Toshiba Laptop
Toshiba Portégé Z30-A Disassembly
In this guide, I will explain how to disassemble the Toshiba Portégé Z30-A to remove the battery, SSD, keyboard, wireless card, RAM, heat sink, cooling fan, speakers, and motherboard.
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Remove all screws from the bottom cover.
There is a rubber pad at each of the four corners on the bottom cover. Remove the rubber pads and then remove the screws underneath.
Insert a plastic pry tool near the hinge, then slide the tool to separate the bottom cover from the laptop.
The Toshiba Portégé Z30-A bottom case was removed.
Now you can get access to the battery, wireless card, RAM, SSD, DC jack, speakers, heat sink, cooling fan, and motherboard.
Remove the four screws securing the battery, disconnect the battery connector from the motherboard, and you can remove the battery.
The Toshiba Portégé Z30-A comes with a 14.8V, 52Wh Li-ion battery.
Use your nails to separate the clips on both sides of the memory module, and the memory module will pop out automatically. This laptop has two memory slots with two memory modules installed. If you need to upgrade the memory, you will need to replace the existing memory modules.
It has two Samsung 4GB PC3L-12800S 1600MHz RAM modules, and the Toshiba part number is G4BC000207S0.
Remove the two screws securing the SSD, and take it away from its slot.
The Toshiba Portégé Z30-A comes with a Toshiba 256GB SSD.
Disconnect the two antenna cables, remove the screw securing the wireless card, and you can remove the wireless card.
The laptop comes with an Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 wireless card with Bluetooth 4.0.
Remove the two screws securing the heat sink.
Remove the two screws securing the cooling fan and unplug the fan cable. Now, the heat sink and cooling fan can be removed.
Toshiba Portégé Z30-A heat sink and cooling fan
In the next step, we will remove the motherboard.
Disconnect all cables connecting to the motherboard and remove the screws securing the motherboard.
Lift the motherboard with one hand from one side and wiggle it until it completely detaches from the laptop.
The back of the motherboard
The processor of the Toshiba Portégé Z30-A is soldered directly onto the motherboard, so the processor cannot be upgraded or replaced.
Toshiba Portégé Z30-A internal parts
Very GOOD!
Many thanks
Merci
Hi David,
Got a hint for this website regarding a Z30 Satellite.
Many thanks for your work and good documentation + pictures!
Keep on working, M
Hi
A brilliant and crystal clear tear-down. Incredibly useful. Ten out of ten.
One question. My Z30 is still under warranty, and I might be tempted to upgrade some parts, especially the SSD.
Are there any obvious security/tamper features on the laptop that might indicate I’d opened the case and swapped out the SSD, thus allowing Toshiba to tell me my warranty was invalid?
It would be really helpful to know. Thanks.
Hello, have you been able to upgrade the SSD?
I want to do the same (with a Samsung 500GB).
Did you have any issues?
kr.
Yes, the SSD can be upgraded.
MANY THANKS
Hi,
Fantastic guide. The photography skills are also quite impressive.
If I only want to change the keyboard (I want to change a Scandinavian keyboard to a US keyboard), do I have to disassemble the entire laptop, or is it possible to replace the keyboard without removing the back covers?
Thanks
Bryan
Hi Bryan,
It’s very hard to change the keyboard because it is glued with adhesive on almost all the surfaces of the keyboard.
I am an informatician, and we did this operation last month to replace the Azerty keyboard with a QWERTY keyboard.
We have been lucky to succeed, but there is still a part of this keyboard.
We used super-glue to attach the new keyboard because when we removed the keyboard, some adhesive detached and couldn’t be reused.
You need four hands to do this.
Best regards
Paul (Fr)
Hi,
Thanks for your answer. What a crazy system for replacing the keyboard!
Sincerely,
Bryan
Hi,
Just a quick question. Was it necessary to remove the back cover of the laptop to replace the keyboard, or did you just remove it from the top?
Thanks
Bryan
Hi,
It is necessary to remove the back cover to replace the keyboard since it is connected to the motherboard (2 cables you can see at the top of the battery near the screw on the left)
Regards
Correction
There is still a little part of this new keyboard unattached.
Hello, David, this guide has helped a lot, but I need to figure out something, and I don’t want to break it, so I thought you might have an answer:
I need to replace the back cover of the LCD. I opened it up and removed everything, including the screen, but I cannot seem to reach the hinges, as they are covered in plastic.
Any clues on how to remove those?
I’d like to know this too.
Has anyone done this?
I need to reset the BIOS.
Can I upgrade it to 32GB RAM and 1TB SSD?
As far as I know, the laptop supports up to 16GB of RAM but not 32GB. You can upgrade the SSD to 1TB.
Hello, I would like to replace a speaker set. Do you know the exact name of the spare part? How is the procedure? Thank you in advance. This website is so helpful.
Hi, I do not know the part number, but I found the speaker is available on eBay.com.
Really? There are loads of different ones. I’m a bit confused. Is any speaker set for a Toshiba Portégé Z30-A? Or is there a specific speaker set for a laptop with a specific part number? Thank you so much.
According to my experience, the Toshiba Portégé Z30-A series laptops should use the same speaker.
Thank you very much for helping me.
And you have clean hands and nails, which is rare in these kinds of guides/videos.
Thanks for this.
Hi, I need to reset the BIOS by removing the CMOS battery. Is it the yellow enclosure item next to the main battery?
Hi, everyone,
I tried to replace my Z30’s keyboard today, and I must say that the adhesive was so strong that I damaged the old one. The new keyboard needs some new adhesive to stick down to the base. I tried to find one on eBay, but it is far too expensive and not worth it.
I decided to buy some thin double-sided adhesive film and put it where needed.
Will send updates on how it went as soon as I complete the installation.
Hello
I’d have a used Z30 with some missing screws on the bottom cover. Does anyone know what the correct size is to look for a replacement?
Where is the CMOS battery? Thanks