Lenovo ThinkPad T500 Disassembly (Clean Cooling Fan, Remove Keyboard)

In this guide, I will explain how to disassemble the Lenovo ThinkPad T500 to remove the hard drive, DVD drive, RAM, keyboard, palm rest, wireless card, motherboard, heat sink, and cooling fan.

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Turn off your laptop. Unlock and remove the battery.
Remove the six screws from the bottom case.

Unlock the DVD drive switch.

Pull out the DVD drive.

Remove the hard drive cover.

Pull out the hard drive module.

Insert a plastic pry tool under the palm rest. Slide the pry tool to separate the palm rest from the laptop.
There is also a touchpad flex cable connected to the motherboard on the back of the palm rest. You need to disconnect the flex cable to completely remove the palm rest.

Remove the two screws securing the keyboard.

Lift the keyboard and disconnect the keyboard cable from the motherboard. You can remove the keyboard.

Remove the seven screws securing the metal plate, which is used to secure the motherboard.

Remove the metal plate.

Lift the keyboard bezel and remove it from the laptop.

Remove the screw securing the speaker and disconnect the speaker ribbon cable from the motherboard.

Remove the five screws securing the heat sink and unplug the cooling fan cable.

Remove the cooling system.

Use compressed air to clean dust from the fan and heat sink.

Use a brush to clean dust from the fan and heat sink.

Clean the old thermal grease and apply new thermal grease on the CPU and GPU.