Tyler

I just shorted my motherboard because the new LCD didn't have insulation. I made two warnings (one at step 17, and the other at step 20) on the guide to ensure people check for insulation when replacing the lower LCD.

Have you tested your power supply to verify it is putting out proper voltage? Use a multimeter to do this. You will be testing for Volts DC. The post on the inside of the connector is positive (red probe), and the ring area is your negative/ground (black probe). The multimeter should display close to what is printed on the power supply.

Do you get any lights when you have the charger connected? Try removing the battery and see if it turns on. If you have and know how to use a volt meter you can check your charger to make sure it is providing the proper power. The charger should have a label that says how many volts it provides. The inside of the connector that plugs into the computer is the positive (red probe on your volt meter), and the outside is the neutral or ground (black probe on your volt meter). Switch your volt meter to DC, and the reading should be close to what is written on the charger.

You might need a new keyboard. If I remember right there are 2 screws on the bottom of the laptop that hold down the keyboard. Remove those and lift it up, and disconnect the cable.

When you boot into the installer, did you select and partition the drive from Disk Utility? You need to partition the drive and select a file system that Mac OS can use.

It looks like its a part of an assembly. Maybe eBay might have it if you search for parts. Somehow i missed that iFixit is out of stock. Thanks Dan. My link to ebay had one or two that I saw.

The power adapter is connected to the laptop, you get a light indicating it is charging or connected but nothing when you press the power button? Have you tried removing and reinserting the battery? I have had to do this on various laptop models that experience this type of issue.

It sounds like you are trying to restore the operating system from the restore cd. Is this correct? Possible cause of failure durring the OS restore could be a scratched or dirty cd, bad RAM or bad hard drive. Double check the CD that it is clean and has no scratches. To test for bad RAM and hard drive I believe there is a test inside the BIOS, which you can access by pressing the proper key right after turning on the computer. If there isn't a tool to test RAM and hard drive in the BIOS, if you have access to another computer, you can find download and burn the Ultimate Boot CD, which has a RAM (Memory) test, and hard drive test.

I have repaired a lot of these in the past, the left hinge specifically. I go to Parts-People to get the part for this repair. This model you can purchase the hinge and back panel together for about $30 + shipping. To replace, there are just a few screws holding the hinge to the base of the laptop, and I believe you only need to remove the power button cover right below the laptop. You should be able to fish out the WIFI antenna and disconnect the display cable also. The front display snaps off of the back, then you can remove the display and mount it to the new part. Its been a year or so since I have repaired one so I don't recall the specific steps on replacing it. This guide shows part of removing the display from the lid, but is missing the removal of the lid from the base. I know my answer is late, but I hope it might help you or someone else.

It could also be a video card issue if you have one with the nVidia video card. If I remember correctly, these laptops were among those that had issues.

If I remember correctly, this keyboard is backlit. Most likely the copper cable is for the backlit power. A new keyboard would need to be purchased to fix it.

Can you post a picture somewhere and the link here?

A new hard drive normally doesn't have Windows installed on it. Hopefully you have created the dell recovery dvds when you first obtained the laptop. If you don't have that you can try and download the dvd image from Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-....

If the connector on the motherboard is still attached and only the clip is broken you can try and find a new clip, or perhaps tape the keyboard in place with electrical tape.

I also broke my wire trying to use tweezers. I should have known better. I use (normally do) a spudger on one side and my fingernail on the other to gently pry these types of connectors out. I ended up buying a replacement faceplate on ebay.