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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.
Static electricity can kill your laptop. I recommend wearing an anti-static wrist strap while working with internal parts of your laptop.
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February 7th, 2009 at 12:19 am
hi,
i dropped my acer aspire and now the battery charger won’t fit in the hole properly.. i think the component inside is pushed too far in.
any way of this being fixed?
February 6th, 2009 at 10:52 am
dave p,
…I replaced the processor to no avail. I’ve also checked the memory modules by swapping their positions, reseating them and trying to startup with one at a time.
If it’s not memory or CPU, most likely there is a problem with the motherboard.
Here’s you can try.
You can remove the motherboard (looks like you’ve done before) and assemble a basic system outside the laptop case as it’s done in here:
Laptop is dead. How to troubleshoot the problem.
All you need is the motherboard, CPU with heat sink, memory and external monitor. Try turning it on. If still nothing, most likely the motherboard is bad. If the laptop starts with video and works fine, start assembling it back together piece by piece and test after each installed part.
February 6th, 2009 at 10:27 am
Skippy,
Sounds like a problem with the IDE channel on the motherboard.
Is it possible that you are using wrong screws? Maybe they are too long and when you put them in, one of the screws is touching the motherboard ans shorting something?
Here’s another guess. The motherboard is failing and apparently there is a bad solder joint somewhere on the motherboard. When you install/remove screws you actually flexing the motherboard making it work/fail.
I guess in order to narrow down the problem, you’ll have to remove the motherboard, build the laptop on your bench (outside the case) and find out if it works this way.
Nope, I’ve never seen something like that before. Please post here if you will find the solution.
February 6th, 2009 at 8:46 am
My daughters’ Acer Aspire 5100 (BL-51)”died” suddenly upon startup (i.e. it just didn’t start).As seems to be the case with a few others computers here, upon pushing the power button all lights come on the fan runs for about 10 seconds, the harddrive seems to spin, and then everything just stops (the fan continues to run at low speed). In order to get the fan to stop, the power button needs to be pushed and held for about 5 seconds. During this process there is no bios screen or anything else that shows up on the monitor – it stays black. When I first took the computer apart there was quite a bit of dust packed in the fan/radiator area – that has been cleaned. In addition, when this first happened I was led to believe that it was probably a bad processor due to overheating. I replaced the processor to no avail. I’ve also checked the memory modules by swapping their positions, reseating them and trying to startup with one at a time. Any ideas or next steps in trouble shooting? Thanks in advance
February 6th, 2009 at 7:03 am
I have a really weird problem with a 5100. The POST was reporting the HDD as gibberish and not booting, so I thought the HDD was duff. I replaced the HDD with the same model and buttoned everything back up, but it was still reporting gibberish. Now here’s where it gets strange, I removed the memory/cpu cover to check that nothing was loose I quickly tried it while the cover was off and it started up fine, as soon as I replaced the cover it started reporting the HDD name as gibberish and wouldn’t boot. I tried this several times and it was consistent, with the cover off it booted, with the cover on it wouldn’t. I gave it a thorough once over looking for shorts, but there was nothing obvious. I even tried replacing the screws one at a time and not tightening them as much, but to no avail.
Before I completely strip it down I was wondering if this was something you may have come across before or whether you may have an idea as to what is going on.
Many Thanks
February 5th, 2009 at 11:58 am
Mike F,
Try minimizing the laptop. Remove hard drive, DVD drive, wireless card, modem, etc… one of these parts could be bad and causing the problem. Leave just main components needed to boot the laptop: motherboard, CPU with the cooling module, memory. If you still experience the same problem with the bare bone system, apparently it’s related to the motherboard. If that’s the case, you’ll have to replace the motherboard.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Brendan,
Could be memory related problem:
1. Bad memory module.
2. Loose connection between the memory module and slot.
3. Defective memory slot.
Try reconnecting the memory module. Move it into the empty slot if you have any.
Do you have two modules installed? Test the laptop with each module in different slots separately.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:32 am
I have been getting the BSOD and memory dump. It appears the issue only happens when I turn the computer when I am using it. If I keep it on a flat surface, I don’t seem to have an issue. Most recently, I received the BSOD and when trying to start the computer, the BIOS does not see the hard drive, if I turn the computer, it does see it, starts to load windows, but then I get a black screen. I can only assume it is a hard drive error, or mother board issue. Anyone else have this problem?
Thanks,
February 4th, 2009 at 7:07 am
Hi – I have a acer 5100 and it says resource conflict 4 times on startup then won’t boot into windows but restarts. found the fan full of dust. maybe overheated chipset. does anyone know of this problem and a fix. otherwise I will sell laptop for spares. everything else is good
February 2nd, 2009 at 11:22 pm
My Aspire 5101 died supposingly during WinUpdate, I was afk. Now the laptop goes on from the power button and gives power to cpu, dvd and even the hdd seems to be spinning from what I could hear. Problem is the screen is blank and doesn’t even let me to the bios, nor does boot from DVD/CD. So should I just take out the hdd and throw the rest away or what? I appreciate any suggestions, already got the usb-keyboard idea by reading the earlier comments, thanks.
PS. I can’t locate the laptop’s manual so I haven’t got 100% accurate info about what’s the BIOS button on these, Home, Insert, Esc? =)
EDIT: Jeffy, Did you update your Windows just before? Your problem seems to be the same.
I just tried to boot without DVD and HDD.
February 2nd, 2009 at 11:07 pm
Jeffy, Did you update your Windows just before? Your problem seems to be the same.
February 2nd, 2009 at 11:05 pm
My Aspire 5101 died supposingly during WinUpdate, I was afk. Now the laptop goes on from the power button and gives power to cpu, dvd and even the hdd seems to be spinning from what I could hear. Problem is the screen is blank and doesn’t even let me to the bios, nor does boot from DVD/CD. So should I just take out the hdd and throw the rest away or what? I appreciate any suggestions, already got the usb-keyboard idea by reading the earlier comments, thanks.
PS. I can’t locate the laptop’s manual so I haven’t got 100% accurate info about what’s the BIOS button on these, Home, Insert, Esc? =)
January 29th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
jeffy,
1. Power off the laptop, remove the battery, unplug the power adapter and wait for a minute. Plug in the adapter and try turning it on.
2. Remove RAM modules one by one. Test the laptop with each RAM module installed into each slot separately. One of the RAM modules could be bad.
3. Try starting the laptop without the hard drive and DVD drive.
If nothing helps and you still have the same problem even after removing/reseating RAM and removing HDD and DVD drive, most likely there is a problem with the motherboard.
January 29th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Hi, I have a ACER 5100 and my computer is blank. It sounds like it is running. I tried hooking it up to another monitor and still doesn’t work. Just the power light is on and I hear the fan. I first thought maybe it overheated but the fan is working. Please help if you can
January 29th, 2009 at 10:46 am
Alex,
I guess SATA for the hard drive and PATA for the CD/DVD drive. Just a guess.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:43 am
matthew,
Both memory slots are in the same place. Both slots could be accessed through the door on the bottom. You can see both RAM modules on the third image.
Sounds like a problem with the screen.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:25 am
I have an Acer 3100 – it’s almost the same as 5100. Mine has PATA hdd – but another 3100 on my company uses SATA hdd. On the bios setup it shows 2 controlers (SATA & PATA). Is it really possible it has both interfaces?
January 29th, 2009 at 12:49 am
hi there i have an acer aspire 5100 and im going to put in 2X 2gb RAM, are the ports for the ram in the same place or is one under the key board like on some laptops, also my screen often gets a blue line of pixels along the right side of my screen only about 2mm, i was wondering if this was because of the LCD screen or something to do with a setting on my laptop? sometimes it goes away after the screen saver comes on…
January 28th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Graeme,
Sure you can. Just make sure the new drive has the same interface. If you have a SATA drive installed, your new drive also must be SATA.
January 28th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Can I replace the current HDD in my Acer Aspire 5100 laptop with laptop HDD from any brand and model as long as they are same types of disk? such as Western Digital, or Seagate etc? or does it have to one defined by Acer?
January 28th, 2009 at 5:19 am
thank you very much; with your help I could remove my fan and clean it
January 23rd, 2009 at 8:59 pm
i am trying to replace the dvd on an aspire 9410, just so i don’t break anything else. any tips?
January 21st, 2009 at 4:02 am
Thanks for your response to my question about screen brightness. Do you have any further comment on my question #121? I wrote:
As you suggested (response 111) I unplugged the internal keyboard and booted up with just an external keyboard attached. The PC started up fine. I will try to use it this way for a couple days to make sure no other problems arise. If all keeps working well it looks like probably I should go ahead and try to replace the internal keyboard. Anything else you think I should check first? Thanks for all your help!
January 21st, 2009 at 2:23 am
Problem with Acer 5100. Keyboard error message displayed when booting or keyboard will be unresponsive after sometime. There are times that I can get into the BIOS settings screen, but the system will hang-up after a while. Also, there’s a buzzing sound coming from the speakers. Is there such a thing as a “grounded” keyboard?
January 20th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
Garth,
That could be software related problem. Try reinstalling Windows from the recovery disc. Do not forget to back up all personal data before you run the recovery process.
If you still experience the same problem (no internal or external sound) even after reimaging the hard drive back to factory defaults, there could be a problem with the sound board which is most likely integrated into the motherboard.
January 20th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
Brian G,
Can you change screen brightness through power settings in the control panel?
January 20th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Gary,
If the keyboard works 100% in the BIOS setup menu, but fails intermittently in Windows, that could be software related issue. Try reinstalling Windows.
If the keyboard fails in both BIOS and Windows, I rally cannot tell without testing the laptop with another working keyboard. Could be just a bad keyboard, or could be bad keyboard controller on the motherboard.
January 18th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
I reloaded my driver for the audio to work on my acer 5100. It is saying device working properly, i’m not hearing any audio either from the speakers, headphones nor the output jack.
January 18th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
One more question, while using the external keyboard my screen is fairly dark. Is there a way to brighten since I don’t have the “normal” keys from the laptop keyboard available for this purpose?
January 17th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Hi Laptop Tech,
As you suggested (response 111) I unplugged the internal keyboard and booted up with just an external keyboard attached. The PC started up fine. I will try to use it this way for a couple days to make sure no other problems arise. If all keeps working well it looks like probably I should go ahead and try to replace the internal keyboard. Anything else you think I should check first? Thanks for all your help!