Home
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.
Find brand new replacement laptop batteries in stock and ready to ship your way.
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.
January 4th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
hello hope u can help me,i’ve just been give acer 5100.half the programmes wont open keep get loads of errors, sorry to say but know very little about computers, have no recovery disc tired systems recovery no joy. tired tuneup 2009.
thank you.
January 4th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
I need to find and replace the CMOS battery. Is this possible without sending it back to Acer?
January 4th, 2009 at 5:15 am
Thanks a lot,
Now I had the guts to open it, however I think its too late, my USB ports and cam are dead, I think due overheating:S
I watched my cooler of the laptop, and indeed it was full with dust… AND!!!!! The dust was black…. How strange…
Thanks anyway
January 4th, 2009 at 1:53 am
Thanks for the reply Laptop Tech.
Will try disconecting the internal keyboard and check.
January 3rd, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Heat related issue? Can you hear the fan spinning? Maybe the fan stopped working and the laptop freezes because of overheating. Check the fan.
yes the fun is working when it happens, the thing is, windows didn’t hang when it happens cause when i press the power button windows shutsdown normaly..
:/
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:53 pm
hussain,
Sounds like you have stuck keys. If that’s the case you’ll have to replace the keyboard. Yes, it is a hardware failure.
I don’t think that you can disable the keyboard through software or BIOS settings, but you can disconnect the internal keyboard cable from the motherboard and use just an external keyboard.
By the way, if you still have the same issue when the internal keyboard is disconnected from the motherboard, there could be a problem with the keyboard controller on the motherboard. In this case you’ll have to replace the whole motherboard.
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Ian,
Heat related issue? Can you hear the fan spinning? Maybe the fan stopped working and the laptop freezes because of overheating. Check the fan.
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Daryl Miller,
Yes, you can do that with an external USB enclosure.
1. Remove the hard drive from your laptop.
2. Purchase an external USB enclosure for notebook hard drives in any local computer store for about $20-30 or even cheap online. Make sure the enclosure matches your hard drive. If you have a SATA drive, you’ll have to purchase enclosure for SATA drives.
3. Install your hard drive into the enclosure.
4. Connect this enclosure to any other working computer.
5. The hard drive will pop up in “My Computer”. Now you can access your data and save it.
No, normally replacing motherboard doesn’t require reimaging the hard drive.
January 3rd, 2009 at 11:17 am
usguvna,
Yep, could be memory problem. Do you have two memory modules installed? Try removing them one by one. The laptop should start when a good working module is installed. When you find which one is faulty, you can replace it with a new one.
January 3rd, 2009 at 10:42 am
Nice Guide.
My Acer Aspire 5635 WLMi keys, (minus) key and (apostrophe) key behave strangely. Whenever a textbox is made activate these two keys start typing automatically into the textbox continously.
1) Is it a hardware fault?
2) I have connected a external keyboard and the problem persists as the built-in keyboard is active. So can i disable the built-in keyboard. I run WinXP.