How to disassemble Acer Aspire 5560 series laptop

In this post I show how to disassemble an Acer Aspire 5560 series laptop.

The full name of my laptop is Acer Aspire 5560-Sb653.

Also it has Model No. MS2319 on the bottom sticker.

Most likely this guide will fit some other Acer Aspire models. If it works for you please mention full laptop model name in comments after this post.

For the LCD screen removal and replacement procedure, check out this Acer Aspire 5560 screen replacement guide.

STEP 1.

Make sure the laptop turned off. Unplug the AC adapter.

Unlock the battery and remove it from the laptop.

STEP 2.

Remove three screws securing the hard drive and memory cover.

Lift up and remove the cover.

STEP 3.

Under the cover you’ll get access to the laptop hard drive, both memory modules and wireless card.

For the purpose of my guide it’s not necessary to remove memory modules and wireless card. I’ll leave them connected to the motherboard.

It’s necessary to remove the hard dive. Remove one screw securing the hard drive in the upper right corner.

STEP 4.

Slide the hard drive to the shown direction to disconnect it from the motherboard.

Lift up and remove the hard drive.

My Acer Aspire 5560 laptop had a regular 2.5″ SATA hard drive installed. It can be replaced with any other large capacity 2.5″ SATA hard drive or SATA SSD.

STEP 5.

The keyboard is locked by six spring loaded latches on the top.

In order to remove the keyboard it’s necessary to push all latches into the case and release the keyboard.

STEP 6.

Using a small flathead screwdriver push latches into the case and at the same time lift up the keyboard a little bit.

When the keyboard lifted up it will not allow the latch to lock.

STEP 7.

After all latches are unlocked you should be able to lift up the keyboard.

STEP 8.

Move the keyboard towards the laptop display so you can access the cable connector underneath.

Before you remove the keyboard completely, the connector has to be unlocked and keyboard cable released.

STEP 9.

Here’s how to unlock the keyboard connector.

Very carefully move the brown locking tab about 1 millimeter to the shown direction.

The keyboard cable jammed between the locking tab and white connector base.

STEP 10.

On the following picture the keyboard connector shown in the unlocked position.

Now the cable is released and you can pull it from the connector.

STEP 11.

Remove the keyboard.

If you need a new replacement keyboard for your Acer Aspire 5560 laptop, you can find it here.

STEP 12.

Remove all screws from the bottom of the laptop.

NOTE: the “yellow” screw secures the optical DVD drive. Normally, you should be able to remove this screw and pull the DVD drive from the laptop. For some reason in my laptop the DVD drive was fitted very tightly. I couldn’t pull it out. I’ll remove the DVD drive after I remove the top cover. You’ll see it in the step 17.

STEP 13.

Remove four screws securing the top cover assembly.

Disconnect the following cables:
1. Power button cable.
2. Speaker cable.
3. Touchpad cable.

Here’s how to unlock the touchpad and power button cable connectors.

Lift up the brown tab with your fingernail. It will open up at a 90 degree angle.

After the connector is unlocked you can pull the cable.

The speaker connector is a regular male-female connector. Simply unplug the connector.

STEP 14.

Now you can start separating the top cover assembly from the laptop base.

STEP 15.

If the top cover doesn’t separate, you can use a piece of soft plastic as case cracker.

Insert it between the top cover and base and wiggle a little bit, move along the side.

STEP 16.

Remove the top cover assembly.

STEP 17.

Now I was able to slide the optical DVD drive to the right side, disconnect it from the motherboard and remove from the laptop.

As I mentioned in the step 11, you should be able to pull the DVD drive without removing the top cover assembly. But in my case it was fitted very tightly and I had to remove the top cover in order to remove the DVD drive.

STEP 18.

After the top cover assembly removed, you’ll get access to the following internal parts:
- Cooling fan.
- CMOS battery (regular CR2032 3V coin battery).
- USB board.
- Motherboard.

STEP 19.

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

You should be able to unplug the DC jack cable from the motherboard after you disconnect the video cable.

In order to access and remove/replace the cooling fan it will be necessary to remove the motherboard. The cooling fan mounted on the bottom part of the motherboard.