I just got the exact same Wireless N card as you and I’m having troubles getting it to work. Not sure if I downloaded the wrong driver or have the wires hooked up wrong or WHAT I didn’t do.

Any help would be appreciable.

First @Dom, @Aaron – thanks for the useful info!

Now, with Aaron’s permission, I’d like to reveal a few minor tips based on my own experience of taking my 1520 apart, following Aaron’s above tutorial, so that others with same concerns might find the job easier.

- first those cables in black plastic stuck in the upper left corner at the back of comp, as Dom suggested, it was actually VERY easy to weasel them out of there.
Please observe first that each cable in the black plastic are further secured in a transparent plastic cap, holding the transparent cap, pull each cable out of the black plastic cover with care.
Do NOT attempt to remove the black plastic itself, as it is stuck in the corner and is very helpful to reposition those cables back in when have finished the whole job.
Then, remove each transparent plastic cab from each cable so they can fit through the whole when lifting the display assembly.

- speaking of display assembly, I first found it very difficult to remove the webcam/microphone connector (it’s the white connector in the middle just above the keybord, as shown in picture 16, top to bottom, above)
Well, at first i tried grasping it with my fingers, and i almost broke them. Then i thought of using some narrow pliers, that in fact is a very BAD idea, as those could slip from the white plastic connector and damage the tiny fragile wires attached into it.
So what I did was take a slotted-tipped screwdriver (not phillips) and first put the tip on the right side between the connector and its holder, in the small gap, while propping the screwdriver rod (1cm from the tip) on the plastic support to the right, and SLOWLY pushed the screwdriver handle down so the right side of the connector slowly lifted a bit up, but not completely, then repeated on the left of the connector and there it was – completely out of its holder and no damaged wires!
Again, refer to picture 16 above.

- the above step was pretty much repeated when I disconnected the touchpad connector before removing the entire palm rest (i see there’s no picture showing it above, but as Aaron mentions there is a touchpad cable coming from the palm rest which connects into the motherboard, and if you need to detach the palm rest completely, as i did, that cable must necessarily be disconnected from the motherboard.)

That’s just about all. To let people know, that way i managed to get to the CPU assembly, cleaned the dust out the fan, and applied arctic silver 5 thermal paste on the CPU – the results are bewildering: before this it idled at 55C, now it’s 42-43C, truly worth it.

All i need now is to get a right size star screwdriver to do the same for the GPU (it idles now at 57C, so improvements on that are much needed)

Good luck all.

20 mins and all sorted – silence finally!

bbbobbbo:
I had the same – 4 extra wires pushed under black tape in the corner – I just pulled them out – they weren’t hard to get out… just make sure you make a note of which wires are connected to your wireless card – they all have the same connector.

If you’re pretty sure that you won’t ever get a WWAN card, and you can’t figure out how to get the wires out, I guess you could always just cut them off. (But you better be sure that you and I are talking about the same wires! Not my fault if you cut something important. )

Sorry that I can’t be of more help!

I have an inspiron 1520 and have been struggling for weeks to take it apart in order to apply some arctic silver 5 on processor to keep things a little cooler.

However, i always give up whenever i get to those 3 wires for the WWAN at the back of the computer, the ones you mentioned were for the cellular card which you didnt have.

Well mine are also kinda stuck in the corner, and all 3 are tied in a sort of black tape, or the like. How did you get those out?
May it be that i also dont have the card and they’re just put aside in that black tape, so i neednt unplug them (since they’re not plugged in the card anyway), but rather carefully maneuver them out from their corner?

if i solve this one out, path is then clear all the way down to CPU/GPU assemblies.

Thank you a lot (and sorry for my wordiness)

You saved me a lot of grey hairs :p

Thanks a lot!

Regarding Lara’s comment, I think I hear some noise from the speakers too, but it’s a lot less annoying than the noise from the headphones was. As Aaron says, I think it’s a connection, probably some more metallic tabs touching the speakers.

Great guide, thanks a lot man.