Acer Aspire 5050 Processor Upgrade - If your finding your Acer 5050 to be slow using Windows Vista, there are a couple of choices open to us.
Firstly you can always replace your operating system and use Windows Xp which is what I have been using for the past 4 months. You can always grin and bare the slowness of Vista on a single core AMD processor Or we can simply replace or upgrade the processor.
The exact model of Laptop I have performed the upgrade on is a Acer Aspire 5051, it has a 2.0ghz AMD Turion 64 processor, single core type.
I originally upgraded the RAM from 1gb to 2.5gb to see what difference this would make, but sadly any performance difference was at best marginal, and as I really need to use Windows Vista the only other viable option was to replace the Laptop or replace the Processor.
Acer aspire 5050 processor upgrade article
Having double checked that this Acer 5051 had a S1 type processor socket I obtained a AMD Turion 64 1.8hgz x 2 processor, although this could be substituted for a 2ghz dual core Turion
Beginning
Before we begin I would just like to point out. "to replace your current processor you will need to dismantle most of your laptop" We accept no responsibility if you damage your laptop while attempting this. So perform the following at your own risk.
To begin with ensure power cable is removed. Place your laptop screen closed upside down, so you can access the battery and the two screwed on panels.
Remove the Battery and the two screwed on Panels
acer aspire 5050 processor upgrade
Remember to earth yourself, remove the RAM, WIFI card (Making a note of which black or white cable goes where), remove the hard drive.
Turning the laptop over and remove the 3 screws at the rear of the case. open the screen as far back as it will go, Pop up the small part of the cover where the on and special buttons are located, it should release from the back first. Remember to cover the screen with cardboard or like, for protection, just in case.
This will reveal the two screws holding the keyboard remove these and gently remove the cable while removing the keyboard.
Now unscrew the 4 screws by the screen hinges securing the monitor and unclip it’s cable. The small black and white cable also going into the screen is the WiFi aerial so this can be pulled through.
Remove any screws securing the top cover, remove the mouse pad cable and ease it free from the rest of the laptop.
Unscrew any screws securing the motherboard
Slide out the DVD drive
Lift out the motherboard until you have enough space to access the processor
Unscrew and remove the heat sink
Turn the screw to release the processor and simply replace
Lock the processor back in and go through the list backwards to put back together.
Once finished re-assembling you'll hopefully see the following very satisfactory sight in AMD CPUinfo or check using Windows Task Manager to see if you can see both processor cores. Acer Aspire 5050 processor upgrade
Overall conclusion An Acer aspire 5050 processor upgrade isdefinitely doing the performance increase is very noticeable, and Vista runs very well. To begin with however I did not realize how involved the whole process would be in terms of how much of the laptop would have to be dismantled to access the processor.
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Marty Question: Hi, I just read your tutorial replacing the CPU in an Acer 5050. I was wondering if you could give me the full model name of the laptop as I think I have the same model and would like to upgrade it. Was it a difficult process? Was there any thermal gel on the CPU? How well the laptop heatsink dealt with the new CPU and did you have any problems? thanks.
Answer:Hi Marty thanks for your questions The actual model was 5051 AWXMI, it has a 2ghz AMD Turion single core, socket S1. It was not an overly difficult procedure just fiddly due to the amount of screws and parts you have to remove in total.
As the laptop was virtually new the thermal paste between the heatsink and processor was ok to reuse, especially as most of it came away on the heatsink. But if you’ve had the laptop for a while I’d be inclined to replace this, totally remove the old paste so you get a good fit and bond between the two fitting new paste.
Going from a single to a dual core processor will generate more heat, but not by a huge degree, after monitoring the temperature of the processor, literally leaving the laptop on for days on end running tasks it still runs cooler than my Dell D400.
we have been advised by one our readers who has upgraded a Turion 64 2.2ghz single core to a 2ghz Turion 64 x2 that it is works very well, the performance gains must be superb, in addition to this is running no hotter than the earlier single core processor.
One other point that has been mentioned by other people upgrading is whether or not to remove the filter which covers the vent on the bottom of the laptop, I never removed this, but others have recommended this.
