How to disassemble Acer Aspire 5741 5741G laptop

In this guide I show how to disassemble an Acer Aspire 5741 5741G series laptop.

In this particular case I’m taking apart an Acer Aspire 5741G-6983 laptop.

I will go though the following major laptop disassembly steps:
STEP 1-7: Removing the laptop hard drive and DVD drive. Accessing RAM modules and wireless card.
STEP 8-13: Disconnecting and removing the laptop keyboard.
STEP 14-18: Removing the palmrest assembly.
STEP 19-25: Disconnecting and removing the motherboard.
STEP 26-27: Removing the cooling fan and DC power jack.

Before you start, make sure the laptop is turned off.

STEP 1.

Unlock and remove the laptop battery.

STEP 2.

Remove two screws securing the hard drive/memory/wireless card cover.

Lift up and remove the cover.

STEP 3.

Now you can access laptop hard drive, wireless card and both memory modules.

STEP 4.

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

After that lift up and remove the hard drive.

Acer Aspire 5741 5741G laptops equipped with a regular 2.5″ SATA hard drive. It can be replace with a larger capacity 2.5″ SATA hard drive or 2.5″ SATA SSD.

STEP 5.

Remove the 3G cover.

My laptop didn’t have the 3G card installed.

STEP 6.

Remove one screw securing the DVD drive.

Pull DVD drive to the left and remove it from the laptop.

STEP 7.

Both memory modules can be accessed on the bottom of the laptop.

I’ll leave both memory modules connected to the motherboard.

Acer Aspire 5741 5741G laptops use DDR3 memory. It can take up to 8GB RAM total (4GB module in each slot).

STEP 8.

There are six spring loaded latches securing the keyboard on the top.

In order to remove the keyboard it’s necessary to unlock all latches.

Push on the latch with a small screwdriver into the laptop case. At the same time lift up the keyboard a little bit so the latch doesn’t lock again.

STEP 9.

After you push all latches into the case you should be able to lift up the upper side of the keyboard as it shown on the following picture.

There are two small latches located on the left and right side of the keyboard.

While lifting up the keyboard you’ll have to apply some reasonable force to push the keyboard though the side latches.

STEP 10.

Turn the keyboard upside down and place it on the palmrest.

Now you can access the keyboard cable connector.

In the following two steps I explain how to unlock the keyboard connector and release the cable.

STEP 11.

The keyboard connector has the retainer which secures the cable inside the connector.

Carefully slide the retainer (brown piece) about 2 millimeters to the shown direction.

The retainer must remain connected to the white base.

Use your fingernails to slide the retainer and do not apply much force. It slides very easily.

STEP 12.

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

No you can pull the cable from the connector.

STEP 13.

Remove the keyboard.

If you need a new keyboard for Acer Aspire 5741 5741G laptop, it’s available here.

STEP 14.

Remove all screws from the bottom of the laptop.

STEP 15.

Remove seven screws securing the palmrest assembly.

Disconnect the following cables from the motherboard:
1. Power button board cable.
2. Touchpad cable.
3. Left speaker cable.
4. Right speaker cable.

Disconnect the power button board cable and touchpad cable using same technique as explained in the steps 11-12.

Unplug the left and right speaker cables from the connector on the motherboard.

STEP 16.

Start separating the palmrest assembly from the laptop bottom cover.

STEP 17.

Remove the palmrest assembly.

STEP 18.

On the bottom side of the palmrest assembly you can access:
1. Both speakers.
2. Touchpad.
3. Power button board.

STEP 19.

When the palmrest assembly removed you can access the following internal components:
1. DC power jack. Here’s where you can buy a new DC power jack harness for Acer Aspire 5741 5741G laptops.
2. Cooling fan. New cooling fans are available here.
3. CMOS battery. It’s soldered to the motherboard.
4. USB board.
5. Card reader.

Let’s disconnect the motherboard and remove it from the laptop.

STEP 20.

Remove one screw securing the motherboard to the bottom cover.

Disconnect the following cables from the motherboard:
1. Video cable.
2. USB board cable.
3. Card reader cable.
4. Microphone cable.

Here’s how to disconnect the video cable.

STEP 21.

In order to remove the motherboard, it’s necessary to disconnect and remove the wireless card first.

Disconnect two antenna cable from the wireless card.

STEP 22.

Remove one screw securing the wireless card.

Pull the wireless card from the slot on the motherboard.

STEP 23.

Lift up the left side of the motherboard and start removing it from the bottom case.

STEP 24.

There is one more cable to disconnect – the DC power jack cable. It’s located on the other side of the motherboard.

Unplug the DC power jack cable from the motherboard.

STEP 25.

Now you can remove the motherboard from the laptop.

Here’s the bottom cover of the laptop without the motherboard installed.

Here’s the bottom part of the motherboard where you can access the cooling module – the heatsink and fan.

STEP 26.

In order to remove the fan you’ll have to disconnect the fan cable from the motherboard and remove two screws.

After that you should be able to remove the fan.

STEP 27.

The DC power jack is mounted in close to the left display hinge.

The power jack cable is routed under the hinge.

If you want to remove and replace the DC jack harness, you’ll have to remove two screws securing the left hinge, lift up the hinge and remove the cable.

I haven’t created the LCD screen removal guide for Acer Aspire 5741 5741G laptops yet, but I think it should be very similar to the Acer Aspire 5733z and I have a guide for that.

Check out this laptop screen removal and replacement guide.