Trick to removing XPS 14z base cover?

No small feat to open it up and just opened mine.

• Make sure you have plastic tools such as what you would use to open an Ipod, Zune or laptop. You can get them from Radio Shack or make some. Credit card edges help also
• Make sure you remove the SD card blank from the left side, that will prevent it from opening and or do damage
• Start from the very rear and insert the tools under the chrome trim. I had to slide my thumb nail on top of the trim to get it lose enough to then get underneath
• Get the rear totally separated by inserting multiple plastic tools and (or) credit cards
• Next, work down the left side where the SD is
• Last, I had to use two tools to get the corner by the DVD drive, it is tight so be careful and go slow!
• Once open, immediately disconnect the battery plug, just takes one errant screw landing in the wrong place and the mobo will be toast!
• No easy way to just slide the HD out, the four screws must be removed so you can lift the cage up and get the side screws out
• Hope this helps and let me know how you get on. FYI, I'm going with a Real 512SSD

Correction, the manual says to remove the battery first before removing the HD. I'm waiting on my 512GB SSD to arrive before I do it...

Hello Rexy624,

I got a question regarding the RAM. Concerning your pictures there is only one changeable module. Is the other kind of hidden or is there even a soldered 4GB on the mobo? Because I wanted to upgrade to a 8GB kit.

Thanks in advance :)

Thanks so far. I think I´ll look up when the laptop is open. Firstly I´ll insert the SSD just ordered ;) Will reply next week then, have a nice weekend.

And I just cancelled the RAM-order thanks to your input ;) stakes are too high for me ...

Got the Samsung SSD 830, size 128GB. 7.9 looks like a veritable advancement :) The Dell Chat said there are 2 banks of RAM ... I can´t really believe ... And the German site doesn´t support the 14z neither in the Supportarea nor the service-tag itself ... So I can´t chat to an employee of the hardware-section :(

What SSD did you go with? My Windows subscore for the Crucial 512GB SSD is 7.9, definitely turbos the laptop at 6Gbps! I've used a bunch of them and they've been 100% reliable-

www.crucial.com/.../partspecs.aspx

How much was that, Dell charges about $300 to upgrade to the 256gb ssd here?

Don´t know ho much Dell charges here in GER. I bought mine at amazon. 180€

Update: Gave back my 14z, because of the very loud fan and the guarantee-loss in case of opening. And so consequently cancelled my SSD-order. Will go with a ThinkPad now :) Thanks anyway for the guide, will surely help many others.

So from this I take it there are NOT two banks of memory and just 1 bank and 2gb of RAM is on board the MB, is that correct? I was hoping to change the 8gb to 16gb of DDR3 RAM!

I just so happen to have it open again, due to some SSD issues, and had a closer look at the memory. It is 4GB so there must be 4GB onboard somewhere though I don't see it, maybe on the underside toward the keyboard? You could go with an 8GB module which would give you 12gb total. I'd use the same Samsung device, but your choice and report back how it goes if you do it.

Whole new world with the SSD's dealing with TRIM, Offset, Garbage collection and power settings. Check my post #55 in this thread and I'd be curious to know of anyone having these sort of issues with the stock Samsung SSD Dell uses:

forum.crucial.com/.../6

You have to take out the battery so you can remove the hd.  Be careful of the hd cable. It short of come off and you have to tab it back down if it comes off.  I had to remove the corner tab that holds the hd.  Its a back screw on the side to remove the corner tab. Its the second last photo.  It was much harder removing the hd on this vs the XPS 15z!

The second memory dimm is underneath the keyboard. to get to it, you have to take out the optical drive, then heat sink, then flip over the board. it pretty much has to be disassembled entirely. I like that it's upgradeable, but I hate the fact that the part most people would want to upgrade is is in the hardest place to get to.