Asus A53SV Teardown / General Question

[joethegreek]

Hi all,

I received an Asus A53SV for Christmas and am attempting to remove the back paneling so that I may replace the optical drive with a storage drive instead, however it seems that the case is almost unibody and am having a hard time removing the back paneling even though I removed every screw I could find, including the ones around the battery clips.

I was wondering if anyone had found a teardown with a step by step guide on how to take it apart because I don't want to damage any of the components or crack the plastic on the back. At first I thought the laptop was not self-serviceable but after having called Asus they confirmed for me that it was indeed self-serviceable and told me I should reference the disassembly guide however they themselves have not posted one.

Regards,
Joe

 

[Pyree]

I think you just have to remove the few screws holding the SATA OD in place, pull it out and slot the OD bay caddy in the OD slot with the HDD in the caddy. If you couldn't figure it out, take a good photo of the bottom of the laptop and post it here.

Also, when ASUS mean self serviceable, they mean you can take off the panel covering the RAM, CPU and GPU, but only change the RAM (void sticker on CPU and GPU). Also you can swap out HDD and OD, not disassemble the whole laptop and put it back. I am pretty sure I void the warranty when I take mine apart to dry my laptop after I spilled a major load of water on it.

 

[joethegreek]

I will take a photo in the morning - the big issue I am having is that the SATA OD is not screwed in on the same panel as the HDD SATA. I have to remove the second panel because the OD is under the panel housing the GPU, CPU and everything else. Rather frustrating.

 

[Pyree]

It is not. Ususally CPU, GPU, RAM behing a large panel. HDD behind a small panel. OD has no panel and is slotted in, held by screw. Look at the bottom of the laptop in area close to the OD. Unscrew the screw immediately behind the door of the OD on the bottom of the laptop and another one which is aligned to the middle of the OD door but about 5 inchs from the OD door also at the bottom of the laptop. Unscrew those and you can pull the OD from the slot.

Remove the battery and power adapter and hold the power button for 10 seconds to discharge before you pull anything out from a laptop, if you haven't already.

 

[joethegreek]

I decided to take the photos and post them tonight because if you can point out a square to me that the OD goes to, I will actually crap myself because I only see 1 dividing line going across which houses the HDD, ram, and WLAN adapter.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/3/camerazoom2011122824294.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/198/camerazoom2011122824291.jpg/

edit: for reference, the more zoomed in photo is there to show you exactly where the optical drive is

edit2: I can take a photo tomorrow showing off under the removable panel if you'd like

Regards,
Joe

 

[Pyree]

There is a screw under the rubber bit.

 

[joethegreek]

There is a screw under the rubber bit.

Well since you reply about as quick as lightning and I'm wide awake, I am going to attempt to do this again. If it works I will be extremely grateful

edit: I checked the round rubber bit and the square rubbet bit and there was a screw under neither

 

[stealthpanda]

Hey i hope this post gets through, i found the solution to this as i have the exact laptop.

http://youtu.be/rnvDYLQhPHA

refer to the video. The keyboard has a noth in it at the top left to pry it out as one peice. Take out the keyboard, look for the single screw on top of the drive, remove screw.

 

[Pyree]

That is very helpful panda. Sorry joe, I thought the OD would come out, but it does not.

 

[joethegreek]

Best answer selected by joethegreek.

 

[joethegreek]

Hey i hope this post gets through, i found the solution to this as i have the exact laptop.

http://youtu.be/rnvDYLQhPHA

refer to the video. The keyboard has a noth in it at the top left to pry it out as one peice. Take out the keyboard, look for the single screw on top of the drive, remove screw.

Thanks a ton mate, worked perfectly for me! i was having the HARDEST time trying to figure out why I couldn't get it apart from the bottom.. Spent 1-2 hours doing that and just finally gave up, now I can finally use my storage drive lol.

Pyree, thanks for trying to help - appreciate it

 

[Pyree]

Just a heads up. If you are reinstalling OS from the ASUS W7 disc. Make sure you pull out the one that is not being used as OS drive, if your want the OS to be installed in the smaller HDD.

I don't know about your A53, but the W7 for my N61 choose the largest SATA HDD there is for OS drive, without the option for you to choose default OS drive and I had data overwritten on my HDD when I install my SSD on the laptop. No, it is not due to which sata port you attach your HDD (I swapped them around), it just select the largest HDD.

 

[stealthpanda]

Just a heads up. If you are reinstalling OS from the ASUS W7 disc. Make sure you pull out the one that is not being used as OS drive, if your want the OS to be installed in the smaller HDD.

I don't know about your A53, but the W7 for my N61 choose the largest SATA HDD there is for OS drive, without the option for you to choose default OS drive and I had data overwritten on my HDD when I install my SSD on the laptop. No, it is not due to which sata port you attach your HDD (I swapped them around), it just select the largest HDD.

Not a bios issue is it? its possible that you have to tell it to boot from the smallest drive. It should have given you th option on which drive it used. Not sure, i wiped my a53 out of the box to put w7 ultimate on it. Had no problems with the upgrade, biggest issue was getting network drivers to download the other drivers. Im pretty sure you can just clone the os drive to the new one it is an ssd or something fast and small like that, clone then format the old drive.

 

[Pyree]

Not bios issue. No, I am not using a normal OEM or retail Window 7, I use the disc from ASUS. Well, if you have a normal OEM or W7 disk so you can have full control when you install your OS, then it shouldn't be an issue. I am just saying it in case you have an ASUS brand Window 7.