How to disassemble Acer Aspire V3-551

In the following guide I will disassemble an Acer Aspire V3-551-8469 laptop in order to remove the cooling fan.

The fan is mounted deep inside the case, under the motherboard.

STEP 1.

Turn off the laptop.

Unlock and remove the battery.

STEP 2.

Remove two screws securing the bottom cover.

Remove the cover.

When the cover removed, you can access the hard drive, wireless card and both RAM slot.

I had only one 4GB RAM module installed.

This laptop can handle up to 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3-12800 SODIMM RAM modules.

STEP 3.

Slide the hard drive assembly to the left to disconnect it from the motherboard.

Lift up and remove the hard drive.

Upgrading this regular 2.5″ hard drive to a 2.5″ solid state drive will speed up the laptop significantly.

STEP 4.

Remove one screw securing the optical drive.

Pull the drive to the left and remove it from the case.

STEP 5.

Remove all marked screws from the bottom.

All screws are similar, except three silver screws in the battery compartment and one silver screw below the memory module.

STEP 6.

I’m using a guitar pick to separate the palm rest from the bottom case.

You can use a piece of plastic.

STEP 7.

Continue separating the palm rest with your fingers.

STEP 8.

Move the palm rest assembly away from the keyboard. Be careful, it’s still connected to the motherboard.

Remove one screw securing the keyboard/top cover assembly.

STEP 9.

Lift up the keyboard assembly and move it towards the display.

STEP 10.

Now you can access and disconnect three cables (left to right):
– Power button cable.
– Touchpad cable.
– Keyboard cable.

Here’s how to unlock all three connectors.

Slowly slide the cable retainer (dark brown piece in my picture) away from the connector base about 2 millimeters (two green arrows). This will unlock the connector.

Now you can pull the cable (yellow arrow).

STEP 11.

Remove the keyboard/top cover assembly.

STEP 12.

Remove the palm rest assembly.

On the bottom side of the top cover you can access the power button board.

If you need to replace the keyboard, you’ll have to remove the metal shield.

On the bottom side of the palm rest assembly you can access the touchpad.

STEP 13.

When the palm rest removed, you can access the CMOS battery.

STEP 14.

In order to remove the motherboard from the case it’s necessary to disconnect and remove the wireless card first.

Disconnect two antenna cables from the wireless card.

STEP 15.

Remove one screw securing the card to the case and pull it from the slot.

STEP 16.

Un-route both antenna cables from the bottom of the laptop case and pull them out though the openings in the case.

STEP 17.

Remove two screws securing the motherboard.

Disconnect five cables.

Here’s how to unplug smaller connectors.

Simply pull the male part out by the edges. Do not pull by the wires.

Here’s how to unplug the display (video) cable.

STEP 18.

Start removing the motherboard from the case.

STEP 19.

Before you can remove it completely, it’s necessary to disconnect the DC jack cable on the other side.

Unplug the DC jack cable from the connector.

STEP 20.

The motherboard has been removed.

The cooling fan mounted on the other side.

STEP 21.

Remove seven screws securing fan and heat sink.

STEP 22.

Carefully separate the fan assembly from the motherboard.

Now you can replace the fan if necessary or apply new thermal grease on the processor.

There are a few chips covered by thermal pads. Leave thermal pads in place.