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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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January 7th, 2010 at 2:07 pm
My 5100 is DEAD after a failed BIOS update to 3.10 (or was it 15?)
Booted up from a CD and launched FreeDOS.
Ran the upgrade program and fed it the BIOS file.trouble
The update stopped after a few %, and locked up completely. It remained there for a few hours until all I could do was remove the battery cold.
Now it shows NO response whatsoever when I hit the power button. Absolutely no sign of life whatsoever, not even a LED when I plug in the power.
How do I go about troubleshooting? Do I have to replace the BIOS chip manually perhaps? Where is it placed on the motherboard?
January 5th, 2010 at 10:24 am
Trevor,
Could be faulty memory module.
Do you have two memory modules installed in your laptop? Try removing them one by one and turn on the laptop when only one module is installed.
It’s very unlikely that both modules failed at the same time. The laptop should start properly when the bad one is removed.
January 4th, 2010 at 7:50 pm
I have a travelmate 4230 and I was using my computer earlier but not when I try to turn it on nothing happens. The fan turns on for about 3 seconds and then stops. No beeping, no monitor, no hard drive operations.
What do I do? Is it the mother board? Is it the hard drive?
Please let me know.
Thank you for your assistance
January 3rd, 2010 at 2:24 pm
chris,
Most likely it’s either bad inverter board or faulty backlight lamp inside the LCD screen.
First, I would try replacing the inverter board. If no help, try replacing the LCD screen.
Here are instructions: http://www.insidemylaptop.com/remove-lcd-screen-replace-inverter-board-acer-aspire-5100-laptop/
January 3rd, 2010 at 1:12 pm
Mike Robison,
You cannot do that. You’ll have to buy the correct keyboard.
January 3rd, 2010 at 12:34 pm
Cindy,
It’s possible that your laptop shuts down because of overheating. It happens when the cooling module (heat sink and fan) gets clogged with dust. Clean the cooling module if it’s clogged with dust and try running the recovery disc again.
Here’s what you can do without taking your laptop apart. Buy a can of compressed air and spray it into the air intake on the bottom of the laptop. This will clean most dust from the cooling module. Try running the recovery disc after that.
This also could be related to overheating.
January 3rd, 2010 at 7:43 am
My acer was getting slow. It just had msn messenger on it and a few other programs. it still had around 89% free space on it. i desided to put in the recovery disk to clean it out completly. its been a while since i use it as a main computer (i sued it only with msn messenger) so i wanted to restore it. The problem is that now when i put in the recovery disk it will start up and when it gets past 25% the computer will turn off. I kept trying and trying to restor it but each time it just turns off. i have mad sure it is conected to the outlet sevral times already and it has been. I have no idea what it can be. any idea would be greatly appreciated.
January 2nd, 2010 at 5:25 pm
My daughter has a 5100 that she spilled tea on. Some of the keyboard keys no longer work. I bought a replacement keyboard through ebay, but it does not have the same connector. It is too wide for the slot. It turns out that there may be more than one keyboard for the 5100. My question is does anyone know if the one I bought (NSK-H353D) can be trimmed to fit the slot for the one I have (NSK-H351K)?
December 30th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
hi i have an acer 5100 , my lcd does not light up , i can see that its on , what i mean is that displays but very very dark , can someone tell me what needs to be changed? thanks
December 30th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
I wanted to update my computers memory, I came across a 256mb, ddr, 333, c l 25 memroy slot with the brand infineon. This memory card was previosly in a compaq presarrio laptop. Will it be ok if i installed it into the extra memory slot in my computer (acer aspire 5100), and will it be compatiable.
December 27th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
I have a problem with my acer laptop. I turn it on and an error message appears, so I reboot the computer and it is not reading the disk. What do you think can be the problem?
Please reply
December 26th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
I would like to know that is posible to buy a case for a laptop, (dell inspiron 1525), not a case for protection but like get the motherboard,screen and stuff out and put it into a new laptop case, i want to know where i can buy one.
December 26th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Hi Mr Laptop Tech,
When I switch my laptop on it beeps 3 times and then nothing, it doesnt boot up or anything, yet it stays on until I switch it off again. Do you have any ideas?
Thanks
Nav
December 23rd, 2009 at 10:11 am
Hello My Acer 5100 (Model No: BL51) will not boot up. It will power up to the acer screen, then pause the cuts back off. Do you have any ideas.
Thanks
Tim
December 22nd, 2009 at 8:22 am
Hi, My Acer 5100 (Model No: BL51) can be started, but the keyboard and mouse doenot reponse at all, even I tried a USB-connected keyborad and mouse which donot work either, can someone tell me what to do with this? thanks a lot and happy holiday to you and your family ! -Yanhong
December 22nd, 2009 at 4:36 am
Hi,
I have just received a ‘Samsung SN-S083 Notebook 8x DVD±RW DL & DVD-RAM SATA Internal – OEM’ to replace the current one in my Acer Aspire 5100. When I tried to put the new one in the connector is not the same so will not fit……do I have to buy an adaptor?
December 21st, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Susan,
If I understand correctly, you reinstalled Windows XP from scratch but it didn’t fix your USB ports. Sounds like a problem with the USB controller on the motherboard. Unfortunately, the only way to fix it would be replacing the motherboard.
Alternatively, you can use a USB PCMCIA adapter: http://www.laptoprepair101.com/laptop/2009/11/16/fix-hardware-problems-without-taking-apart-laptop/
December 21st, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Zeus,
Not sure why you having this problem. Using different size memory modules in different slots shouldn’t be a problem.
I don’t have an Acer 5100 laptop myself and cannot confirm that, but I really doubt that you MUST install identical modules into the slots.
Have you tried installing both modules into different slots? Can you find another memory module for test?
Maybe your 512MB and 2GB modules are not compatible somehow.
December 21st, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Kris,
Do you have two memory modules installed? Try removing memory modules one by one and run the recovery process with only one module installed (try different modules).
It’s possible that one of the modules is bad.
If replacing/reseating memory modules doesn’t help, probably this is the motherboard related failure.
December 21st, 2009 at 4:42 am
with regards to my problem i am using an Acer 5101AWLMi… and this would be it’s 3rd year…
December 21st, 2009 at 4:39 am
hi mr. laptop tech,
i’ve browse the whole thread cause i have seen similar cases to what i’m experiencing now… it started with my usb ports… all of a sudden they are not being recognized… the next day… my laptop would start but after the booting process the screen remained black… i was freaked out cause i know that using the recovery disks means i would lose my files in the drive c: luckily i was able to get one chance to open it and transferred my impt files to drive d: because still my cd burner did not work my usb did not work… and now comes the frustrating part… since then i have been trying to get into the recovery process… but everytime the booting part comes up it hangs and i have been constantly trying to find ways to get into the recovery process… please help or please give me a response if there are any possible ways to fix this or if u haven’t tackled this kind of problem yet… btw ur site is very informative… i am really hoping u could help me out on this one… thanks very much….
December 19th, 2009 at 8:00 am
I Have 2 memories one is 512mb and other is 2Giga separately they work fine but together the don’t .Bios after couple of seconds just hangs I suspect that both slots should be the same size I that could an issue? Is there anybody who has installed memory on the ACER 5100 with different memory banks?
December 15th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
I see I am dyslexic..lol.. supposed to read Aspire 5100.
December 15th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Hi..I have been trying to solve a USB prob on my Acer 5199,,the fan was replaced as well as the Harddrive, for 2 months I have searched and asked for a solution, came upon this website and was reading the posts..I see post #412 has the same problem but I did not see a solution, so I will ask.. I have just reinstalled Windows XP for the 2nd time..It is XP spk2, I also tried it with service pack3 but no go.. I am actually going to try and older bios version to see if it will solve the prob unless someone can give me and idea please. When any thing is plugged into one of the 3 usb ports, it comes back “hardware unrecognizable” etc. I have managed to get everything else working on this thing except the usb..Please help.. Acer wants me to pay them $169.00 and send them the laptop..after which I am sure the bill would go up from there..I have already spent the $$$ on a fan (was very hard to find one working) and the HD..plus the time spent working on this thing..the computer seems to be a nice one..but totally useless without usb capabilities. Hopefully this is the place for the solution..TY
December 14th, 2009 at 2:22 am
My aspire 5100, modelnr BL51, has a 120gb SATA hard disk. I’ld like to replace it with an SSD drive. Either a Kingston or an OCZ. The main reason to do this is because of the noise. Faster speed is a bonus.
Is my current harddisk 150 or 300 SATA? If it is a 150, will an SSD work? Since SSD is 300.
December 13th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
Nevermind, I found it on synaptics web site.
December 13th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
I have also installed windows 7. It is running great so far. The only thing that I need is the driver for the touchpad. If anyone has a link it would be greatly appreciated
December 13th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
I have installed and have been using Windows 7 on my 5100 with no problems whatsoever. I do recommend though, that you do a “clean install”. I tried an update from Vista and wasn’t satisfied with the results.
December 8th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Just a couple of questions…
Will a 320 or 500 GB SATA 7200 RPM drive work on an Aspire 5100? Also has anyone installed Windows 7 and what kind of problems did they encounter? Acer say’s its not compatable but I don’t believe that.
Thanks!
December 7th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
wow, quite the response(s) here! is this the most popular acer or what?!?
just wanted to say thanks so much. troubles galore with this lappy, but when i finally sourced a lot of it being down to overheating issues i used your tut to take out the cooling fan. i should actually post you a pic of what i found. it was such a solid thick rectangle of grey that i initially mistook it for a sponge-like dust filter… before i realised it was the dust itself! omg!
thx again. great work here. truly.