Lenovo ThinkPad X131e Disassembly

ID: 147185

Description: There is a lack of disassembly guides online...

Steps:

1. Remove external battery by unlocking the safety latches near the external battery
2. Move the safety latches from the "Locked" to "Unlocked"

3. Remove the two 7 mm Phillips 1 screws from the top left and right corners.
4. Two 7mm Phillips #1 screws
5. Unscrew the 3 captive screws (they will NOT come out, once they unscrew and "click," they are out of their socket)

6. Insert a plastic spudger and pry up the bottom cover from the laptop.

7. Here you can access RAM, HDD, WiFi and WiFi modules.
8. Remove the two 6 mm Phillips #1 screws holding down the HDD Cage
9. Then pull the HDD plastic pull tab at a slight angle to unseat the HDD from the computer.

10. Insert a plastic spudger underneath the antenna cable connections.
11. Be careful and make sure to pry up evenly as the connector is small and fragile. It will pop out with relatively small effort if prying at the correct angle.
12. Remove the two 4 mm Phillips #1 screws and then pull out the WiFi modules.

13. Remove the four 9 mm Phillips #1 screws that are holding down the keyboard.

14. Press both hands down firmly on the keyboard and slide forward to unseat the keyboard.
15. Next lift and slightly pull out the keyboard.
16. Be careful when lifting the keyboard as there are two ribbon cables attached to the main laptop which can tear easily.

17. Unlatch the ribbon cables' retaining flap with a plastic spudger.
18. Note: When reattaching the ribbon cables, they don't slide "in" to their connector, they lay on the pins, and what holds them down is their retaining flap.
19. Make sure the pins are aligned with the ribbon cable when securing the retaining flap.

20. Unscrew the three 5 mm Phillips #1 screws that are holding down the top cover.

21. Use a plastic spudger to lift the lap on the trackpad's ribbon cable.
22. Then carefully pull out the ribbon cable.

23. With your fingers, grip the other exposed cable and carefully pull out horizontally to disconnect the connection.

24. Insert a plastic spudger in between the top cover and frame of the laptop. Start prying, making your way around the whole laptop.
25. Remember to make sure the two 7 mm screws from Step #2 have been removed or else the top cover will not come off.

26. Disconnect the speaker wire from the motherboard with your fingers or tweezers.

27. Remove the four 6 mm Phillips #1 screws holding down the speakers near the bottom of the case.
28. Pull out the two speakers and their wiring carefully.

29. Remove the five 4 mm Phillips #1 screws.
30. These can be identified by a small white arrow pointing towards their socket.
31. Remove the two 6 mm Phillips #1 screws near the middle of the board.

32. Disconnect the safety latch near the bottom right with a plastic spudger and carefully remove the ribbon cable.

33. Insert a plastic spudger to remove the safety latch of the top middle ribbon cable, then disconnect the ribbon cable.
34. when the ribbon cable meets the fold, carefully peel the cable off as there is some adhesive holding it down in place.

35. Disconnect the last visible cable by pushing it horizontally out with a plastic spudger.

36. Remove the small boards on the top left and right of the laptop with either your hands or tweezers.

37. Peel off from the right of the sticker, there will be a black plastic pull tab that is there.
38. With your fingers, grip and pull the tab up vertically, with some force, the connector will disconnect.

39. Insert plastic spudger from the left and slightly raise the motherboard.
40. There are plastic pegs on the left side of the motherboard, insert another pry tool or a finger underneath from the right side of the motherboard and lift "up" a bit to free the motherboard from the pegs.
41. After that, you can pull the motherboard away by pulling to the left.

42. Flip the motherboard to its other side.
43. Then pull out the charging cable by holding it with your fingers and "wiggling" it out.
44. The motherboard is now free.

45. Grab the black and blue antenna cables carefully pull them out of their path until they're no longer held down.

46. Do the same thing with the gray and red antenna cables.

47. Grab and remove the last cable from its place.

48. Remove the four 6 mm Phillips #1 screws from the hinges.
49. The display will now be free.
50. Note: If you noticed any screws attached to my hinges, those are there because my computer's frame is broken, and I didn't want to lose the threading for the screws. If your frame isn't broken, then there won't be any screws left on the hinges.

51. The charging port is held down with pressure
52. Stick a plastic spudger on the bottom port of the charging port and pry up to remove the port.

53. Now that the display is free, insert a thin metal prying tool like tweezers or a needle to pry off the plastic screw covers in the four corners.

54. Now insert a plastic spudger between the top of the assembly and the bezel and start prying.
55. Make your way around the bezel. You can also pry from the other side of the bezel by the screen with your finger to make it easier.

56. Keep prying until the bezel is free.

57. Remove the four 4 mm silver screws holding down the LCD panel.

58. Lift and remove the silver shielded wire connected to the LCD panel out of the way.

59. Use a plastic prying tool near the edge of the panel where the silver screws once were to lift up the LCD panel.
60. The LCD panel is now free.

61. Remove the two 6 mm screws holding down the two hinge assemblies.
62. The hinges are no longer secured to the frame and can be lifted away.

63. The webcam and microphone are both attached to a silver shielded cable.
64. The webcam assembly can be lifted away.
65. There is black tape over the microphone that can be peeled off by tweezers, and then the microphones can be lifted away too.

66. Peel away the black cloth tape covering the microphone Printed Circuit Board (PCB)
67. The microphone's PCB is glued down. Insert a plastic spudger from the left and make your way to the right to slowly release the microphone's PCB.
68. With that, the microphone along with the webcam are now free.

69. Farther down the same shielded cable, there is more black cloth tape.
70. Peel it away with some pliers.

71. Because the small PCB is glued down with adhesive, insert a plastic spudger from the left, underneath the shielded cable, to pry it away.

72. Carefully peel away the rest of the shielded cable.
73. Make sure to remove the cable from its cable routing carefully when you get to the bottom.
74. The cable is now free.

75. Lift the cable shielding covering the cable routing for the WiFi and cellular antennas.
76. Start removing the cable's from their routing slots.

77. Keep removing until you get to the top two black PCB's that the cables are attached to the frame.

78. Insert a plastic spudger between the the PCB and the frame, and carefully pry up.
79. The PCB should lift with relatively little effort.
80. Now do the same with the other PCB.

81. Peel away the PCB's and their attached copper tape carefully.
82. Please see the next step if the silver shielding is peeling away with the copper tape.

83. If the Silver Shielding starts to peel away with the copper tape, then insert a plastic pry tool from the bottom (other side) and start peeling from there.
84. Now the silver shielding won't get damaged.

85. Repeat steps 40-44 on the other side with the other antenna cable.

86. The laptop is now fully disassembled. Thanks for reading my guide!