Recently, someone passed me a Acer L3600 and told me he needed help in changing the CMOS Battery in the Acer L3600.  Since this Acer L3600 is not a conventional desktop computer, thus I suppose people out there might need a guide on how to open up the Acer L3600 to change the Cmos battery.  It is quite tricky since this type of machine is what we call a mini tower.  Please do not force or move the parts too much a distance because there are a lot of connecting cables and wires interlinking the components and the internal chassis.

 

Step 1 – Unscrew the cover screw

 

There is a screw that locks the whole cover at the top, by default, it has a “Warranty void if broken sticker”.  You may need to peel it off or simply punch a screw driver right in and start unscrewing.  After which, push the cover backwards to slide it out a bit in order to lift the whole cover away.

 

Step 2 – Remove the front panel of the Acer L3600

Gently lift up the 3 rectangular plastic catches and you will be able to push the front panel down.  This step is required or you cannot lift up the top metal chassis.   There is one more screw you will need to unscrew before you can lift up the top metal frame.

 

Be careful not to let the screw drop deeper into the system.  After that you will be able to lift up the top metal chassis buy holding on to the black plastic strap.  Carefully and gently, shift it to the side, do not lift up the whole thing.  There are connector ribbons that prevent you from lifting the whole chassis right off.

 

If you ever exert excessive force, you may accidentally unplug the ribbon from  one of the connectors.  When that happens, lift up the black part of the connector and put the ribbon there with your hand and clamp the black part of the connector down again.

 

Step 3 – Remove the CMOS battery of the Acer L3600

 

The CMOS battery is very different from the conventional motherboards.  It comes wrapped with plastic cover and a connector.  Carefully remove it with a small screw driver set.  Insert it and slowly pry it up wards.  If you tug at the wires, it may snap and break as a result.  Removing it will be more difficult after that.

Step 4 – Replace the CMOS battery

 

This is straight forward, just buy one new one and plug it back in.  The only thing you need to take note is to ensure that the orientation of the connector jack is correct before you insert the new battery in.  You do not want to damage the connector by forcing it the wrong way.

 

Assemble the parts back by doing a reverse engineering sort of concept and you will be able to put everything back in place.  One area I did not put it back perfectly was the front panel, as a result of that I need to take it apart again.  You will need to fit the front panel taking reference from the bottom so that it flushes perfectly without gaps before you flip it up.  If you close it back with gaps, the front panel which encloses the USB and audio jacks will keep opening.

Hope you find this guide on changing CMOS battery on Acer L3600 useful.