Need to replace speakers on M6400

Hi

I've just completed this replacement on my Dell M6400 and while it's a little difficult, requiring the removal of the palm rest it is something that your computer shop should be able to do.

First you need to locate the Dell M6400 service manual and disassemble the laptop following the instructions. You need to remove the battery, hard drives, LED panel above the keyboard, the keyboard and screen assembly. This is all covered in the service manual.

Once you have the palm rest off - note there are cables that need to be unplugged and have removed the screws that hold the palm rest in place - 4 screws from the bottom of the chassis and nine from the top - then turn the palm rest upside down.

Remove the speaker cable from the clips then remove the blown XM1 speaker box - there are four screws that hold it to the palm rest. Install the new speaker box, reinstall the speaker cable into the clips then follow the service manual to reassemble the laptop. 

Note that the reassembly order in the service manual seems to have the LED panel installed before the screen assembly is reattached - as you need to attach the wireless and display cables before the LED panel is installed the LED panel should go on towards the end of the reassembly.

Karl

Finding a new speaker box is the difficult part of the job.

Things NOT to do:

• Don't try to use speaker repair "gunk" to fix the rips in the speaker cone paper.
• Don't try to open the speaker box and replace the speakers. you won't find speakers to replace the old ones.

Based on my experiences with this and my results, save time and money and get a pair of external speakers for under $10 on ebay and you'll have better sound.