Aspire 5315 optical drive upgrade is easy.

Upgrading the optical drive on the Acer Aspire 5315 (and others based on the same HannStar ICL50 hardware and case) is very easy. Mine now sports a dual layer, dual format DVD burner, replacing the original DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive. Took me all of about 5 minutes to swap it out.

First remove the four screws holding the Thermal Door, the large panel covering much of the bottom.

Second, starting at the dimple, use a small, flat screwdriver or table knife to pry the cover loose. Work both ways around it. DO NOT PRY UP ALONG THE EDGE OPPOSITE THE OPTICAL DRIVE! The tabs there are longer and that side comes out last and goes in first.

Third, look right next to the dimple and you'll see a little black screw that was just under the edge of the Thermal Door. Use a #0 screwdriver and remove it.

Fourth, just below that screw you'll see a little metal tab. Push it toward the edge of the laptop and the drive will slide out.

Fifth, use the #0 screwdriver to transfer the bracket from the back of the original drive to the back of the new drive. Note the three holes have numbers to indicate the order to install the screws to ensure alignment of the bracket. These screws are VERY TINY. Take care to not lose them.

Sixth, slide the new drive in until the hole in the bracket aligns with the hole in the case and reinstall that screw.

Seventh, insert the long tabs of the Thermal Door into their slots along the outside edge then snap the small tabs in, working both ways around. You may need to apply some gentle pushing with a thumbnail or a small, flat screwdriver to get them down into the hole.

Eighth, reinstall the four screws and you're done!

 

Thanks for this information! I too have the 5315 with the dvd-rom/cd-rw and would very much like to upgrade to a dvd burner. Nothing is obvious on the bottom of the laptop that I could ID as a way to remove the drive. I have visited one other site that stated that it looks like the drive would be very difficult to replace. So it is a relief to see this information online. What brand/model number did you buy, and where did you get it?

please also look at this picture that has been posted online. Is the black screw the one to the left (to the left of the labeled wifi card?)
http://members.aceweb.com/gregg1/acer/Inside_Acer_Aspire_5315.html

 

Yes, that black screw is all that holds the drive in. Just underneath that part of the case there's a metal tab to push on to pop the drive out after removing the screw. If you hold the laptop up you can look under and see the tab. Push it straight towards the side.

I got a TSST Corp TS-L632D, which is a Toshiba-Samsung drive. It was from a Dell and I snagged it for $27.50 on eBay. Dell's firmware was crippled to not support both dual layer formats or DVD-RAM so I flashed it with the latest revision of original Toshiba-Samsung firmware which enabled DVD-RAM and -R dual layer support. The only "problem" with the Dell version of this drive is the faceplate on the tray is spaced out a bit and leaves a small gap along the bottom, but I can live with that for getting it cheap.

 

Thank you! Thank you! Your direction were perfect. I bought a dvd burner with Lightscribe off of Ebay for less than $50 including shipping. It had no face plate but I simply put my old face plate on the new burner and it works perfectly.
You are the man!

 

upgrading that slow, heat box they call a celeron is just as easy... why can't all laptops be this easy to work on?

if you have any ?'s about cpu upgrades on the ICL-50 feel free to PM me

bigozone

 

Just post a new thread on CPU upgrades, and a reply here pointing to the new thread.

Acer has released BIOS version 1.25 for this laptop.

 

search for:
aspire 5315 cpu upgrade

search here or google... my nbr thread should be the top google for that query!

acer has a 1.33 bios on the euro site... i've been using it for a week.
http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_5315.html

enjoy,
bigozone

 

I am VERY interested in the cpu upgrade. so the core2duo t5450 works in the acer 5315? was it much trouble to change?

 

BIOS version 1.34 is there now. This constant updating is very nice! (Unlike Dell's method of throwing cheap PCs on the market then instantly abandoning them without ever producing any driver or BIOS updates.) It'd be nice if Acer would also post a complete changelog for the BIOS so we can see what has been updated/fixed.

I've Googled and Yahooed for CPU upgrade on this laptop but haven't yet found a step by step how-to, or even exactly which CPUs it supports.

 

i have upgraded my CPU, and yes the T5450 or any socketP T5xxx version should work fine... i'm waiting on a user to report back to me on the success of his T7500 upgrade... we're almost positive the CPU will work, we just wonder if the chipset will support the 800Mhz FSB... it should according to all specs,, but i'm gonna wait to be sure,,,,

Originally Posted by bigozone
on the 5315, a cpu upgrade is very easy..
1. unplug power, remove battery,, and press power button to drain any residual power held by capasitors.

2. remove 4 screws (one at a time) from the bottom access pannel (large funny shaped pannel w/ circular fan hole).

3. w/ screws removed use small screwdriver to help prise the pannel up, (it takes some force to remove the pannel, just go slow and steady).

4. after pannel removal, locate the FAN.. remove the 3 screws from the fan, unplug fan power cable, then remove the fan.

5. now unscrew the 4 screws from above the CPU (they have springs between the screw heads and the cpu heatsink.

6. now w/ screws removed, lift the heatsink up off the CPU and remove the heat-sink assembly... it goes all the way to the fins that are in back of the fan...

7. with the heatsink assembly removed, you should see the CPU... hopefully you have a PINK cpu socket.
LET ME KNOW IF YOURS IS GREY!!!!!!

8. turn the screw at the top of the cpu socket. that should release the pressure on the CPU,, and now you should be able to lift the CPU out of the scoket.

9. place the new cpu in the socket, MAKE SURE IT IS FRIMLY SEATED w/ no gap between pins cpu and socket... then turn screw back to lock CPU in place..

10. re assemble the rest of the components in reverse order to re assemble.. (heatsink assembly, (screw it back in,, fan assembly- screw it back and hook up power,, replace back cover and replace screws.)

that should do it for you...

before doing all of this make sure you have updated your bios version to atleast version 1.31,, i'm using 1.34 w/ no problems,, and i'd suggest going w/ 1.34.


bigozone

 

So, what would it mean if the socket is grey? Is this something I should check before ordering the T5450 cpu?

 

well with the grey socket (i believe it's a celeron only socket)... i had to physically make a hole where there wasn't one... i used a thumb-tack heated w/ a lighter... and melted a hole where required... i'd definately check to see if you have the pink socket... but MY 5315 is and has been running the T5450 since the day it came in the mail... it took about an hour of trying to figure out how i was going to create the hole with out doing any harm... then after looking up at my cork board inspriation hit... and 5 minutes later the laptop was booting up!

it's just an extra step (not for the faint of heart) but i didn't encounter any problems...

but my mom's 5315 has the PINK socket and when upgrading her's i was able to just drop the CPU in and re-assemble... no modification required! (both laptops were purchased the same day from the same store... i think the grey socket is really rare... out of 10 upgrades of 5315's mine and one that Hoggie resently ran across are the only 2 i've heard of!

hopefully you'll have the pink socket and it will be a non-issue

later,
bigozone

 

According to the changelog included with the 1.34 BIOS download, it appears they've fully sorted the bugs out for Penryn CPU support. Curiously, CPU-Z with the 1.33 BIOS says this laptop will support 2 gig (total of 4gig) RAM modules.

That would be sweeet! Anyone have the RAM to test that? 4 gig RAM and a Penryn CPU... and I'd have enough $$$ into it I could've just bought a laptop with faster CPU and lots of RAM.

 

cost versus performance is why i upgraded to what i chose!!!

the T5450 can be bought for $75us or cheaper,, i got one for $55 shipped!
and windows XP is only gonna use approx 3gb of ram even if you stick 4gb in it..... "UPGRADING" to XP from vista was the most cost effective of all, since i had an extra XP pro license not in use...

now i have a snappy lil laptop with temps running at 13c CPU cores... 34c HDD, and that after running all night sitting on the sofa. no matter how much cash you throw at it,, it'll never be a screaming game machine due to the Intel intergrated graphics... but mine is great for what i do.....

hope it helps ya,
bigozone

 

thanks for the replies. when I get the opportunity (and courage) I will pull my fan/heatsink off and see which color socket I have. I have upgraded my dvd drive and ram, so this is only plodding a little deeper......

 

you can probably see the color just by looking sideways at an angel under the heatsink... might need a flashlight to illuminate the subject

that'd only be 4 screws if you can get a view... i never tried... it was so easy i just went for it...

just got CONFIRMATION of an Aspire 5315 cpu upgraded to a T7500 @ 800Mhz FSB that's a Core2Duo @ 2.2Ghz.... 4.4 gigs of advanced processor slaps down any lowly celeron

it's so nice to see CPU temps of less than half the temps of the HDD 16c CPU,, 35c HDD after my upgrade to T5450... i love my cheap lil POS lappy more and more everyday!!!

 

Verra nice-a. Now if it'll run more than 2gig RAM...

 

it will but if you put 4gig in it will only use about 3 to 3.3 gigs... windows 32bit addressing limitation,,, some ppl are just adding a 2gig stick to give 3 gigs wich XP can use perfectly fine...

but unless you are doing some ram intensive things like photoshopping large huge big images... i don't see xp needing more than 2 gig...

 

Ok.....Looked under the cover, and I do have a pink socket (You don't have to remove anything but the cover to see it). I didn't get quite as good a deal, but i found a t5450 on ebay for $59, so I ordered it! I look forward to seeing some performance gains! Thanks for all the descriptions of the cpu changeout. Might be a week or so till i get it, I can't wait!!

 

another question...most of you have upgraded to bios version 1.34. I can only find this on the acer euro website. So this is OK to use in the 5315 purchased in the US? (This is probably a stupid question.....thanks for your patience.)

 

yes the euro site has files before the american site.... but the files are exactly the same,,, it just takes the US site like 2 weeks to catchup w/ europe site... i no longer use the US site,,

the euro site is so much easier for a tech to navigate thru..
not to mention more up to date

 

awesome....t5450 seems to be working perfectly. i can download from abc's website and watch episodes of lost at true HD speeds.. but not without some issues. First install (which was remarkably easy) ended with blue screens of death "bad_pool_header" whatever the heck that is. A little research, and I found that the CHEAP memory off ebay could be the problem. So I downgraded back to my trusty samsung 1 gig, and the bluescreen problem disappeared. So, now to get some GOOD memory and get back up to 2 gigs. I didn't expect this problem, since the memory was ok with the celeron. Any ideas why the difference with the memory and the 2 processors? Thanks for all the posts. Upgrading this laptop (except for trying to save money on memory...dumb...) has been incredibly easy.

 

I ordered crucial memory just now, if it works for Bigozone, it should work for me! Thanks bigozone, for all the extra effort and expense to figure out a compatible processor ( i saw on another post that you went through several processors before using this one) and to bizzybody on the dvd upgrade. I'm sure that everyone that reads your info here will be very appreciative.

 

jeepman the T5450 increases the memory speeds to 667 from the 533Mhz the celeron used... i bet the cheap ebay ram was either not true PC5300 DDR2 ram,,, or it just couldn't handle the speeds...

glad you found it easy.... very easy to get to the CPU... i love it...
next,, i'm gonna step up to a T7500 or a T8300 when prices drop a bit more

BTW... email that ebay vendor,,, complain and ask for a replacemant or offer him some "wonderful" feedback.... unless the ram you bought from him was PC4200 (in which case you got what you bought,,,, the 4200 works w/ 533 mem speeds,, but w. the T5450 and ram @ 667 you need pc 5300 ram...

hope that helps,,, and thanks for the gratitude.... i help so many people here,, and you'd be supprised how many people can't even say thanks... i'vte given up on REP points long ago.. the are like unicorns... NOT REAL.. just a myth

LOL,,, congrats... BTW you did order PC 5300 ram from Crucial didn't ya??
if not call them up and change the order or just return it (call and get an RMA #) tell them the situation,,, they will make it right with you...

but if it's PC 4200 don't even take it out of the package.... just call and arrange a replacement


later,
bigO

 

Hey guys. Im new to this forum. I just purchased an Acer 5315-2122 from Microcenter for 380 bucks. So far it seems like a great deal. I "upgraded" tp XP SP3 and added another GB of ram. Im just wondering if all 5315 models can do the T5450 cpu upgrade. I would be very interested in this upgrade for my 5315-2122 if possible.

Also, I have another question? I am getting mixed results when I try to find my exact CPU ID. Some programs say its the Celeron M 550 and some say its just Celeron 550. Does this make a difference?

Acer 5315-2122
Intel Celeron (M) 550 2.0ghz
2gb RAM
XP SP3
CD-RW/DVD Combo
thanks in advance

 

thanks bigozone
I ordered pc5400. the tech told me that 5300 is manufacturer, 5400 is end user, and that they are the same. Thanks again for all the help.

jeepman

 

it has to be the Celeron M 550,,, M is the designator for MOBILE.. so you have a 550 M Celeron... cpu id programs may just assume you know it's a mobile CPU since it's in a laptop..

and any socket P CPU should work...
i know ppl w/ T7500s and lower

just refer to CPU GUIDES found here by searching,,, they have CPUs divided by socket type

later,
bigO

 

Hey bigO, did ya use thermal grease when ya did your cpu upgrade ?
If so what kind ?

Got one to upgrade one day soon.

Thanks for any info.

James

 

i just reused the thick JUNK that came on the celeron and have noticed heat reductions due to better CPU design... if you do use an aftermarket thermal compound i'd stick with the Arctic Silver 5,,

check page 1 post 1 of the Acer 3680 Cpu upgrade sticky,,,
i think there are links to 2 different guides to using the AS5,,, but it's not needed by any means.... just nice to have!

later,
bigO

 

Thanks for the info bigO.

Will try to reuse the junk too.

There sure seems to be a lot of socket P cpu's.

Does anybody know if all the socket P's will work.
There sure are a lot of choices. T7100,T7300,T7500,T7700,T8100,T8300,T9300,ect.

James

 

i have verified support for the T7700 in the BIOS,, and i assume the T8xxx's would work,,, i know of one aspire 5315 owner who orderd a T8300 yesterday,, so maybe in a week we will have confirmation...

but as of now the HIGHEST CPU i can confirm is the T7500..

honestly i cant see going any higher than a T7300 myself.. i refuse to buy a CPU that costs more than my laptop..

my $50 T5450 is working great for me,,, but i'd like to have more FREE power

later,
bigO

 

question for bigO,
Ok have updated my memory to 2 gigs of the crucial brand, and I can tell another boost in performance with the memory and the T5450. After adding the memory though, the laptop will not boot at first attempt in the morning. After pressing the power button for the first time of the day, I can hear the fan spin up, then slow down, and then nothing else happens. The display never lights up. Hold the power button about 5 seconds to turn it off, then press it again, and it always boots up fine. The 'press F2 button for setup' will appear on the first screen, as if something has changed in the bios. I can start up in the morning, use the computer for a few minutes, and then turn it off and wait 8 or more hours until using it again, and it always boots up fine. The only time it doesn't is the first time in the morning! All I can think of that is different is that we like it around 60 degrees at night when we sleep....so could this temp be the reason that the bios is not recognizing something? I can certainly live with this for the performance gains if if is probably due to the temps. What do you think? Thanks for any thoughts you may have.
jeepman

 

i sent you a PM with this link, a new thread i'm trying to breath a little life into,,
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=251130


i'd never thought it could be related to RAM ammounts and bios Ver 1.34,, but this problem has been reported by both VISTA and XP users,,, and by people who haven't upgraded thier CPU,, so i've been racking my brain looking for a common thread... you may have just clued me in..

read that thread (second from the bottom) on the page i posted above,, in an Email to Acer describing the problem, they want me to send it back in..

but downgrading the bios back to ver 1.33 seems to make it go away for most people (i've yet to try going backwards to 1.33)

thanks,
bigO

 

I'm not sending mine back in for this! I will also, however, send them an email asking for a bios upgrade. Everyone needs to do so that is having this issue so maybe they will do something about it.
Thanks for all your help. It is both assuring and dissappointing that there are others having the boot issue. At least I don't think it is hardware.
Jeepman

 

I might try one more thing...i know this sounds insane.. I may instead try to change the date and time tonight before i hibernate my 5315. That is the only other thing I can think of that changes overnight. It may be interesting to see if, today's date is still in the pc tomorrow when i turn it on, and if it boots on the first try..
(I have a dvd recorder (tv) that would loose all of its programming every night, until philips released a new bios update. I know that is different, because the dvd tv recorder is never actually completely turned off...but maybe worth a try??)
jeepman

 

i don't even use hibernation,,,, it's turned off on my 5315,,, but hey anything that is non-distructive is worth a try...

i have turned off sleep and hibernate,, i leave my PC on full force,, or shut it down....with XP it's not that much longer to do a full boot,,, but i did love how quick vista came back to life when i was trying it out

i'm gonna change the ram later and see what happens

good luck,
bigO

 

oh well, no difference. changed the time back 12 hours, but still froze when I first turned it on.. It's just strange that it has never frozen for me when I restart on the same day, its always, so far, only the first boot the next day.
jeepman

 

ok i have a acer aspire 5315 with a p-socket intel celeron 1.86 GHZ single core 479 pin im trying to figure out if i can upgrade to a t5450 1.66 core2duo but its a 478 pin will that work?

 

Should work, have a look at this thread it should help you:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=251959

It's a sticky a couple of topics above this one, the search function of the forum generally is a usefull tool.