AS5:


If you made it this far, you did it! Now reverse the steps to put your rig back together, cheers!

 

+1! Excellent job with description and pics! Rip, can you edit the post and add the Torx size? Some don't have a full Torx set and it might be helpful if they need to pick up the single.

 

+1 Great work! Very handy reference, wouldve been very useful when i changed my CPU. I might AS5 my GPU's now.

 

Done, thx for rep guys

 

Excellent!!!!!!! Top of the line guide.

 

Great guide, this will make upgrading easy for people. I will probably do one for the M6400 within the next week or 2.

 

Big thanks! +1 if not +2!

 

Big +1! If I ever get brave enough to change something other than my memory, this will be my first stop.

 

Bump for all to see. Or at least all that care.

 

Excellent post! I can see that you have a Toshiba notebook also.

 

Nice work dude. I`d like to know just how much the temps changed afterwards. Of course, there`s a 200 h settle in timeframe...so I`ll wait

 

Thx, and good eyes! Yes it's a Toshiba X205, great notebook.

Thx, I'll update after the burn in cycle.

 

Lol don't wait 200 hours before posting again! You could at least tell us what the initial difference was. Then again gpu tems just continue climbing up so I suppose that's kind of hard to figure out what the "idle" temp is.

 

Double posting on purpose to bring this back up in case new owners didn't notice this post. Btw, Is it possible to lap the heatsinks? With the screws coming out from all 4 corners it seems impossible to rub this around on a flat surface.

 

I'm sure you could, would just take some time.

Did you get the 5300 in?

 

wow great guide, just used it to open up my 1730. one thing to note that you forgot to mention is that there are P screws you need to remove to get the top cover off. also, motherboard screw 6 is under some other thing that you need to remove prior to removing that screw.

i used arctic silver on my cpu and the heatsink, but didnt do the gpu cause i didnt have the right tool ahah. just cleaned it up. i was very surprised to see how beast those dust bunnies were. some compressed air took care of the job


again great guide!

 

Post edited, added the P screws to step 6. Thx

You should be able to pull back the plastic/rubber to remove the screw.

 

Great Guide, Thank you!!
BTW were the temps a good difference?

 

For me, I added MX2s on my 8800 cores. The temperatures drops are quite significant for my case. If applied properly it dropped about 10 - 15*C. Just yesterday it hit my personal lowest - 42*C with powermizers all disabled (Card running at stock speeds, not underclocked) and without a cooler. I'm proud of it. Hehe.

Well in all seriousness yes, the applicance of AS5 will help. Just remember the 200 hour burn in. Your temps will drop even further. Oh and, give your CPU a good UV. Good luck.

 

More info on MX 2 can be found here:
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1148/arctic_cooling_mx_2_thermal_paste/index.html

NewEgg has it here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186020

 

I did this with mine about 2 hours ago and my temps did not really change both idle around 40c and go to 64c under load. But I did it to be safe and see if my gpu's will last a bit longer as I had zero problems with them so far.

 

Excellent guide I just used it to put AS5 on my 8800M gpu's too. But I wanted to mention I have 2 - X205's the 9349 and SLI1, the SLI1 died a couple of months back and I never got the extended warranty it will just not power up and I suspect the motherbord as the problem but I have it stored away and was considering putting the dual 8600's on the X205-9349 but I am not sure if I should fix it later or just use it for parts for my 9349. But both were very nice laptops that my kids used until the SLI1 died, but my other kid is still using the X205-9349 and it still working fine.

 

Great guide. I noticed the GPU fans each have a different amount of fins on them, one has 19 the other has 13, Anybody know why this is?

 

Not sure, I noticed that too.

 

Cheers, all went sweet for me.

 

Also add my +1 kudos! Had to install a bluetooth chip, and the cable was hidden in the unit. So your guide was great for removing the palmrest and freeing the cable! Cheers!

 

Awesome...Ripfire, took me 7 hours..better to take ya time than to rush an make a mistake, thanks for great tip about bagging screws an marking bags for were screws go . 10 bags to 12 bags

running X9000 @ 3.2Ghz (3 fans on 100% speed) for about 11months. First Time m1730 been striped apart....woow!...WTH!....sooo much Dust!!!!
X9000 cpu fan area http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showfull.php?photo=2533

9800mGTX fan area http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showfull.php?photo=2534 1 years collection of dust ------

like a blind spot were dust collected on slotted heatsink grills (rear of rig) Didnt see this from outside rig?

Didnt unscrew & seperate heatsinks off cpu & gpu because stupid dust affects me end results, wouldnt know how much difference cpu Temps were going to be From old to new Thermo Paste....

DUST V's NO DUST Temp Test:
conditions when running orthos cpu stress test: HW monitor 113 running during tests, Room Temp about 22C , 186.81 gpu stock clocks, RM-clock undervolted 16.0x(3.2Ghz) = 1.2375v , rearraised 20mm @ front 10mm , did repeat tests an got similar results

Orthos Dust http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showfull.php?photo=2540

Orthos No Dust http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showfull.php?photo=2541
cpu cooler 11-12 celsius

conditions when running crysis gpu benchy: same as above except No RM-clock
Crysis DX10 bin64 level=island 1920x1200, all veryhigh, no-AA, no-vsync

Crysis Dust http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showfull.php?photo=2542

Crysis No Dust http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showfull.php?photo=2543
GPU's cooler 17 celsius.....wth!

also notice with no dust after long period of use ,then let rig idle, the temps drop quicker to min.(about 5 minutes)
compared to before with dust (10-25mins).

unscrewed 3 screws on each gpu fan casing, crap.... gpu casings were stuck so had to pry them carefully up just a little with a small fine bladed screw driver. theres this thin black seal fixed to bot fan casings, found part of seal melted to gpu copper sink(wasnt sure to clean off,so left it on sink, circled in blue http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showfull.php?photo=2536)

TRICKY: was disconnecting an reconnecting ribbon cable for keyboard (thin copper color tape).
1.with ribbon connected > http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showfull.php?photo=2537

2.without ribbon cable so to see clearly > http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showfull.php?photo=2538
take notice of black u shaped clip "Finished" position

3. black u shaped clip slided carefully straight up 1mm to 2mm for easy removal an reconnecting ribbon cable > http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showfull.php?photo=2539 (Dont force up any further than that) REMEMBER DONT FORGET TO SLIDE STRAIGHT DOWN BLACK U SHAPED CLIP TO LOCK IN RIBBON CABLE

yea.. there's one (P marked)screw in STEP 6 not circled, its next to touchpad, ya can see screw in step 4 an 5

 

Thanks, great guide

 

Gday guys.
I've just done this for the second time, to clean out the dust and muck.
I didnt go as far as removing the CPU and GPU, just a general dissassembly and cleanout.
WOW, CPU temps down 20c at idle!!!
GPU down 10c at idle and flat out.
Thanks very much.

P.S I did bugger up the monitor cable and had to fix it myself, which was very fiddly and time comsuming.

 

Amazing guide, can someone tell me the best way to clean off old thermal paste, and is any thermal paste good for reapplying?
i have some akasa thermal compound, would this stuff be ok?

 

Are there any instructions on how to remove the display cover? I want to change it as my existing one has a few chips in it. This is the outside cover with the illuminated sides and had the Dell logo on it. I thought they were swappable with the other colors? Thanks.

 

XPSM1730 Service Manual from dell site HERE

DCSE Service Manual HERE

 

Thank you for pointing me int he right direction. I thought I would not have to disassemble the entire display just to change the outside cover.

 

if do disassemble the entire display , could take photos as you carefully pull apart > so have another reference to put back together correctly, take pics of position of wiring , connections etc