How to take apart Acer Aspire 5820T series laptop

In this post I explain how to take apart an Acer Aspire 5820T series laptop.

I will take apart the laptop base assembly down to the motherboard.

Here are major laptop disassembly steps:
STEP 1-5: Accessing and removing laptop memory, hard drive, DVD drive.
STEP 6-12: Removing laptop keyboard.
STEP 13-18: Removing laptop top cover (palmrest) assembly.
STEP 19-23: Removing laptop motherboard.
STEP 24-25: Accessing laptop cooling fan, CMOS battery and DC power jack harness.

If you would like to replace the laptop screen, you should check this LCD replacement guide. I think it will be very similar.

Make sure the laptop is turned off before you start disassembly.

STEP 1.

Remove laptop battery.

STEP 2.

Remove eight screws securing the laptop bottom cover.

Lift up and remove the cover.

STEP 3.

Under the bottom cover you can access the following laptop components:
- both memory modules.
- CMOS battery.
- hard drive.
- wireless card.

Acer Aspire 5820T can take up to 8GB RAM maximum. You can install up to 4GB RAM module into each slot.

STEP 4.

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

Lift up and remove the hard drive from the laptop.

Acer Aspire 5820T series laptop has a regular 2.5″ SATA hard drive installed. It can be replaced with any other large capacity 2.5″ SATA hard drive or 2.5″ SATA SSD.

STEP 5.

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

Remove DVD drive from the laptop.

NOTE: the DVD drive was secured by one of the screws we removed in the step 2.

STEP 6.

You’ll find six spring loaded locks on the upper side of the keyboard.

In order to remove the keyboard you’ll have to push all locks into the laptop case and lift up the keyboard.

STEP 7.

Here’s how you do it.

Push one lock into the case with a small flathead screwdriver. At the same time lift up the keyboard a little bit.

When the keyboard lifted up it will not allow the lock to slide back into the locking position.

Do the same with all remaining locks.

STEP 8.

Lift up the upper side of the keyboard and remove it from the laptop base.

Be careful. The keyboard still connected to the motherboard.

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

STEP 9.

Now you can access the keyboard cable connector.

It’s necessary to unlock the connector and release the cable before removing the keyboard.

STEP 10.

Lift up the brown locking tab with your fingernail.

It will open up at a 90 degree angle.

The locking clip must stay attached to the white base.

STEP 11.

On this picture the same connector shown in the unlocked position.

Pull keyboard cable from the connector.

STEP 12.

Now you can remove the keyboard from the laptop.

If you are looking for a replacement keyboard for Acer Aspire 5820T series laptops you can find them here.

STEP 13.

Remove all screws from the bottom of the laptop.

STEP 14.

Remove all screws securing the top cover assembly.

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

Here’s how to disconnect the speaker cable.

It’s a regular male-female type of connector. Simply unplug the male part from the female part.

Do not pull by the wires. Disconnect it by the edges of the connector.

Disconnect three other cables the same way you disconnected the keyboard cables in steps 10-11.

Unlock the connector first by lifting up one side of the locking tab.

Pull the cable from the connector.

STEP 15.

Stat separating the top cover assembly from the laptop base cover.

STEP 16.

If the top cover doesn’t separate, use a piece of plastic (I’m using a guitar pick).

Insert it between the top cover and bottom cover and slowly move along the side.

STEP 17.

Remove the top cover assembly.

STEP 18.

On the other side of the top cover assembly you can access the following laptop components:
- Switch board.
- Both speakers.
- Power button board.
- Touchpad.

STEP 19.

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

STEP 20.

Also, unplug the DC jack connector from the motherboard.

This connector located under the bottom cover which we removed in the step  2.

STEP 21.

Remove one screw securing the motherboard.

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

Here’s how you unplug the video cable connector.

Just lift it up by the black belt attached to the connector.

STEP 22.

Start removing the motherboard from the laptop base as it shown on the following picture.

STEP 23.

Acer Aspire 5820T motherboard has been removed.

STEP 24.

On the other side of the motherboard you’ll get access to the cooling fan and CMOS battery.

By the way, in Acer Aspire 5820T series laptop the CMOS battery IS NOT soldered to the motherboard. It can be unplugged and replaced.

STEP 25.

The DC jack harness is running under the right hinge mounting bracket.

There shouldn’t be a problem to remove the DC jack harness and replace it with a new one if need.