Do not touch any electronic components without wearing the anti-static wrist strap. Failure to do so poses a risk of static electric shock, and may cause damage to components.
Place the laptop on a flat surface with the Dell logo upside down.
Flip the laptop over. The battery will be in the top center.
Do not pull the keyboard away from the laptop. The keyboard is connected to the motherboard by a cable. Pulling the keyboard may cause damage to the keyboard and/or motherboard.
Metal spudgers and similar prying tools can damage internal components like the motherboard. It is ideal to use a regular black nylon spudger or a plastic opening tool, but for this device the metal jimmy was the only tool to work.
Flip over and open your device. Gently wedge the metal Jimmy into the rightmost hole at a 45-degree angle. Make sure that the Jimmy is between the silver metal portion of the keyboard and the silver plastic edge around the keyboard.
Tilt the metal jimmy away from you to pry up the edge of the keyboard.
Repeat the previous actions on each of the other three holes to release the keyboard.
Use a Phillips #0 screwdriver to unscrew the four 5mm screws from the palmrest.
Do not touch any electronic components without wearing the anti-static wrist strap. Failure to do so poses a risk of static electric shock, and may damage components.
Flip up the black flaps over the three cables pictured and gently pull each cable out.
The iOpener gets very hot. Use the tabs on each end of the iOpener to handle it when hot. Failure to do so may result in injury. Do not microwave iOpener for any longer than 30 seconds at a time.
Use an iOpener to heat up the touch pad. Place the iOpener on the touch pad as pictured for one minute.
Use a metal jimmy to gently pry up the touch pad sensor.
If the touch pad sensor has not loosened enough to remove, repeat heating with the iOpener in one-minute intervals until the sensor can be removed.
Metal spudgers and similar prying tools can harm internal components like the touchpad sensor. It is ideal to use a regular black nylon spudger or a plastic opening tool, but for this device the metal jimmy was the only tool to work.