A look Inside

To get inside the Dell Inspiron 15 3000 requires a bit of effort, but is still relatively straightforward. Start by removing the battery and the single screw that holds the optical drive in place. With the screw removed, you can then slide the drive out via a small opening in the battery compartment.

For those wanting a more in-depth guide for disassembly, here is the PDF ofDell's service manual for this model.


Next, you will need to remove the keyboard, which requires releasing five tabs along the top. While not difficult, it will require a bit of patience. Once the five tabs have been released, you can pull the keyboard away from the trackpad to release the remaining tabs. Before pulling the keyboard away, make sure to disconnect the cable gently. At this point, you can disconnect the optical drive cable and remove the five M2L5 screws.


With those screws removed, you can now flip the system over and remove the remaining screws on the backside. Do not forget the screws in the battery compartment and the three along the edge in the optical drive bay. With all screws removed, you need to pull the plastic bottom off gently. The biggest issue is getting it started. However, once it beings to pull free, it should be rather easy. Just take your time and go slow. It's also worth noting the hinge in the top left as the plastic will sometimes catch on said hinge; again, patience is key. Take a breath and gently work the shell loose. With that done, you can now upgrade your storage or system memory.


The Inspiron 15 3576 I have here comes with a 1 TB Toshiba 5400 RPM HDD and single 8 GB DDR4 SODIMM from Kingston rated at 2400 MHz.


To make the system more usable, I took the liberty of upgrading the 1 TB 5400 RPM HDD to an SP Ace A55 256 GB TLC SATA III SSD. Normally, I would have gone with an M.2 drive; however, this particular system does not have an M.2 slot. To facilitate the installation of Windows 10 since the system has yet to be turned on, I used Macrium Reflect to clone the original OS on the HDD to the SSD without issue.