Inspiron N5110 Hard Drive Placement

It's not a great design from a serviceability standpoint, for sure - but at least the service manual documents the process.  I've seen plenty of Apple and Sony systems that were worse from a hard drive access standpoint - and they don't provide service  manuals to the public.

Yes, I can chime in with DSCRAPPY.

Incidentally, even the motive for changing the HDD is down to Dell - they no longer customise the Inspirons and they give you a fast CPU, Sandy Bridge chipset and adequate RAM in combination with a lame 5400rpm HDD - whatever is the point of that?

Fine, I thought to myself, get an SSD for the system and be done with it - so now I have an obscenely expensive SSD loitering on my desk and have to take the whole machine to bits before I can get it anywhere near it.

Ridiculous.

The Inspirons - for a few years now - serve only the very bottom of the market:  they're for consumers who buy on price alone.

Well, Ejn63, there are Inspirons with i7 processors in my neck of the woods and the only thing that sets them apart from the XPS is the graphics card - but I don't quite know what you're implying anyway.

To do them justice though - I took the machine to a Dell shop and they completely disassembled it, changed the HDD and put it all back together again in about an hour and a half.  They refused to take any payment for it.

There's more to an XPS vs. Inspiron than just that.

The reason the Inspirons exist is to allow $399 computers to be sold - they're not designed for anything other than a low price.  In exchange for the low price, you make some sacrifices in design (and quality).

I agree 100% about the location of the hard drive, such a stupid design - it's not cheap - perhaps £549 is cheap to you? It's not to me.

Anybody who got here because they too cant get to thier hard drive, I video taped my (3rd) attempt, so you have some idea what's involved.............  

I agree the location of the hard drive is stupid. However, Dell provides the service manuals to public, it's not too difficult for a slightly advanced user to follow the steps and get the hard drive out.

I'm not defending Dell...

But for those who says Inspiron quality is too bad and that's why it's cheap:

I would tell them that I have an HP Pavillion laptop, after 3.5 years of purchasing it, the processor failed and it should be replaced. I contacted HP, they offered me either I send the laptop to them to replace the defective part ($450 + tax) or they send me the part abn I have to install it by myself ($330 + tax + I have to ship back my old processor). -- Both options are ridiculous ... For sure I'll not repair it !

This laptop has the hard drive located in very accessible location and it last 3.5 years only.

What I would say is that when you buy any electronic device nowadays, don't expect more than 4-5 years life maximum at the best condition - it does'nt matter you buy Dell or HP or any other brand...

So my advise when you buy a new laptop:
- don't pay a lot just to have the hard drive in an accessible location !
- Put in your mind that this laptop will serve for 4 years, and you will have to buy another one after that

Hi,

I have just purchased a DELL INSPIRON MODEL 5110 ON 6TH MAR and on 10th mar the hard disk failed.On calling the customer care they ran a diagnostic check (F12) and told will replace the hard drive.Yesterday they came and replaced the hard drive. they put toshiba hard drive instead of seagate which was already there. More over there were no CDS along with the laptop except for utilities and drivers (like the webcam cd, OS, ETC). now they ask me to install eevrything from the web. I dont understand this. what should i do? should i ask them to replace the laptop? its just 1 week old.. wheni have to install everything like MS office, anti virus, etc... id rather get it replaced. im confused.  :-((

I think you are helpless there sarahill. My 8 month laptop failed like yours 10 days back and they did put Toshiba drive in its place like yours ( They took 2 days). And I have to reinstall everything myself. In fact I am in India and i had to pay like $25 of some FEES.... and I am not very happy. I do not think you can get yours replaced. But you can try. I am for one not buying a Dell anymore. If your laptop came with CD then install from there and do Windows update, if they took everything ask them for it back.

Very useful post, thanks. However, this particular computer has the drive UNDER the motherboard. I learned this the hard way while following your video. Nothing too big, you covered the most difficult steps.

Sarahills,

What was your computer doing for you to know it was your hard drive?  

What kind of reading were you getting?

I think mine is going.

Got mind around Christmas 2011

Kattiemcd

I got my Inspirion 1525 in 2008. I just did diagnostics and got the error code 0142. I am so scared to dig into mines! I think I'd rather get a new one. I was turning my laptop and the screen would go crazy. The arrow would move by itself, and the screen would flicker. If I had opened up the browser it would close down. My windows would freeze, hang and stay there. It would then stop and go back to normal. It's been doing that for about a year.

Hi ejn63,

So which is best the 2.5 or the 9.5mm? Can I upgrade from that to a 500hard drive? If so, which number or name would that one be? Why is it called notebook? Thank you so much for taking your time to respond to my inquiries.