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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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August 14th, 2009 at 8:16 am
Hi. great-site.
I was wondering if you have any experience of ACER ASPIRE 9301AWSMI? Mine has recently stopped driving the external display. I have obviously tried all the software configs to make sure nothing has messed up, and they all seem fine. The laptop appears to think the monitor is there when it is plugged in, but the monitor is not actually being driven (it’s fine when tested with another PC).
So, I would like to open things up to see if there are any bits that can be replaced, or at least removed for inspection. i know the VGA connector has some play in it, so I’m wondering if something could have come loose.
There are numerous screws underneath but I’m a little anxious about just undoing everything.
If you could advise that would be most welcome.
Thanks, Martin.
August 14th, 2009 at 4:27 am
Hi Laptop Tech,
Do we have to donate money in order to get an opinion? (See post #340, July 29)
Thanks,
Sean
August 13th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
First of all thanks for the site. Much valuable info!!
I’ve got an Acer 5050 with a bad power jack. I’ve seen tutorials on replacing a jack in general, but nothing for the 5050. The lappy was dropped on its side part of the jack was broken off. I’m more than ready to replace it, but none of the tutorial jacks look like mine. Any suggenstions…
August 13th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
wallis,
Could be memory failure. Do you have two memory modules installed? Try removing them one by one and start the laptop with each module separately.
August 13th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
I have an Acer Aspire 5610z laptop, and all of a sudden when trying to power it up, it turns on for about 30 seconds, you can hear the CPU fan turning… then the fan just stops, and nothing boots up, nothing on the screen at all…
would you know what is going on, or how i can fix it?
August 13th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Joe,
Is LCD completely dead? Does it change color at all when you turn on the laptop (you might test it in a dark room)?
Does the laptop still work fine with the external monitor?
August 13th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Nassiml,
I believe this plastic button is a part of the top cover assembly. You’ll have to replace the entire top cover assembly in order to fix it.
Or… you can use an external USB mouse.
August 13th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Hmmm…Just put my laptop back together and the screen still doesn’t want to work, I tried disconnecting/reconnecting all the cables…and still nothing. So it seems I am going to have to buy a new LCD screen..even though I don’t have the money for it.
I don’t have the recovery CD, can I download one somewhere?
August 13th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Thanks for such a quick response, I am going to turn my laptop off now and mess with the cables some more, I suppose and hopefully this will fix the problem. Thanks again.
August 13th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Joe,
Could be software or hardware related problem. Try reimaging the hard drive from the recovery disc. If USB ports still fail even after you reimaged the hard drive back to factory defaults, it’s a hardware problem.
Also, could be software or hardware issue.
Can you see the CD/DVD drive in BIOS? If you can, find a bootable CD or DVD. You can use Windows installation CD, life Linux CD (Knoppix for example), recovery disc or any other bootable disc. Try booting your laptop from a bootable disc. If you can boot the laptop from a CD/DVD but the drive doesn’t appear in Windows, most likely it’s a software related problem. Try this fix from Microsoft.
August 13th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Joe,
If the laptop works fine with an external monitor but there is nothing on the LCD, most likely the problem is somewhere inside the display panel.
I don’t think it’s related to the inverter board because you have no image on the screen. With a failed inverter you should get at lease a very faint image. In your case the screen is completely blank, so it’s not the inverter.
It’s possible you have:
1. Bad connection between the video cable and LCD screen/motherboard.
2. Bad LCD screen.
3. Bad video cable.
I would try reconnecting the cable first. Reconnect on both ends, on the back of the LCD screen and motherboard. There is a chance to fix the laptop this way.
August 13th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Also, minor problems that I could use help with…
-USB ports no longer work, except for the single port on the left side of the keyboard near the ethernet plugin, and even that one doesn’t work consitently. When I plug things into them it says “computer unable to recognize device” and it does this for anything i plug in there..
- MY CD-ROM drive hasn’t been detected for almost a year now. It is just no where to be found… can’t play/burn cds because its as if I don’t even have a drive…
August 13th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Hi… I have had my laptop for about 2-3 years now, and lately(has happened 1-2 times) I will return home from work and open my laptop, only to find that my screen is black and I can’t really do anything. Well in the past, as this happens I just turn it off and turn it back on and the screen turns back on. Now, it hasn’t turned back on, so I plugged my laptop into the monitor upstairs and it works, so I have figured out that it is the screen somehow. So, I am wondering… how do I know what to replace…? The Inverter, or the screen itself? The screen is completely black, there is nothing on it, it is not turned on…
August 10th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Hi,
I have an Acer Aspire 5100. The left mouse button. broke. The plastic underneath is broken i think. Can I get another part or can I just use a Wireless mouse instead.
Thanks
August 7th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
i have an acer aspire 5100. i let my brother borrow it for a few months and he returned it f.u.b.a.r.’d! i’m getting an error message. rescorce conflict
ERROR
Resource conflict – PCI in slot 03
Bus: 06, Device:04, Function:00
what does this mean??
when i press f1 to continue the windows loading screen comes up but it wont do anything else.
help please!
August 3rd, 2009 at 8:06 am
Also forgot to mention when asking the laptop to shutdown, nothing happens for 2 minutes then it shutsdown?
August 3rd, 2009 at 8:03 am
I have an Acer Aspire 5633 which looses internet connectivity after a random period of time. It does not matter whether it is wireless or via ethernet cable. I have to reboot during which it starts a disk check. Also noticed it is not keeping the time or date whenever I update it. Any idea what is causing the problem?
August 2nd, 2009 at 9:32 am
I have an Acer Aspire 5610z laptop, and all of a sudden when trying to power it up, it turns on for about 30 seconds, you can hear the CPU fan turning… then the fan just stops, and nothing boots up, nothing on the screen at all…
does anyone know what is going on, or how i can fix it?
July 31st, 2009 at 9:34 am
yaaay..! you are a nowadays hero..!
; )
really, thank you for being the one who share and teach all this vital information.
cheers,
daniel
July 29th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
hi., i would like to no how to restore my computers memorie to like wen i first got it with nothing on it but what it came with
July 29th, 2009 at 4:09 am
Hi,
How can I replace the power jack on an Acer Aspire 5100? I’ve been able to confirm that both the battery and ac adapter work. At first, when I giggled the power cord, the power light would flash on and off sporadically. Now I’m not getting anything.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers!
Sean
July 27th, 2009 at 7:42 am
It really hard to put the black tab back in together
July 25th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Great I have been making progress with the help of my friend Bob. By using Windows 7, the computer is now up and running again…..Hurray !!
Just letting you know that Windows 7 is an exceptional piece of software, well worthwhile checking out.
Now all I am missing is the web cam drivers. Can’t complain tho, at least the seemingly impossible situation was resolved by windows 7.
Come on Linux ! catch up !
ken
p.s. if you have a copy of the web cam drivers, it would be much appreciated. the driver isnt on acer’s website.
July 24th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
this is now the second night i have not slept, i have tried a lot of things and this laptop will still not reformat, I am still stuck at “set up is starting windows” stage
pressing alt and f10 with d2d turned on in the bios will not give the factory restore option, instead it beeps once and the screen stays black with a single white flashing cursor. In a moment of absolute rage I took it out and plugged it into my desktop, reformatted the entire disc, wiped it clean, stuck the harddrive back into the laptop, ran the xp cd…..still freezes in the “set up is starting windows stage”
I tried to install xp on it using my desktop, this time it gets past the “set up is starting windows screen” but 20 seconds later after the windows logo screen, it gives this blue screen error
0×0000007B (0xf78A2524 0Xc0000034 0×00000000 0×00000000)
I am not sure it this is relevant. I sspect I am missing a sata driver or something. I am so tired, the pressure is really on, if anyone can help me, I will be beside the computer. Thanks.
July 24th, 2009 at 4:12 am
Hi laptop Tech,
I have made some progress thank you, now I can turn on the laptop.
Now I am having difficulty reformatting the harddrive using xp home cd, it loads all the drivers from the cd “set up is loading files” but it freezes at the “set up is starting windows” stage, I have tried using different ram but the problem still persists.
I am reformatting it because I suspect a virus is causing boot issues – it freezes everytime at the windows start up logo screen and safemode will not work either – please help me ? I am running out of time.
thanks,
Kenny
July 23rd, 2009 at 8:08 pm
Hi Tech,
Thanks for helping me, I have just spent a sleepless night reading about AC/DC and polarity, I am quite sure that this Toshiba AC/DC Adaptor 19 v 3.42 A center positive adaptor should have worked with this Acer 5100. Do you have any clue why this isnt charging or posting ?
Thanks again,
Kenny
July 23rd, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Hi, I am trying to reset the bios, by taking out the cmos battery. I found a battery underneath the wireless card, is this the bios cmos battery ? It seems to be glued on, how can I take it out please ?
The aspire 5100 laptop wont post, The problem started when I used a toshiba charger (which had the same output 19v _ 3.42A) now the laptop starts for 1 second and then turn itself off after 1 second without posting, can you please give me some advice ?
Thanks so much.
kenny
please feel free to email me at kencheung26@hotmail.com or post here and I will check again.
This is very urgent, any help would be much appreciated.
July 22nd, 2009 at 5:14 am
I am having the same problems as several of your other customers, keyboard unresponsive, and I can’t help but notice the “copout of an answer” that is being given to most of the consumers with this problem! When the keyboard on a laptop that is prctically brand new goes out and it is a motherboard issue, that only suggests one thing to me, and others I am sure, and that would be that your laptop is a waste of my hard earned money as well as my time in even considering the purchase! I am curious if there is gonna be a recall on the items seeing as its obviously a manufacturing issue? I spent a hell of alot of money buying this poorly thought out contraption only to be met with disappointment at the answer to how it can be repaired! Never again will I consider your product as its obviosly not worth the taxes I paid on it , let alone the purchase price!!!
July 21st, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Hey What is the empty slot underneath the black film above the memory?
July 19th, 2009 at 12:44 am
Zak,
It’s hard to tell what is wrong. It’s likely that your problem is software related. Have you checked the laptop for viruses and spyware?