Anybody know good place for laptop service manuals? 2

[wolluf]

Current specific is for an Acer Travelmate 4200 - child wrecked the keyboard and it needs replacing. One problem - there appear to be at least 2 variants of this machine with different keyboards! (the school have both). I have had patchy success tracking down service manuals - so usually anything that can't be replaced by opening a panel underneath I refer to specialist laptop repairer. But there is a good chance this will happen again at this school (they have mainly acer laptops - several different models) which i support, so would like to be able to do repair myself.

Still Googling - but this model appears elusive (I did find a link to manual on a forum - but was over a year ago, and link is now dead). Have a potential new keyboard from ebay seller, but of course need to be able to remove current (to check part number and to be able to replace with new).

And I've found this site

http://www.laptop-repair.info/index.html

which is useful, but doesn't have specifics on Acer models (in fact they've removed Acer manuals at Acer's request).

Any help appreciated.

 

[acewarlock]

http://www.manualuniverse.com/aboutus.asp

This is a Signature and not part of the answer, it appears on every reply.

This is an Analogy so don't take it personally as some have.

Why change the engine if all you need is to change the spark plugs.

 

[Lemon13]

it´ll cost u 10$

http://www.electronicsrepair.net/comp2acer.shtml

item 101

 

[BadBigBen]

You may find the information here aswell, at least how to open it up without any hassles:

http://repair4laptop.org/disassembly_acer.html

http://www.eserviceinfo.com/equipment_mfg/acer_43.html

http://doube.org/3023wlmi-dissection.html

finding a repair manual for your exact model, is almost impossible, because ACER did not publish any over the NET, so any to be found are those that repair shops or enthusiasts have made public...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[wahnula]

I second BBB's eserviceinfo link, it's proved to be an excellent resource in the past.

When I needed a repair manual for my Asus M6N laptop I emailed Asus Support (before they were bloated and useless) and told them I was a small repair shop (true, just REALLY small!) and they emailed me a bunch of PDFs...might be worth a try.

If this is your keyboard:

....then it looks like the strip across the top pops off to reveal the screws that hold the keyboard in place. Other variants I have seen have screws on the underside of the laptop and tiny clips above the keys. Best of luck!



Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[wolluf]

Thanks for all the suggestions - the strip across the top does pop off (though not easily/obviously), so I have now found the part number and ordered same. Still a bit wary of disconnecting the ribbon connector - as it doesn't seem obvious and various warnings that it can be damaged by heavy handed approach!

 

[wahnula]

Sometimes the super flat (not IDE-type) ribbon cables have a plastic collar that applies pressure when slid towards the connector. Mark the cable & socket for orientation, then GENTLY slide it away from the socket and the ribbon cable should pop out:

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[wahnula]

BTW this is the web page I snatched that photo from...not your model, but the cable removal should be the same.

http://www.powerbrixx.com/reference/acer/3610_keyboard.htm

You win smart points for not wrestling with the cable until you learned more about it!

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[wolluf]

Thanks Tony - that was a much clearer explanation and picture of what needed doing than the one I was looking at previously - keyboard now disconnected, just hope connecting the new one will go as smoothly!

 

[wolluf]

Replacement arrived and fitted, no problems - thanks again for the help.

 

[wahnula]

I KNEW you could do it! Congrats wolluf!

Tony

Users helping Users...