Selecting a Palm rest for Dell Latitude Laptops
The palm rest is the part of a laptop where the touchpad is. It is where you rest your palms as you work on a laptop. If the touchpad of your Dell isn't working or the palm rest is cracked or broken, you can buy a new one to replace the broken one.
What kinds of Dell palm rest touchpads can be purchased?Palm rests for Dell Latitude laptops can be purchased new or used. You can also purchase touchpads made for Dell Latitude laptops refurbished, either by the seller or by the manufacturer. Most of your choices for these Latitude laptops are in black, but you can also get touchpads in silver and also some with blue around the edge.
Can you buy Dell palm rests alone?No. At the least, palm rests are available with a touchpad. The touchpad can also include a fingerprint reader. Palm rests are also available with a keyboard as well.
How do you replace a Latitude palm rest and touchpad?Follow these directions for the Dell Latitude 3340. Other models in the series are similar but may not be exactly the same.
- Slide the latches over to unlock the Dell battery. Then lift the battery out of the laptop.
- Turn the laptop over and open it. Pry up the keyboard bezel carefully. Remove the screws. (5 x M2 x 2mm)
- After carefully lifting the keyboard, unplug the ribbon cable, and remove the keyboard.
- Close the laptop and turn it over. Remove the screws (9 x M2 x 2mm). Carefully unsnap and then remove the bottom cover.
- Remove the screws (2 x M2 x 3mm) and slide the hard drive out.
- Unplug the cable and remove the screw (1 x M2 x 3mm) and then remove the circuit board.
- Unplug and remove the speakers.
- Unplug and loosen the antenna cables.
- Unplug the cable to the fan and remove the screws (2 x M2 x 3mm). Remove the fan.
- For the LCD, remove the bracket screw and the LCD bracket (1 x M2 x 3mm). Unplug the LCD cable.
- Unplug the cables and remove the hinge screws (2 x M2.5 x 8mm). Open the screen and remove the display assembly.
- Loosen the screws, as they cannot be removed. Then loosen and remove the heartsink.
- To remove the motherboard, first remove the cable, then remove the motherboard screws (4 x M2 x 3mm), then remove the motherboard.
- What is left is the touchpad.