How to dismantle Acer Aspire 5534

In this guide I explain how to dismantle Acer Aspire 5534 series laptops.

I will dismantle the base and remove most internal parts.

STEP 1-5: Removing the hard drive, memory, DVD drive.
STEP 6-12: Removing the keyboard.
STEP 13-16: Removing the top cover assembly.
STEP 17-25: Removing the motherboard.
STEP 26-28: Removing the DC power jack.

Most likely this guide will work for some other Acer Aspire models. If this guide works for you please mention the model number in commend after the post.

STEP 1.

Turn off the computer and remove the battery.

STEP 2.

On the bottom you’ll find two covers. One is for the hard drive and another one for memory modules.

Remove screws securing both covers.

Lift up and remove both covers.

STEP 3.

When covers removed you can access the following components:
– both memory modules.
– hard drive.
– wireless card.

I’ll leave both memory modules connected to the motherboard.

It’s necessary to remove the wireless card only if you want to remove the motherboard. I’ll leave it connected for now. I’ll remove the wireless card in the step 18.

Remove two screws securing the hard drive.

By the way, Acer Aspire 5534 can handle up to 4GB RAM maximum. Each memory slot can handle up to 2GB memory module.

STEP 4.

Slide the hard drive assembly to the left and unplug it from the connector on the motherboard.

Lift up and remove the hard drive.

My Acer Aspire 5534 had a regular 2.5″ SATA hard drive installed.

If you would like to replace or upgrade the hard drive, you can use any other large capacity 2.5″ SATA hard drive or SSD.

STEP 5.

Remove one screw securing the optical DVD drive. This screw located on the left side from the wireless card.

Pull the DVD drive from the laptop and remove it.

STEP 6.

The keyboard is secured by six spring loaded latches on the top.

STEP 7.

Push the latch into the case using a small flathead screwdriver.

At the same time lift up the keyboard a little bit.

When the keyboard is lifted up, the latch will not lock.

Do the same with all remaining latches.

STEP 8.

Lift up the top side of the keyboard and move it towards the laptop screen.

Be careful, the keyboard ribbon cable still attached to the motherboard.

STEP 9.

The keyboard ribbon connector located under the keyboard.

It’s necessary to unlock the connector in order to release the cable and remove the keyboard.

I’ll show how to unlock the connector in the following two steps.

STEP 10.

The connector has two parts: black base which is soldered to the motherboard and brown locking tab which is a moving part.

Slide the locking tab about two millimeters to the shown direction. Do not move it any further. The locking tab must stay connected to the base.

STEP 11.

On the following picture the keyboard connector shown in the unlocked position.

Now you can pull the keyboard cable from the connector.

STEP 12.

Remove the keyboard.

STEP 13.

Remove all screws from the bottom.

STEP 14.

Remove seven screws securing the top cover assembly.

Disconnect the following cables from the motherboard:
1. Power button cable.
2. Speaker cable.
3. Touchpad cable.
4. Media board cable.

On the following two pictures I explain how to unlock connectors and remove cables.

The power button cable, touchpad cable and media board cable locked in a connector as it shown on the picture.

You unlock it the same way as the keyboard harness connector.

Slide the locking tab to release the cable and after that pull cable from the connector.

The speaker cable has a regular male-female type connector.

Simply unplug the mail part from the female part.

STEP 15.

Start separating the top cover assembly.

If all screws on the bottom and top cover removed correctly, there shouldn’t be any problem.

STEP 16.

The top cover assembly has been removed.

STEP 17.

Under the top cover you can access the following internal components:
– Cooling fan.
– DC jack harness.
– CMOS battery (soldered to the motherboard).
– USB board.
– Laptop motherboard.

STEP 18.

I’ll be removing the motherboard so it’s necessary to disconnect the wireless card from the slot.

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

It’s not necessary to disconnect wireless card antenna cables. Just be careful.

STEP 19.

Remove two screws securing the motherboard.

Disconnect two shown cables.

STEP 20.

The DC jack cable connector located on the bottom side of the motherboard.

Unplug the DC jack cable from the motherboard.

STEP 21.

Lift up the right side of the motherboard and start removing it from the laptop base.

Be careful. The video cable still connected to the motherboard on the bottom side.

STEP 22.

After the motherboard removed from the base, turn it so you can access the video cable connector.

STEP 23.

Unplug video cable from the connector on the motherboard.

STEP 24.

The Acer Aspire 5534 motherboard has been removed.

STEP 25.

The cooling fan mounted to the bottom side of the motherboard.

The cooling fan is attached to the heat sink but it can removed and replaced separately.

STEP 26.

Remove one screw securing the USB board.

STEP 27.

Move the USB board aside so you can access the DC jack harness.

STEP 28.

Remove the DC jack harness.

If you would like to know how to remove the screen, check out this replacement guide. It should be pretty close to Acer Aspire 5534 laptop.