A little while ago, I was asked by a friend whether I could take a look at an Acer Aspire 5315 laptop which was suffering from the effects of a carbonated cola drink having infiltrated the keyboard. Basically, somebody had knocked a goodly amount of liquid into the keyboard and now it wasn’t functioning correctly.
The symptoms were as expected, physically sticky keys and keys becoming electronically stuck as well. Not good news.
So I set about trying to remove the keyboard without the benefit of a service manual (oh what fun). 
I started by immediately making a big mistake and removing the memory bay/mini pci cover. This is the biggest cover on the base of the laptop and it’s a right shunt to remove. If you ever need to take this one off, remove all the screws you can see in the cover itself and then carefully start levering from the edge nearest the centre of the laptop first. When I say ‘carefully’, I mean eggshells carefully. The plastic is thin and the whole circumference of the cover is fitted with small extrusions which serve as clips. These will bend to an extent as you free them (I had to gingerly run a fine screwdriver around the gap), just hope you don’t break them! You only really need this cover off if you are fitting a Mini PCI or RAM upgrade part.
Having discovered there was no access to the keyboard fixings from this cover, I refitted it (also very carefully!) and looked under the battery cover. There I found three black screws which appeared to correspond to the cover above the keyboard on the upper side of the laptop.
After removing the three black screws, I began levering up the edge of the fascia panel nearest the keyboard. This panel serves to hold the keyboard in place, it also comprises the button cover for the power switchgear and grilles for the speakers. I used a fine jewellers screwdriver to carefully lever the panel up. Again, it’s a series of brittle-looking plastic clips.
Once the bottom edge of the cover was freed, I lifted it away from the top edge revealing the clips that hold the keyboard in place (set of plastic tabs holding the top edge of the keyboard).
Again, with my trust jeweller’s driver, I levered the top edge of the keyboard from the retaining tabs and not knowing how much ribbon cable existed, gingerly rotated the keyboard up.
As it turns out, there’s enough ribbon to fold the keyboard all the way over to allow removal of the cable. To release the ribbon cable, you have to carefully lever the dark/black locking collar back along the ribbon until it is out of the socket. After carefully memorising the way the cable fits, withdraw the ribbon.
There’s not much else you can get access to from the keyboard bay, there’s no upgradeable parts here and you can only clean (not remove) the CPU fan from here.
The keyboard is a pretty much sealed unit, I had a little try at soaking it in isopropyl alcohol but to no avail. The sugar in the cola had aparently ‘eaten’ (dissolved) the insulator between the membranes and this was now an ex-keyboard.
I managed to find a new keyboard at ‘Acer Spare Parts‘, a company in the UK who had the part shipped in to from Ireland. As my poor luck would have it, the keyboard was damaged in transit possibly because of not-stiff-enough packaging but more likely from ‘courier delivery’ 
.
I managed to flatten the keyboard out by hand, the metal backplane was quite malleable and there was no physical damage to the keys. Refitting is pretty much the reverse of removal. Make sure you get the ribbon cable the right way round and push the locking collar back up. Then put the keyboard back with the bottom edge in first, press the top edge in (ensure that all the tabs are visible above the rim of the keyboard. The upper cover goes back on top-edge first and then presses down. Finally, three black screws go back into the battery bay and you’re done. (Boot and test the keyboard)
This method may work for other Acer Aspire models. Some of the Apire 5000 such as the 5050, 5520 and 5570 look very much alike and 7000 models certainly look similar but don’t quote me on this.
It’s a relatively simple procedure providing you are fairly dexterous and capable of being very gentle and little bit patient. Still, attempt at your own risk, don’t come crying to me if the whole lot disintegrates in your hands!
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Hello,
your advice was very helpful, and I have managed to do the same thing. But, in my case a beer was that crucial liquid. Have no problem with keyboard, just sometimes have to stronger push button to type. Hope it’s ok. And, my problem is a little bit differet: just in the corner of my LCD panel there is a small, but visible trace of liquid. Four days have passed since my accident, but it’s still here. I can send you a photo of a print screen to see it. Can I open LCD panel without any problems and fix it somehow…
Looking forward hearing you.
Hi Zoran
I didn’t dismantle the LCD or any part of the upper side of the shell. I believe there was an option to have an anti-glare cover on the screen so it could be possible to dismantle the screen and carefully clean between the LCD and the anti-glare sheet.
If there is no cover on the LCD, the only option other than careful cleaning then would be to replace the LCD itself. You’d probably have to look on Ebay as while Acer Spares do sell them, they are £200+ [GBP] which is getting towards the price of a new laptop.
I will warn you that dismantling the screen on a laptop is usually the hardest job to do as the hinges and the ribbon connector almost always present a special problem.
Was the cmos battery underneath twhere the keyboard fits?
I fear that I honestly can’t remember seeing it.
On similar Acer models, it is apparently located under the “big panel” on an unusual loose-lead connection. This may not be the case for the 5135 though.
I am in sort of the same predicament with drink spilled on the keyboard of my Aspire 5315. I went to the part supplier you had listed but noticed that they are not in the United States where I am located. Do you by chance, know of any place in the United States I can purchase this keyboard? Your assistance is greatly appreciated.
About the best I can suggest is to call the Acer Support/Spares number that I found for the USA: 1-800-816-2237
Thanks for the guide!
I just replaced the keyboard of the 5315 that I bought in Paris, which had the AZERTY layout, for an US International keyboard that I bought on eBay for US$9.49!
Regards!
Hi greif.
I’m glad my that little exploratory adventure into the insides of the Acer 5315 was useful to you.
i have a smaller problem that i kinda need some help with if you guys don’t mind. my daughter pulled some of the keys off my brand new acer aspire 5315 and now i cannot get them to sit right. and some are sticking and wobbly any advice?Thanks.
Hi Dina.
I think they unclip from a sort of ‘trapeze’ type guide underneath. I unclipped one carefully when I was originally examining the keyboard. If I remember correctly, it separated from the lower edge first.
Rather that immediately trying to remove the keys, perhaps you could try lining them up precisely as they should sit and then pressing down firmly to see if they re-engage with the guide clips.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=251959
the above link is a thread i started at NOTEBOOK REVIEW,, it has all kinds of information about the ASPIRE 5315, including CPU UPGRADES, BIOS RECOVERY METHODS, LATEST DRIVERS and almost anything i’ve ran across for the 5315….
BTW i did link to this page, i hope the owner doesn’t have a problem with this, i have credited you in the link…
and if requested i will remove the link… but why would we want to keep from helping each other in the quest to gain knowledge about these wonderfully cheap little laptops!
Thanks for taking the time to do this explanation. It was very useful when removing my acer 5021 keyboard. (yes almost identical procedure ). In my case it was to un-jam the cpu fan and prevent a serious overheating problem. However, when rebuilding the laptop the keyboard only partially worked, serveral keys failed to work, whislst others were fine. I tried refitting the keyboard very carfully several times but unfortunately no improvement.
So this is just to say be careful when handing the keyboard away from the laptop as this seems to be very easily damaged. Good news is the overheating is cured…….
I don’t suppose anyone has any spare clips from under the keys off an Acer Aspire 5135? or knows where I may be able to get some?
Thanks
Sorry 5315!
For those in the US looking for a keyboard, I found one New on Ebay for $18 and free shipping.
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-WHITE-USA-Keyboard-Acer-4520-4710-5720-5315-Series_W0QQitemZ390000791616QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item390000791616&_trkparms=72%3A1423%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
Thanks for the instructions, I’ll be testing them out in a few days.
Well, I guess they thought I was advertising with my last link… I wasn’t… but search Ebay for “Acer 5315 keyboard”, and there are several USA retailers… I got mine for about $20 w/ free shipping.
Thank you so much for the great information. I could not figure out how to remove the back cover. Your instructions were perfect! My 5520 runs fantastic since I put 4GB of RAM into it. Thanks again.
Thanks for the information my two year old great nephew Archie picked half the keys of my acer aspire 5135 Laptop
its les than twelve months old so i took it back to comet they said sorry but you have voided the warranty facing a
big bill I googled for the instructions on how to replace the keyboard and found your posting I got a new keyboard
for £21.50 of e-bay and it took just 20 minuits to replace it when I asked the little lad why did you pick the keys off
Micky,s laptop he replied ” want to watch Pingu ” his mum explaned who Pingu is so I got him a portable dvd player with a built in screen and a Pingu dvd its my own fault realy never leave your laptop where a two old can reach it
once again Thank You Regards Mick McCabe
so i bought one these and i was wondering how to reset the CMOS password.. i’ve never seen a computer with battery soldered in.. any thoughts?
This thread on techsupport forum details a BIOS password reset method involving shorting the CMOS battery out.
I haven’t tried that myself so I can’t vouch for whether the method works etc.
Same story here friend asked me to look at it…
I am curious about the symptoms list though. My question to every one who has disassembled one of these after a spill. Did the computer boot up at all after the keyboard was dried? It looks like a remarkably high percentage seem to fry the keyboard but seem to have no futher damage which would be excellent news. Has any one heard reports of the machine being bricked?
Thanks in advance.
Jim
IRT to the CMOS battery being soldered.
My Fujitsu Lifebook 280dx (still kickin after a decade) had a soldered in battery. I very gently broke the weld to perform bios password reset (battery was later replaced). In my case the battery slot(?) was situated in the case such that the weld was really over kill. Simply bending the prongs so that they made good contact when reassembled worked fine.
I would recommend analising the setup to see if your machine might be similiarly designed.
good luck
Yesterday I was taking toenail polish off when my labrador retriever heard the doorbell and ran, knocking me over. I was several feet from my laptop which was open but the nail polish remover splashed pretty good on it. I can type on it but certain keys don’t work. My shift key isn’t working to capitalize certain letters but is for some? go figure. since the computer will turn on and work otherwise, should replacing the keyboard take care of this issue?
Replacing the keyboard ought to sort that out as long as the nail varnish didn’t penetrate any deeper (The keyboard sits in it’s own sort of tray)
I expect your keys might be ’stuck’ in position by the glueing effect?
I think it’s worth reminding everyone that if your laptop is still under warranty, you should take it back to Acer or your retailer to be fixed!