Acer Switch Alpha 12 how to open case and replace battery and SSD 

Mine also swelled battery. I also broke a few parts of the frame.

Thank you. I'm supposed to be fixing a screen on one of these here in the next day or two when the customer comes in to drop it off. They won't need to replace the battery, but this would have been nice to know in other situations with the battery packs that may have had this as well.

@@stevenmackay3289 How do you replace the screen? Where did you buy a screen?

The battery tape is similar to 3M Command Strips, gently pull on the black tab and all the tape releases and pulls out from under the battery. Lift the first side a little bit and the second piece of tape is really easy to pull out. Thank you ASUS Hardware Engineers for getting this ease of service past Management and Marketing…Haha!

I have done this already

Thank you SO MUCH!

Yes, and if for some reason the tabs tear off you can use a pair of tweezers to grab the torn end and wind up some of the tape to continue removal. 👍

In my experience, there was no glue along the edge, just clips. The biggest reason I opted for the Swift Alpha is primarily the price, at almost 1/2 the cost with competitive features and performance that meet my needs. The ease of upgrade and battery replace was a plus that came later. One thing to note is the Swift Alpha does run hotter than other devices but does not seem to affect performance.

@@Frugallist Thank you for the additional information :)

The original battery does have two strips of tape you have to fight with.

@@Frugallist ah...yes, that's quite common, like most cellphones these days.

You dont have to fight the glue under the battery. Just pull the two black strips beside the battery outwards 😉

You might need to search on eBay for parts if it's available.

I am fairly certain you are not able to replace the processor on the Acer Switch Alpha.

I have tha same question.

How do you replace the screen? where did you buy a screen?

Not really sure, but would think it'll be similar.

I also have a Acer alpha switch 12 it’s only compatible with a m.2 sata ssd which is a 5 pin connector while a m.2 nvme ssd is a 6 pin connector

You can easily repair on your own, just be careful and don't rush when separating the back cover to avoid scratches or cracks, and save some money to be used for the upgrade parts!

Hi, I did not have a screen replacement video. Didn't have to replace the screen yet.

@@Frugallist If you have screen to replace , please make a video.

I upgraded from 250GB to 500GB m.2 SSD and it worked great. I am not certain of the maximum SSD size. I complement storage with 400GB micro SD which is a cheaper option.

@@Frugallist Thank you, sir, for your answer!!

@@Frugallist where do you put the micro SD? My switch is about 5 years old. I don't see a slot for that.

@john L, you can locate the micro SD slot on the lower right edge (when facing the screen), you have to open the kickstand to see it.

Did you ever get this solved? Mine has the no bootable device error as well and I've tried quite a few things. Same issue as you.

My model is the core i5 8GB but I am not certain if you can switch out the mainboard, it might be more work and cost than it's worth in my opinion.

@@Frugallist how do you upgrade your switch alpha. I want to upgrade my device. What do I need to know to upgrade. I really need it.

@@egorrakutov4165 you can only upgrade the SSD or replace the battery.

your original charger probably died because your battery is bad and needs to be replaced. it's pretty common. I hope you were able to get your computer repaired.

I have the same problem. I'm assuming it's the battery based on it's location.

Yes, my screen was bulging from the front on the left side due to swollen battery. Replacing the battery resolved the issue and screen is back to be flush as the originally condition.

Yes, replacing the battery will fix the screen bulging at the left front. The battery performance was still good, but I jumped on replacing it as I wasn't sure how much it will continue to bulge and eventually affecting or breaking the screen.

@@Frugallist Thank you. I feel more confident knowing that I bought a battery and this should fix the problem. Did you have to do anything to the screen after the battery was replaced or did it just naturally go back ?

@@BeaconRI nothing for my experience, it just went back to normal which is nice!

sounds like a bad battery but I'm not an expert.

I purchased the Sabrent enclosure and cable from Amazon (Sabrent M.2 SSD to 2.5-Inch SATA III Aluminum Enclosure Adapter (EC-M2SA)) (Sabrent USB 3.0 to SSD / 2.5-Inch SATA I/II/IIIHard Drive Adapter (EC-SSHD)), placed the new SSD in then used Macrium Reflect which you can download a full function 30 day trial. It completely cloned the drive and absolutely not difference when you swap to the new drive. After the upgrade you can place the old drive in the enclosure and you can use it as an external USB drive or put the SSD enclosure directly in an older computer/laptop.

@@Frugallist thx Jim. The most useful tip for me on your video was to watch out for the B&M Key support and this saved me grief into buying the wrong SSD and SSD Ext Enclosure. Merci.

There is only one slot.

@@Frugallist thanks. Is there any way to upgrade the ram?

It's : AP16B4J

@@Frugallist thanks

@@Frugallist While opening the case, I broke the screen. Can you share the part number of the screen, so that I can buy?

@@raakeshp apologies, I am not certain of the part numer for the display panel. I don't want to give uncertain info to have you buy the wrong part.

The RAM is not up-gradable unfortunately.

@@Frugallist thank you

Unless the black tabs tear off the tape. :(

Hi, TimtheBald! I don't know if you still have your Acer Switch Alpha, but I watched this video to replace the battery in mine. Once I reassembled everything, I had the exact same problem you did. The display would not work, even though everything else seemed to function; the LED in the power button illuminated, the detachable keyboard lit up and seemed to be working, and the unit appeared to boot up (despite the "dead" display). In case you haven't tried this, in desperation, I kept booting up my PC (or *appearing* to boot it up, since I couldn't confirm anything on the display), then forcing shut down (i.e., long-pressing the power button until it shut down), then waiting a minute or two and booting it up again. I repeated this cycle many times. Finally, the display came on during one of the boot-up cycles like nothing ever happened. One odd thing is that the PC restarted with a "default" user in Windows (like a brand new user setting up Windows for the first time) rather than booting up in my Microsoft account. So, I had to sign out of that default Windows account and manually re-sign in as myself. Anyway, if you haven't tried this, you may be able to "resurrect" your display.

Thanks for the advice! For the battery I just used a generic aftermarket from eBay.

I'm about to upgrade my SSD as well. Interesting point about the thermal paste on GPU. Why would you suggest that? I do agree there was no thermal paste residue on the heat sink on GPU side.

@@anishmajumdar8043 Just renew the CPU thermal paste, do not touch GPU, because no need. I recommend WD Blue series SSD. Stock SSD is really low quality. You can check its health condition with Harddisk Sentinel program.

@@gokmen9928 Cheers for that. I ordered WD blue as well. In my case it was the only one available at the moment. Upgrading from a 128Gb to 500Gb in my case, it's going to be fun.

@@anishmajumdar8043 I also have better tissue. It has bulged out from left top edge. Where do u purchase the replacement battery and SSD?

Are you going to buy a new screen? is it easy to replace it?

@@ronenfe Probably just going to use it in the cinema-room, connected to a projector (if it can handle 4K). Otherwise it's going to the scrapyard...