How to disassemble Acer Aspire 5251/5551G/5551 series laptop

In this guide I explain how to disassemble Acer Aspire 5251/5551G/5551 series laptops.

To be precise, I’m taking apart an Acer Aspire 5251-1005. Model number NEW75.

In the following steps I’ll go through complete laptop base disassembly.

Before you start make sure the laptop is turned off.

STEP 1.

Remove laptop battery.

STEP 2.

Remove two screws securing the hard drive and memory cover.

Lift up and remove the cover.

STEP 3.

Slide the hard drive to the left to disconnect it from the motherboard.

Lift up and remove the hard drive.

My Acer Aspire 5251 laptop had a regular 2.5″ SATA hard drive installed. It can be replaced with any other large 2.5″ SATA hard drive or SSD.

You can leave the wireless card connected for now. It’s necessary to remove the wireless card only if you plan to remove the motherboard. I’ll be removing the wireless card in the step 19.

STEP 4.

Both memory slots accessible on the bottom of the laptop.

It’s not necessary to remove memory modules for the purpose of my guide so I’ll leave them connected.

By the way, Acer Aspire 5251/5551G/5551 series laptop can take up to 8GB RAM total. You can install up to 4GB RAM module into each slot.

Memory type: PC3-8500 DDR3-1066 204pin SDRAM SODIMM

STEP 5.

Remove one screw securing the optical DVD drive.

Pull DVD drive from the laptop and remove it.

STEP 6.

There is one more cover in the upper left corner.

In my laptop there was nothing under the cover.

I believe some Acer Aspire 5251/5551G/5551 laptops might have a 3G card installed under this cover.

STEP 7.

The keyboard secured by six spring loaded latches on the top.

STEP 8.

In order to unlock the keyboard you’ll have to push the latch into the case with a small screwdriver and at the same time lift up the keyboard a little bit.

STEP 9.

After all latches pushed in, you should be able to lift up the keyboard.

Turn it over and place upside down on the palmrest.

STEP 10.

Now you can access the keyboard cable connector.

You’ll have to unlock the connector and release the cable.

STEP 11.

Here’s how to unlock the keyboard connector.

Move the brown locking tab about 1-2 millimeter towards the touchpad (away from the screen).

The locking tab must stay attached to the connector base.

STEP 12.

On the following picture you see the same connector in the unlocked position.

After the connector is unlocked you can pull the cable from the connector.

STEP 13.

Remove the keyboard.

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STEP 14.

Remove all screws from the bottom of the laptop.

STEP 15.

Remove six screws securing the top cover assembly:

Disconnect:
1. Power button cable.
2. Left speaker cable.
3. Right speaker cable.
4. Touchpad cable.

You disconnect the power button cable and touchpad cable the same way you disconnected the keyboard cable.

Slide the brown locking tab about 1-2 millimeters to the shown direction.

After the connector is unlocked, pull the cable.

STEP 16.

Lift up and remove the top cover assembly.

STEP 17.

Under the top cover assembly you can get access to the following internal laptop components:
- Cooling fan.
- CMOS battery (soldered to the motherboard).
- USB board.
- Card reader board.
- DC jack harness.
- Motherboard.

STEP 18.

Disconnect four cables from the motherboard.

Remove one screw securing the motherboard.

Here’s how to unplug the video cable connector.

STEP 19.

By the way, in order to remove the motherboard it’s necessary to remove the wireless card which is located on the bottom of the laptop.

It’s not necessary to disconnect antenna cable from the wireless card. Just remove one screw securing the wireless card and pull it from the slot. You can leave it connected to the antennas, just be careful not to damage them.

STEP 20.

Lift up the right side of the motherboard and remove it from the laptop base.

STEP 21.

There is one more cable you’ll have to disconnect before removing the motherboard completely.

It’s the power jack cable which is located on the bottom side of the motherboard.

STEP 22.

Remove the motherboard from the laptop base.

STEP 23.

On the other side of the motherboard you can get access to the cooling fan.

It’s easy to replace the fan. Just remove two screw securing the fan and disconnect fan cable from the motherboard.

After that you should be able to replace the fan with a new one.

STEP 24.

The DC power jack located in the upper left corner of the laptop base.

It looks like in order to remove and replace the DC jack harness it will be necessary to lift up the left display hinge. Shouldn’t be a problem though.