How to dismantle Acer Aspire 5534

posted in: 1. Acer | 19

In this guide I explain how to dismantle Acer Aspire 5534 series laptops.

I will dismantle the base and remove most internal parts.

STEP 1-5: Removing the hard drive, memory, DVD drive.
STEP 6-12: Removing the keyboard.
STEP 13-16: Removing the top cover assembly.
STEP 17-25: Removing the motherboard.
STEP 26-28: Removing the DC power jack.

Most likely this guide will work for some other Acer Aspire models. If this guide works for you please mention the model number in commend after the post.

STEP 1.

Turn off the computer and remove the battery.

STEP 2.

On the bottom you’ll find two covers. One is for the hard drive and another one for memory modules.

Remove screws securing both covers.

Lift up and remove both covers.

STEP 3.

When covers removed you can access the following components:
– both memory modules.
– hard drive.
– wireless card.

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

It’s necessary to remove the wireless card only if you want to remove the motherboard. I’ll leave it connected for now. I’ll remove the wireless card in the step 18.

Remove two screws securing the hard drive.

By the way, Acer Aspire 5534 can handle up to 4GB RAM maximum. Each memory slot can handle up to 2GB memory module.

STEP 4.

Slide the hard drive assembly to the left and unplug it from the connector on the motherboard.

Lift up and remove the hard drive.

My Acer Aspire 5534 had a regular 2.5″ SATA hard drive installed.

If you would like to replace or upgrade the hard drive, you can use any other large capacity 2.5″ SATA hard drive or SSD.

STEP 5.

Remove one screw securing the optical DVD drive. This screw located on the left side from the wireless card.

Pull the DVD drive from the laptop and remove it.

STEP 6.

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

STEP 7.

Push the latch into the case using a small flathead screwdriver.

At the same time lift up the keyboard a little bit.

When the keyboard is lifted up, the latch will not lock.

Do the same with all remaining latches.

STEP 8.

Lift up the top side of the keyboard and move it towards the laptop screen.

Be careful, the keyboard ribbon cable still attached to the motherboard.

STEP 9.

The keyboard ribbon connector located under the keyboard.

It’s necessary to unlock the connector in order to release the cable and remove the keyboard.

I’ll show how to unlock the connector in the following two steps.

STEP 10.

The connector has two parts: black base which is soldered to the motherboard and brown locking tab which is a moving part.

Slide the locking tab about two millimeters to the shown direction. Do not move it any further. The locking tab must stay connected to the base.

STEP 11.

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

Now you can pull the keyboard cable from the connector.

STEP 12.

Remove the keyboard.

STEP 13.

Remove all screws from the bottom.

STEP 14.

Remove seven screws securing the top cover assembly.

Disconnect the following cables from the motherboard:
1. Power button cable.
2. Speaker cable.
3. Touchpad cable.
4. Media board cable.

On the following two pictures I explain how to unlock connectors and remove cables.

The power button cable, touchpad cable and media board cable locked in a connector as it shown on the picture.

You unlock it the same way as the keyboard harness connector.

Slide the locking tab to release the cable and after that pull cable from the connector.

The speaker cable has a regular male-female type connector.

Simply unplug the mail part from the female part.

STEP 15.

Start separating the top cover assembly.

If all screws on the bottom and top cover removed correctly, there shouldn’t be any problem.

STEP 16.

The top cover assembly has been removed.

STEP 17.

Under the top cover you can access the following internal components:
– Cooling fan.
– DC jack harness.
– CMOS battery (soldered to the motherboard).
– USB board.
– Laptop motherboard.

STEP 18.

I’ll be removing the motherboard so it’s necessary to disconnect the wireless card from the slot.

Remove one screw securing the wireless card and pull it from the slot.

It’s not necessary to disconnect wireless card antenna cables. Just be careful.

STEP 19.

Remove two screws securing the motherboard.

Disconnect two shown cables.

STEP 20.

The DC jack cable connector located on the bottom side of the motherboard.

Unplug the DC jack cable from the motherboard.

STEP 21.

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

Be careful. The video cable still connected to the motherboard on the bottom side.

STEP 22.

After the motherboard removed from the base, turn it so you can access the video cable connector.

STEP 23.

Unplug video cable from the connector on the motherboard.

STEP 24.

The Acer Aspire 5534 motherboard has been removed.

STEP 25.

The cooling fan mounted to the bottom side of the motherboard.

The cooling fan is attached to the heat sink but it can removed and replaced separately.

STEP 26.

Remove one screw securing the USB board.

STEP 27.

Move the USB board aside so you can access the DC jack harness.

STEP 28.

Remove the DC jack harness.

If you would like to know how to remove the screen, check out this replacement guide. It should be pretty close to Acer Aspire 5534 laptop.


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19 Responses

  1. Gründung Schweiz

    Really good guide. I was looking for one so long because I think one of my speakers is broken.

  2. Tina Ford

    Thank you this was such a big help. My fan was going out and laptop kept overheating. Thank you again for the service you provided 🙂

  3. miguel g. .lucca

    Awsome lecture and very helpful instruction. My questions is as follows: on my laptop the power jack is loose, still work fine. Now, do I have to disassamble the laptop in order to get to the power jack or how or which is the fast and accurate way of accesing the jack to glue it or soldier ir? Maybe I don’t have to take everything off, I don’t know, please tell me an easier way of doing this, Thanking you in advance.

  4. mpaphidzi lesotho

    wow thats was awesome. thank you for the details. this is what iv always wanted. i understood evrythingthing just from a sigle read/…..

  5. Valerie Y

    how do you determine the problem associated with a white screen effect with acer aspire 5534 ? I’ve torned into this thing and have no idea what im looking for to correct this problem, thanks for your diagram parts of it was beneficial

  6. ken

    Hi yh i have the same problem as valerie, i also have a white screen problem and i have been to 3 different places for a diagnosis, all 3 places gave me 3 different answers lol…

    1) Lcd broken
    2) motherboard broken
    3)Video cable cracked.

    Which of those answers are the most likelihood cause of white screen problem?

  7. Ray

    The housing of my Aspire 5534 became separated near the right hinge, after the corner screw fell off… Now, the same corner of the lower case has broke, the dc jack wobbles… I need to follow the entire steps to fix the problem, huh? In the event I can manage to obtain the lower casing =/

  8. Georgian

    I think it appears very similar to the Acer Aspire 5538-1395.
    Going to start to disassemble it in the am when I am not so tired.
    I am hoping your great instructions apply to mine.

  9. Marky Mark

    Great demonstration here. My wife’s Acer needed a new fan, and with this guide we got it changed in a timely fashion. Thanks!

  10. Ric575

    Muy pedagogica la ilistración lo felicito, tengo una pregunta como hago para conectar el bluetooth a la placa madre…?

    Gracias

  11. Ric575

    Very pedagogical illustration I congratulate you, I have a Question How do I connect the bluetooth to the motherboard …?

    thanks

  12. Craig

    Thanks for the great instructions. I had an error “No Bootable Device Found” and realized the hard drive was not showing in the BIOS.

    After some some software troubleshooting I came to the conclusion it was hardware related and used your guide to pull out the hard drive. It was exactly as your pictures. I tested it on my desktop and it worked, so I knew it was the connector. I put it back in firmly and closed it up.

    Rebooted and it’s working now.

    Much thanks, and donation has been made.

    • IML Tech

      @ Craig,
      I’m glad to help. Thank you very much for the donation.

  13. Sidney

    I have the 5534-1121, I forgot the bios password and need to reset. I the bios battery soldered to the MB?

    • IML Tech

      @ Sidney,
      Yes, the CMOS battery is soldered to the motherboard. You can see it on the picture in the step 17 (lower left corner).
      I’m not sure if desoldering the CMOS battery will help to reset the BIOS password. Let me know if it works.

  14. Bill

    What would be the best way to replace the speakers on Acer 5534? I assume they need replacement since the right side has no sound and the left is very poor crackly sound!
    Thanks..

    • IML Tech

      @ Bill,
      First, test your laptop with headphones. Make sure they work properly. If you have the same problem with headphones this can be the audio card problem.
      The speakers attached to the top cover and you’ll have to remove it as shown in the step 16.
      You can find replacement speakers for Aspire 5534 on ebay. They are cheap.

  15. Bill

    Just wanted to say “THANK YOU” for this information! I have returned to it quite a bit and it has helped me out immensely!

  16. Bill

    @ IML Tech…
    I tested the laptop with earphones as suggested and they work fine so can I assume that it is not the audio card? I had to replace the fan recently so while I had it apart, I replaced the speakers. Put all back together again but still have the speaker problem with the right silent and the left still with the very poor crackly sound! Any suggestions? I did notice that the old speaker wire, along the longer length, had been “pinched”. Looks like when the “expert” repair guy checked out another problem, he neglected to place the wire back in it’s running channel. But again, I did replace with new speakers and the wire was run properly this time! 😉
    Thanks