Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

33

Time Required

                          20 minutes

Sections

7

  • Battery
  • 3 steps
  • Wireless Card
  • 5 steps
  • Keyboard
  • 4 steps
  • Top Case
  • 6 steps
  • Internal Wireless Card
  • 3 steps
  • Motherboard
  • 6 steps
  • Hard Drive
  • 6 steps

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Introduction

What you need

Step 1

              Battery
  • Turn the netbook upside down with the battery at the top, facing away from you.

Turn the netbook upside down with the battery at the top, facing away from you.

1024

Step 2

  • Unlock the battery by sliding the switch located near the left hinge to the left “unlocked” position.

Unlock the battery by sliding the switch located near the left hinge to the left “unlocked” position.

Step 3

  • Slide the latch located on the opposite hinge from the lock while pushing the battery up.

Slide the latch located on the opposite hinge from the lock while pushing the battery up.

Step 4

              Wireless Card
  • Gently loosen the two Phillips #0 screws in the small panel that covers the wireless card.
  • These screws are built into the panel and aren’t meant to be completely removed.

Gently loosen the two Phillips #0 screws in the small panel that covers the wireless card.

These screws are built into the panel and aren’t meant to be completely removed.

Step 5

  • Lift up the panel and remove it from the case.

Lift up the panel and remove it from the case.

Step 6

  • Disconnect the two antenna cables from the left side of the wireless card.

Disconnect the two antenna cables from the left side of the wireless card.

Step 7

  • Remove the single 3.9 mm Phillips #1 screw from the bottom left of the wireless card.

Remove the single 3.9 mm Phillips #1 screw from the bottom left of the wireless card.

Step 8

  • Gently lift up the left side of the wireless card and slide the card out of its socket.

Gently lift up the left side of the wireless card and slide the card out of its socket.

Step 9

              Keyboard
  • Turn the netbook over and open the display so that the keyboard is facing you.

Turn the netbook over and open the display so that the keyboard is facing you.

Step 10

  • There are three tabs located on the top of the keyboard.
  • Start with the spudger pointing towards the display and pry up to push each tab off the keyboard.
  • As you move to the next tab, ensure the previous tab doesn’t reset itself.

There are three tabs located on the top of the keyboard.

Start with the spudger pointing towards the display and pry up to push each tab off the keyboard.

As you move to the next tab, ensure the previous tab doesn’t reset itself.

Step 11

  • Lift top of keyboard up. If it doesn’t lift easily, there may be tabs on the sides - use the tool to ease them aside and/or shift the keyboard from side to side.
  • There is a short ribbon cable connecting the keyboard to the netbook.

Lift top of keyboard up. If it doesn’t lift easily, there may be tabs on the sides - use the tool to ease them aside and/or shift the keyboard from side to side.

There is a short ribbon cable connecting the keyboard to the netbook.

Step 12

  • Disconnect the ribbon by lifting the black plastic hinge and removing the clear blue cable.

Disconnect the ribbon by lifting the black plastic hinge and removing the clear blue cable.

Step 13

              Top Case
  • Close the display and turn the ZG5 over so that the battery compartment faces away from you.

Close the display and turn the ZG5 over so that the battery compartment faces away from you.

Step 14

  • Remove three 5.8 mm Phillips #0 screws from the bottom of the case
  • Remove three 3.9 mm Phillips #1 screws from the battery compartment.
  • Remove two 5.8 mm Phillips #0 screws from underneath the feet near the hinges.

Remove three 5.8 mm Phillips #0 screws from the bottom of the case

Remove three 3.9 mm Phillips #1 screws from the battery compartment.

Remove two 5.8 mm Phillips #0 screws from underneath the feet near the hinges.

Step 15

  • Turn the netbook back over and open the display with the keyboard cavity facing you.

Turn the netbook back over and open the display with the keyboard cavity facing you.

Step 16

  • Flip up the retaining flap on the trackpad ribbon cable ZIF connector.
  • Using the blue tab, pull the trackpad ribbon cable from its socket on the motherboard.

Flip up the retaining flap on the trackpad ribbon cable ZIF connector.

Using the blue tab, pull the trackpad ribbon cable from its socket on the motherboard.

Step 17

  • Remove the five black 4.7 mm Phillips #0 screws from the metal casing.
  • Remove the single silver 4.3 mm Phillips #00 screw from the right side of the metal casing.

Remove the five black 4.7 mm Phillips #0 screws from the metal casing.

Remove the single silver 4.3 mm Phillips #00 screw from the right side of the metal casing.

Step 18

  • Starting at the red rings along the hinge, insert a spudger or plastic opening tool into the seam between the two halves of the case.
  • Slide the spudger toward the front of the device, releasing the small clips that hold down the top case.
  • Gently lift off the top case.

Starting at the red rings along the hinge, insert a spudger or plastic opening tool into the seam between the two halves of the case.

Slide the spudger toward the front of the device, releasing the small clips that hold down the top case.

Gently lift off the top case.

Step 19

              Internal Wireless Card
  • Disconnect the two antenna cables from the right side of the wireless card.

Disconnect the two antenna cables from the right side of the wireless card.

Step 20

  • Remove the single 3.9 mm Phillips #1 screw from the wireless card.

Remove the single 3.9 mm Phillips #1 screw from the wireless card.

Step 21

  • Gently pull the wireless card to the right and slide it out of its socket.

Gently pull the wireless card to the right and slide it out of its socket.

Step 22

              Motherboard
  • Disconnect the display cable from the top left of the motherboard.

Disconnect the display cable from the top left of the motherboard.

Step 23

  • Disconnect the speaker cable from its socket on the motherboard.

Disconnect the speaker cable from its socket on the motherboard.

Step 24

  • Remove three 3.9 mm Phillips #1 screws from the small I/O board.
  • Remove a single 3.9 mm Phillips #0 screw from the front of the motherboard.
  • Some laptops may instead have a single 4.7 mm Phillips #0 screw.

Remove three 3.9 mm Phillips #1 screws from the small I/O board.

Remove a single 3.9 mm Phillips #0 screw from the front of the motherboard.

Some laptops may instead have a single 4.7 mm Phillips #0 screw.

Step 25

  • Remove the two 4.7 mm Phillips #1 screws that connect the display to the motherboard.

Remove the two 4.7 mm Phillips #1 screws that connect the display to the motherboard.

Step 26

  • Gently lift the I/O board up from the right side of the case.
  • The I/O board is attached to the motherboard by a short cable.

Gently lift the I/O board up from the right side of the case.

The I/O board is attached to the motherboard by a short cable.

Step 27

  • Lift the entire motherboard assembly out the case.

Lift the entire motherboard assembly out the case.

Step 28

              Hard Drive
  • Turn the motherboard over so that the RAM is facing up.

Turn the motherboard over so that the RAM is facing up.

Step 29

  • Disconnect the I/O board from the motherboard.

Disconnect the I/O board from the motherboard.

Step 30

  • Remove the two 4.7 mm Phillips #0 screws that hold down the hard drive.

Remove the two 4.7 mm Phillips #0 screws that hold down the hard drive.

Step 31

  • Pull the hard drive straight out from the motherboard.

Pull the hard drive straight out from the motherboard.

Step 32

  • Remove the four 3.9 mm Phillips #1 screws from the hard drive casing.
  • There are two screws on each side of the casing.

Remove the four 3.9 mm Phillips #1 screws from the hard drive casing.

There are two screws on each side of the casing.

Step 33

  • Remove the upper and lower casing from the hard drive.

Remove the upper and lower casing from the hard drive.

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

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                                      with 7 other contributors 


                    Doug Gallatin

Member since: 10/05/2010

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                       Cal Poly, Team 7-49, Amido Fall 2010                        

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                                            20 Guides authored

Rudy Fernandes - Apr 5, 2014

Reply

Excellent guide. This “student” should be promoted to “instructor” right away. Many thanks.

James Stallings - Feb 11, 2016

Reply

This guide helped a lot with refurbishing my old ZG5. It now has a case that is not cracked, 1.5 GB memory, and a 240GB SSD. I get to put off Windows 10 for a while longer.

Martiniano Vera Enrique - Mar 15, 2016

Reply

Thanks a lot! i already upgrade memory from 1 to 1.5 on my acer. But i have a question, does the aoa 150 works faster with a ssd disk? i want to try with one of 240 gb. Anyone try it?

Jim MacKenzie - Nov 27, 2016

Reply

Not the easiest upgrade I’ve ever done (perhaps the most difficult, actually), but I got it done. Removing the keyboard was the trickiest step for me. Be patient. If you can work one of the corner releases, you can put a flat-blade screwdriver under the corner of the keyboard and work on the other releases (starting at the far corner, then the centre).

The other tricky problem I had was getting the little ribbon cable for the trackpad properly reconnected after completing the project. (I thought the keyboard cable would be the tricky part, but it turns out to be pretty easy.) Be patient and you’ll be fine. You may want to test (with a mouse handy) before you reinsert the keyboard.

Thanks very much for this howto!

Chuck Pilger - Feb 24, 2017

Reply

I had one of these little beasts that my son gave away about 6 years ago. The person he gave it to returned it to him a month later because it would not turn on. It was a case of the boot sector problem that plagues the ZG5. I performed the repair described on the Acer web site and it has been running fine ever since. After installing Linux Mint (dual boot), it was finally given away again last summer. Now it seems it is coming back to me. This might be the time to upgrade it with an SSD. Thanks for this tutorial. I will probably be making use of it over the next few weeks.

Chuck Pilger - 02/23/2017