HomeIn this tutorial I’ll explain how to remove LCD screen and replace inverter board in an Acer Aspire 5100 laptop. This tutorial will work for many other Acer laptops with the same body.
In my previous article I was taking an Acer Aspire 5100 apart.
OK, let’s get inside the display assembly.
First of all, turn off the laptop, unplug AC adapter and remove the battery.
The screen bezel has four screws hidden under for seals. Two rubber seals on the top of the bezel and two plastic seals on the bottom.
You can remove all four screw seals with a sharp object as it shown on the picture below. Glue removed seals somewhere on the bezel so they don’t get lost.
Remove four screws found under seals.
Start remove the screen bezel with your fingers. Proceed slowly while removing the bezel.
Continue removing the screen bezel.
The bezel has been removed.
The inverter board is mounted below the LCD screen. If you are replacing the inverter board, you’ll have to separate the top cover from the LCD screen first.
Remove four screws. Two of them securing display hinges and other two securing the inverter board.
Carefully separate the display cover from the screen and access the LCD cable connector.
You’ll have to unplug the LCD cable from the screen.
First, unglue the clear sticky tape securing the connection.
Second, unplug the LCD cable from the connector on the screen.
Now you can access the inverter board witch is still connected to the laptop by cables on both sides.
Carefully unplug cables from both sides of the inverter board.
Remove the screen inverter board and replace it with a new inverter.
Here’s how you can remove the LCD screen.
Simply remove four screws securing the LCD screen to the display hinge. Remove four more screws from the other side of the screen.
Now you can remove and replace the LCD screen with a new LCD screen.
Static electricity can kill your laptop. I recommend wearing an anti-static wrist strap while working with internal parts of your laptop.
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January 13th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
christian,
Yes, these wires are connected to the backlight lamp inside the screen.
No, you cannot. At least it didn’t work for me. I tried it on a few good working laptops and it didn’t work for me.
The only good and reliable way would either replacing the inverter board with a good test board or plug in another working backlight lamp.
I’m testing backlight failures with a known good backlight lamp. I simply unplug two cables from the right side of the inverter and plug in my test backlight instead.
January 13th, 2009 at 2:48 am
Can I check if my inverter board for my Acer aspire 1694wlmi is working correctly?
I have seen two wires coming out from the right part of the inverter board one white and one pink wire. Are these wires connected to the backlight of my laptop? Could I measure the voltage between these wires to see if the inverter board is working correctly and what voltage should I read with a multimeter?
January 11th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
Vue,
You can buy a new screen on ebay for less than $70. I linked to the LCD screens in the pos (above the last picture).
January 11th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Rob N,
So, you replaced LCD inverter and backlight lamp but still experiencing the same problem? Apparently there is something wrong with the motherboard/video card.
January 11th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Christian,
Sounds like a problem with the iverter board. I would definately try replacing the ivnerter board first. If a new inverter doesn’t fix the problem, the next part to blame would be the backlight lamp. The backlight lamp is mounted inside the LCD screen and is very hard to replace. From my experience, inverter failures are more common than backlight failures.
Why not? If you can find a cheap inverter and replace it yourself you have very good cahnces to fix it.
January 11th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Thank you, for the directions on how to take it apart, but i was wondering…since I don’t know much about what kind of laptop screen brand i should get to replace it with…and it’s a Aspire 5100, so if you can give some sites on where to grab these tools to replace the items would be nice.
Thanks.
January 10th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Acer aspire 5610 got water spashed into the video port area. Screen went blank but machine recovered ok. I can see the screen with sunlight or flashlight. I replaced the lcd inverter and backlight bulb. Running an external monitor works just fine. Any ideas? Thanks a lot.
January 10th, 2009 at 2:12 am
I need help regarding my computer.
When I start up my Acer Aspire 1694WLMI I could see the Acer logo on the laptop. But after a while the screen turns black. If I tilt my screen I could see some pictures with say an intensity of a few percentages (very hard to see). But the s-video connected to my TV works perfect. I have also tried to adjust the picture by pressing FN+arrow and FN+F5 but with no picture on the laptop? I have also connected an external monitor but this only shows a picture lasting a second after I have pressed Fn+F5. There after it is black. The only thing that works is the screen on the TV connected to the s-video out! I have tested the above with my battery disconnected.
What is the problem is it the laptop screen or inverter etc? The laptop screen looks normal at start up the first seconds or so then it is totally black.
How to fix this problem?
How much does it cost to fix this problem by Acer
service or my self?
Is it worth fixing the problem (the laptop is 5 years old)?
How to get spare parts if necessary?
I would appreciate a fast response and a detailed answer.
Chris
January 7th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Have an Acer 3680-2249 with a cracked screen.
Your site was very helpful with very detailed pictures to assist me in replacing the screen.
It took me only 15 mins to replace the screen
January 6th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Charnelle,
You mentioned at least different problems with your laptop:
1. Mouse pad stopped working.
2. Laptop will not start.
3. Blank screen with lines.
4. Making loud noise.
Could be anything: bad motherboard, defective LCD, bad fan and hard drive, etc… I cannot tell you what is wrong without looking at the laptop. There are too many different things going on at the same time.
January 6th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Michelle,
.
If I understand correctly the LCD screen is broken. Will it light up at all when you turn on the laptop? If it does, the inverter works properly. All you need is a new screen.
January 6th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Steve,
Could be bad memory module and poor connection between the memory module and motherboard.
Try reconnecting memory. If you have two modules installed test the laptop with each memory module separately. Install memory one by one in each slot and test.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
I have an Acer 5100. One day (after my 14 year old had it) the screen came up looking as if it had been smashed. I’ve been using my laptop by connecting it to a stand alone monitor. How can I tell if I have to replace something else other than the monitor? How do I know if I need to replace the inverter board?
January 6th, 2009 at 7:25 am
Hello Laptop tech,
I am working on an acer 5100 for a friend. It appears to not boot at all. Power LED is on, fan is on, hard drive light flashes for a few seconds but does not come on after, and the display stays black. Also, pressing the caps lock or num lock keys don’t cause the LED’s to illuminate. I fear this is a CPU issue, but am not sure how to test this. I removed the bottom covers and cleaned a fair amount of dust from the fan, vents, and heat sink. Afterwords, the laptop powered up and was working, but quit after it was given back to the owner. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
January 5th, 2009 at 5:04 am
Hi, I got my husband an Acer 2 years ago. About a year ago the mouse pad stopped working. My husband was skeptical and didn’t want me to try and fix it so he got a wired mouse. We recently the computer started acting funny. Not wanting to come on, etc. Well 3 days ago I was online and they screen just went blank then all these lines came up on it. I shut it off and it wouldn’t come on. I removed the battery and teh lights came on but then it started making a loud noise. After that i removed the battery again and it worked fine. Once we cut it off it comes on but the screen is blank now. What could this possibly be?
January 5th, 2009 at 4:20 am
Does anyone know what the little switch right to the cable connector on the mainboard is for?
thanks
vince
January 3rd, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Don H,
It’s hard to tell without testing the laptop with another known good inverter board and you’ll have to guess. From my experience, inverter board failures are more common than backlight lamp failures. It’s way easier to replace the inverter board than backlight lamp.
I would try replacing the inverter board first.
Also, check the lid close switch. Make sure it’s not stuck inside the case. When the switch is pressed down, the laptop “thinks” the display is closes and there is no power coming to the inverter/backlight.
I guess you can find the part number somewhere on the inverter board. Access the inverter and google any number strings you can find on it. I don’t know the exact part number.
January 3rd, 2009 at 6:01 am
Dear Laptop Tech,
I have an Acer 5100 that works fine attached to a standalone monitor but the primary LCD does not work. When I boot I see faint lighting of the screen and I can also see (faintly) the irritating Windows messages from the system tray. I’d like to fix it and am guessing Inverter or LCD, can you make any recommendation about what to fix first?
Also, is there a place to find the exact part numbers for those items? The machine is an Acer Aspire 5100 manufactured in December 2006.
Thanks so much,
Don H
December 28th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Tracey Cyr,
That’s a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) error.
I think in your case that could be a memory related problem. Apparently one of the memory modules went south and because of that the laptop will not turn on.
Here’s what you can try.
Most likely you have two memory modules installed into your laptop. Both modules can be accessed from the bottom of the laptop as you can see in this tutorial I posted before: Taking apart Acer Aspire 5100 laptop.
Try removing memory modules one by one and test the laptop with each module separately. If the laptop starts fine with one module but not with the other, the second one is bad.
You can run the laptop with one working module until you find a replacement for the second one.
December 28th, 2008 at 11:18 am
I own a Acer Aspire 5100. What happened was my daughter was on Google looking at pictures,When she clicked on a certain picture the screen turned all blue then diffrent writting came on. So she turned off the computer and on again, It seemed that she had gotten a virus.
The screen no longer wants to come on, but the power light, lights on,the fan works,you can hear the cd reading but no picture. what happened? and what do i need to fix to correct this? Can you help?
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:33 pm
Paula Roberts,
Sounds like a bad screen. I’m 99% sure it’s not related to the inverter board.
December 22nd, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Hello -
I am experience problems with my Acer Aspire 5004 laptop screen. I get a vertical line in the display. Everything above the line is very clear. Everything below the line is lighter and eventually fades out. If I press the back of the screen through the cover, the screen comes out brighter (but still faded) and eventually needs to be manipulated again. There are no visible cracks in the glass or in the computer housing. How can I tell if this is a screen or inverter problem (or some other problem)?
Thank you!
December 18th, 2008 at 7:35 am
More info on my Aspire 5100 and the display that does not come up. I found that the probem does not occur if it is started up on the battery only with the AC disconnected. Also, I got this computer two Decembers ago and a similar problem occured in that the mouse and keyboard would not respond. That happened about September. Acer replaced the main board in December. This new problem started around September also. Both times the problem got progressively worse. I don’t know if the keyboard would have worked if I had powered the computer up on battery only.
December 17th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
I have an Acer Aspire 5100. Occasionally, when turning it on the display comes up white and gray with a somewhat cloth looking pattern. Turning it off and the display does not come up or comes up normal. More often, when turning it on, the display just doesn’t come back even after repeated tries. If held up near bright light, there is no sign of anything so I don’t think it is the backlight. I wait until later and it works. The display never stops working once it is up and running. The no display is only at startup. If an external monitor is connected, it always works. Last Monday, during startup, only the external monitor was working until the click on user’s name screen came up when the display came on. This happened Tuesday morning again but Tuesday night the connection of the external monitor did not cause the display to come on at that point. With no external monitor, if the display is dead at power up it will stay dead. It has been suggest that I could have a probem in the BIOS.
December 6th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Bill Heumann,
Sounds like a problem with the screen, not the inverter.
December 6th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Thanks a lot for the great information! I have 2 Aspire 5100’s and am making one good one from the 2. Can you help me locate a problem with my screen? It used to have one verticle line on the right side. Then it started going blank. I could wiggle it and it would work. Now all I see is bands of vertical lines. I am wondering if the problem is with the screen or the inverter?
Thanks again for your work.
Bill Heumann
December 3rd, 2008 at 5:31 am
Thanks, your guide was more than helpful. I’ll tell everyone about your site!!!
Merry Christmas 2008
December 1st, 2008 at 3:14 am
Hi!
Your guide helped me fix my LCD, thx very much!
Does anyone know if one can get this silly LCD cable somewhere? Rest is ok, only this cable has a loose contact.
Greets
Mentok
November 27th, 2008 at 12:38 am
Hiya,
just wondered if you know the connector type connecting the screen to the motherboard? want to extend the screen, but not sure what type the connector is at the end of the ffc…
thanks
Huw
November 24th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Hi, i have to relace my laptop´s screen and I need help for that. I bought the screen and i have to put it but i think i need more details like if is to much complicated or delicated and how can connect the cables etc.
I need your help.
Thanks a lot