Dell XPS15 9550 new keyboard and palm rest

Yes, there's movement in the workshop again after a prolonged break due to "other stuff" going on. This time it's not metal processing or machinery fettling.

I've had this XPS15 9550 since early 2016, so over 8 years now. At the time it was a reasonably state of the art, high spec laptop and even today it's a handy piece of kit. Originally I used it for email, Office, circuit simulations, software and CAD (Inventor mainly). I had a couple of XPS before - a 15" and a 13" and have always been very happy with them. Nowadays it's my lounge laptop, used for email, social media etc.

• i7-6700HQ, 16GB, 500GB SSD, UHD530 and GTX960M graphics
• Fragile power jack (replaced already)
• No Home key on the keyboard - surprisingly annoying
• Original battery bulged and needed to be replaced under warranty (FOC)
• Speakers attract magnetic (metallic) particles, causing distortion. The fix is fairly simply - remove the speakers and use a strong magnet to suck any particles off the surface of the speaker diaphragm. No demagnetisation of the speaker seems to result.
• Rather heavy, as I recall when I lugged it around China over the course of several years. And it doesn't get any lighter.

This model (9550) has a hoopy looking kevlar palm rest surrounding the keyboard. This was starting to look a bit grubby 18-24 months ago, so I entrusted it to The Stupid Fat Bloke to give it a bit of a cleanup. Mistake. Unfortunately, he used IPA alcohol to try to clean the palm rest. Bad move - who knew this would make the resin go sticky - and remain sticky. Yes, a royal mess.

No, it doesn't come off - and even after >18 months it still remains slightly sticky.

Next, the keys started to misbehave, presumably due to crumbs and crud getting under them. It's not a keyboard that allows you to remove the key caps safely, so I just had to stomach the mistyped characters.

Finally about a month ago I got fed up with both the sticky palm rest and the sticky keys. Ali Express offers keyboards and palm rests for these old models - presumably new old stock. Game on. 

Keyboard and palm rest - total £60 delivered. And here's the service manual What could possibly go wrong? Well for one thing, you have to COMPLETELY dismantle the machine, then rebuild it again.

Let's do it! Will it all go wrong? Will I regret this? Only time will tell...

Lid off:

Don't forget the routing of the speaker cable:

This little flex PCB seems to contain 2 microphones and a couple of white LEDs:

The Wii module and antenna connections:

Processor fan:

Graphics fan:

Heat pipes

Peel back the tape on the back of the keyboard, otherwise, can't recover the screws I need for the new one.

As you might expect, the keyboard is in a disgusting state.

As is the underside of the kevlar palm rest:

Old and new, side by side:

The (previously replaced) power socket with ferrite bead (which should be in its cage). And the lid hinge which has come away from the underside of the palm rest:

The new palm rest with power socket correctly installed:

The touchscreen cleaned up nicely:

The keyboard, touchpad etc refitted:

Mobo, fans, heatpipes etc refitted:

Battery back in. Just the bottom cover to go back on:

Ah - but does it work?

Oh yes. Well TFFT!