Lenovo Ideapad U330 Facts and Disassembly Guide

I noticed there have been a lot of questions about the U330, so I thought I would post some information about the U330.

1) The keyboard is made by Chicony. The keyboard feel is very similar, if not the same as the T series keyboards. However, they are mounted differently. On Lenovo's T series laptops, the keyboard is screwed down from the bottom of the laptop, while the U330 is screwed down at the top of the keyboard, like most other laptops.

2) The laptop is made by Wistron, not Lenovo. By the way, if you don't know, Wistron is one of the major three laptop manufacturers.

3) The LCD is manufactured by CMO or Chi Mei Optoelectronics

4) The base of the laptop is made of metal, while the palm rest and the LCD bezel and lid are made of plastic.

5) The laptop has an additional mini PCI-E slot for devices such as a Intel Turbo Memory Card, or a WWAN card.

 

Disclaimer: This is only to be used as a guide. I am not responsible for any typos, or any damage that can be caused when taking the laptop apart. Your warranty maybe void if you take your laptop apart.

A quick Lenovo Ideapad U330 disassembly guide:

1) Remove battery and 3 screws underneath the battery.

2) Take the three screws holding the HDD, and remove the HDD.

3) Remove the 4 screws holding the memory / wifi cover on and remove cover.

4) There are two screws underneath the cover: 1 that holds the DVDRW in place, and a screw that holds the palm rest to the base. Remove both of those, and unplug the wireless antennas from the wireless card.

5) Unscrew all the remaining screws from the base of the laptop. The 4 bigger screws on the top corners if I remember correctly do not need to be removed.

6) Pull the DVDRW out. The easiest way is to pull on the drive cover, but be careful not to use too much force. Unscrew the three small screws underneath the area where the DVDRW was.


Pic taken from jrin.net

7) Pull the power button cover off by pulling closest from the screen towards you. A screwdriver may help. Unplug the two ribbons connected to the power button cover. There are tabs on each side that you will need to pull out in order to loosen the cable from the cover.

8) Remove the 2 screws holding the keyboard on, and unplug the keyboard from the motherboard.

9) There are three screws in aligned horizontally where the power button cover was. Remove those three screws, along with three screws holding the metal plate down. One of those screws is in the bottom left, and the remaining two are towards the top middle area.

10) Unplug the LCD cable by pulling the tape off, and gently pulling the LCD cable to the left. Remove the small 4-5 pin ribbon touchpad cable, and pull the speaker cable off. Take the three antenna wires out of their track.

11) Pull the palm rest off. You should be able to pull it off using little force. If not, use a screwdriver, but be careful not to scratch the palm rest. The tricky part is where the palm rest and the LCD hinge meet. You may need to turn the screen hinge at an angle to pull the top corners of the palm rest off.

Removal of the motherboard will be posted later.

 

I've never heard of Wistron as a manufacturer... just to show you what goes on behind the scenes.

 

does the u330 have two wifi antennas or three?

I know it comes standard ith intel wifi link 5100, but I wanted to upgrade to wifi link 5300

 

ou jeah baby, this is just what I was looking 4
will disassemble it very soon
thanx a lot
rep up


edit:
just a few moments ago I tried to use mine atheros mini pice card, but, when boot-ing, it says that adapter isn't supported or something like that
so, just when I was to remove it, I noticed another mini pcie slot, and tried to put it in there, AND IT WORKS !!!!
so, that means that second mini pcie slot isn't locked for wwan only !!!
will try to put mini pcie ssd inside and see if it works in a few days, need to find one first

 

today I disassembled my u330
main reason I did it is because it had quite bad keyboard flex on lower corners on keyboard, on FN button section, and a big flex on arow buttons section, so I decided to take it apart my self and see what is wrong, cause, it was so bad that I knew that something is not sitting as it should
so, thanx to abcheng, I was able to get it right, here are some pics:

inductive panel off:


inductive panel and keyboard off:


inductive panel and keyboard and palm rest off:


while I was disassembling it, I was able to notice that this machine is assembled really good.
It wasn't easy to take it apart like some other business oriented laptops, but the way things are connected one to each other shows that engineers really considered whole thing through.
Despite that, just as I thought, keyboard really wasn't in place as it should be.
Laptop was delivered form USA to Croatia, so, maybe that did the trick
Also, i did notice that some screws were not tight as they should be.
After I assemble it all back, with care and tight all screws back, keyboard started to work as it should, there is no flex any more, everything is nice and firm, and it feels very nice to type on, so, I'm veeeeery happy

also, one thing to notice, to remove the keyboard, all you need is:

1. remove battery
2. remove 3 screws under battery
3. remove inductive panel carefully(there are two cables under power button), first lift the right edge, where the volume controls are, it should just pop up, try to use guitar pick or similar plastic to avoid plastic damage
4. disconnect power button ribbon and panel ribbon
5. remove 2 keyboard screws
6. carefully lift keyboard and disconnect flat cable from motherboard


and that's it