Upgrading the AMD CPU on an Acer 5532 Laptop
To replace my 9″ netbook computer I bought a 15″ widescreen Acer laptop with 64 Bit Windows 7. The laptop comes with a 64 bit AMD TF-20 CPU which is single core running at 1.6Ghz. The real weakness of the laptop seems to be the CPU, so I’m buying an upgraded CPU on eBay for only $19!
** Here is an Acer user manual where you can find detailed instructions for this upgrade!
Aspire Service Manual_5517.pdf
The TF-20 CPU is a single 64 Bit core running at 1.6 Ghz, and from what I’ve been able to find online you can replace it with any of the TL-50 and maybe even TL-60 series CPU’s! You just need to make sure the new CPU uses the same voltage so that you don’t have a problem with too much heat from the CPU.
*** ATTENTION *** Many have stated in the comments of this post that they have problems getting a TL-58 to work properly. I highly suggest sticking with a TL-56; it should work no problem!!
ALSO: Many people want to upgrade their RAM from 3GB to 4GB to run dual-channel mode. Here are my recommendations for RAM upgrades:
I decided to get the TL-56 as it’s a dual core 64 Bit CPU at 1.8 Ghz with a 2x 512MB cache and it’s only $19… so how can you go wrong?
I’ve been repairing laptops, digital cameras and other electronics for years, but if you are a little nervous here are the steps required to switch out the CPU.
This repair took me less than 30 minutes to tear down and then rebuild. This is not a difficult repair, don’t get stressed out about it!
FIRST: Turn off the laptop and remove the battery. Now…
1. Remove the hard drive, memory, and the wireless network card.
2. Remove any screw you find at the bottom of laptop. You can now remove the DVD module, and it would also be a good idea to remove the LCD hinge covers (they pop out easily).
3. The next step is to remove the center strip (the strip where the power button is located). Open the LCD screen as far as it will go. Along the back edge of the center strip, at the recesses for the LCD screen hinges, you will notice there is a slight overhang. Using a small screwdriver, gently pry up on the overhang. The center strip, should begin to lift up. Once this happens, you can lift up the center strip along its length by hand and you should be able to remove the strip.
4. Remove the keyboard. There are no screws holding it in place and it should pop right out. Remove its ribbon cable from the motherboard.
5. Unplug the main connector for the LCD on the left. Next, pop all wires coming from the LCD out of their holders. You are now ready to remove the LCD. Remove the 4 screws holding the LCD in place. Once the screws are taken out lift the LCD out. You will be able to pull the wires through the hole and completely remove LCD.
6. On each side of laptop, there is a small two pin wire connector. The left side is black/white, the right side black/red. These are the speaker connectors. Unplug each connector.
7. Along the back edge of laptop, you will now see three recess that look like screw holes, but are the color of the laptop. These are screws, but each have an adhesive cover. Using a very small knife (an X-acto knife works best) gently pry off each cover and put off to the side to reuse. Remove these screws.
8. Now, under where the keyboard was , you should see 5 screws. Before removing the 5 screws, there are two ribbon cables (1 wide, 1 narrow) that come from the inside of the top of the case to the MB. It is best to disconnect these before removing the 5 screws. Also, besides those 5 screws underneath the keyboard, I failed to mention the sixth screw, underneath where the right LCD hinge would be. Remove these screws. Once done, you should now be able to separate the two halves of the case.
9. The bottom half of the case contains the motherboard. There is one screw holding it in place, on the bottom right. Remove this screw. The motherboard can now be removed and the laptop is now completely disassembled.
I hope this guide helps those of you trying to upgrade the processor. I just installed the TL-56 I bought and am in the process of assembling he laptop. I will post my thoughts on the TL-56 later today.
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Observations:
I had some trouble with finding the 4 screws underneath the LCD between the hinges. They were covered with plastic stickers and it took me a while to figure out they were just stickers and I could peel them off. Just peel them off and stick them to the case beside their holes, then put them back on after you put the screw in.
Also, make sure you reconnect the touchpad cable properly or it will not work, and the keyboard cable goes “under” the locking tab though it may look to you like it should go “over” it. You will see what I mean when you have it open.
I hope this helps, I will let you know what I get figured out from my upgrade.
Related posts:
How did u apply the thermal paste?
Great instructions! with this site amd the service manual the upgrade took about an hour and went flawlessly. thanks!
where can i find a list of compatible cpus. I am a litle confused as far as voltage is thermal design voltage the same? I see the tf-20 at 15 and the tl -56 at 33 is this what I am looking out for? or is it the v core voltage?
Great guide, however i cannot get a tl-56 or tl-58 to work!!
I get the power on, fan on for a few seconds, but blank screen and nothing happens!
Do i need loads of heat paste maybe? is there a thermal cut-off almost instantaneously going on?
only put as much thermal paste as a grain of rice right in the middle of the cpu.
Four months later my tl60 is running fine. No issues.
How many watts is the TL-56? I read the TF-20 is 15W. Shouldn’t the TL-56 be the same or less wattage so it doesn’t over heat?
Well it has been around 6 months since upgrade to TL-56. No problems to report. Windows Proccessor rating went from 3.2 to 4.6.Thank you again Darntoothy Sam.
So can someone please upload and iso of the restore disks for the acer 5532?
i only have the factory driver disk and i think it also has the programs that come with the acer computer. i do not have the os restore disk. i think u can download windows 7 edition that came with the computer online and use the product key that is on the bottom of the laptop and that should be legal. if im not mistaken the licence for that version of windows 7 was purchaced when u bought the computer. if u want the driver disk email me at thomas13203@hotmail.com
i cant wait to upgrade my processor. i am waiting for the processor to come in the mail now. do u know what is the best ram i can upgrade to and where to purchace it? thankyou so much for this guide. i work on antique electronics but never on lap tops is it hard to remove and replace the ribbon cables in the laptop? i am confident i can do everything but not sure how to deal with the ribbon cables or the thermal paste. would i be better off to have this done professionally? thank you in advance for your help.
sam if u want a free service guide for the acer aspire 5532 it is located at http://support.acer.com/acerpanam/Manuals/acer/2009/ServiceGuides/SG_Aspire_5532_10192009.pdf
has complete disasembly n asembly specs for that model
Great instructions, thanks! Popped a TL-56 in mine in around an hours’ time.
I’m not as gifted as many others who performed this upgrade, it took me a while longer. I found an Acer service manual for the Aspire 5532
at the linkbelow. I found it very useful because it contains pictures along with the disassembly instructions. For reassembly, I reversed the order. My laptop started up right away without any issues and functions noticeably faster. Thanks for the tips.
http://support.acer.com/acerpanam/Manuals/acer/2009/ServiceGuides/SG_Aspire_5532_10192009.pdf
Hi, I would like to thank Thomas and everyone who contributed info to upgrade the Aspire 5532.
I upgraded mine per the instructions with a TL-56 65nm type around last april, and have had no issues since. A very enjoyable first time project for me, and a start at learning more about what goes on inside a laptop.
I am wondering if anyone here has suggestions for a cpu upgrade on a laptop model with a newer or better video graphics?
I just order an AMD TL-64 to put in and take out the AMD TL-56 when i put it in ill let everyone know how it goes.
Well i switched my cpu from an AMD TL-56 to an AMD TL-64 @ 2.20 ghz and so far so good. It does seems a little faster but not really noticable but my temps are better but that can be do to the crappy thermal paste i used before, this time i went with arctic silver 5 and the temp while im typing this is 47 degrees celcius, which is pretty good.
Hi, I just read this and I might attempt this upgrade as well as a RAM upgrade. I found a tl-56 processor on eBay, but I’m not sure if it’s the right one. I’m using the same laptop, Acer Aspire 5532.
Please point me in the right direction? This is the one I found http://cgi.ebay.com/AMD-Turion-64-X2-TL-56-1-8-GHz-Laptop-CPU-TMDTL56HAX5CT-/370433276217?pt=CPUs&hash=item563f8b3939
Yea that should work, same one i had before i bought the tl-64. The other day i sold my laptop for 180.
i was running a tl-58 for awhile and it was great aside from heat.. turns out this processor goes into a safe mode called “throttling” when it heats up too much, making it lag.. which is inconvenient for gaming..
ANYWAY…
i found a dell inspiration at the side of the road and it had been parted except for the cpu (AMD Athlon 64 x2 1.9ghz).. it was the same socket as the acer 5532 so i decided to try it.. i figured since it was the same family as the original cpu for this notebook it may run a little better. so i put it in and it works flawlessly.
well i just wanted to report that the AMD Athlon TK-57 64 x2 1.9ghz works in the acer 5532..
but one question.. the tk-57 has a faster clock speed and runs cooler than the tl-58.. but which one is a better cpu all in all.
Hey Joey
I’m not sure why the language changed from English on the link below, but it’s a comparison of the two CPUs you are talking about. Looks like the only difference is the TL-58 has twice the L2 cache that the TK-57 has which is a good thing to have.
http://products.amd.com/pages/NotebookCPUSideBySide.aspx?id=296&id=3
Is the TL-58 1.6 Ghz? I forget… Maybe the TL-58 was overheating if you had too much or too little thermal paste.. just an idea. This really isn’t a gaming computer, so I’d be happy if it could play anything smoothly!
Thomas
Hey darntoothysam, are the tl turion series the best we can do? cuz i noticed some other socket s1 processors like phenom triple and quad that use the same wattage and even lower than 35 watts. Namely the P920 or the P840. Just curious.
Good question… hard to say because those use DDR3 so they might not work with our Acers because they use DDR2.
Maybe the QL-60 series like the QL-65 has a performance boost with only a minor price increase?
Thomas
Is it possible to install an internal camera because there is a circle cut out on LCD frame. I took the sticker cut-out out and its an empty hole that looks like something would go in there. Any suggestions?
hi i installed a tl 60 in my laptop acer 5532 and my laptop runs alot better it works perfect and doesnt heat up to much
Hey Where do i put the thermal paste?
I have Aspire 5517 and have installed TL-56 …AX5DC. Machine powers-up for about 3 seconds, then nothing. Question: Did anyone need to change BIOS; and if so: which version?
CPUs in the S1 catagory are not backwards compatible (eg. S1 S1g2 to S1g1, etc.)
Thank you for this article! I used the info here along with the manuals to upgrade my acer to a TL-56 processor. I bought it off of ebay for $11.00 It has breathed new life into our laptop. We have never been able to do full screen hulu and espn3 on this laptop before. It runs perfect now. For my next upgrade we will be replacing the HD with an SSD drive. Thanks again for the article!
I have the same laptop, bought the same used TL-56 X5DC I am going thru the SAME SYMPTOMS for the past week. Idid upgrade BIOS version 1.09 to 1.10 no luck.
Please let me know if you got a solution or maybe we are doing something wrong? Thanks
santony83@yahoo.com
I was thinking of doing this. I was thinking of doing a TL-50. My thing is, how safe is this? I’m noy afraid of tearing about the laptop. I just want to know how safe (heat wise) is this TL-50? I found one on Amazon for like 10 bucks. it’s an AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core TL-50 1.6GHz Processor
Hey Ernest, the TL-50 is perfectly fine, as I state in the post I use the TL-56 and it’s been running strong since February 2010 !!
Thomas
Hey Darntoothysam,
Quick question, for the ram upgrades you recommend, do I have to buy the full 4G’s worth of them (for example if one ram is 2gigs, buy two?) or just buy a 1g ram to make it a total of 4gigs? Thanks.
Hi Bob, you need to check what RAM you have installed.
If you have 1 x 2GB stick and 1 x 1GB stick then you need 1 x 2GB stick that matches what you already have so they will run in dual channel mode. You will probably need to check the BIOS by entering SETUP when the computer is booting to make sure it’s in dual channel mode. If you only have 2 x 1GB sticks of RAM then you need to buy 2 x 2GB sticks to make 4GB.
Thomas
Hi wanna do the cpu upgrade and ram upgrade(gonna try to game on my 5532, but im looking at the tl-64 but it say 2.2GHZ and the tl-56 is 1.8GHZ, what is this and do i need to do anything to the 2.2 or will it work fine?
My laptop(ACer aspire5532) isnt turning on after this.. I think its the tab connected right next to the keyboard one.. COuld that be the problem though or do i have to redo everything?
Hey Darntoothysam,
A question or two. I’m quite new to the upgrading/disassembly scene, and after reading this guide (it was very helpful) and several others (I like to research about everything, problems I might have, resolutions, etc etc.), I’ve ordered an AMD Turion X2 TL-66 for only $50 off eBay. It’s clocked at 2.3 GHz. I shouldn’t have any problems with installing it once it gets here, but I’m wondering if you would happen to know if I will run into any heat issues. The laptop itself is always in the same spot, propped up and everything to allow good air circulation. It’s always closed and connected to a 23″ monitor, wireless mouse/keyboard, etc. Normally I don’t run into any heat issues, so naturally I’m curious. Also, will this just be as simple as taking the laptop apart, taking the old CPU out, putting the new CPU in, and done? Or is it more complex than that? I’ve read that sometimes when switching from a single to a dual core, one of the two cores isn’t recognized, and that seems easy enough to fix. Anyway, thanks for taking your time to read this and any replies will be greatly appreciated.
Mine has been running a TL-64 for one and a half years without any heat problems.
Thx, i gonna use this to upgrade mine, im upgrading from the TF-20 to a TL-60 2.0 GHz
what model number tl-60 is best for the upgrade thanks