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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 9th, 2010 at 9:03 am
Shahid,
1. Unplug AC adapter and remove the battery. Wait for a few minutes, plug in the AC adapter and try turning it on again.
2. If it doesn’t help, test your AC adapter with a voltmeter. It’s possible the adapter is dead and the battery has not charge left.
3. If the adapter outputs correct voltage, there is a chance of bad DC jack (power) board.
4. If you replaced the power board but the problem still there, most likely this is motherboard failure. Not worth fixing.
December 9th, 2010 at 12:29 am
Hi… i have Acer Aspire 4520 Laptop 2 years old last till last night it was working fine i shutdown properly next morning when i tried to switch it on it didn’t only all indicators light goes on for fraction of second and goes off i can hear cpu fan runed and HDD activity for faction of second then goes off all. What do you think what would be the problem or might be due to bad power adapter board. please help me out i will be very great full to u.
Regards.
September 23rd, 2010 at 6:56 am
Well got a new power jack board for the travelmate 2480, stripped apart laptop today using your excelent guide. muchly appreciated.
End result, lossed on this one, same issue as before. blinking power adaptor when plugged in and still no power to the laptop. So yeh bugga.
Question though, is there are way of testing the power jack board itself? via multi meter etc.
Just want to make sure if there good or bad.
Thanks again
Matty
September 19th, 2010 at 7:03 pm
Hi Laptop Tech Guru,
Hope you can help me with my Acer problem.
I have an Extensa4430 that gives me no display (black screen) when powering on. The green led turns on (however it doesn’t blink or flicker like it normally should when booting), but nothing shows on the monitor. I also notice the fan turns on but off after a couple seconds it stops spinning.
I’ve tried draining the power by removing the battery and unplugging the adaptor then press and hold the power button for a mintue. Still doesn’t turn on when plugged back in (without battery).
I’ve tried messing with the RAM by using one stick at a time on different slots with no luck.
I’ve also removed the HD, with no luck on that method either.
Any ideas why? I do hope it’s not the motherboard.
September 5th, 2010 at 9:55 am
Matt,
I agree, sounds like bad power board or motherboard failure, but… you cannot test it. You’ll have to guess. I would try replacing the power board first, it’s not expensive.
Here you can find a replacement power board for Acer Travelmate 2480.
If replacing the power board doesn’t help, most likely this is motherboard failure. In this case the laptop not worth repair.
September 2nd, 2010 at 7:19 pm
G’day Champ,
Have a travelmate 2480, that dosn’t power up at all.
When pluging in the adaptor the power adaptor transformer light flashes on off on off, like its cutting in out.
when unpluged transfoformer light from yhe laptop jack it stays a solid green.
I’ve tested the power adaptor on another acer & is working fine.
So sounds like the power board in the laptop is shagged.
Question is how can you test it to see if it the power jack or powerboard itself or even the whole motherboard is the faulty part?
Cheers Matt
June 12th, 2010 at 11:58 pm
hey, im john. iam a comptech in ksa. i had a problem of acer laptop, ive olredy change the ac female power slot, but wen i turn on the laptop der is no current flow to the motherboard, is ther a fuse that attach to the powerboard to the motherboard?
April 12th, 2010 at 7:58 pm
Problem with travel mate 3690
Hi all. I got the problem the laptop doesn’t start. I appeared dead. Question: Before i opened the system, there are any way I can check if the Power board is the faulty culprit??
And if it, there are any “home” remedy for it??? i live in a Latin American zone where repair parts are difficult to obtain, even by buying outside.
Thanks in advance for your time.
April 12th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
Hello , i have an Acer Travelmate 2702WLMI too, i can use it only on ac adapter ( the battery charging process works only when the laptop it’s off .When I insert the power plug, if it was attached to the mains after several hours of inactivity, the computer turns on initially for at least 3 times for 1 second and turns off once, but usually comes on the fourth attempt.
I just want to know if there is something in the internal connector (as we all know about these defective models acer) which decreases initially in the output voltage external AC adapter, because I am sure and I hope that instead it is the adapter to have need some time to reach the correct voltage …
But the jack connector can really prevent fast switching if not yet broken? (The problem laptop resides on the motherboard). Any help is appreciated.
April 12th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
Hi
Thanks for the very detailed and excellent guide. Do you have any experience with the
Acer TravelMate Notebook 2702WLMi? I think the power jack has gone (again) and I would like to replace it. However, I cant seem to get past opening one of the back panels to expose the two fan units. I can see the power jack but it is protected by a black piece of plastic that seems to run across.
Many thanks and regards
T. Fa