How to disassemble Acer Aspire 5745 laptop

In this guide I explain how to disassemble an Acer Aspire 5745 series laptop (I’m taking apart Acer Aspire 5745G-6726).

The guide might work for some other Acer Aspire models. If it works for you, please mention the laptop model number in the comments.

I’ll go though the following major disassembly steps:

STEP1-4: Removing hard drive, memory. Accessing CMOS battery and wireless card.
STEP 5-11: Disconnecting and removing keyboard.
STEP 12-15: Removing top cover assembly.
STEP 16-21: Disconnecting and removing laptop display panel.
STEP 22-25: Removing laptop motherboard.
STEP 26-27: Accessing laptop cooling fan and DC jack harness.

Before you start, make sure the laptop is turned off and battery removed.

STEP 1.

Remove eight screws securing the hard drive and memory cover.

One of the screws (green) securing the DVD drive.

Lift up and remove the cover.

STEP 2.

Under the cover you’ll find the following components:

- Hard drive.
- Memory modules.
- CMOS battery
- Wireless card.

For the purpose of my guide it’s not necessary to remove memory modules, CMOS battery and wireless card. You can leave them connected to the motherboard.

By the way, Acer Aspire 5745 laptop has FOUR memory slots. This laptop can handle up to 16GB RAM total (4GB RAM module in each slot).

Acer Aspire 5745 laptop takes PC3-8500 DDR3-1066 memory. In order to take advantage of all 16GB RAM you’ll have to run a 64-bit OS.

STEP 3.

Remove the hard drive.

Simply slide it to the left to disconnect from the motherboard and lift up.

This is a regular 2.5″ SATA hard drive.

STEP 4.

Pull the DVD drive and remove it from the laptop.

The DVD drive was secured with one screws (green) which we removed in the step 1.

STEP 5.

The keyboard is secured by six spring loaded latches.

STEP 6.

In order to remove the keyboard you’ll have to push in all six latches.

Push on the latch with a small flat head screwdriver. When the latch pushed in, the keyboard will lift up a little bit.

STEP 7.

Lift up the top side of the keyboard and place it upside down on the palm rest.

STEP 8.

Now you can access the keyboard cable connector. You’ll have to unlock the connector and release the cable before you can remove the keyboard.

STEP 9.

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

In order to unlock the connector, lift up the right side of the brown locking tab. It will open up at a 90 degree angle.

STEP 10.

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

Now you can pull the keyboard cable from the connector.

STEP 11.

Remove the keyboard.

If you are looking for a new replacement keyboard for Acer Aspire 5745 laptop, you can find it here.

STEP 12.

Remove all screws securing laptop case on the bottom.

STEP 13.

Remove nine screws securing the top cover assembly.

Disconnect four cables.

STEP 14.

Start separating the top cover assembly from the bottom case as it shown on the following picture.

STEP 15.

Remove the top cover assembly.

STEP 16.

In the following part of the guide I’ll be removing the display assembly.

The wireless card antenna cables are mounted inside the display panel.

In order to separate the display panel from the laptop base it’s necessary to disconnect the wireless card antenna cables.

STEP 17.

Carefully disconnect both wireless card antenna cables (white and black) from the wireless card.

Unroute both antenna cables on the bottom of the laptop.

STEP 18.

Release both antenna cables.

STEP 19.

Disconnect the video cable connector from the motherboard.

Unplug the web camera cable.

Both cables are glued to the cooling fan assembly. Carefully lift up and unglue both cables.

STEP 20.

Remove two screws securing display hinges.

STEP 21.

Lift up and remove the display panel.

In one of the next guides I’ll explain how to replace the LCD screen.

STEP 22.

Remove one screws securing the motherboard.

Disconnect the USB board cable from the motherboard.

STEP 23.

Before you can remove the motherboard you’ll have to unplug the DC jack cable. This cable located under the cover we removed in the step 1.

STEP 24.

Lift up the left side of the motherboard and start removing it from the bottom case.

STEP 25.

The motherboard removed.

STEP 26.

You can remove the cooling fan assembly following these steps:

- Remove/loosen seven screws securing the heat sink.
- Disconnect fan cable from the motherboard.
- Carefully lift up and remove the cooling fan assembly.

STEP 27.

In Acer Aspire 5745 laptop the DC jack is not soldered directly to the motherboard.

The DC jack attached to the harness.