Legacy systems Alienware area51-m 766, 766SA0, 766SN1, 766SN3 technical service manuals

I have several of these machines and they are still runing fine.

I have looked at the Alienware FAQ's for most of the information that I have required, like changing out graphics boards, HDD upgrades, adding memory.. etc.
However, there are no instructions anywhere to replace a motherboard, video converter board, etc...

1. Is there any technical service manuals available for these machines? My assumption is that one manual will most likely cover all of the 766 series.

2. Also of help would be a tech report, manual listing parts. (What I have is a spring missing from the battery latch on the bottom of the case. I can perhaps Alien-fix one out of a pen spring, just thought it would be nice to have the tech info.)

Thanks all.

 

I recently took my 776 apart, and for the life of me I cant get the motherboard out. I got everything else out, but the mobo, is a no go. The case is so interwound into the mobo, that the only way to get the thing out would be to start hacking peaces of plastic. I have all the manuals for myn though when I bought it.

 

I know that you can take them apart since I have spare motherboards sitting in my hot little mits... I do not know how to get the top and bottom plastics apart without damaging them. I think there are hidded screws or something, not sure. it is probably an Alien-Hide-ME thing...
I noticed you said you received all the manuals with your machine. I have no manuals at all. Did you get the service manual that tells you how to remove the top and bottom and then remove the motherboard??? or removing the screen ets... Did you get the service manual.??
Like I said in the original post, I found most of the general things like replacing the video board, adding memory, replacing the processor in the Alienware Faq's section. also they have removing the dvd, wireless card, just the easy stuff under the inspection plates.
Thanks though.

 

Yes I have all the manuals. None of them give you any instuctions on removing anything though. The motherboard I havent found a way to remove it, or the processor without damaging it. What top and bottom plastics are you refering to? Everything comes off farily easy untill you get down to just the mother board and the casing around it.

 

I guess they are metal. The top consisting of a touchpad and the bottom is also metal. I can get all the inspection plates off but can not get any further. I take all the screws out of the bottom that are showing and the two halves do not come apart.

I do not want to break the machine in any way because the box case I got I'm putting together from an old machine a friend gave me who had that the graphics board go bad. I'm putting in a ati 128m board instead of the gforce. I want to disassemble it totally to replace any parts that might have been damaged when the "friend" tried to replace the keyboard. I do not know how far he went into the machine so I have to go all the way down to the inner most workings just in case there is an errant screw or the like hidding in there. Not that I'm paranoid or anything I just do not want any surprises. When I get the gforce out I'm going to try the oven fix to see if that would work. It appears that the fan is still functional as far as still turns with minimal force and is not frozen as I have seen them in the past.

The motherboards I purchased over the last several months have been coming from laptopaid and others. They are reasonable in price less than 25 clams. I have two different types. From looking at them I see no difference in layout just a different version. In my lookings I see different versions for different devices that are attached to them.
The graphics board connectors are MXM 1's which consist of 3 busses.

Sorry for the rant.

 

Usually the screws are located underneath the keyboard, on the back of the machine or behind places like the DVD drive and hard drives.