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In the following guide I will remove and replace the power board in an Acer TravelMate 3260 series laptop. Most likely my guide will work for some other Acer TravelMate laptops but I don’t know all models. If this guide fits your laptop, please mention the model number in comments after the post.
In Acer TravelMate 3260 laptop power from AC adapter goes to the motherboard through the power board. When the power board goes bad, the laptop stops working at all and appears to be dead. In order to get access and replace the power board we’ll have to disassemble the entire laptop.
STEP 1.
If you need spare parts for your Acer TravelMate 3260, you can find them here.
First of all, turn off the laptop and remove the battery.
Remove two screws securing the switch cover on the back of the laptop.
STEP 2.
Start removing the switch cover and lift it up by the hinge cover.
Continue removing the cover with your hinges.
STEP 3.
Remove the switch cover.
STEP 4.
Remove two screws securing the keyboard.
STEP 5.
Carefully lift up the keyboard from the laptop base and place it upside down on the palm rest so you can access the cable connector underneath.
STEP 6.
You have to unlock the connector before you can pull the cable and remove the keyboard.
On the picture below you see connector in the unlocked position.
Pull the cable and remove the keyboard.
The keyboard has been removed.
STEP 7.
Remove the hard drive and memory/Wi-Fi covers.
STEP 8.
Remove one screw securing the hard drive assembly.
STEP 9.
Pull the hard drive to the left and disconnect it from the motherboard.
Remove the hard drive from the laptop.
STEP 10.
Remove one screw securing the optical CD/DVD drive to the base.
Push the drive from the laptop with your finger.
Remove optical drive from the laptop.
It is not necessary to disconnect memory modules, wireless card, modem card and CMOS (RTC) battery for the purpose of my guide . You can leave them connected to the motherboard.
STEP 11.
Remove all marked screws from the bottom of the laptop.
Disconnect cables I pointed with yellow arrows.
Disconnect two antenna cables from the wireless card (green arrows).
STEP 12.
Remove one screw from the back side of the laptop.
STEP 13.
Disconnect the video cable connector.
Unroute both Wi-Fi antenna cables and pull them through the opening in the motherboard.
Remove four screws securing LCD panel hinges.
STEP 14.
Remove the LCD panel.
STEP 15.
Remove five screws securing the top cover assembly.
Disconnect the touchpad cable.
STEP 16.
Start separating the top cover assembly from the laptop base.
STEP 17.
Remove the top cover assembly.
STEP 18.
Remove two screws securing the motherboard.
STEP 19.
Start removing the motherboard from the top left corner.
Release and lift up the top right corner of the board.
Carefully pull the motherboard from the base assembly.
STEP 20.
On the picture below you see the power board attached to the motherboard.
The DC power jack and power switch are located on the power board. If the DC power jack is broken, you can repair it using this technique.
Remove two screws securing the power board.
Disconnect the power board from the motherboard.
The power board part number is printed right in the middle. It’s DA0ZR1PB6D1 (REV:D). You can find a replacement power board here.
STEP 21.
While the motherboard is removed from the base, you can clean the cooling module.
Loosen six screws securing the heat sink assembly.
Disconnect fan cable from the motherboard.
Remove the heat sink assembly and blow off dust using compressed air.
December 28th, 2012 at 8:44 am
Hehe,, I accually paid a professional to replace what i thought was just a loose dc jack. He replace the jack and the powerboard( he called it the “circut board”) and still no power. He then mailed it back to me and told me he thinks its a bad motherboard and he doens’t repeair that issue. My question to you, Is it even worth buying a motherboard, because I have spent atleast 200$ on this acer aspire 3280 and I would love to have it alive again, but is my money better off purchasing a brand new laptop with no issues at all??? I would like to fix it myself if at all possible
September 3rd, 2012 at 8:19 am
@ Lavon Tuberville,
What do you mean the power button is not connected to anything? Is it broken?
In this model the power button is soldered to the power board (as you can see in step 20). If you replace the power board, it will have new power button.
August 30th, 2012 at 10:08 am
I have Acer 3260-4542 Travelmate and the “power ON” button just stopped working. In thinking it might be the Power Board, I have just disassembled the laptop, as per your instructions. I found the power button to be just sitting in its place but not connected to anything. If I order the power board, will it come with a replacement “ON” button, and how does it attach to the power board. The existing power brd. is DAOZRiPB6EO Rev: E, If I order that # from you, will I get the same part #? If button is a separate part, how do I order it?
I’m not a comp. Tech and I just hope I can get this thing back together.
Thanks.
August 19th, 2012 at 10:41 am
@ Jon Villablanca,
Probably bad connection inside the earphone jack. Unfortunately you cannot get inside the jack.
Here’s what you can try.
Try to insert and remove the earphone plug into the jack a few times very quickly. Sometimes it helps to clean up connectors inside the jack.
August 17th, 2012 at 5:04 am
my problem was with the earphone jack, it is not working, tried to clean the connectors inside but sometimes it work and most of the time doesn’t work, any suggestions? thanks in advance.
August 3rd, 2012 at 5:56 pm
Thanks for this. It works well for Travelmate 6292
February 20th, 2012 at 2:04 pm
no power in, cpu ver¥ ho+, no signs else?
February 9th, 2012 at 12:25 pm
@ Floyd Robbins,
I believe this button is built into the power board shown in the step 20.
If the power button is failing, the easies way to fix it would be replacing the power board.
February 8th, 2012 at 4:40 pm
I have a Travelmate 3260/4542 Acer. The on of button is failng. Can that be replaced?
August 1st, 2011 at 7:13 pm
Hi there,
I have an ACER travelmate 3260 .And my problem begun while my laptop was on in battery mode then after quite sometime when I connect it to my laptop adapter to charge it It shutdowthing prematurely and there it is no power at all .Total blackout and cannot power on the sytem. Even in battery mode. It tried to test my adaptor to my other acer laptop and its working. BTW my laptop battery is brand new. And one thing I’ve noticed is that my adaptor led is blinking while connected to my dead laptop. IS it possible that the power board is the culprit?. Or is it something else?