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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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March 24th, 2009 at 10:15 am
Thank you, thank you, thank you!. Although I have an Acer Aspire 5610z, your instructions saved me time and money. Great job! Thx
March 24th, 2009 at 3:19 am
I got a problem with my Acer 5100
yesterday, my lappy was okay. Only my bluetooth device wasn’t recognized, the bluetooth light never worked. the nite of that day, i was using my acer but something happened…the screen coloured stripes crash appeared…so i forced to turn it off by press hold the power button…after i turned on it back, all of components such as keyboard,touchpad, and usb do not working any more, but the bluetooth device came back normal…i ve tried the f2 button at bios but not any effected…same as the ctrl holding and fn+f7…all of them didnt make some effects…
how i solve this problem??
is this hardware problem?
should i take this to the acer?
thx
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:22 pm
Anglina,
I’m not sure if you feel comfortable doing that, but I would recommend taking the laptop apart and reseating all cable and internal components. It’s possible that your laptop will not start because something is loose inside.
First, try reconnecting memory modules and test the laptop. It shouldn’t be very difficult but might help.
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Micky,
For cloning drives I usually use Norton Ghost 2003.
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Dave,
I don’t think it’s overheating. Check memory modules, try reseating them. Try starting the laptop with only one module installed. Remove all devices you can access: hard drive, DVD drive, etc… Try starting the laptop without them.
If nothing helps, probably it’s related to the motherboard.
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:11 pm
Micky,
You’ll have to remove the top cover assembly.
Here are three general steps:
1. Remove all screws from the bottom of the laptop.
2. Disconnect cables located under the keyboard. Remove screws, if there are any.
3. Separate the top cover from the base assembly.
When the top cover is removed, you can access and replace the touchpad.
March 21st, 2009 at 4:31 pm
I have a Acer 5610z that was given to me. I need to reset the BIOS password. I understand that removing the CMOS battery won’t work, and the security chip
must be replaced.
Any truth to this?
Your help is greatly appeciated.
March 20th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
I dropped my acer laptop and now the screen is pitch black. the power button turns on 4 a few seconds but the screen wont turn on and then it shuts off. what do i do???
March 19th, 2009 at 3:07 am
I wish to upgrade my Acer 5100 HDD, however, I think its partitioned, as I have C: & D: showing in “My Computer”. What software would you recommend to clone my HDD to a larger capacity one, which will automatically create C: & D: on the new larger drive?
Thanks in advance
Micky
March 17th, 2009 at 11:41 am
Upon powering up, my 5100 runs for about 5 seconds, then shuts itself off. Strangely enough, after another 5 seconds or so, it restarts itself, and repeats the cycle over and over. It doesn’t post, so it’s not an OS or software issue. It does this whether on battery power or a/c. Would it overheat that quick? Bad motherboard? Thanks.
March 17th, 2009 at 3:35 am
Any idea how to change the touchpad on this laptop?
March 15th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
bob,
These are wireless antenna cables. Both cables connect to the wireless card. You can see them on the picture 5.
March 15th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
sony0193,
1. Carefully spread latches on both sides from the memory module.
2. The memory module will pop up at a 20-30 degree angle.
3. Pull the module from the slot by the edges.
4. Replace it with a new one.
March 13th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
took my accer 5100 apart to fix ac plug and now i dont remember where two wires go ones white one black coming from lcd screen i think they connect to someplace on motherboard
March 13th, 2009 at 9:38 am
Excuse me, do you notice that silver button below the mouse area? Well um, mine doesn’t work or at least I don’t know what it is for lol – Could you elaborate as to what this button does? Thank you! ^-^
March 8th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
I repair laptops full time and have to say that the acer aspire 5100 must be one of the worst laptops ever to come from acer. It has all of the acer faults combined in one machine, i had one come in the other day and could not do anything with it, constantly freezing up solid even when i managed to get half way throu a re-install so i remembered something a fellow tech said about a memory test or something with linux so fed up i tried to install it and it did,the whole program straight away, the usb ports and keyboard still did not work so i put a pcmcia usb card into the slot and atached a mouse and that worked also, i’m thinking now “this must be my lucky day dont push it ” but i did and via another lan card connected to the internet and downloaded the usb ,keyboard and touchpad drivers, sadly the usb ports still dont work and i cannot get the webcam to work Yet,but have got further than i ever expected to.
I gave it another push and re-installed vista on it and am writing this on it at the moment(never thought i would be)
I will post more info if i get any further with this long term project(the customed just donated it to me yesterday for science).
I hope some of this makes sense,
chow Tango
March 8th, 2009 at 7:59 am
how do i remove the ram modules? theres 1GB in the laptop, i want remove the 1GB and put two 2GB ram modules (4GB)
Thanks
March 7th, 2009 at 11:31 am
ElliottB,
Test laptop memory, you can run Memtest86+
Read this post: How to make and use memory diagnostics disc to test laptop RAM
If the test comes up with memory errors, it’s possible that one of the modules is bad.
If it’s not memory, there could be a problem with the video card/motherboard.
March 7th, 2009 at 12:56 am
Thanks for this guide, it has helped me replace my Acers keyboard.
Micky
March 5th, 2009 at 8:54 am
It freezes. I cannot re-start it unless I remove the power cord and battery, and then replace them.
Once the screen went into bluish green horizontal stripes and had to be re-booted.
I have also noticed that occasionally the system clock on the task bar loses time.
March 3rd, 2009 at 2:41 pm
ElliottB,
I really doubt that your problem is related to the CMOS battery. I believe the laptop should work even if the CMOS battery is dead or removed at all.
What do you mean by it hangs and I have to disconnect the power cord, the battery, and wait for a few minutes.
The laptop will not start at all, it freezes or what?
March 3rd, 2009 at 2:21 pm
I have an Acer 5100 that has been acting strangely lately. It works fine but sometimes it hangs and I have to disconnect the power cord, the battery, and wait for a few minutes. Then everything works until it happens again.
I suspect that the CMOS battery is the culprit.
Also the hard drive is partitioned into two drives and both drives (C D) are less than 10% empty. I don’t know if this has any bearing on this condition but I thought it worth mentioning.
March 3rd, 2009 at 10:02 am
David,
Could be memory error.
Try reconnecting memory modules. Try removing modules one by one and test the laptop with each one separately.
March 3rd, 2009 at 10:01 am
Justin,
You can try resoldering the broken power jack back to the motherboard. Take a look here:
Repair laptop power connector yourself
I guess it’s possible but basically you’ll have to buy a whole new laptop.
March 2nd, 2009 at 6:20 pm
hi i have the same laptop when i turn it on i get 3 beeps but no
display, any advice?
March 2nd, 2009 at 5:45 pm
i have a similiar acer….5610z and its meesed up….i took it apart and can clearly see the piece that u plug the charger into on the motherboard is broken off from where it was soldered….ive been searching and havent found the answer….is it possible to just take the memory and hard drive out of that one and buy a shell witha motherboard and put my old harddrive and memory into the shell? can u even buy a shell of a laptop??
February 28th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
nabil,
In order to access the bluetooth module in an Acer 5100 laptop, you’ll have to remove the motherboard. The bluetooth module plugs into the connector which is located very close to the audio jacks.
Here’s the service manual for Acer 5100. Take a look at the page 66.
February 27th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
how to find bluetooth on aspire 5100 and change it ?
February 26th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Done365,
First of all, try booting from a bootable CD. You can use Windows installation CD, live Linux CD, etc…
If the laptop boots from a bootable CD but the drive will not appear in the My Computer, most likely it’s a software related problem.
You can try this method to get the drive back:
CD/DVD drive stopped reading all CDs and DVDs
In most cases removing the UpperFilters/LowerFilters registry entries works well.
February 26th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
I have a similar problem at that of Theresa. My 5100’s factory UJ 850 DVD drive used to disappear every now and then. I would have to go to the device manager and refresh until it came back, but now it’s gone and won’t return. What can I do?? I am not convinced that it’s the drive, becuase it’s light is lit and when a disc is put in it spins it’s heart out. What’s going on??
Thanx in advance and I appreciate your forum.