Acer AS5516 - Upgradable?

Hmm, I think one of the short ones holds the MB down but I can't think of where the other one might go.
 
There are 4 silver screws that are shorter along with 1 black stubby screw. They all secure the MB to the lower case. Look for the screw holes that have the gold circle around them. There are 2 on the same edge where the stubby black one screws into the corner. The other 2 silver ones are more in the middle of the board. I just upgraded mine to TL-52 Turion X2 and it works great!
 
Can anyone tell me exactly how to remove the keyboard from the eme627? I have replaced a keyboard before on a dell and it was simple, but for some reason the latch holding the ribbon does not want to open. I tried using a small flat head screwdriver and a butter knife with no avail. I don't want to brick the laptop from applying too much pressure. :(

Btw I'm trying to upgrade to a tl-58.
 
I have been looking for this information since blackfriday and i couldnt find it. The worst thing is i come everyday to this forum and this was the last place i looked.

I bought 2 eme627 on blackfriday now i want to upgrade them with a TL-60 (TMDTL60HAX5DC) the 31w not the 35w (TMDTL60HAX5CT).
 
I just upgraded my BF 627 The ribbon cable connectors slide in the direction of the cable with pressure from the side. I alternated pressure from one side to another with a flathead jewelers screwdriver. There was one ribbon cable connector that was tighter than the rest, you just have to be careful and use steady, small movements from the wrist.

Good luck.
 
JerryL said:
I just upgraded my BF 627 The ribbon cable connectors slide in the direction of the cable with pressure from the side. I alternated pressure from one side to another with a flathead jewelers screwdriver. There was one ribbon cable connector that was tighter than the rest, you just have to be careful and use steady, small movements from the wrist.

Good luck.
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Thank you so much. I spent the better part of an hour frustrating over that haha.
 
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I just upgraded the CPU (again) to a Turion X2 TL-60 (2.0Ghz - TMDTL60HAX5DC). Runs only slightly warmer but I don't notice the fan coming on any more frequently. Also not much hotter than when I had the TL-52 chip in there. After dissambling and assembling this thing a couple of times, It is a snap. Upgraded to 4g's of RAM and this thing screams. Microcenter has this laptop (emachines E627) online and in stores for $299.
 
I have the E627 that I got from Fry's and installed a TL-58. It feels slower to me than when the TF-20 was installed. My experience index went up, however, I am wondering if there is a communication problem from one of the devices? If a connector was loosely reconnected would it behave like this r simply not boot. Also, is the experience index based on CPUID or an actual stress test that Windows 7 does?

I am currently restoring to the original state to see if that makes it snappier.
 
hypaspazz said:
I have the E627 that I got from Fry's and installed a TL-58. It feels slower to me than when the TF-20 was installed. My experience index went up, however, I am wondering if there is a communication problem from one of the devices? If a connector was loosely reconnected would it behave like this r simply not boot. Also, is the experience index based on CPUID or an actual stress test that Windows 7 does?

I am currently restoring to the original state to see if that makes it snappier.
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I'm new to this forum, but have worked on PCs for many years, though I don't consider myself an "expert." I have same E627 notebook from Microcenter but haven't upgraded CPU yet ... I'm trying to get a TL-60 now. If it feels slower but the Experience Index increased, not likely hardware related. Did you re-install Windows? I would not consider upgrading from single to dual-core CPU without Op Sys re-install ... drivers are different and Windows sets up differently for 1 versus 2+ cores. If problem were hardware related, you would have serious crashes or a component would fail or not start. Did you check the device manager for error flags or missing devices?

Hope this helps. Thanks to KTT and Czechster for the pics and upgrade directions in earlier posts in this thread. I plan to upgrade soon ...

btwp01 :cool:
 
I have the E627 and just purchased the TL-58. The TF-20 is too slow for me. I had better luck with my Intel 1.6ghz M. Though the HD3200 is a really nice upgrade along with 2gb ram(will be upgrading) and a 140GB hdd. I can't wait for the CPU to arrive ^_^ ~$30 for the CPU.
 
Anyone know if you can upgrade the lcd to a higher resolution? I've seen a few 15.6" laptops that are 1920x1200. Would it be possible to just buy one of the 1920x1200 15.6" LCDs and replace the current one with it?

Before I know it, there wont be any of the original parts left in this franken-laptop :p
 
Dunno if you can...but the screen that comes with it is pretty nice for such a low resolution. My 5516 has a Radeon X1200, wonder if I can get the motherboard for 5517 with the Radeon 3200.
 
Well, I found a Radeon 3200 Based board over on ebay, from a 5517 and picked it up for $65. Hoping it'll work as with everything set to ultra low the 3200 is at least able to game (Dirt 2 runs at about 34fps on the 3200 I tested on before biting the bullet), which is more than I could say about the craptastic x1200 that comes with this laptop.

One thing that I hope vendors such as Asus, MSI and Gigabyte notice is that there is a segmant of us that are willing to build our own laptops. I sure hope Shuttles attempt at making a standart laptop format is successful, as I'd love to build my ultimate gaming laptop peice meal like I (or should I say, we) kinda did with the 5516. I don't know about you guys but I would be more than happy to pay a little more to buy laptop parts from a reputable dealer like newegg or ZipZoomFly...Till that day comes I will deal with My little Acer and hope that the 5517 board fits into the 5516 chassis.
 
Let us know how it goes! The emachines version had the 3200 so all i had to upgrade was the processor. Based on the looks of the chassis I bet you can get it in there! good luck.

J.L.
 
Well, it worked, What originally started as a 1.6Ghz Single Core Athlon, with 2GB of ram, 160GB of harddrive space, with a Radeon x1200 is now Laptop with a 2Ghz Dual Core Turion X2, with 4GB of ram, 320GB of harddrive spce and a Radeon HD 3200. Granted I could of bought a laptop with simalar specs for about how much I spent...but I had fun! I hope Shuttles plan for a laptop standard works out! Can't wait to completely build my own laptop!
 
I picked up an Aspire 5532 from Best Buy last night. I have to admit, it's a nice little laptop for the money.

My question is, when buying memory, do I go ahead with the PC2-5300 or PC2-6400? Anyone know which stick is already in here? I'm kind of new to the laptop world and I haven't had to upgrade one before.

The processor upgrade is also intriguing. I built my desktop before so I have a little technical know how.

Thanks in advance. Also thanks to all the documented info in this thread.
 
I installed a second module (now have 2x1 GB RAM). Modules are the same speed. When I run CPUZ or Everest it says that I am still in single channel memory mode... Should I restart Windows (Using Win 7) or there is something else I should do to enable dual channel?
Did anybody tried to open emachines eme627 from the bottom? Looks like when you remove the screws, the back of the case will remove and the CPU should be right there.
 
milanlj said:
I installed a second module (now have 2x1 GB RAM). Modules are the same speed. When I run CPUZ or Everest it says that I am still in single channel memory mode... Should I restart Windows (Using Win 7) or there is something else I should do to enable dual channel?
Did anybody tried to open emachines eme627 from the bottom? Looks like when you remove the screws, the back of the case will remove and the CPU should be right there.
Click to expand...

So you have 2 - 1GB modules or one 2GB and one 1GB? If they are not the same size I don't believe it will run in dual channel. My friend just picked up a 5516 and it came with 2GB and a 1GB... silly, would rather have 2GB, one slot open and a faster processor instead!
 
I just registered to express my thanks to Czechster for his instructions on how to do this.

I bought a Acer 5517 with the TL-20 single core back in January. After a month or so, I found Czechster's post here when Goggling for anyone that might have replaced the processor.

I then bought a TL-50 for like $13 and some Artic Silver (which was more than the processor, -- lol) but didn't get opportunity to try installing it until last week. Just haven't had the time to put aside at night to go through the procedure (I work full time and am also a Dad with three little kids so it is hard to arrange an evening to work on things like this).

Anyway, I managed to do everything in about three hours. The laptop before the upgrade was barely usable with Windows Vista. Watching any flash videos while doing anything else was horribly slow. But now everything is much faster and the duel core does not usually run hotter than 45-50c. The TL-50 makes the difference.

Let me say though, that without Czechster's notes, I would not have been able to do this in a reasonable time frame. I'm pretty good with my hands and have built many desktop systems in my past, but *completely* disassembling a laptop like this would have been too intimidating without such a clear and easy set of instructions. PLUS -- the knowledge that someone else has managed to do it successfully gives one the confidence that it can be done in a reasonable period of time without breaking anything. In fact, I may go to a TL-58 at some point, it was that straightforward after reading this thread.

Thanks again, Czechster and the others that have posted here with your experiences . :cool:
 
I also want to give a big Thank You to Czechster. I just took apart my wife's 1-week-old Acer Aspire 5517 (she was pretty skeptical) and replaced the TF-20 with a TL-58 (bought on eBay for 15 bucks shipped). The instructions were spot on. Future users - be careful with the black and white wires that go through the hole in the motherboard and connect to the wireless card -- if you don't leave enough slack to connect the wireless card back in, you're going to have to take the whole thing apart again to pull those wires. Also, for those of us who are tech idiots, the hard drive slides out once you take out the screws. :) Anyway, the laptop is now noticeably faster. I didn't even have to reinstall Windows 7 -- it detected the new CPU and just required a restart. Thanks again!
 
Yeah, some more tips now that I think of it..

The various ribbon cables are very fragile. They are little more than some flat wiring imbedded in thin, clear plastic. To get them off there were two tiny tabs on either side of the connector that I gently pulled back on with a fingernail.

Also make note of how the ribbon cables look before you disconnect them. This is just to be sure you are confident that when you get to reconnecting them, you did it correctly and set them properly and deeply enough in the connectors.

The black and white wires that go through the MB from the wireless card on the back are the antenna wires. These go through the LCD. I found it a little difficult getting them out of the paths they were routed in the top of the laptop. It was tempting to try and lift them with the little flat bladed screwdriver I was working with, but I almost cut through the insulation once when trying that. It was better to work with my fingernails again for these, and to use a soft chip of plastic to pry up sections of wire when necessary.

Finally, it is real easy to miss a screw. I got the hidden ones like the few covered with the stickers, and thought I had the rest of them out as well. I got to the stage of taking apart the two halves of the laptop case, and it wasn't coming apart. Turns out I missed a screw on the bottom shell that was still holding things together. Once removed, I still needed to use a little bit more force that I thought should be needed to pop the case shells apart. So take your time with this stage, otherwise you might risk cracking or breaking one or the other shell halves. Just gently, but persistently keep trying to separate the case halves after you are sure you removed every single screw. And double check for screws again and again if things aren't coming apart.
 
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Good to see this excellent info is still being put to good use. I did the TL-58 upgrade back when I got the emachines version of the acer for 199 on black Friday. It makes a perfect little HTPC for the bedroom TV
 
Ok I ordered a TL-60 and spend freakin over 3 hours last night taking apart my 5516 and putting it back together. And now it won't boot with my new processor. I called my local pc repair guy just to see if he'd do it for me right and he laughed at me and said I had to change the motherboard too, that's not right is it?

Ok so when it boots the fan turns on for like a second, the cd drive spins if there's a cd, and the computer just makes a quiet idling noise. The screen doesn't change whatsoever, and yes I've checked it's connector. Any idea what went wrong?
 
Travis, I just saw your post (a month late). I hope you got your laptop working again.

First order of business if connect that machine to an external monitor. Maybe you didn't reconnect the LCD cable and it is working but you cannot see anything.

If that fails...

You should not need a new MB. You may not have seated the CPU in properly. Another posted did that in this thread somewhere. It has to be aligned correctly, and there is also a little screw that you need to tighten that locks the processor into the ZIF (zero insertion force) socket. My guess is you didn't tighten that down.

So, unfortunately you will likely need to tear the machine down again if you want to try that. If it was my machine, I'd tear it down and put the old processor back in to make sure it works again with that before attempting to re-install or debug the problem with the new chip.

Also make sure your memory sticks are correctly installed.

JP
 
just saw this thread now, I had this laptop laying around the house for a little over a year. I got myself the tl-58 for $4! does anyone know if the 5516 has an upgradeable video card? I would love to use this for cs go.
 
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