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I would love to be able to do some of the stuff a lot of you do on this thread, however being a man lacking in fabrication skills and with a rather thin wallet, I do the best with what I've got. I tend to do a lot of projects on very minimal budgets, so I thought I'd post something about my typical frugal methods. Though this particular mod may be leaning more towards the ghetto mod forum, I thought you'd at least appreciate the work-log style. Also, this solves an issue that I've seen to be fairly common amongst Dell Inspiron 700m laptop owners; perhaps someone out there would benefit from seeing the real problem and how to solve it. So, without further delay, here's one of my most recent projects.
Project Overview
I bought my laptop as a study aid during the summer of 2006. I used it extensively for my religion class because of all the notes I took from my professor. Since then, it's been an extremely handy tool for doing engineering work on-the-go, and it's perfect for keeping in another part of the house for easy internet access. Unfortunately, the speakers stopped working after about a year of use, just when the warranty was up. I put up with it for years simply because I didn't have the time to fix it. Since I now had the time, I did some research and prepared for some open-case surgery.
Project Requirements
Repair speakers to proper working order
Prevent future speaker failures
Salvage as much of the original case and stock components as possible
Budget: Zero to very, very small
Procedure
First step: remove trim to reveal the speakers, wiring, and connections. This little sticker was a booger... I had "all" the screws out and the screen panel wouldn't come off! Sneaky Dell designers...
After the paneling (trim?) was all taken off, I saw that the hinges could be tightened down with a few screws... I put the screwdriver on it in this picture to show where it's at. Now my screen doesn't wobble any more. Just another side "plus" of this project. The next step here is to remove the speaker screws and keyboard so I can see where the wiring is going and find out what's causing the speakers not to work.
Actually, you can see from this picture that the speaker wires are clean cut right by the right hinge... Way to go, Dell, great design! Now I need to spend a day of my life ramifying their shortcomings... *sigh* oh well, I'm glad to have a project! Let's dig in some more...
You can see the clean cut on the wires here after I dug them out of their clips that hold them in place under the keyboard. Dumb.
Also note my scribbling on the metal part underneath where the keyboard used to be. I had to write down which wire went to which part of the speaker... you don't want noises that come from the left of the screen to play out of the right speaker! If this were to happen, it would be like strapping a buttered piece of bread to the back of a cat and dropping it... cat's always land on their feet and buttered bread always lands butter side down. Yeah, careful, don't hurt yourself. ...bad things would happen.
It's hard to see, but the bottom white wire actually has another cut in it RIGHT at the base of the black speaker casing. I don't think this is a rubbing-on-the-hinge issue, probably just a simple fatigue failure from twisting every time the screen opens. You'll find out later how annoying this really is... But for now, let's get those wires stripped.
Ah, there we go. Nice wire ends exposed.
Because of that cut I mentioned earlier, when I was stripping the wire, I managed to pull it completely off at the base of the speaker casing. Luckily it left a perfectly stripped wire stub, so a connection could still be made... however, this is not ideal for a newbie like me (you'll see that later).
Now to solder the wires together. Being married and jobless, I had to borrow a soldering iron, but I eventually found one (thanks, Dad L!). The only problem is that the solder we found was about 1/8" thick... probably used for soldering the Eiffel Tower together.
You can see here that I have two wires soldered together. I believe these wires are for the left speaker when it's all put together.
OK, get the laughing out of your system now... these are not perfect welds. As a matter of fact, they look exactly like what they're NOT supposed to look like according to the website I learned from (http://www.rog8811.com/soldering.htm). But who cares... the wires were sticking together, so it's good enough for me (or government work, either way).
2 more hours later, they're all soldered! Ok, so maybe it wasn't 2 hours, but it was at least 1, if not 1.5. These wires were so small and the solder so big and my skills and coordination so nonexistent that it just took forever. Wipe the sweat off the forehead, we're done!
The moment of truth. Hooked it up and everything works! IN STEREO! MWAHAHAHAAaaaa... man, I should do this for a living. Not a bad idea if I do say so myself!
Just a closer view of the last picture showing all the wires and where they go.
Ok, now that it works, it's time to tape up the solder joints so they don't short circuit. The wires moved around a lot due to my clumsy hands, so I hope I didn't break any of the connections :/
Put the whole shebang back in the laptop case... strung the wire to the left speaker under the light panel and monitor backlight controller. There's just one problem here... can you find it?
Yep, that's it... my solder joints are so huge after a TON of solder and electrical tape that they won't fit back in the case... There's two solutions to this problem. Take it all apart and do the soldering and taping all over again, or...
Cut up the case! I had to trim up the monitor faceplate and the hinge cover to make it work. This was also a good idea because now I won't have to risk the trim cutting the wires again. Dell could have at least rounded the sharp edges or something. So, I cut back the excess, cut back a little more for the taped connections, and rounded the corners for a more wire-friendly approach.
I used my new groomsman-gift Jeep knife for small trimmings, the saw attachment on my Swiss-Army knife (FINALLY!) for hacking big chunks off, and the textured part of the screwdriver shaft as a file to smooth things off.
Here's the bottom piece (hinge cover) in place. It fits! The wiring could be a little better yet, and I think there could still be a little more room for the wires to move around when the lid is opened and closed, so I popped it off one more time and did a few more adjustments.
What you don't see here is that when I was removing the speakers to change the tape on the wire connections, I actually pulled one out of the speaker! NOOOO!! Well, because I'm stubborn (and I feared for the next 4 hours of my life being wasted with the stupid soldering iron again) I just twisted the wires together and taped them up... somehow there was just enough slack to make the wire the same length as the others after doing this... who knows how I ended up with 1 long wire... ???
Anyways, the wire I pulled off was the one that went with ol' stubbie we saw before (which I believe goes to the right speaker). So, I'm not going to be too surprised if only the left speaker works when I'm all done
.
Anyways, this shot shows the re-cut hinge cover trim piece and the new, sleek taping job. A pretty good fit if I do say so myself.
Your computer was recently updated! You can say that again! Soon I will be gaming in true, uhh, sound! (I was going to say Stereo, but who knows what will happen after the tape mishap).
This is showing the front screen trim in place. It still bulges ever so slightly to the right of the speaker holes, but everything snapped in and looks good to me. Now for the REAL test...
And lookie here, everything works. Just as good as the day I bought it! (except for the fact that it could use a format...) Ahhh, good 'ol tinny laptop speakers. *sniff* it almost brings tears to my eyes remembering the good old days...
This is how it will look (minus the rubber caps that go over the screws) in the end. You can see a small gap that I cut away to give room for the new wires. Not too bad though!
This is just a top view. Again, you can see the little gap where I cut away for the wires. They are extremely delicate, though I'd worry about them breaking again from the lid opening and closing before I'd worry about them getting hit with anything from the part the hinge cover doesn't protect anymore.
The final product! Or Final Doom, I should say! What a classic. Cheesy music and all. I will finally have my revenge, alien scum! WITH SOUND! (you can't hear it here, but just imagine me blasting a few zombies... oh yeah)
Conclusion
This project turned out rather well. It's been a couple months since the operation, and the speakers are still running healthily. All project objectives have been met. The speakers work great, there shouldn't be any more long term friction issues from the screen hinge, the case underwent minimal alterations, and the final project cost came to about US$1.00 (for the electrical tape).
Project Overview
I bought my laptop as a study aid during the summer of 2006. I used it extensively for my religion class because of all the notes I took from my professor. Since then, it's been an extremely handy tool for doing engineering work on-the-go, and it's perfect for keeping in another part of the house for easy internet access. Unfortunately, the speakers stopped working after about a year of use, just when the warranty was up. I put up with it for years simply because I didn't have the time to fix it. Since I now had the time, I did some research and prepared for some open-case surgery.
Project Requirements
Repair speakers to proper working order
Prevent future speaker failures
Salvage as much of the original case and stock components as possible
Budget: Zero to very, very small
Procedure
First step: remove trim to reveal the speakers, wiring, and connections. This little sticker was a booger... I had "all" the screws out and the screen panel wouldn't come off! Sneaky Dell designers...
After the paneling (trim?) was all taken off, I saw that the hinges could be tightened down with a few screws... I put the screwdriver on it in this picture to show where it's at. Now my screen doesn't wobble any more. Just another side "plus" of this project. The next step here is to remove the speaker screws and keyboard so I can see where the wiring is going and find out what's causing the speakers not to work.
Actually, you can see from this picture that the speaker wires are clean cut right by the right hinge... Way to go, Dell, great design! Now I need to spend a day of my life ramifying their shortcomings... *sigh* oh well, I'm glad to have a project! Let's dig in some more...
You can see the clean cut on the wires here after I dug them out of their clips that hold them in place under the keyboard. Dumb.
Also note my scribbling on the metal part underneath where the keyboard used to be. I had to write down which wire went to which part of the speaker... you don't want noises that come from the left of the screen to play out of the right speaker! If this were to happen, it would be like strapping a buttered piece of bread to the back of a cat and dropping it... cat's always land on their feet and buttered bread always lands butter side down. Yeah, careful, don't hurt yourself. ...bad things would happen.
It's hard to see, but the bottom white wire actually has another cut in it RIGHT at the base of the black speaker casing. I don't think this is a rubbing-on-the-hinge issue, probably just a simple fatigue failure from twisting every time the screen opens. You'll find out later how annoying this really is... But for now, let's get those wires stripped.
Ah, there we go. Nice wire ends exposed.
Because of that cut I mentioned earlier, when I was stripping the wire, I managed to pull it completely off at the base of the speaker casing. Luckily it left a perfectly stripped wire stub, so a connection could still be made... however, this is not ideal for a newbie like me (you'll see that later).
Now to solder the wires together. Being married and jobless, I had to borrow a soldering iron, but I eventually found one (thanks, Dad L!). The only problem is that the solder we found was about 1/8" thick... probably used for soldering the Eiffel Tower together.
You can see here that I have two wires soldered together. I believe these wires are for the left speaker when it's all put together.
OK, get the laughing out of your system now... these are not perfect welds. As a matter of fact, they look exactly like what they're NOT supposed to look like according to the website I learned from (http://www.rog8811.com/soldering.htm). But who cares... the wires were sticking together, so it's good enough for me (or government work, either way).
2 more hours later, they're all soldered! Ok, so maybe it wasn't 2 hours, but it was at least 1, if not 1.5. These wires were so small and the solder so big and my skills and coordination so nonexistent that it just took forever. Wipe the sweat off the forehead, we're done!
The moment of truth. Hooked it up and everything works! IN STEREO! MWAHAHAHAAaaaa... man, I should do this for a living. Not a bad idea if I do say so myself!
Just a closer view of the last picture showing all the wires and where they go.
Ok, now that it works, it's time to tape up the solder joints so they don't short circuit. The wires moved around a lot due to my clumsy hands, so I hope I didn't break any of the connections :/
Put the whole shebang back in the laptop case... strung the wire to the left speaker under the light panel and monitor backlight controller. There's just one problem here... can you find it?
Yep, that's it... my solder joints are so huge after a TON of solder and electrical tape that they won't fit back in the case... There's two solutions to this problem. Take it all apart and do the soldering and taping all over again, or...
Cut up the case! I had to trim up the monitor faceplate and the hinge cover to make it work. This was also a good idea because now I won't have to risk the trim cutting the wires again. Dell could have at least rounded the sharp edges or something. So, I cut back the excess, cut back a little more for the taped connections, and rounded the corners for a more wire-friendly approach.
I used my new groomsman-gift Jeep knife for small trimmings, the saw attachment on my Swiss-Army knife (FINALLY!) for hacking big chunks off, and the textured part of the screwdriver shaft as a file to smooth things off.
Here's the bottom piece (hinge cover) in place. It fits! The wiring could be a little better yet, and I think there could still be a little more room for the wires to move around when the lid is opened and closed, so I popped it off one more time and did a few more adjustments.
What you don't see here is that when I was removing the speakers to change the tape on the wire connections, I actually pulled one out of the speaker! NOOOO!! Well, because I'm stubborn (and I feared for the next 4 hours of my life being wasted with the stupid soldering iron again) I just twisted the wires together and taped them up... somehow there was just enough slack to make the wire the same length as the others after doing this... who knows how I ended up with 1 long wire... ???
Anyways, the wire I pulled off was the one that went with ol' stubbie we saw before (which I believe goes to the right speaker). So, I'm not going to be too surprised if only the left speaker works when I'm all done
.Anyways, this shot shows the re-cut hinge cover trim piece and the new, sleek taping job. A pretty good fit if I do say so myself
.
Your computer was recently updated! You can say that again! Soon I will be gaming in true, uhh, sound! (I was going to say Stereo, but who knows what will happen after the tape mishap).
This is showing the front screen trim in place. It still bulges ever so slightly to the right of the speaker holes, but everything snapped in and looks good to me. Now for the REAL test...
And lookie here, everything works. Just as good as the day I bought it! (except for the fact that it could use a format...) Ahhh, good 'ol tinny laptop speakers.
*sniff* it almost brings tears to my eyes remembering the good old days...This is how it will look (minus the rubber caps that go over the screws) in the end. You can see a small gap that I cut away to give room for the new wires. Not too bad though!
This is just a top view. Again, you can see the little gap where I cut away for the wires. They are extremely delicate, though I'd worry about them breaking again from the lid opening and closing before I'd worry about them getting hit with anything from the part the hinge cover doesn't protect anymore.
The final product! Or Final Doom, I should say! What a classic. Cheesy music and all. I will finally have my revenge, alien scum! WITH SOUND! (you can't hear it here, but just imagine me blasting a few zombies... oh yeah)
Conclusion
This project turned out rather well. It's been a couple months since the operation, and the speakers are still running healthily. All project objectives have been met. The speakers work great, there shouldn't be any more long term friction issues from the screen hinge, the case underwent minimal alterations, and the final project cost came to about US$1.00 (for the electrical tape).