Dell LaptopDell Vostro 3446
Dell Vostro 3446 Disassembly
In this guide, I’ll explain how to disassemble the Dell Vostro 3446 to remove and replace the DVD drive, hard drive, keyboard, palm rest, wireless card, RAM, heat sink, cooling fan, speaker, and motherboard.
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Step 1: Remove the battery
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- Unlock and remove the battery.
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- Battery capacity is 40Wh.
Step 2: Remove the service cover
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- Remove one screw securing the service cover. Remove the cover.
- Under the service cover, you can find the hard drive, RAM, and wireless card.
Step 3: Remove the RAM
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- Separate the clips. Memory will automatically pop up.
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- The laptop comes with a Samsung 4GB memory.
Step 4: Remove the hard drive
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- Remove one screw securing the hard drive assembly. Lift the black tape and slide it to the left to disconnect from the motherboard.
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- It features a 500GB Seagate hard drive.
Step 5: Remove the wireless card
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- Disconnect two antenna cables and remove one screw securing the wireless card.
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- Wireless card
Step 6: Remove the DVD drive
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- Remove all screws from the bottom case.
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- Pull out the DVD drive.
Step 7: Remove the keyboard
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- Turn over your laptop. Lift the keyboard and disconnect the keyboard cable from the motherboard.
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- The keyboard has been removed.
Step 8: Remove the palm rest
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- Disconnect two cables and remove three screws securing the palm rest.
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- The palm rest has been removed.
Step 9: Remove the USB board
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- The USB board is connected to the motherboard via a white data cable.
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- Disconnect the white cable.
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- The USB board has been removed.
Step 10: Remove the speakers
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- The speaker is fixed by a holder, disconnect the speaker cable and remove the speaker.
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- Two speakers
Step 11: Remove the motherboard.
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- Remove all screws securing the motherboard. Disconnect all cables from the motherboard. You can remove the motherboard.
Step 12: Remove the heat sink and cooling fan
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- You can see that the heat sink is very long. Loosen five screws. You can remove the heat sink.
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- The heat sink has been removed.
Thanks for the tutorial. My Dell Vostro was having trouble with the GPU (Blender was glitching, and I was getting a beeping noise), but I was able to successfully apply the new thermal paste.