A friend’s Dell Inspiron N5110’s screen cracked. Instead of a screen replacement, he wanted me to remove the screen so that he can use it as a desktop computer plus keyboard and touchpad.
What a mess!
Full interior view
Here are my procedures in case you want to do the same:
- Disconnect all peripherals and the charger. Remove the battery.
- Unscrew all of the bottom screws and remove the RAM door.
- Pry the tabs holding the top side of the keyboard. Remove the keyboard and disconnect its connector.
- Disconnect all of the revealed connectors and unscrew all of the screws on the metal plate.
- Peel off the entire top plate.
- Unplug the video cable. Remove the screen by uninstalling the hinges.
- Disassemble the screen. Peel off the WiFi antennas and the camera.
- Peel off the LCD controller board from the LCD panel. You need to keep the controller board because the N5110 refuses to POST (boot) without it.
- Tuck the antenna cables between the DVD drive and the motherboard. Tape the antennas to the empty bottom-right corner inside the computer.
- Plug the video cable back in. Reassemble the laptop.
- Now you have a semi-portable desktop computer with integrated keyboard and touchpad! You will have a dangling LCD driver board though.
Refuses to POST without a display? Wow, that’s certainly new!!!
Hi, Thanks your information, you are right, need to keep the LCD controller board attach on the cable, if not will get 8 beep and cannot be turn on.