In this guide I’ll explain how to take apart an Acer Aspire 5100 laptop. I’ll show how to remove major internal components. In the next article I’ll explain how to. First of all, make sure the computer 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. Removing DVD drive: 1.

Remove one screw (red circle) securing the drive. Push the drive from the case with a flathead screwdriver. Pull the drive and remove it. Removing hard drive: 1. Pull the hard drive to the right side until it’s disconnected from the motherboard. 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 Aspire 5100 had a 80GB 5400RPM SATA HDD installed. You can upgrade it to a larger capacity HDD or SSD. Removing memory modules: 1.

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Carefully spread latches on both sides of the memory slot until the module pops up at a 30 degree angle. Pull the module out by the edges.

Acer Aspire 5100 has two memory slots. You can install up to 4GB RAM total. Up to 2GB 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. Spread latches on both sides of the wireless card same way as you did with RAM modules. 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. Carefully disconnect fan cable from the motherboard. 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 overheating. You can blow off dust using canned air. Here’s how you can between the heatsink and CPU.

Removing laptop keyboard. In the following steps I’ll explain how to disconnect and remove the keyboard.

Lift up the bezel with a flathead screwdriver as it shown on the picture below. Remove the bezel. Remove two screws securing the keyboard. Carefully lift up the keyboard, it’s still attached to the motherboard.

The keyboard is connected to the motherboard via a flat ribbon cable. Before you can remove it completely, you’ll have to unlock the connector and release the cable. 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 connector, you’ll have to replace the whole motherboard. Now you can release the cable and remove the keyboard.

Thanks a lot for this tutorials, I happen to have the same model of this Acer Notebook, so it was pretty cool to find a tutorial on taking it apart. I´ve read around that it´s possible to replace CPU on this notebooks. My processor as you know, is the Turion X2 with 1.6Ghz and L2 cache of 512k. I´m a 3d animator and I use Maya to animate 3d rigs. It obviously run a little slow, specially when I´m working on the graph editor. Takes ages to move a keyframe. I belive my processor is the TL-50.

I would like to replace for a TL-60, which is 2.0Ghz and has L2 of 1MB. Since they´re are for socket S1, I think it could work, but would be nice to know about someone that has acctually done that ( if you know or have done yourself). Also is there any chance to replace for a faster graphics card. Mine is the Radeon 1100 128mb shared.

Bye and thanks •. I have an acer 5100-3583. The CD/DVD drive is very sluggish and won’t read half of the time. The 3rd party warranty we got is no help at all so we are going to replace the drive. I looked at SlimDrives and they have SATA and IDE/Atapi.

NewEgg has a nice Sony that has an ATAPI interface. Which one do I need to get? I think the latter, but I wanted to confirm.

Also, I see that you just push the drive out. Does it mean that the new drive will just push right in without the use of any additional cabling?

Dawna, I looked at SlimDrives and they have SATA and IDE/Atapi. NewEgg has a nice Sony that has an ATAPI interface.

Which one do I need to get? I think the best way to find a new replacement CD/DVD drive is using the manufacturer’s part number or drive model number. Remove the faulty drive and take a look at the sticker.

Try to find the manufacturer’s part number. Search for this part number on the Internet. Also, I see that you just push the drive out.

Does it mean that the new drive will just push right in without the use of any additional cabling? That’s right. There is no cable between the drive and motherboard. The optical drive plugs into the connector on the motherboard.

You’ll have to transfer the mounting bracket from the old drive to the new one. I tried Hitachi’s drive fitness test ( off Hiren’s utility Cd ) and got random characters filling the screen. I tried to install Ubuntu server just as a test, and the installer reported a bios error. But I don’t see any new bios’s available. It failed to install past me setting the keyboard.

So, I tried Seagate’s seatools for dos, and the new drive is fine. I then zeroed the whole drive ( as Vista would crash with the partitions I had setup ), and managed to install vista. However, when I tried to enter the user account name, the 5100 froze on me. Third time lucky I managed to create an account. I’ve had the mouse freeze on me, and page fault in non paged memory, and this is with a new stick of DDR2 667 2gb. Which I passed with memtest86+ twice. I installed speedfan and temperature is about 60 deg.

So, hardware issues somewhere but not sure what to check next. Anton, How can I get under the touchpad? Its left button started to work funny recently (it reacts even if I touch it gently). I tried, but I couldn’t get the upper panel off. Remove the keyboard.

Disconnect all cables found under the keyboard. Remove screws found under the keyboard (if any). Remove screws from the display hinges and unplug the video cable. Release the wireless card antenna cables. Remove the display panel. Remove all screws from the bottom of the laptop.

Also, there could be (not sure 100%) a couple of screws on the back, they are securing the hinges. Remove them too. Carefully separate the top cover from the base assembly. Now you should be able to access the touch pad buttons. akil, My laptop has vertical lines that cause it to freeze up shortly after booting up.Thought it was a virus so i formated my system and it still happens,because my fan blew i think my processor is damaged will replacing the fan make everything ok? Replacing the fan will not fix the problem, I don’t think it’s related.

Test your laptop with an external monitor. If you get vertical lines on both internal and external screen, most likely there is a problem with the graphics card. Just in case. If you have two memory modules installed, try removing them one by one and test the laptop with each module separately. A bad memory module can cause different problems. Matt, hard drive went bust under warranty and when i got my laptop back with a new drive the touchpad wasn’t working fully.

Just left click, right click and move cursor I miss being able to use the silver scroll key and being able to scroll using the edges of the pad. I think you are missing some kind of touch pad management software. Try downloading it from the manufacturer’s website. As last resort, you can reimage the hard drive using the recovery disc. Reimaging the hard drive should take everything back to factory defaults. Do not forget to back up data first. The recovery process erases everything from the drive.

An update on my situation. I spoke with Acer tech support. Who told me it was out of warranty. They did quote me for a new mobo. In deperation, I bought a new WD 160Gb drive to replace the new Seagate momentus 160Gb drive. I then cloned the original faulty drive to the new drive using a desktop PC ( the sata connections are the same for laptop and desktop drives ).

It now works flawlessly. Either the Seagate tools couldn’t detect the problem, or, there is some critical timing issue that was causing the problem. This is a wonderful site,thanks for it. I have an Acer Aspire 5100-5023 w/AMD Turion 64×2 @ 1.8 Ghz, Radeon Express 1100 -512mb HyperMem, 2GB DDR2. I have been trying to decide whether it is my graphics card or RAM that is unable to keep up with some of the programs I am using because at times the whole system seems to slow to a crawl. I was sure it was RAM related since the slow-down didn’t start until after I had installed Office 2007, but now I’m unsure since it happens even without Office running.

Any thoughts or suggestions? I have considered changing both the RAM and graphics card, could you suggest a possible replacement for the graphics? Doris, I have been trying to decide whether it is my graphics card or RAM that is unable to keep up with some of the programs I am using because at times the whole system seems to slow to a crawl. Could be a software related problem, maybe your laptop is infected with a trojan or spyware. Instead or replacing the hardware, I would try to reinstall software first. Backup all personal files and reimage the hard drive back to factory defaults from the recovery disc. This will take your laptop back to the original default state and you can start from scratch.

Shay, My acer 5100 starts to boot up but it hits a black screen and it keeps reloading that page. Form my research it seems like the hard drive is dead. Is this the problem or is it something else?

Could be software related problem. Here’s what you can try. 1.Press F8 button on startup and it will take you to the boot menu. Select “Last Known Good Configuration” and press Enter.

Try reimaging the hard drive using the recovery process. This will take your laptop back to factory defaults. Run diagnostics test on the hard drive. You’ll find many HDD testing tools in the.

Hello, I have a acer 5100 and I was wondering if I can reformat a laptop hard drive with a desktop computer? I made a back up CD of my acer but it won’t accept it. I screwed up by putting in a partition and put windows vista on it so I had wind XP & vista. The vista was slowing the computer down bad so I used partition magic 8.0 to delete the vista partition and now I can’t enter my windows XP. Can I use the back up CD I made of the hard drive and reformat it through my desktop? Thanks for the help •. Thank you for this web site and the Acer instructions.

I’m repairing a laptop for a co-worker, an Acer Aspire BL51. She DROPPED the poor thing and the screen came completely off, the WiFi wires broke,and the camera wires broke. I fixed the screen easily enough by building brackets for the hinges; the cable was OK. The other wires will be easy for me.

But there is a new twist The battery ran out of juice, so she gave me the charger. It didn’t help, so I tested it and found it was broken. She sent me her other charger, which I tested and know to be working. With it plugged in, the laptop still would not power up, so I let it charge for more than 24 hours. Still will not power up. I tested with the battery in and with the battery out, but no go.

What happens when I press the power button is the power light comes on and the fan starts up, then, after about a second, it all shuts off. That’s it, nothing more. The laptop was working fine before the battery ran out. I had reconnected the screen for testing and all seemed fine. I can find no loose connections and there is no loose junk inside (I removed something that looked like a pair of super-sized cat claws made of plastic.) Any suggestions? Is there something about the panel at the top edge of the keyboard which contains the power button, etc.

That is critical? I know there is a little button there that tells the laptop the screen is closed. That switch works fine. Surrounding that button, but not touching it, is some foil that seems to be a ground point that should be touching matching ground points on the body of the laptop like a jumper. Jumpering those points did not help.

Any ideas you can give would really be helpful! Ashley, thanks for skipping my question!

I didn’t skip your question. I’m just not sure what you are asking about. I am trying to replace a cracked acer 5100 screen and I think i did everything right. However the BACK of the laptop pop’ed off when I was trying to remove the screen. I dont think it pop’ed off by me doing anything wrong to it, is this normal? I guess it’s normal because you are taking it apart. Just put it back in place as it was before.

The back is still connected by two little wires that go through a hinge on the left side of the base of the computer though. They are wireless antennas. Do you think it should just screw back on once i get a new screen?

I don’t know. How can I tell without looking at the laptop?

By the way, did you find instructions for taking apart the display panel? I linked to it at the beginning of the post. IML Tech, Thank you for the reply. Did she drop the laptop with the adapter connected?

Maybe the power jack is damaged and has to be re-soldered or replaced? I asked about this and she said it was not connected when dropped. Following your advice, I tested the power input of the laptop and found it to be fine, so I retested the charger. Guess what another bad charger. The laptop connector of the charger has a loose wire and the first time I tested it, I got lucky.

Now I know how to make it work long enough, so I was able to finish the repairs to her laptop and get it back to her. Thank you again for the help and keep up the great work! Alan Mcgookin, we have an acer aspire 5100 we had a dvd/r drive and it stopped reading we purchased a new sony drive however it will not read post bios stage abd is not visible in the system requirements Not all optical driver are interchangeable. It’s possible that your new driver is configured differently.

For example, your old drive was configured as “Slave”, but the new Sony drive is configured as “Cable Select” or vice versa. It’s just a guess. When you are replacing the optical drive, it’s better to go with the factory replacement. Can you see the DVD drive in the BIOS when the hard drive is removed? Didn’t see a pic of the BIOS chip. Do you have 1 or know where it’s located?

I’m trying to scrub a hardrive for a customer as they forgot password for BIOS and Windows (media SP2) administrator. There is only a limited account that can’t install or uninstall software.

The BIOS must be set to disable boot to USB/floppy/CD. I tried another hardrive that had XP on it and that wouldn’t work either. Tried all the normal hacks for windows admin but they don’t work. Can I replace the BIOS chip with 1 that allows boot? Please advise. Signed Locked up tighter than •.

I was told today that the motherboard on my acer 5100 needs to be replaced, its under warrenty by staples, they want me to send it to them for repair. Thats fine, but all they want to do is replace the motherboard and reset the hard drive to factory settings. I have to much business stuff to loose that was not backed up from December. Any chance that the harddrive can be saved or pulled and installed in another computer to retrieve documents? Will replacing motherboard require resetting harddrive?

usguvna, My ACER 5100 screen won’t come up, just a black screen. I think the computer is still working but I can’t see what I’m doing. My research shows I should replace memory (i did get a memory message about 30 minutes before this started) or the video card.

Does this sound right? 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.

Daryl Miller, Any chance that the harddrive can be saved or pulled and installed in another computer to retrieve documents? Yes, you can do that with an external USB enclosure. Remove the hard drive from your laptop.

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. Install your hard drive into the enclosure. Connect this enclosure to any other working computer. The hard drive will pop up in “My Computer”. Now you can access your data and save it.

Will replacing motherboard require resetting harddrive? No, normally replacing motherboard doesn’t require reimaging the hard drive. hussain, (minus) key and (apostrophe) key behave strangely. Whenever a textbox is made activate these two keys start typing automatically into the textbox continuously. 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 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 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. ian, after 2hrs of use the mouse, keyboard wont respond anymore and the sound stop working toowhen i turn it off and on again there’ll be no display.

But if i let it off for a couple of hours and turn it on again its back to normal like nothng happened Also, that could be memory related problem. Run memory test and see if it comes with errors.

If you have two RAM modules installed test your laptop with each module separately. Remove one and test the laptop, then remove the second one and test again. Does it fail the same way with only one module installed? Also, that could be memory related problem.

Run memory test and see if it comes with errors. If you have two RAM modules installed test your laptop with each module separately.

Remove one and test the laptop, then remove the second one and test again. Does it fail the same way with only one module installed? Thanks for the reponse! Ok i’ll the memtest though i already tried the second suggestion you gave(tried to tun the lappy with one memory at a time and still the same problem) will inform you tomorrow thanks! Kev, I have a problem with the Logitech built in webcam. There seems to be a faulty USB connection to it.

Can you point me to the internal connections to the webcam please? Its for the Aspire 5610. I don’t know that of the top of my head, but this cable will be coming from the display panel.

You can remove the keyboard bezel and take a look at the cable coming from the display assembly. There should be LCD cable, wireless antenna cables and webcam cable. Follow the webcam cable to the connector. I’m soooooo glad I found this site! And I think it’s awesome that you’re answering questions.

I have an Acer 5100 I bought it in 06, it crashed in under a year, and I ended up fiddling with it, then putting it aside. I want to resurrect it now, and I’m willing to replace whatever, but I’m not sure what the problem is. When it *does* boot (from ‘last known good config’), the pointer freezes and then the screen turns white or fills up with lots of vertical blue and white stripes. I’ve tried restoring it to factory settings, both with and without recovery disc, but when I go into BIOS to change the boot order first (I get a PXE error, and I saw elsewhere that boot order is the prob) the BIOS page crashes and turns gray with black stripes. I’m sure something is seriously wrong, but I have no idea what it is.

Some people say motherboard, others say hard drive. This is a very good site. Just had a problem come up yesterday with the keyboard not working for my aspire 5100. Fortunately I found your site and read the pointers. Using your very clear instructions I removed the keyboard and reconnected it in case there was a bad connection. That did not fix the problem.

Next, using an external keyboard connected to the USB found that everything else works fine with the computer. Is there anything else you would suggest I check before replacing the keybaord?

shani-o, When it *does* boot (from ‘last known good config’), the pointer freezes and then the screen turns white or fills up with lots of vertical blue and white stripesthe BIOS page crashes and turns gray with black stripes. Sound like a problem with the graphics card. The graphics card is integrated into the motherboard and cannot be removes, so it’s a problem with the motherboard. Others say hard drive I don’t think it’s related to the hard drive. The laptop crashes when you are in the BIOS setup menu. At that time the hard drive is not working.

This problem is not related to the hard drive. Brian Gasiorowski, Just had a problem come up yesterday with the keyboard not working for my aspire 5100. Fortunately I found your site and read the pointers. Using your very clear instructions I removed the keyboard and reconnected it in case there was a bad connection.

That did not fix the problem. Next, using an external keyboard connected to the USB found that everything else works fine with the computer. So, the laptop keyboard stopped working at all? Do you know if the keyboard stopped working only in Windows? Did you try entering the BIOS setup menu and testing the keyboard in there?

Your keyboard failure is not common. Usually laptop keyboards do not fail like that. In most cases you can get some faulty keys, but not the whole keyboard. Try reflashing the BIOS with a newer or even the same version. Unfortunately, I don’t know for sure what’s wrong with your laptop. Could be just a bad keyboard or could be a faulty keyboard controller on the motherboard. The only way to find out is installing another working keyboard.

If it doesn’t fix the problem, most likely it’s bad controller, which means you have to replace the whole motherboard. Re: response 100. Thanks for the quick response. I have on a few occassions re-seated the hard drive, re-seated the RAM and cannot work it out. When you chose the F12 boot menu the 120GB seagate drive is not available in the boot menu. The light is constantly ON for the hard drive and it is spinning but the heads are not clanking.

I even tried cleaning the pins on the hard drive connector with a cloth. Should i try contact cleaner?? Again just now i pushed the power button and restarted the machine again and she came up normally. AHHHH, damned confused Any ideas?? Getting back to your question to me (# 102 above), the laptop keyboard doesn’t work at all. When this problem first came up a few days ago I also had an issue with a few startups that did not proceed all the way to the windows login prompt but started a continuing series of loud beeps. I eventually did get to point that laptop was starting up properly up to the login prompt screen, then along with using the seperate keyboard connected via USB was able to login and the computer worked fine.

However, sfter one day of success with the seperate keyboard, I’m now back to the issue that startups do not complete (do not get to the login screen) and the continuing series of load beeps commence. I need to unplug and remove battery to get the the computer to power down. I’ve not checked the bios.

I think I’ve read some things written above about this, but at this point am not really familer with how to do this or if i can do it without being able to get through login. tim, I have on a few occassions re-seated the hard drive, re-seated the RAM and cannot work it out. When you chose the F12 boot menu the 120GB seagate drive is not available in the boot menu. The light is constantly ON for the hard drive and it is spinning but the heads are not clanking. I even tried cleaning the pins on the hard drive connector with a cloth. Should i try contact cleaner?? Again just now i pushed the power button and restarted the machine again and she came up normally.

AHHHH, damned confused It sounds like either you have a faulty hard drive or there is something wrong with the hard drive controller on the motherboard. Unfortunately, the only way to find out which one is causing it is testing the laptop with another known good hard drive. If you experiencing the same problem even with anther hard drive, apparently it’s bad controller on the motherboard, which means you’ll have to replace the whole motherboard.

Brian G, However, after one day of success with the seperate keyboard, I’m now back to the issue that startups do not complete (do not get to the login screen) and the continuing series of load beeps commence. I need to unplug and remove battery to get the the computer to power down. What if you unplug the internal keyboard and use the laptop only with the external one. Can you boot to the login screen this way? Will it make continuing series of load beeps on startup when the internal keyboard is disconnected from the motherboard? From question #109: Hi, I opened up the keyboard and noticed the cables were not loose and installed fine. After putting everything back together, the computer started to work fine.

But then the next day, it was the same problem again, with the touchpad and keyboard. That’s what its been doing, one day it will work fine, the next it won’t, meaning the touchpad/keyboard.

How do I enter the BIOS setup menu? Is that when I turn the computer on, it says “Press any key to cancel disk scan” or something like that? If so, the keyboard doesn’t work for that either. “I have a problem where I must apply pressure on the left side of the track pad.

If I don’t the computer will begin to run very slowly and eventually freeze. Any suggestions? Try reconnecting RAM modules. Remove modules one by one and test the laptop with each RAM module in each slot separately. It’s possible that one of the slots is failing or one of the RAM modules is not making good contact with the slot. ” Tried what was suggested and unfortunately that didn’t help.

I tried removing the hard drive and that didn’t help either. Any other suggestions? The spot that i apply pressure is just to the left of the track pad. Thanks for the help! Gary, I can get into the BIOS Setup menu, is there anything that I need to do on there to fix the touchpad/keyboard. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.

What could be the problem. 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. Garth, 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. 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. 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! matthew, 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 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.

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? Sounds like a problem with the screen. jeffy, 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. 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. 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. 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.

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. 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? 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. 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. 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? Brendan, 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? Could be memory related problem: 1. Bad memory module.

Loose connection between the memory module and slot. 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. Mike F, I have a acer 5100 and it says resource conflict 4 times on startup then won’t boot into windows but restarts.

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. 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 •. 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 •. Skippy, 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. Sounds like a problem with the IDE channel on the motherboard. 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. 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. 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. Nope, I’ve never seen something like that before. Please post here if you will find the solution.

dave p, 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). 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. 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.

John Edwards, I have a friend’s Acer Aspire 3100 laptop and it has an issue where the laptop freezes whenever any usb device is inserted. It then has to be turned off to commence operations. At first I thought (was hoping) it was software related but after reloading the OS ans all the drivers I still have the problem. If the laptop fails the same way with many different USB devices, then most likely you have a problem with the USB controller which is integrated into the motherboard.

I guess you’ll have to replace the motherboard or use the laptop as is. Also, you can try updating/reflashing the BIOS. I’m not sure if it’s going to help but at least something to try.

I have fixed computers for a living for the last 15 years full time so i know a little of what I am talking about though I do not work on laptops full time. This is a defective product and the culprit is most likely the motherboard. I have worked on two of these. Here are the symptoms: USB stops working CD/DVD stops working Keyboard/mouse fail Black screen BIOS errors- PCI errors usually Time setting in bios lost Freeze if you get it to boot It is not a BIOS issue,OS issue, memory issue, hard drive issue, cd issue, keyboard issue, mouse issue. I have tested/replaced all of these.

It is a motherboard issue- defective from the manufacture. This is a progressive issue- whatever you have will get worse. Cut your losses.

Pull the hard drive and put the data somewhere else. I have purchased for my employees/family/clients 30 Acer products over the last few years but I WILL NEVER PURCHASE ACER AGAIN! BUYER BEWARE! Jose, my acer 5100 has problems with the keyboard, touchpad and us ports. They just don’t work. I think It is a board problem. Do you think it is the end of this laptop?

Turn on the laptop and try entering the BIOS setup menu. I’m not sure which keys you should use, try Esc, F1, F2.

This will tell you if the keyboard works in the BIOS. Can you navigate the BIOS using keyboard keys? If the keyboard works fine in the BIOS setup menu, your problem could be related to the operating system.

Try reinstalling it from the recovery disc. If the keyboard do not work on the BIOS level, there could be a problem with the motherboard. I have the acer aspire 5100 and I play the sims 2 alot and I wanted to upgrade my video card at one point. Is that possible or is it built into the motherboard? Im also have issues with my DVD-r/CD-r drive. Fists problem with it is sometimes it cant find the drive unless I open and close it or if I go to Hardware changes and just refresh till it finds new hardware. 2nd problem is when it is working I cannot burn a dvd or cd.

I can put files in to burn but when I click burn it says there is no dvd/cd in the drive. With that all said should I just buy a new dvd/cd drive for it?

I know once I read it could be the lens in the player thats not letting me burn. But not sure let me know what you think. I have a weird situation with my acer 5100. A friend connected a 3G device, and the system asked something like ‘hit enter to continue’.

But now the keyboard does not respond; no touchpad either; I attached a external kb but no response, external usb mouse, nothing either; I turned off the notebook, but it loads back into windows and asks the same question; I tried to force in safe mode, but can’t press F5, F8, neither enter bios setup thru F2, cause there no keyboard response. So I thought the only chance would be resseting the bios – oened the bottom but I can’t see any battery, jumper, nothing? I tried to interrupt boot sequence thru battery removal, nothing; and installing a new windows, but it asks for ‘press C to continue’ WTF?

Thank you for any ideas!!! Rod – Brazil •. The laptop boots into Vista no problem and runs it no problem (except noisy fun and sluggish graphics), but if I try to install an OS (any) laptop powers off at the loading setup files from DVD, it also powers off after ~7% memtest. After it powers off, if you try to run memtest again, it will power off almost immediately, even if you enter BIOS, and will not load Vista (will give a physical memory dump screen). The only way to circumvent this would be to do a total power reset unplugging all sources of electricity, and then it would boot normally again. I run the memtest with the stock memory that came with it, and still same problem.

Any thoughts? Why are their MBs so bad, and who makes the best ones, also what do you think about Asus vs Acer) •. Rob, I have a weird situation with my acer 5100. A friend connected a 3G device, and the system asked something like ‘hit enter to continue’. But now the keyboard does not respond; no touchpad either; I attached a external kb but no response, external usb mouse, nothing either; I turned off the notebook, but it loads back into windows and asks the same question; I tried to force in safe mode, but can’t press F5, F8, neither enter bios setup thru F2, cause there no keyboard response. So I thought the only chance would be resseting the bios – oened the bottom but I can’t see any battery, jumper, nothing?

I tried to interrupt boot sequence thru battery removal, nothing; and installing a new windows, but it asks for ‘press C to continue’ This is a really weird problem. Sounds like a 3G device damaged the motherboard somehow. Why buy acer, The laptop boots into Vista no problem and runs it no problem (except noisy fun and sluggish graphics), but if I try to install an OS (any) laptop powers off at the loading setup files from DVD, it also powers off after ~7% memtest. After it powers off, if you try to run memtest again, it will power off almost immediately Could be overheating. Take a look inside the heat sink. Do you see a lot of dust inside?

Blow off dust using canned air. Clean the heat sink and test the laptop again. There is a good chance that cleaning the heat sink will fix your problem. Mike Merriman, I have an ACER 5100, for several months now the touch-pad has not worked, I have checked that the software is loaded O.K. Also for several months the Power ON, HD Caps Lock etc lights go out when the laptop has been of for about 10 mins, recently the speakers have started to crackle if the Laptop is moved, if the case if flexed the crackeeling stops for a while but the Laptop hangs. It’s really hard to tell what’s going on with your laptop. Could be some kind of grounding issue but in order to narrow down the problem, it’s necessary to disassemble the laptop and take a closer look inside.

Could be loose connection somewhere on the motherboard. There is no simple answer. Hi, I have two broken acer aspires and now on my third it is not from manufactor issues.

It is that my dear wife keeps manageing to drop them and bust the dc power port off. So my question is I have tried to search the part number for my 5100z and come up with nill. The other is an 5610z witch i can get the part but can not solder to save my life.

I guess my questions are 1. For the 5610 where can i get an external case for my hard drive? ( bought 1 from R.S. And it was the wrong one.) 2. Could you point me in the direction for a new power card for my 5100? ElliottB, 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. 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? 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. Dave, 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? 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. Anglina, 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??? 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. 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 happenedthe screen coloured stripes crash appearedso i forced to turn it off by press hold the power buttonafter 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 normali ve tried the f2 button at bios but not any effectedsame as the ctrl holding and fn+f7all of them didnt make some effects how i solve this problem?? Is this hardware problem?

Should i take this to the acer? Hello, I must say I was very happy to have found your site and to read some of the upgrades that I can do for my Acer!! Thank you about a week ago I was plugged into the internet w a wired cnction, i tripped and the ethernet cable was ripped out of the port on the side of the comp. Now if i try to cnct to the internet through the same port the green light by the port only lights up 10% of the time if that. If the ethernet cable is plugged im no longer able to cnct to the int. Do you think this may be something i can fix myself like replacing the port??

Or would I be wiser to take it into a comp prefessional? Thanks for your time, Vida •. Short version: I think I’m screwed. Longer version: Haven’t been able to boot my system for 18 hrs or so.

In SAFE mode, the list of system files always halts at agpCPQ.sys. My bonehead guess would be that the next file is trashed.

WORST: When I try to launch D2D recovery using ALT-F10 (having checked BIOS for D2D enabled), I get a brief msg indicating that the system is entering recovery mode, but then–the WINXP load logo, and things grind to a halt. Have attempted disconnecting/reinstalling the battery; the hard drive; the memory sticks. Any thoughts???

Vida, about a week ago I was plugged into the internet w a wired cnction, i tripped and the ethernet cable was ripped out of the port on the side of the comp. Now if i try to cnct to the internet through the same port the green light by the port only lights up 10% of the time if that. If the ethernet cable is plugged im no longer able to cnct to the int. Do you think this may be something i can fix myself like replacing the port?? Or would I be wiser to take it into a comp prefessional? In most laptops the eithernet port is soldered to the motherboard. In order to find out what is wrong you’ll have to disassemble the laptop and take a closer look.

Can you do it yourself? If not, I would take the laptop to a professional repair shop. I have the same problem as #52 – Vali: A 5102WLMi Aspire notebook, and all 3 USB ports show OK in Device Manager, but can’t recognize any device plugged into them. Tried Chipset Driver updates, BIOS Phlashing, several different OS clean installs – no go! Googling shows quite a few people with this problem, but Acer doesn’t own up to it being a regular issue they should fix. A PCI adapter serves to some extent, but bandwith doesn’t seem big enough for my Logitech webcam – it freezes after a few seconds, and stays frozen.

Help, somebody! Hi, On our aspire 5100 we installed 4 gb ram (2x2gb) about a year ago. At that time it was running vista home premium (the version which was pre-installed). Windows recognized 3.25Gb of ram. We formatted, and reinstalled win vista (original, came with laptop), but now vista only recognizes 2.3gb of ram. Re formatted again installed xp this time. Only 2.25gb are recognized.

In bios all 4gb are recognized.(3.8 to be exact) We tried to switch ram modules around, same thing, even replaced one with a 1gb module but still, windows only recognizes 2.25gb.What is the problem? Hi, a beer was tipped over onto my laptop and I caught it very quickly – it was a small amount and I popped off some of the keys and wiped under them. It was near the shift key on the right lower side of the keyboard.

For a while the screen wouldn’t show anything legible and then after a few days it worked fine until now. The screen is very jumpy and grainy but you can still read what’s on it. Could I get some circuit board cleaner and take the key board off perhaps?

Great tutorial and well photographed! Doug Seton, a beer was tipped over onto my laptop and I caught it very quickly – it was a small amount and I popped off some of the keys and wiped under them. It was near the shift key on the right lower side of the keyboard. For a while the screen wouldn’t show anything legible and then after a few days it worked fine until now. The screen is very jumpy and grainy but you can still read what’s on it.

Apparently, you’ve damaged the motherboard. Could I get some circuit board cleaner and take the key board off perhaps? I doubt that cleaner will help. You’ll have to remove the top cover and take a closer look at the motherboard to find out what’s going on. I you find corrosion, you’ll have to replace the motherboard.

Bought my son a laptop, Acer 3634Wlmi.The laptop picture is dim(You can just make itout).Currently it works with an external monitor, so I bought a second hand screen and replaced the other 1.Still the same problem. Managed to get another 3634, which had screen flicker. I replaced that screen with the second hand screen and the screen works perfect. So know I know the problem in the other 3634 is elsewhere, somewhere in the base.Any ideas??

Both laptops work excellently. Thx in advance Iain. P.S Have checked all connections from screen to base(only 3 lol), and all fine •.

Carl, I have a used acer aspire 5100, every now and then the screen either goes black or white with horizontal gray lines. I reseated the lcd connecter and still same thing. Should i replace the lcd or is it a inverter issue? You still can see the screen and it’s bright even though it has only horizontal lines, so it’s not related to the inverter. You’ll have to test your laptop with an external monitor. If external video works fine, you have either bad LCD (most likely) or bad video cable (less likely). I’ll be as clear as I can.

First Acer 3634 has dim screen.Works fine with external monitor. I got a second hand screen(whole display).We will call this Fred. I changed whole display, Just disconnected 2 wireless and mobo connection. I then connected up Fred to first Acer. The result is the same(dim screen).

I have second Acer 3634. This has a screen with colours running vertically across screen in lines, but if you hold top corner of screen(squeeze)you get clear picture. So I replaced whole display with Fred, same procedure as above.

Second Acer now works fine.No problems. So I can deduce that first Acer problem is not inverter or backlight because Fred works in second Acer. I haven’t gotten around to testing first Acer screen in second Acer. But from Fred I know screen is not problem. Any more info you need please ask. Thx again Iain •.

Hi, wonderful site! I have an Acer Aspire 5100 running Vista Home Premium, 32bits, at 1.8ghz. I recently had the RAM upgraded from 2gb to 4gb, replaced with identical product. The new 4gb shows in BIOS and System Information but still only shows original 2gb on Task Manager Performance and system is not using the added memory. Acer wants to charge big money for a phone call because warranty has expired. Do you have any ideas on what might be happening or how to get the system to actually ‘use’ the added memory?

Any help at this point would be much appreciated. hello mr tech first of all very very good quide. Here is my concern I have an aspire 5515 is very very close to the 5100 visually its almost the same thing but inside it came with a amd athlon single core 2650e clocked to 1.60 ghz 3 gig of ram vista 32 bit and a built in ati radeon x1200. Iain Foster, First Acer 3634 has dim screen.Works fine with external monitor. I got a second hand screen(whole display).We will call this Fred.

I changed whole display, Just disconnected 2 wireless and mobo connection. I then connected up Fred to first Acer. The result is the same(dim screen). I have second Acer 3634.

This has a screen with colours running vertically across screen in lines, but if you hold top corner of screen(squeeze)you get clear picture. So I replaced whole display with Fred, same procedure as above.

Second Acer now works fine.No problems. So I can deduce that first Acer problem is not inverter or backlight because Fred works in second Acer. You are correct. It sounds like the first Acer laptop has a problem with the motherboard. Fred assembly is working fine with the second Acer laptop, so Fred has no problem with LCD or inverter.

I guess you’ll have to replace the motherboard on the first Acer laptop. Doris, I recently had the RAM upgraded from 2gb to 4gb, replaced with identical product. The new 4gb shows in BIOS and System Information but still only shows original 2gb on Task Manager Performance and system is not using the added memory. Try upgrading your Vista to SP1. Make sure the laptop has the latest BIOS installed. Update the BIOS if needed.

Check out other downloads available for your laptop, maybe Acer issued some kind of update which improves the system performance. Here’s an example. I had an HP Pavilion dv5000 notebook and the CPU speed never was reported correctly in the system properties. I tried everything to fix it but nothing worked.

Finally, I fixed it by updating the BIOS to the latest available version. I think my hard drive is toast on my Acer Aspire 5100. It won’t boot, comes up with a menu recommending “Launch Startup Repair” or “Start Windows Normally”.

Neither seems to do the trick. The hard disk light comes on for awhile, then goes our. If I launch Startup Repair, it flashes an unreadable (very quick) blue screen, then restarts all over. Starting Windows normally just doesn’t go either. My question is, does it sound like the hard drive? If so, can I replace it with a comparable SATA drive and use my factory rrestore disks to make everything good again?

Thank you, Jeff •. Hello, I have an Acer Aspire 5100 I’ve only had it for a little over a year and I guess it got a virus and shut down and it had black screen with words saying somehting about scan. My son was using it at that point so not sure. I tried to shut down and it was slow it took hours to go to window screen. I called acer but the restore didn’t work. I thought I had a recovery disk stuck it in to override and it worked fine but color looked different.

Come to find out it was sons Dell XP because the key code wouldn’t work. I called Acer to pay for a recovery disk, they sent it and it was loading everything went through like 45 minutes and then said it was writing the files and finishing and then black screen. Why did it work with the Dell XP but not teh original recovery disk? What can I do now? Hello IML Tech, Many thanks for the tech support you offer.

I purchased Acer 5100 in Nov 2006 and it was opened last week for the first time to upgrade RAM from 512 MB to 2 GB. It is working fine. Yesterday I was surprised to see a small dipression, a centimeter wide, on the panel caused just below the function key. It appears that the panel has melted from inside and I think it due to over heating. I am worried about the safety of my system. I have cleaned the fan and the ventilation using a vacuum cleaner. Should I attempt to clean the heat sink.

Would you recommend cooling pad to take away excess heat? Please suggest. josie millington, having terrible problems with my daughters acer aspire 5100, keeps hanging soon after start up, cant do anything with computer except turn it off First of all, I would suggest testing laptop memory and hard drive. You can run Memtest86+ and test RAM. By the way, if you have two memory modules installed, try removing them one by one and test the laptop with each memory module separately. If the laptop works fine with one of them, but hangs when another one is installed, the second module is bad. If the laptop hangs with each module, apparently your problem is not related to memory.

Run diagnostics on the hard drive. Remove the hard drive and find out who made it. After that visit the manufacturer’s website and download the hard drive test. Test the hard drive. JefFLH, I think my hard drive is toast on my Acer Aspire 5100. It won’t boot, comes up with a menu recommending “Launch Startup Repair” or “Start Windows Normally”. Neither seems to do the trick.

The hard disk light comes on for awhile, then goes our. If I launch Startup Repair, it flashes an unreadable (very quick) blue screen, then restarts all over. Starting Windows normally just doesn’t go either.

My question is, does it sound like the hard drive? Yes, your problem could be related to the hard drive. Also, it’s possible you have a problem with memory. Before you purchase a new hard drive, run memory test. You can use Memtest86+.

If you don’t want to test the memory, you can try removing memory modules one by one and run the restore with only one memory module installed. If everything works fine with one of the modules installed, most likely the second one is defective and has to be replaced. Can I replace it with a comparable SATA drive and use my factory restore disks to make everything good again? Yes, you can do that. The restore disc doesn’t requires the original drive to be installed. You can install a compatible drive and run the restore.

It will reimage the drive back to factory defaults. Angie, I have an Acer Aspire 5100 I’ve only had it for a little over a year and I guess it got a virus and shut down and it had black screen with words saying somehting about scan. My son was using it at that point so not sure. I tried to shut down and it was slow it took hours to go to window screen.

So it took you hours to boot to the desktop? There could be a problem with the hard drive. Access the hard drive, find out who made it and visit the manufacturer’s website. Download the hard drive diagnostics utility and test the drive. If it fails, you’ll have to replace the hard drive. If you cannot find diagnostics utility, try Hitachi’s drive fitness test, I linked to it in Useful Links on the right side. Hitachi’s DFT works with many different drives.

Great sitereally easy to understand instructions! I have an Acer Aspire 5100 and the only problem with it is the CD/DVD drive.

It doesn’t read any discs that I put in, but when I double click on the CD icon a box pops up that says the CD is a blank one and do I want to format it. It hasn’t been working for nearly a year now, and until I came across this site I didn’t expect to be able to get it fixed – warranty has run out and it will take too long and too much money. However, I am sure that I can follow your instructions to take the CD/DVD drive out. Now my two questions aredo you have instructions on how to install a new drive?

And, do you recommend that I replace it myself? (Is it safe or will I likely break the whole computer? Lol) Thanks in advance for your help!

Hello, I am unable to test anything with my hard drive because my computer doesn’t ever get past the black screen. A little back ground, I put in my sons dell xp recovery by accident and overrode everything on acer 5100. I realized when I went to register the prI oduct. My computer worked fine, so I am pretty sure the hard drive works. I called acer to purchase recovery disk and when I received them they went through the process but when it said at the end, the loading all files it went to a blank screen and the fan still runs. I never get past that screen.

I called acer paid for their support, they said dell xp is still sitting there and I tried downloading iso burner from another computer onto a cd to load to my acer but nothing happens it still does’t get past the blank screenI have tried researching but haven’t found anything out there. Can I just purchase a new windows software that overrides everything and get a new product key? Chris, Hey, i dont understand why you need to remove the hard drive, dvd, wireless card and all that just to clean out the fan. I took the panel off the back of my acer and used a knife to clean some dust inbetween the fan and the bronze part and my computer is running much faster now. You don’t have to remove all these parts. In my guide I explain how to dissemble the laptop, not just clean the fan.

Can someone explain if i can clean it out more without removing all those other parts (dvd, wireless card, hard drive, ram, keyboard, etc.) You can remove just the cooling fan and clean it with compressed air. raj, i replaced my laptop keyboard, however it doesnt work. I try to readjust the conection, then sometime i get my pc beeping as if a key is held, i open text pad it show 000000 or sometimes ]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] whatever If the laptop didn’t work properly with the old keyboard and a new one didn’t fix it either, apparently there is a problem with the keyboard controller on the motherboard. Most likely you’ll have to replace the motherboard. hi, this is really useful website. Do you offer advice?

I have an acer 5100 series, approx 3 yrs old. Just developed a problem with it, keeps freezing/locking up. I’m convinced this is a hardware fault. I originally thought the hard drive was packing up so i changed it from a 100gig pata to a 250gig pata, doubling the ram mem from 1gig to 2gig at the same time. I ran the recovery disc which reinstalled xp media center back to original factory settings.

Problem still keeps occuring though. You can tell when it’s going to happen as the sound played by the computer is distorted. I took it to repair centre and they just said it was fine after running windows updates. Took it home, hey presto problem re-occurred about 2hours later.

The repair centre said they reseated the processor. I think it’s motherboard related, probably a dry joint? Don’t have enough pc savvy to go any further though. Any advice would be greatful.

Ant, i have an aspire 5100, core duo 1.6, 2gb ram, the problem is i left the laptop on when i came back the led on the power supply was flashing and the laptop was off, now with a new, correct power supply it shows no sign of power at all, i have stripped it down and checked the power socket on the board and checked for burn marks but nothing! Sounds like a problem with the motherboard. It’s possible that you have a blown power fuse. In most cases you can find the power fuse somewhere close to the power jack. You can check the fuse for continuity with a multimeter. If the fuse is OK, I guess you’ll have to replace the motherboard.

Hi there, r n my acer aspire 5100 laptop’s does not boot (even with a boot CD). The repair centre has said that the hard disk is the problem. The solution recommended is replacement of the hard disk (with the old hard disk be returned to me for recovering data) or they ”redo” the current HD but at the cost of all data loss.

I want to replace the hard disk as I do not want to lose the data. Can you pl guide how do i go about doing this and also recovering the data from my current hard disk.

The laptop is currently not starting at all. Can you pl advise. amit, i want to replace the hard disk as I do not want to lose the data. Can you pl guide how do i go about doing this and also recovering the data from my current hard disk. I don’t know how badly your hard drive damaged but you can try the following method.

Buy an external USB enclosure for laptop hard drives. Make sure to choose the right one. If you have an IDE hard drive installed, you’ll have to buy an IDE enclosure.

If you have a SATA hard drive installed, you’ll have to buy a SATA enclosure. Remove the hard drive from your laptop. Install the hard drive into the enclosure and connect it to another working computer. If the hard drive damage is not too bad (maybe a few bad sectors), you should be able to access it through My Computer and back up the data. rhino, i have an aspire 5100 cant set the time clock any more What do you mean you cannot set the time clock? You cannot enter it at all or the time sets back to defaults when you restart the laptop? Guess the battery needs changing on the mobo like a pc but i been told cant be changed.

I believe the CMOS (RTC) battery is soldered to the motherboard. Yes, you cannot unplug the battery like in a desktop computer, but you can unsolder the old one and solder a new one (if you can find a replacement battery). Hey, A friend of mine had a little problem with the right click, so somehow she tried to open it with her nail file (please don’t ask me why!) and since then she doesn’t have any sound on her computer. Now I wasn’t there when this happened, maybe a driver problem occurred at the same time, I don’t know.

I should go to her house next week so I’ll figure it out. Do you know if I can fix the right click? Do you know if a cable for the sound is going near this pad? Thanks Phil PS: I’ll might find somewhere in my house a usb mouse anyway PPS: I’m reading everything here, but it is going to take some time! i get beep beep when i start my acer aspire 5100, it only starts when i put pressure to left of keypad, then if i make slightest movement when im using it it freezes and i get a blue screen. I’ve replaced the hard drive but still getting same problem, from reading other posts it sounds like motherboard is knackered or has a loose connection! Where is the CPU chip???

As i have read other posts that if it has a loose connection it will have the same effect so i want to check it but cant seem to locate it, any ideas?? ryan, i get beep beep when i start my acer aspire 5100, it only starts when i put pressure to left of keypad, then if i make slightest movement when im using it it freezes and i get a blue screen.

I’ve replaced the hard drive but still getting same problem, from reading other posts it sounds like motherboard is knackered or has a loose connection! Maybe it’s bad memory module or defective memory slot? Do you have two memory modules installed? Try removing them one by one and installing into different slots. Test the laptop with each module installed into each slot. Hi, I really think I have a problem.

My Aspire 5100 has 2 problems but I think they are connected because they happened at the same time, apparently when you try to boot the computer up most of the time the screen does not come on but you can hear the fan and you can see the power light on. And number 2 is that when the computer finally comes on it sometimes freezes and turns to a blank screen of what ever color I was looking at with vertical lines. Is this a software problem or may I need to buy a new laptop. This has been going on for a couple weeks now, any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance. I have had this computer for about 2 years now •. I’m having the same problem with my Acer 5100 Aspire as ryan: “i get beep beep when i start my acer aspire 5100, it only starts when i put pressure to left of keypad, then if i make slightest movement when im using it it freezes and i get a blue screen” Every ten or so reboots will work and I am able to access Windows and everything else as normal.

However, if I have more than one application is running my comp will freeze for over 20 minutes and then power off. Sometimes I get the blue screen (of death). Afterwards, and everytime that I’d attempt to restart I’d see the pxe rom media test failure error that prompts me to check a cable. All of this led me to believe that my HDD may be corrupted.

Recently, I have found that if I squeeze the sides of my laptop (discovered out of frustration) during boot up that windows will start, half of the time abnormally, but my comp seems to respond to pressure. If there is anyone who has any insight on this issue and can help me out I would greatly appreciate it. I dont wanna replace my HDD if this same thing will keep happening •. I got myself a free ( broken down ) acer aspire AS5101AWLMI, it has the following problem: in the bios there is no HDD or DVDrw visible.it’s just blank. Replacing the HDD gives the same result.

Also did a succesfull bios upgrade, new CPU, new ram, but the problem remains with the following error: PXE-E61: media test failure, check cable PXE-M0F: exiting PXE ROM after some adjustment i’ve turned off the LAN booting option, removed the HDD & DVDrw an managed to install Ubuntu from an USB stick to an USB stick and IT WORKS!!! Now i can use the laptop with my USB stick as an HDD with Ubuntu It’s not ideal sollution, slow booting, freezing up for a couple of seconds and more minour stuff. But i still want to get the HDD and DVDrw working again, so i can install windows 7 on it.

Anyone had any idea what the problem is and if it’s something that can be fixed? Any help will be most appreciated! I have an Acer Aspire 5100 laptop of which the keyboard and the touchpad will not respond. Steps that I have taken: Fn+F6 Fn+F7 Hard reset: I have also performed a hard reset (taking the battery out and unplugging the AC power cord, then holding down the start button for sixty seconds, then restarting the computer with out a battery but with the AC plugged in). Uninstall of devices through Device Manager: I have checked the device manager and both devices are running properlyI have uninstalled them and reinstalled them through the device manager. Install of new drivers Reinstall of Windows Vista History: This same thing happened a couple of weeks ago and I was able to fix it thenI thought that I fixed through uninstalling and reinstalling in the device manager, but it didn’t work this timeI was thinking also that maybe deleting them in the registry might do the trick.I have a USB Keyboard plugged in right now and a mouse.

Also, I can not use the keyboard, even before Windows boots up •. Wellsince IML Tech doesn’t really help you guys with the usb,touchpad and keyboard issue I’ll try to give you a hand.

First of all this particular model of Acer is a piece of crap.if you google a little bit you’ll find that there are litteraly thousands of people with the same problem. It’s apparently a motherboard issue that Acer was aware of from the beggining. If you’re able to enter BIOS then a simple OS reinstall will do. For the ones that aren’t able to enter bios at all well.there’s one last (not so great) solution.

Use a PCMCIA USB card and use and external keyboard and mouse. And you’ll also find out that the webcam is no longer working(since it uses also a usb connection to the motherboard).

Afterwards if you want to reinstall the OS it will get interestingsince you cannot actually “press any key to boot from CD or DVD”. You’ll have to format the HDD first,externally (because then the installation from the CD will start automatically).

Hope this helps you guys. PS: There’s one last solutionChange the motherboard (200$.not such a great price though) Cheers •. I have an acer 5515. The mouse was working fine yesterday morning as i was taking a bunch of programs that i don’t need off my computer. The same day when i use it at night, MY MOUSE DOESN’T RESPOND. The mouse only works if i press F8 and go to system repair (the first option). I know from reading some articles that this is a software issue, but how can i fix it if i can’t get past the password screen (keybord doesn’t respond on safe mode, safemode with networking, etc.) idk how to format my computer, i don’t have a backup disk,and i don’t have a way to put windows back on my computer (the computer came programed with vista already on it) and i don’t want to wreck it for good •.

Lauren, i have an acer 5515. The mouse was working fine yesterday morning as i was taking a bunch of programs that i don’t need off my computer. The same day when i use it at night, MY MOUSE DOESN’T RESPOND. The mouse only works if i press F8 and go to system repair (the first option). I know from reading some articles that this is a software issue, but how can i fix it if i can’t get past the password screen (keybord doesn’t respond on safe mode, safemode with networking, etc.) You can try starting the laptop with an external USB keyboard. There is a chance that it will work. Start in safe mode.

If the external keyboard works login and use system restore. Restore the operating system back to the day when it worked properly. I am having the same problems as several of your other customers, keyboard unresponsive, and I can’t help but notice the “copout of an answer” that is being given to most of the consumers with this problem! When the keyboard on a laptop that is prctically brand new goes out and it is a motherboard issue, that only suggests one thing to me, and others I am sure, and that would be that your laptop is a waste of my hard earned money as well as my time in even considering the purchase!

I am curious if there is gonna be a recall on the items seeing as its obviously a manufacturing issue? I spent a hell of alot of money buying this poorly thought out contraption only to be met with disappointment at the answer to how it can be repaired! Never again will I consider your product as its obviosly not worth the taxes I paid on it, let alone the purchase price!!! Hi IML Tech, I have made some progress thank you, now I can turn on the laptop. Now I am having difficulty reformatting the harddrive using xp home cd, it loads all the drivers from the cd “set up is loading files” but it freezes at the “set up is starting windows” stage, I have tried using different ram but the problem still persists. I am reformatting it because I suspect a virus is causing boot issues – it freezes everytime at the windows start up logo screen and safemode will not work either – please help me? I am running out of time.

Thanks, Kenny •. this is now the second night i have not slept, i have tried a lot of things and this laptop will still not reformat, I am still stuck at “set up is starting windows” stage pressing alt and f10 with d2d turned on in the bios will not give the factory restore option, instead it beeps once and the screen stays black with a single white flashing cursor.

In a moment of absolute rage I took it out and plugged it into my desktop, reformatted the entire disc, wiped it clean, stuck the harddrive back into the laptop, ran the xp cd.still freezes in the “set up is starting windows stage” I tried to install xp on it using my desktop, this time it gets past the “set up is starting windows screen” but 20 seconds later after the windows logo screen, it gives this blue screen error 0x0000007B (0xf78A2524 0Xc0000034 0x00000000 0x00000000) I am not sure it this is relevant. I sspect I am missing a sata driver or something. I am so tired, the pressure is really on, if anyone can help me, I will be beside the computer. Great I have been making progress with the help of my friend Bob. By using Windows 7, the computer is now up and running again.Hurray!! Just letting you know that Windows 7 is an exceptional piece of software, well worthwhile checking out. Now all I am missing is the web cam drivers.

Can’t complain tho, at least the seemingly impossible situation was resolved by windows 7. Come on Linux!

If you have a copy of the web cam drivers, it would be much appreciated. The driver isnt on acer’s website. Hi I have had my laptop for about 2-3 years now, and lately(has happened 1-2 times) I will return home from work and open my laptop, only to find that my screen is black and I can’t really do anything. Well in the past, as this happens I just turn it off and turn it back on and the screen turns back on. Now, it hasn’t turned back on, so I plugged my laptop into the monitor upstairs and it works, so I have figured out that it is the screen somehow. So, I am wondering how do I know what to replace? The Inverter, or the screen itself?

The screen is completely black, there is nothing on it, it is not turned on •. Joe, Now, it hasn’t turned back on, so I plugged my laptop into the monitor upstairs and it works, so I have figured out that it is the screen somehow. So, I am wondering how do I know what to replace? The Inverter, or the screen itself? The screen is completely black, there is nothing on it, it is not turned on If the laptop works fine with an external monitor but there is nothing on the LCD, most likely the problem is somewhere inside the display panel. I don’t think it’s related to the inverter board because you have no image on the screen.

With a failed inverter you should get at lease a very faint image. In your case the screen is completely blank, so it’s not the inverter. It’s possible you have: 1. Bad connection between the video cable and LCD screen/motherboard. Bad LCD screen. Bad video cable.

I would try reconnecting the cable first. Reconnect on both ends, on the back of the LCD screen and motherboard. There is a chance to fix the laptop this way. Joe, USB ports no longer work, except for the single port on the left side of the keyboard near the ethernet plugin, and even that one doesn’t work consitently. When I plug things into them it says “computer unable to recognize device” and it does this for anything i plug in there. Could be software or hardware related problem.

Try reimaging the hard drive from the recovery disc. If USB ports still fail even after you reimaged the hard drive back to factory defaults, it’s a hardware problem.

MY CD-ROM drive hasn’t been detected for almost a year now. It is just no where to be found can’t play/burn cds because its as if I don’t even have a drive Also, could be software or hardware issue. Can you see the CD/DVD drive in BIOS? If you can, find a bootable CD or DVD. You can use Windows installation CD, life Linux CD (Knoppix for example), recovery disc or any other bootable disc. Try booting your laptop from a bootable disc. If you can boot the laptop from a CD/DVD but the drive doesn’t appear in Windows, most likely it’s a software related problem.

I was wondering if you have any experience of ACER ASPIRE 9301AWSMI? Mine has recently stopped driving the external display. I have obviously tried all the software configs to make sure nothing has messed up, and they all seem fine.

The laptop appears to think the monitor is there when it is plugged in, but the monitor is not actually being driven (it’s fine when tested with another PC). So, I would like to open things up to see if there are any bits that can be replaced, or at least removed for inspection.

I know the VGA connector has some play in it, so I’m wondering if something could have come loose. There are numerous screws underneath but I’m a little anxious about just undoing everything.

If you could advise that would be most welcome. Thanks, Martin. Some time ago I asked your advice regarding the built in web cam on the Aspire 5610. I’d like to thank you for helping me out with this problem on this infernal laptop. The advice that you gave fixed a problem which a whole building full of tech guys couldn’t sort.

The problem is the web cam works only intermittently. Serial Key Instagram Downloader For Windows. The reason is that the very small wires are routed through the base of the lid, under the right hinge, under the panel leds and plugged onto the m/b at JP38. The exact spot at where these tiny wires are prone to bending is at the hinge area and this should be the first place that people should look where connection problems are occurring. I have an acer aspire 5100 series. I broke the screen but using your guide i replaced the screen with no problems.

However, i attempted to install a payg usb modem and it crashed the laptop (froze). Since then it always crashes on the windows xp loading screen (freezes and does nothing) whether on safe mode or last known good configuaration or normal. I have opened the pc and cleaned the fan. I suppose the next step is to attempt to format and re-install but i have documents which i need to retrieve from hard drive. Excellent website •.

Petrocles, I have an acer aspire 5100 series. I broke the screen but using your guide i replaced the screen with no problems.

However, i attempted to install a payg usb modem and it crashed the laptop (froze). Since then it always crashes on the windows xp loading screen (freezes and does nothing) whether on safe mode or last known good configuaration or normal. I don’t think that LCD replacement is related to laptop freezing in any way. I suppose the next step is to attempt to format and re-install but i have documents which i need to retrieve from hard drive. You can get your files using an external USB enclosure. Firstly, thanks for getting back to me, really appreciate it. I should point out that I did have a power connection problem which I believe is resolved now, although it did result in a failed restore which half formatted the hard drive.

Even so, I would expect the message ‘nltdr is missing’ and be able to access BIOS to run from back up. Have tried all permutations of RAM installation with no success. New hard drive has come and been installed, (waste of money but they’re pretty cheap these days) and it didn’t work. The unit powers up, appears to try to reference the hard disk but obv there is no OS to load and because I have a blank screen, which flashes on start up but nothing else, I can’t tell it to boot from disk.

Any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Lucia S, I want to replace my laptop (Acer aspire 5103) internal hard drive and need your advice about what to do back up wise before I attempt this It depends. I don’t know what you want to keep from the old hard drive.

Most people keep just “My Documents” folder which includes “My Pictures”, “My Music”, “My Videos”, “Favorites” etc If you don’t want to keep anything, you don’t have to make any preparations. Simply replace the hard drive and run the recovery disc to reimage it back to factory defaults. Could you advise me whether 250 gb is the biggest memory it will take or could I go higher? If the laptop works fine with a 250GB drive, it should work fine with any other larger drive. I think you can safely use 320GB or even 500GB drives.

I am attempting to repair a Aspire 5100 series, model BL51. Here is my current issue: originally the laptop was giving a missing file error when booting windows XP.

Decided to dump and reload windows for my friend. However when I got the laptop home I find that it does not detect the Hard Drive or CD-ROM. I pulled the hard drive and Cd-rom both out and plugged them back in thinking maybe my connection got loose with no luck. I plugged the hard drive into a pc (using a cool little adaptor) and can see that the drive is ok.

However I still cannot get the laptop to detect the hard drive or cd-rom drive. I can hear the cdrom spin and I think I can hear the hard drive spin. But no luck on detecting either one. Not sure what my next step should be. Is it possibly the motherboard? How expensive is a new motherboard for this laptop?

when i boot the laptop it sporadically locks at a black screen which continually scrolls through the message below. INTEL UNDI, PXE-2.0(build 082) FOR REALTEK RTL8139(X)/8130/810XPCI FAST ETHERNET CONTROLLER v2.13(020326) PXE-E61: MEDIA TEST FAILURE, CHECK CABLE PXE-M0F: EXITING PXE ROM it wont go any further. If you shut it off it will reboot to the normal desktop or it will do it again. It has on occasion made it to the desktop and flashed over to this black screen and displayed the same message. The laptop is 2 years old and has nothing fancy on it.

It has also been wiped clean once of all NON OS files and programs. The system now looks as if it just came from the store. scott, when i boot the laptop it sporadically locks at a black screen which continually scrolls through the message below.

INTEL UNDI, PXE-2.0(build 082) FOR REALTEK RTL8139(X)/8130/810XPCI FAST ETHERNET CONTROLLER v2.13(020326) PXE-E61: MEDIA TEST FAILURE, CHECK CABLE PXE-M0F: EXITING PXE ROM it wont go any further. If you shut it off it will reboot to the normal desktop or it will do it again. Usually you can see this message when the laptop is trying to boot from network.

It happens because: 1. The hard drive is dead. Laptop cannot see the hard drive. There is nothing installed on the hard drive (no OS). Here are some troubleshooting steps: 1. Enter the BIOS setup menu and make sure the laptop can see the hard drive.

Try reconnecting the hard drive. Unplug it from the motherboard and plug back in. It’s possible the hard drive is not making good contact with the motherboard. Try replacing the hard drive. If you have the same problem with a new hard drive, apparently the motherboard has a faulty IDE channel or defective HDD connector. If that’s the case, you’ll have to replace the hard drive.

First of all, try reconnecting the hard drive. Miahi D, i have an aspire 5100 and for the last 5 days i have a problem with it. I change its position or angle for example if i take it from the table to put it on my lap it freezes. If i keep it on the table everything looks fine and it works normally, but everytime i change its position it stops responding. Instead of moving the laptop, try applying some pressure on different parts of the top cover (keyboard bezel, palm rest, etc) Will it freeze the laptop? If the laptop freezes when you press on the top, it’s possible that you have a faulty motherboard.

Just a guess. Also, try reconnecting memory modules. It’s possible that one of the modules is not making good connection with the slot. desiree7790, Acer 5100, the screen started to be black, after while, it’s turn off, when I try to turn on, it just keeps on for some seconds and turn off again, I tried to do different things like remove battery and use the cord only, but nothing happens, how can I fix it? Take a closer look at the screen when it goes off.

Do you still can see a very faint image on the screen? If the image is still there, most likely you have a problem with the screen inverter board which is located inside the display panel under the LCD screen. The inverter works like a power supply for the backlight lamp. When inverter goes bad, the screen backligth stops working. Sean H, To answer your question it does not see any hard drives or cd-rom drives in the bios. Does this sound like a BIOS issue or a motherboard issue? Most likely the motherboard issue.

I guess IDE channels/channel is fried. I will try flashing the bios next. That’s a good idea. Who knows, maybe reflashing the BIOS will help. If you think it is a motherboard issue where can I order a new board? I’m not working a lot with Acer laptops but I know that the best way to find a replacement part is searching by the manufacturer’s part number. Not sure when Acer places the part number but it must be somewhere on the motherboard.

Here’s my suggestion: 1. Remove the motherboard and find the part number.

Maybe it’s on a sticker in the memory compartment or under the keyboard. It will look something like that: DAZG1SMB8E8. Will be different numbers but same format.

Google the part number. Sergio_1210, I have a problem with my acer aspite 5100when connect any USB (cam, pendrive, external, etc.) in any port the laptop freezes It’s hard to tell what is causing the problem without testing the laptop. Could be software related issue. Go to the device manager and delete all entries related to USB ports. Restart the laptop and let it re-detect USB ports.

Test the laptop if the problem is fixed. If not, go to the step 2. Back up all personal data and reinstall Windows from scratch.

You can reinstall Windows from the recovery disc. If reinstalling Windows from scratch doesn’t help, most likely there is a problem with the motherboard.

You’ll have to replace it with a new one or use the laptop as is. Also, you can try using a PCMCIA-USB card instead of regular USB ports. You plug this card into the PC slot and get 2 or 4 USB ports on the other end. Bobby Turner, I have an acer aspire 5100, it has a bluetooth switch on the front which is not connected to a bluetooth device, i.e. When you click the switch it says ‘No bluetooth device’.

I was wondering where to install a bluetooth module if i purchase one, and if you have a guide for it. The Bluetooth module is mounted inside the case.

You can see it on the page 66. The Bluetooth connector is on the motherboard close to the audio jacks. You can see the connector on the top right picture. The Bluetooth module itself is shown on the same page on the bottom right picture. Here’s my problem today my Aspire 5110 went into standby mode and didn’t wanna wake up when I hit a key. I had to power down and after that it didn’t make it to the boot screen. I mean, I press the power button, the power and hdd leds light up and the screen stays black.

The keyboard is not responding either (can’t access the bios). The cpu fan revs up for a couple of seconds, then drop down to normal speed. I checked the ram and cpu (since I have a replacement just sitting around), but no luck. At this point I’m suspecting the motherboard. Any ideas (before I order a new motherboard)? nick, i have a aspire 5100.

Runs really slow since i installed norton 360 want to replace ram. It has 2 512mb now what kind should i get to replace it?

Acer Aspire 5100 can take up to 4GB or memory, so you can install up to 2GB memory module into each slot. You should use PC2-5300 DDR2-667 200pin SDRAM SODIMM modules.

In short it’s called PC2-5300 memory for notebooks. By the way, if you run XP, it will see only about 3GB. Will i lose any thing or have to reinstall anything?

Nope, you will not lose anything. All your data is stored on the hard drive, not in memory.

I have an acer aspire 5100 and the first thing that happened while it was still under warranty was the orbicam stopped working. Acer sent instructions on how to download an update it never worked. Rolling the OS back to windows xp media center edition had it working a few days but then it was out again.Customer service gave me the run around until the manufacturer warranty ran out. Next thing to happen was the usb ports stopped recognizing anything. I was thinking it was a driver issue but i am unable to find any and windows is telling me the drivers are up to date.

The final thing to happen was the keyboard and touchpad stopped working pcmcia usb card enabled me to connect an external mouse and keyboard but I will be out of luck when this too fails. While searching for a solution I found that the issues I am facing are common with this series, I am at a loss as to what I should do and where I should look next. I have an Acer Aspire 5100 with Vista on it.

I don’t have a recovery disk because they didn’t supply one and when I went to make one, it didn’t work right and I never got any answers. Well, it was working one night and I got up the next morning and it won’t start-up. I hit the power button and it goes where it show the whit Acer screen with the blue writing. I have no idea how to recover this or anything. I was looking for the cmos battery but cannot find in hopes that it would reset it. Please Please help me. Dowayne B, Well, it was working one night and I got up the next morning and it won’t start-up.

I hit the power button and it goes where it show the whit Acer screen with the blue writing. I have no idea how to recover this or anything. Here’s what you can try. Turn on the laptop and press F8 when Acer logo appears on the screen. Hopefully it will take you to the boot menu.

Select Last Known Good Configuration and press Enter. Wait until the laptop reboots and restores Windows. It might help. randy, I have a BL51, Aspire 5100. I have 2- 2 gig memory chips and they were working perfect.

I upgraded the CPU to a TL-50 and flashed the bios. Now both memory banks won’t work. The laptop will only run with 1 -2 gig chip. It doesn’t seem to be the chips. I’ve switched them and they both work but only at 1 chip at a time. I also put the chip in another laptop and it was fine.

Any thoughts on what it might be? Do you mean one memory bank stopped working completely, or you still can use both banks but only with one module at a time? I downgraded to version 2.84 which was the only one I could downgrade to.

I originally had version 1.xxx. Still doesn’t work. I’ll run on 2 gigs. I have a new problem, now the touchpad doesn’t work. It’s funny, I have 3 Acer laptops and never had one bit of a problem untill now. Oh well, I’m going to either replace the touchpad or buy a new laptop. Acer’s been good to me so far but if things are going to start going I mine as well cut my losses before they mount up.

BTW, I love the site, thank you for your help, happy holidays! I have 2 Acer 5100 laptops with basically the same problem.

One was my son’s that he was using for college. I liked it so much after setting his up that I bought one for myself.

After 2 years or so he reported that his stopped working. I told him to bring it home with him and I would fix it. I did not have any luck so I gave him mine. He called 2 days later and said that mine was doing the same thing. I had used mine daily for almost 2 years with no problems whatsoever so I suspected something in his environment.

After a lot of questions and answers I believe that I isolated the problem to a full size USB keyboard (the musical variety) that he had plugged into both of the laptops. The keyboard had an AC adapter but my son did not use that, so the keyboard was drawing all the power from the USB bus. That said, both of the 5100s lock up when you attach any USB device to any of the USB ports. One of the units will actually unlock if you remove the USB device, reinsert it and then remove it again. The second 5100 has to be crashed and rebooted.

Have you heard of this problem before? Is there a separate USB board or module off the motherboard or do I have to replace the entire motherboard? Thanks – Randy •. Randy, both of the 5100s lock up when you attach any USB device to any of the USB ports. One of the units will actually unlock if you remove the USB device, reinsert it and then remove it again. The second 5100 has to be crashed and rebooted.

Have you heard of this problem before? You said your son was using laptop with a musical USB keyboard. Most likely he has to load some kind of special device driver for this keyboard.

I’m thinking maybe the keyboard driver is causing this problem? Try uninstalling this driver if you can or reinstall Windows from scratch.

If all USB ports start working after reinstalling Windows, it’s a software related problem. Almeida, My laptop is working very slow now a days. When surfing on the internet, playing songs from my extern hdd. What can I do to make it faster? I`m thinking to increase the RAM, by inserting two AMD Athlon 2,8 Ghz or similar. What do you recommend? Was it faster before?

Maybe you have too much software running at the same time? Maybe your laptop is infected with spyware? I don’t know if increasing RAM will help because I don’t know the operating system you are running and how much RAM you have installed already.

I’m sure that replacing the CPU will not help a lot. Hi, i’ve bought an Acer Aspire 5102 WLMI (it’s just the same as the original 5100, only with different stickers) from a friend of mine.

I’ve bought it very cheap because the sound wasn’t working. I thought it was a driver issue because that friend isn’t that good with computers, and i repair and sale them for living.

So, i i went to the hardware properties, and indeed, there was no sound-card installed, but there wasn’t a piece of hardware what wasn’t installed, so i thought it was the problem of the OS (Vista Home Premium with no services packs) So, i grabed the Recovery DVD’s and started recovering. With a new version of Vista updated to SP2, still no sound card installed, or a alert with the unkown hardware.

So i downloaded Everest Ultimate, he couldn’t find a sound card either. Then i booted up from a, some older, Ubuntu Live DVD, he could find the sound ( An ATI/Realtek sound card, wich does make sence because of the ATI chipset.) But i could not get any sound from it, Ubuntu said that it was his own fault because he didn’t have the right drivers. Now i’ve installed Windows 7 Ultimate, and still the same problem under Vista? I tried to get the latest BIOS on it (3.-) but there isn’t a feature to enable/disable the sound. What can i do? Hi.I have been trying to solve a USB prob on my Acer 5199,,the fan was replaced as well as the Harddrive, for 2 months I have searched and asked for a solution, came upon this website and was reading the posts.I see post #412 has the same problem but I did not see a solution, so I will ask.

I have just reinstalled Windows XP for the 2nd time.It is XP spk2, I also tried it with service pack3 but no go. I am actually going to try and older bios version to see if it will solve the prob unless someone can give me and idea please. When any thing is plugged into one of the 3 usb ports, it comes back “hardware unrecognizable” etc. I have managed to get everything else working on this thing except the usb.Please help. Acer wants me to pay them $169.00 and send them the laptop.after which I am sure the bill would go up from there.I have already spent the $$$ on a fan (was very hard to find one working) and the HD.plus the time spent working on this thing.the computer seems to be a nice one.but totally useless without usb capabilities.

Hopefully this is the place for the solution.TY •. Kris, since then i have been trying to get into the recovery process but everytime the booting part comes up it hangs and i have been constantly trying to find ways to get into the recovery process Do you have two memory modules installed? Try removing memory modules one by one and run the recovery process with only one module installed (try different modules). It’s possible that one of the modules is bad.

If replacing/reseating memory modules doesn’t help, probably this is the motherboard related failure. Susan, I have just reinstalled Windows XP for the 2nd time.It is XP spk2, I also tried it with service pack3 but no go. I am actually going to try and older bios version to see if it will solve the prob unless someone can give me and idea please. If I understand correctly, you reinstalled Windows XP from scratch but it didn’t fix your USB ports.

Sounds like a problem with the USB controller on the motherboard. Unfortunately, the only way to fix it would be replacing the motherboard.

Alternatively, you can use a USB PCMCIA adapter. My acer was getting slow. It just had msn messenger on it and a few other programs. It still had around 89% free space on it. I desided to put in the recovery disk to clean it out completly. Its been a while since i use it as a main computer (i sued it only with msn messenger) so i wanted to restore it. The problem is that now when i put in the recovery disk it will start up and when it gets past 25% the computer will turn off.

I kept trying and trying to restor it but each time it just turns off. I have mad sure it is conected to the outlet sevral times already and it has been. I have no idea what it can be. Any idea would be greatly appreciated. Cindy, The problem is that now when i put in the recovery disk it will start up and when it gets past 25% the computer will turn off. I kept trying and trying to restor it but each time it just turns off. I have mad sure it is conected to the outlet sevral times already and it has been.

I have no idea what it can be. Youtube Program Directv Remote here. Any idea would be greatly appreciated. It’s possible that your laptop shuts down because of overheating. It happens when the cooling module (heat sink and fan) gets clogged with dust. Clean the cooling module if it’s clogged with dust and try running the recovery disc again. Here’s what you can do without taking your laptop apart.

Buy a can of compressed air and spray it into the air intake on the bottom of the laptop. This will clean most dust from the cooling module.

Try running the recovery disc after that. My acer was getting slow. It just had msn messenger on it and a few other programs. It still had around 89% free space on it.

This also could be related to overheating. Trevor, I have a travelmate 4230 and I was using my computer earlier but not when I try to turn it on nothing happens. The fan turns on for about 3 seconds and then stops. No beeping, no monitor, no hard drive operations. What do I do? Is it the mother board?

Is it the hard drive? Could be faulty memory module. Do you have two memory modules installed in your laptop?

Try removing them one by one and turn on the laptop when only one module is installed. It’s very unlikely that both modules failed at the same time.

The laptop should start properly when the bad one is removed. My 5100 is DEAD after a failed BIOS update to 3.10 (or was it 15?) Booted up from a CD and launched FreeDOS. Ran the upgrade program and fed it the BIOS file.trouble The update stopped after a few%, and locked up completely. It remained there for a few hours until all I could do was remove the battery cold.

Now it shows NO response whatsoever when I hit the power button. Absolutely no sign of life whatsoever, not even a LED when I plug in the power. How do I go about troubleshooting?

Do I have to replace the BIOS chip manually perhaps? Where is it placed on the motherboard? I am confused – hope you can clarify for me. I have been told that my Acer Aspire 5100 Model BL51 needs new hard drive. I removed the drive and i is a Hitachi Travelstar 120GB ATA/IDE drive.

Your answers to previous questions say that I should be able to go to a 250GB Hard Drive and you say to look for SATA – but is that right????? If my factory drive is IDE then should I be buying SATA? I am having trouble finding a 250 GB drive that says IDE on the web Your link above “where to order replacement parts” takes me to Ebay, but the 250 GB hard drive all say SATA.

Thanks for a great site! Deb King, I am confused – hope you can clarify for me.

I have been told that my Acer Aspire 5100 Model BL51 needs new hard drive. I removed the drive and i is a Hitachi Travelstar 120GB ATA/IDE drive. Your answers to previous questions say that I should be able to go to a 250GB Hard Drive and you say to look for SATA – but is that right????? Apparently, Acer Aspire 5100 laptops had two different hard drive types installed.

In the laptop I used in this guide it was a SATA hard drive. In your laptop you have an IDE hard drive installed. If my factory drive is IDE then should I be buying SATA? Nope, you should be buying another IDE hard drive. I am having trouble finding a 250 GB drive that says IDE on the web I don’t think that large IDE hard drives (for notebooks) are very common. You can replace your failed drive with another 120GB or use a 160GB IDE drive.

Isabel, I have an Acer Aspire 5100. The laptop keyboard doesn’t appear to be working. Windows boots up as far as the login screen but I can’t type anything in. The fn keys don’t work (eg to get into safe mode or the bios) which seems to confirm the keyboard isn’t responding. If the keyboard stopped working on the BIOS level, most likely this is a hardware related failure. I cannot tell if this it the keyboard or motherboard related failure without testing the laptop. If you are ready to disassemble the laptop, here’s what you can try.

Try reconnecting the keyboard cable on the motherboard. Maybe the connection is loose. Disconnect the keyboard cable from the motherboard and start the laptop. If the touch pad works fine when the keyboard is disconnected, it’s possible that you have a faulty keyboard. Leave the keyboard connected and disconnect the touch pad cable instead. If the keyboard works fine when the touch pad is disconnected, it’s possible that there is a problem with the touch pad or touch pad cable. Great site!

Sorry for the noob question, but I have a Acer Aspire 5100-3949. I want to upgrade the ram because it’s SO SLOW (running Vista). I have 2 x 512MB [2Rx16 DC2-4200S-444-12] in there right now and was either going to get 2x1g or 2x2g sticks, but I’m not 100% sure if I should get the kind stated above [PC2-533 DDR2-667MHz 200pin SODIMM RAM] because I bought my labtop several years back and don’t know if it’s outdated or not. Would someone kindly offer me some advice and point me in the right direction? RamProblems, I have a Acer Aspire 5100-3949.

I want to upgrade the ram because it’s SO SLOW (running Vista). I have 2 x 512MB [2Rx16 DC2-4200S-444-12] in there right now and was either going to get 2×1g or 2×2g sticks, but I’m not 100% sure if I should get the kind stated above [PC2-533 DDR2-667MHz 200pin SODIMM RAM] because I bought my labtop several years back and don’t know if it’s outdated or not. You should be able to use 2x2GB and max your memory to 4GB. PC2-5300 DDR2-667 200pin SDRAM SODIMM RAM should work just fine. Ok i have read alot of what people have to say on this site. And i have a problem as many of you here 😉 well my aspire 5100 have gone black screen but everything else works (HDD, DVD,Fan,lights).

Sometimes when i boot up the Acer logo apears and boots up windows for some secs then the screen goes black with white lines or red lines. If i reset it (take of battery and unplug AC and holding in on/off boton) i could go on for some seconds again. If i dont reset it i wont go on. I was thinking that maybe its the heat or the memory or maybe even the GPU so i open up my 5100. I cleaned the fan and put some new Cpu paste on CPU and GPU. That didnt work.

Maybe its the memory. I removed the 2 modules and placed them at difrent modes. I started up by useing one at the time. Its boot up for some minutes with one of the memory modules. So my question is, could this be that both of the memory mofules are faulty.? Or could it be the GPU? And another strange thing, if i take out both memory modules and boot up without them i only gets black screen.

Hello i have a acer 5100 laptop that the keyboard and touchpad do not work.So i purchased a new keyboard and the darn keyboard and touchpad still do not work tried unplugging keyboard and the touchpad cable and hook up usb mouse and keyboard from my acer desktop,and they also are a no go.Seems like no power on usb ports.On start up i get the acer logo then it just goes to a black screen.Could the motherboard be defective and is there a way to check the motherboard?Thanks in advance for any feedback •. First, the laptop would not turn on most of the time.

I kept it on forever instead of turning off when I could get it to go on. Than it constantly crashed with a blue screen with something like remove space, BIOS, etc. Now it just won’t turn on again after my brother redid the whole operating system. He thinks the screen is broken. I do not know.

I put the power on, the fan goes, but I see nothing. This has been one of the original problems since the start, but now I can’t get it to wotk at all. Hi Unfortunately, this series of motherboards (Aspire 5100) have (often )similar troubles. If you’re lucky, only USB ports (and Cam) are not working, but generally, the problem involves DVD drive, touchpad and keyboard. The main solution is replacing defective motherboard, but in this case, the less expensive solution is purchasing a PMCIA USB2 card, in order to ‘save’ your notebook. If you’re able to do it, you have to verify ‘south bridge’ weldings ( ATI chip near touchpad connector) and refreshing them, but if anything (excluding USB ports) is working, the only way is a PMCIA USB card Regards Donald •. Jordan, the laptop would not turn on most of the time.

I kept it on forever instead of turning off when I could get it to go on. Than it constantly crashed with a blue screen with something like remove space, BIOS, etc. Now it just won’t turn on again after my brother redid the whole operating system. Could be bad memory (RAM). If you have two memory modules installed in your laptop, try removing them one by one and test the laptop with each module separately. If one of the modules is bad, the laptop will work fine when this module is removed.

He thinks the screen is broken. I do not know. I put the power on, the fan goes, but I see nothing. This has been one of the original problems since the start, but now I can’t get it to wotk at all. I doubt that your problem is related to the screen but I cannot tell without testing. If it’s only a bad screen, you should be able to use the laptop with image output on the external monitor.

Test your laptop with the external monitor. Can you get external video?

Jason, If the fan isn’t spinning and your screen does not come on, only the green power light, the likely cause is a fried processor. When the fan stopped spinning, the processor overheated causing failure. There is a chance the motherboard circuitry could have been damaged in the process as well. From my experience, CPU failures are not as common as motherboard failures.

If you don’t know which one is causing the problem, I would definitely try replacing the motherboard first. But first of all, check the memory. It’s possible one of the memory modules is bad on not seated correctly. Here’s what I would try: 1. Try reconnecting memory modules, try installing them one by one in different slots and test the laptop. If you have only one memory module installed, try replacing it with known good memory.

If reseating/replacing memory modules doesn’t help and the laptop doesn’t start, most likely this is the motherboard failure. Try replacing the motherboard. ritesh said: i upgraded my 2gb ram to 4gb – 2X2gb ram same kinds.well it sees 3800mb in bios but will only see 2gb in vista 32bit.anything that you know might help me.thanx Chris said: 32bit only supports up to 2, you need to get a 64 bit version or try updating your BIOS. Or just switch to windows 7 and solve a lot of problems According to Windows developer center, physical memory limit for Vista 32-bit is 4GB, take a look here: I’m not sure why you can see only 2GB, maybe some kind of Software/hardware limitations. Are you running Service Pack 1? If not, try upgrading to SP1.

THank You SO MUCH for the reply! Unfortunately, I did not look here, I though I’d get a notification email Stupid me. So, I did by the laptop, and indeed I am lost now.

Again, it is Acer Aspire 5100. When I got it, it booted XP SP2, but froze fully after about 20 seconds after displaying desktop.

DUring that time, I could move the mouse, open programs etc – everything looks perfect but after that, nothing, freeze. It did this every single time, even in safe mode.

I tried to install new windows. First XP SP3, then SP2. In both cases, it started loading things from CD, and froze exactly at the moment when it showed a message: starting windows now (so it was installing for about 2 minutes). Then, it froze completely again. THen, I tried to install perhaps 8 years old linux (SuSe 7).

It formatted the disk and froze later during the installation. I tried to boot – it shows a nice picture of a penquin, starts booting, checks the disk and freezes later on again. Now with the formatted disk I tried to install windows again – and it freezes in 2 minutes again. Exactly at “starting windows”. THank You, Petr •. Hello i have had my aspire 5100 for a few years now i bought it brand new from circuit city after i graduated high school and its worked fine but lately it has had a problem with starting up when i power it up it shows the aser loading screen then goes to a black screen that says intel undi, pxe-2.0 (build 082) copyright (c) 1997-2000 intel corporation for realtek tyl8139(x)/8130/810x pci fast ethernet controller v2.13(020326) then it blinks pxe-e61: media test failure, check cable pxe-m0f: exiting pxe rom. Was just curious if anyone had a clue what was wrong with it or how i could fix it.

I had my brother in law look at it and he said one of the soter points was broke on the board and there was probably no fixing it but i was just curious if anyone had experienced this before and if they were able to fix it or if im outta luck and am going to be in search of a new laptop. Thanks for the help. CONTINUATION OF PREVIOUS POSTS: After lots of research and dismantling, days, I have found that ATI IXP 460 must have gotten hot at some point – the clear plastic above it is partially melted/glued to it and there is even a small melted dent at the bottom edge of the keyboard, to the left of the touchpad. So, the chip is the culprit. I spent all my money on this laptop is it really GONE??

Is there any way how to make it work?? If not – can I make the laptop work partially at least? (with some very old system, or external keyboard, etc) THanks a lot Petr And, Thank You guys for having such a wonderful forum – I have found here info I never dreamt existed. Hey I have a Acer Aspire 5100 running on Windows XP Home Edition. Left my laptop on for a few days ( i know this not a good idea). Came back to it and when I moved the mouse to get it off the screensaver, the whole thing froze. Resorted to switching it off by the on/off button.

On reboot, it got as far as the windows xp loading icon and then screen went blank. Noticed that the edges of the keyboard was extremely hot, felt like I’d burnt my finger it was so hot.

Anyway, checked the hdd in another computer and it seems to be fine, however on loading the computer again after checking the hdd, there was nothing, just a blank screen. I think it could be the motherboard that has gone. If so, could you tell me whether or not it is worth getting it repaired or simply to get another laptop cheers •. Tanya, I have an acer aspire 5100 when i turn it on i either get 2 short beeps and i get a blk screen saying some message with f1 and f2 as an option or it will go to a blank blk screen. Every now and a again i can get it running. What is going on with this thing?

Not sure 100% but possible memory (RAM) failure. Do you have two memory modules installed? Try removing them one by one and test the laptop with each memory module separately. It’s very unlikely that both modules failed at the same time. The laptop might start properly when the bad memory module is removed. rajko, i have same problem as ” DOJA”. Laptop is acer aspire 5101 ANWLMi and when i turn it on the screen is black!!!

Fan and main light are working. Any suggestions?

Take a closer look at the laptop screen. Is is completely black or you still can see a very faint image? Test your laptop with an external monitor.

Can you get video on the external monitor? If not, it’s possible you have memory failure. Try reseating memory modules.

Try removing memory modules one by one and test the laptop with only one memory module (either one) installed. .Hi again, i tryed with external monitor but screen is black.

Tried to remove memory module and put in second slot, also nothing still cant boot Maybe this will help: when my laptop ”died” i connected external HDD and maybe some electrical shock happened:S so my guess is that motherboard is problem. In computer service said me also that but i think that they didnt checked that at all.

This is second time when my screen was blank, first time i removed battery and left laptop for 1-2 hour and than all was ok. But now it isnt! Help please •. My Acer 5100 laptop won’t start anymore.

It was working propertly until i shut it down, then upon startup it doesn’t show anything on the screen, and it keeps going to a power on, power off cycle every 3 seconds. I opened it up and i found one of the foam thingie (covered with a metal mash) tuching one memory module. I removed both the memory modules, and now the laptop starts, it;s not restarting, but nothing comes on the screen. I’ve tried with another memory module but the same.

What can i do? Me again... I didn’t notice that your site is in English, so I guess I must to repeat mi comment and questions.

My Apire 5100 runs but doesn’t recognize the mouse, the keyboard and someone said that it could be the Motherboard. Could it be possible?

I’ve having my laptop since the last 4 years. I saw at your tutorial and feel myself confidence to disassamble the keyboard but I made a mess. The picture isn’t clear so I couldn’t define If the plug connector is complete or just the plastic part Thank you for your help. Great Article!

Been looking for something like this for my personal laptop:] My problem my laptop loads the BIOS, but only SOMETIMES can it recognize that the hard disk and DVD drive are attached. Other times, it does not believe I have them connected, and returns to a blank console, and does not boot the OS.

This usually happens if I jostle or move the machine to fix this, I usually ctrl+alt+del to restart the BIOS, and try various tapping or shaking the laptop until it “sees” that I have these devices attached. Once done, I have to be very careful not to “move” the machine, for fear that it will suddenly crash. Does this sound like a busted drive, or a busted connector cable? And if the latter, is this integrated into the motherboard? If this is so, it sounds like mother board is toasted:[. Anything I could do in this case?

Steve, I have an Acer Aspire 5100 and I recently tried to do a factory restore through the Alt+F12 method and it got to about 25% and shut off. Now when I try to repeat the process, it shuts off after about 2 minutes. I can’t even re-install the OS. Replaced the thermal compound, and cleaned the fan.

Battery works fine and charges, so I know the power cable works too. Take a closer look at the fan. Does it spin at all? If not, this could be heat related failure.

Also, this problem could be related to the hard drive or memory failure. If you have two memory modules installed, try removing them one by one and run OS restore with only one memory module installed. The restore should finish properly when the bad module is removed. You can test laptop memory with Memtest86+ utility.

You can use Seagate SeaTools or Hitachi Drive Fitness test to test the hard drive. Michael, I have uninstalled camera through device manager and rebooted and the camera is detected but when it initializies instead of a picture I get a grey box. It’s hard to tell what is wrong. Could be bad webcam or software issue. You can try reinstalling Windows from scratch. If the webcam exists even after that, most likely it’s bad webcam module. If you don’t want to reinstall the OS.

Buy one with the cable. When you get it, you unplug the existing camera from the motherboard and plug the new new. After that start the laptop and test the camera.

If the new camera works fine, you’ll have to disassemble the display panel and replace the webcam. Michael, I have changed the webcam but I still get the same problem as before that is the camera comes on and actually takes pictures but all I get is a grey box.Shortly before it went grey I was having a problem with the usb ports, as now they’re working as 1.1 instead of 2.0 so I don’t know if it is related. You didn’t mention USB failure before. Most likely it is related. The laptop webcam is actually a USB webcam. It’s connected to one of the internal USB ports on the motherboard. If all laptop USB ports stopped working properly, most likely the internal port failed too and because of that the webcam cannot start.

If that’s the case, there is not much you can do. The USB port controller integrated into the motherboard and when it fails, the whole motherboard has to be replaced. If you need USB ports, you can use an external PCMCIA USB card. Here’s another guess. Maybe there is nothing wrong with the webcam BUT you have a faulty webcam cable. It’s possible the webcam cable failed (maybe there is a pinched wire inside the harness) and because of that all USB ports and webcam stopped working. You can try disconnecting the webcam cable from the motherboard and test the laptop USB ports after that.

If they still not working properly even after you disconnected the webcam cable, most likely it’s just failed USB controller on the motherboard.