Acer Aspire 5050 Processor Upgrade - If your finding your Acer 5050
to be slow using Windows Vista or 7, 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 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,
now gently
remove the cable while removing the keyboard.
Now unscrew the 4
screws by the screen hinges securing the monitor and unclip its
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 will hopefully see the following very
satisfactory sight in AMD CPU info,
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 is definitely 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.
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 re-use, especially as most of it
came away on the heatsink. But if you have had the laptop for a
while I would 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.
