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In this guide I’ll explain how to take apart an Acer Aspire 5100 laptop. I’ll show how to remove and replace major laptop components such as CD/DVD drive, memory, hard drive, wireless card, cooling fan and keyboard.
In the next article I’ll explain how to remove LCD screen and replace inverter board.
First of all, make sure the laptop is turned off, the power adapter is disconnected and the battery is removed.
Both memory modules, wireless card, cooling and and hard drive can be accessed from the bottom. Remove four screws marked with red circles and loosen two screws marked with green circles. Remove both covers.
You can search for Acer Aspire 5100 spare parts here.
Removing DVD drive:
1. Remove one screw (red circle) securing the drive.
2. Push the drive from the laptop with a flathead screwdriver.
3. Pull the drive form the laptop.
Removing hard drive:
1. Pull the hard drive to the right side until it’s disconnected from the motherboard.
2. Lift up the hard drive.
If you are replacing the hard drive with a new one, you’ll have to transfer the mounting bracket to a new drive.
My laptop had a 80GB 5400RPM SATA hard drive installed. You can upgrade it to a larger and faster SATA drive.
100GB, 120GB, 160GB and 250GB SATA drives should work just fine in this laptop.
Removing laptop memory:
1. Carefully spread latches on both sides of the memory module until it pops up at a 30 degree angle.
2. Pull the memory module by the edges.
Acer Aspire 5100 has two memory slots. You can install up to 4GB RAM total. Up to 2GB memory module into each slot. You should use PC2-533 DDR2-667MHz 200pin SODIMM RAM modules.
Removing wireless card:
1. Disconnect both antenna cables. Grab the antenna cable connector with your fingers and unsnap it from the connector on the wireless card.
2. Spread latches on both sides of the wireless card same way as you did with RAM modules.
3. When the wireless card pops up at a 30 degree angle, pull it from the slot by the edges. Remove wireless card.
Removing cooling fan:
1. Remove two screws securing the fan.
2. Carefully disconnect fan cable from the motherboard.
3. Lift up and remove the fan.
My laptop had a lot of dust trapped between the fan and heatsink. This dust buildup kills normal airflow inside the cooling module and causes laptop overheating. You can blow off dust using canned air.
Here’s how you can replace thermal paste between the heatsink and CPU.
Removing laptop keyboard.
In the following steps I’ll explain how to disconnect and remove the keyboard.
1. Lift up the keyboard bezel with a flathead screwdriver as it shown on the picture below.
2. Remove keyboard bezel.
3. Remove two screws securing the keyboard.
4. Carefully lift up the keyboard, it’s still attached to the motherboard.
5. The keyboard is connected to the motherboard via a flat ribbon cable. Before you can remove the keyboard, you’ll have to unlock the connector and release the cable.
6. Carefully move the black tab about 1-2 millimeters up with your fingernails as it shown on the picture below.
DO NOT SEPARATE THIS TAB FROM THE CONNECTOR, IT HAS TO STAY ATTACHED TO THE CONNECTOR.
If you break the keyboard connector, you’ll have to replace the whole motherboard. Be careful.
7. Now you can release the cable and remove the keyboard.
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September 2nd, 2010 at 10:03 am
I have an Acer Aspire 5100 and I recently tried to do a factory restore through the Alt+F12 method and it got to about 25% and shut off. Now when I try to repeat the process, it shuts off after about 2 minutes. I can’t even re-install the OS. Replaced the thermal compound, and cleaned the fan. Battery works fine and charges, so I know the power cable works too. Any help would be greatly appreciated because I use this laptop for school. Please email me any info. Thanks.
August 18th, 2010 at 10:00 am
Great Article! Been looking for something like this for my personal laptop :]
My problem … my laptop loads the BIOS, but only SOMETIMES can it recognize that the hard disk and DVD drive are attached. Other times, it does not believe I have them connected, and returns to a blank console, and does not boot the OS. This usually happens if I jostle or move the machine … to fix this, I usually ctrl+alt+del to restart the BIOS, and try various tapping or shaking the laptop until it “sees” that I have these devices attached. Once done, I have to be very careful not to “move” the machine, for fear that it will suddenly crash.
Does this sound like a busted drive, or a busted connector cable? And if the latter, is this integrated into the motherboard? If this is so, it sounds like mother board is toasted :[ ….. anything I could do in this case?
August 3rd, 2010 at 7:22 pm
my fan is not working and i think it messed up my cpu and doesnt load up what should i do
July 29th, 2010 at 10:42 pm
hi,
i have a acer aspira 5100 but is in german lenguage, how i can change the lenguage in english without change the programs, can you help me please?
July 27th, 2010 at 10:58 pm
took the whole thing apart and put it back together. battery charges, no beep, hard drive spins, dvd spins, just the black screen whats going on?
July 27th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
do i just need a bios flash or a cmos reset im checking the ram one more time.
July 27th, 2010 at 8:50 pm
OKay, so my southbridge was wasted and i ordered a new motherboard- attached everything together and the computer turned on, fan started running, hard drive light blinked came on , dvd driver could read- but i have a blank screen…
ram is 2gb strong and should be still working well. And i dont think the monitor is bad either, seeing as it was working just fine before i replaced the mobo. so any ideas?
July 22nd, 2010 at 10:43 am
Fenton Holland,
Just transfer the face plate and mounting brackets to the new drive and plug it in. Not sure what connection you are asking about.
July 20th, 2010 at 8:25 am
I have a acer aspire 5100. It shows how to take Dvd/cd out but it doesn`t show how to replace a new one. I know it has to have a connection some where, Could you help me out here?
July 10th, 2010 at 10:54 pm
Fran,
I don’t remember what kind of slot it is but maybe it’s for WWAN card? You can use this card to get wireless service through your cell phone service provider.
July 7th, 2010 at 6:47 pm
hey in picture Nº 5 (the one showing the wifi card)… on the top left of the board (right on top of the memory slots) there’s a black cover… under that black cover there’s an empty connector (i have a 5102wlmi)…my question is… what is it for? what can I attach to it?
July 5th, 2010 at 7:25 pm
My laptop has been running pretty hot lately, so I thought I’d try cleaning out the fan, but it turned out to not be too dirty. I did notice that the vent in the back is covered with black plastic, and the fan itself doesn’t actually have an opening to blow out air into that back fan. What’s up with that?
June 23rd, 2010 at 10:09 am
cosm,
You cannot disassemble the keyboard for cleaning.
Wait for a while. If the problem will not fix itself overtime, you’ll have to replace the keyboard.
June 23rd, 2010 at 7:14 am
hi there, I have an acer 5102 wlmi, I escaped oil on the “z,x,c” buttons. I have to push the button more to work..what to do? thank you!!
June 16th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Me again. . . oh may! I didn’t notice that your site is in English, so I guess I must to repeat mi comment and questions.
My Apire 5100 runs but doesn’t recognize the mouse, the keyboard and someone said that it could be the Motherboard. Could it be possible? I’ve having my laptop since the last 4 years.
I saw at your tutorial and feel myself confidence to disassamble the keyboard but I made a mess.
The picture isn’t clear so I couldn’t define If the plug connector is complete or just the plastic part
Thank you for your help.
June 14th, 2010 at 11:24 am
i forgot my password for my Acer Aspire 5100 windows vista how do u reset your password????
how much r they in the stores
June 9th, 2010 at 11:46 pm
Hello, Thanks for the guide.
June 6th, 2010 at 4:14 am
Is it possible to let me know where the position is off the bluetooth module in Aspire 5100?
June 3rd, 2010 at 5:02 am
For Alok if possible that the fan is plug with dust or cotton like stuff, is a simple fix, just open the back cover and remove it with a dust blower can, i did mine just with a q-tip and worked just fine, good luck!
May 31st, 2010 at 6:35 am
Hi…my acer 5100 won’t boot up…it starts…goes into check disc mode and at 70% it says : “\windows\DUMP41ee.temp is cross linked on allocation unit 973303″…any ideas? Thanks.
May 30th, 2010 at 9:27 am
Hi.
My Acer 5100 laptop won’t start anymore. It was working propertly until i shut it down, then upon startup it doesn’t show anything on the screen, and it keeps going to a power on, power off cycle every 3 seconds . I opened it up and i found one of the foam thingie (covered with a metal mash) tuching one memory module. I removed both the memory modules, and now the laptop starts, it;s not restarting, but nothing comes on the screen. I’ve tried with another memory module but the same.
What can i do ?
May 24th, 2010 at 9:52 am
dear
my laptop sound have problem i think its software
its hardware problem
it say shhshshshshhshs and the laptop jamed dierctly or stop in work
what i mmake
May 5th, 2010 at 7:29 am
alok,
Did you check power settings? Maybe the laptop goes into hibernation because you are not using it?
May 4th, 2010 at 9:59 pm
hi,
i have a acer aspire 5100 laptop. my laptop was infected with some worms,so i formatted it n i installed Windows XP. But now my laptop works for some time and it automatically shuts down,even with the main power cable connected. I have also noticed the laptop to be warm/hot then normal.. Please can you help me with this issue..
thanks
April 23rd, 2010 at 9:58 am
Gianpaola Many,
It’s possible but not easy. Take a look at the following backlight replacement guide.
http://www.laptoprepair101.com/laptop/2007/12/09/replace-laptop-backlight-ccfl-lamp/
If it looks difficult, simply replace the whole LCD screen.
April 22nd, 2010 at 4:23 pm
It is possible to replace only the backligth (without having to replace all the lcd ) of my acer laptop? Where do I buy a cheap backlight (only) , My laptop is an Acer Aspire5100-5840
serie # LX AX90X 088
Thank you so much .
Gianpaola M.
April 4th, 2010 at 2:33 am
Can you please tell me where to find the CMOS battery. I have a similar laptop Acer Aspire 5650 and have bootproblems.