Sony Vaio PCG-981L DVD drive Replacement

These are the parts of the laptop that you will need to know about:

Power panel: shown in photo 1.

Power panel ribbon: located on the back of the power panel. This is the white ribbon in photo 2.

Keyboard and keyboard ribbon. Ribbon is located within the red box highlighter in photo 3.

Open Laptop.

Using a Phillips screwdriver, remove power panel screw located on the left side of the laptop. See red box in photo for screw location.

To remove power panel, slide it to the right and gently lift upwards.

Gently detach power panel ribbon from the motherboard by sliding the ribbon out of plastic connector keeping it attached to power panel.

Detach keyboard ribbon cable from motherboard.

Lift top latch of plastic connection piece and ribbon cable will be able to slide out. Slide keyboard out.

Photo 3 shows the DVD drive once the power panel and keyboard tray have been removed.

Remove first screw from the DVD drive with Philips screwdriver. Refer to photo 1 for screw's location.

Remove second screw from the DVD drive with Philips screwdriver. Refer to photo for screw's location.

Gently detach ribbon cable from the DVD drive. Pull the hard part of the cable straight back from the DVD drive.

Remove DVD drive from laptop by gently sliding it out through the outside of the laptop.

Congratulations! You have just successfully removed the DVD drive. You are now ready to install new DVD drive.

Gently slide DVD drive into laptop. If the drive gets stuck while sliding in, gently push down on metal bay below DVD drive to allow DVD drive to slide over.

Reattach ribbon cable to DVD drive.

Replace both DVD drive screws. See photo for reference.

Reattach keyboard ribbon cable to motherboard. Slide ribbon cable into plastic connector and then push top down to latch. Slide keyboard back into place.

Reattach power panel ribbon cable to motherboard. Slide power panel into place.

Replace power panel side screw.

Congratulations! The installation is now complete!