Alright so by demand and as a newcomer gift to XDA, I will show you how to open up the Acer Iconia A100 tablet and how to replace the crappy microphone they provide with it, this thread is going to have pictures and is going to need a bit of organization skills and some soldering skills 
, so let's start
Before beginning note: make sure to work on a towel or something soft as the tablet will be upside down, I didn't use one and I got pretty bad scratches on my protector, as you will see in the last picture.
BEFORE BEGINNING NOTE #2 YAY!: I am in no way responsible of any damage to your device, your life, your marriage, your emotions, your cream cheese bagel order at Tim Horton's that wasn't discounted 18 cents, or your cat. So do this at your OWN risk.
Before beginning note #3: This will void your warranty....DUH. But I really don't care about mine because my slogan is "I VOID WARRANTIES"
Things you will need:
1) Set of small philips screwdrivers
2) Soldering iron
3) Solder (optional, not necessary as the mics have solder on them already)
4) Something to pry the plastic open with (I used my nail but you can use a flathead screwdriver...etc)
5) Another microphone you are going to use (preferably from a webcam/ headset, as they need to be the exact size or close to the original one)
Now let's get to work.
Acer A100, great tablet, crappy battery and crappy mic.
In the next few images, I will pry off the plastic sides of the tablet, don't worry if you feel like they bend, just run your finger across and under the pieces until you hear all the snap ins snap out.
Bottom side:
Right side:
Top side:
Left side:
Alright, now that all the sides are off, let's get to the screws, there are 5 screws you have to get off, in these pictures you will see where they are.
Bottom side:
Right side:
Top side(NO SCREWS HERE, CARRY ON)
Left side:
Well now I really don't have to say it cause it's really obvious, grab your screw driver and get to work on these screws, make sure you put them on the side after you take em' out.
NOW FOR THE FUN PART, Really opening it up, get your nail ready, or whatever you're going to use for prying the plastic apart, and start SLOWLY prying the 2 pieces apart, CAREFULLY!
And now, completely take off the back cover (Don't worry, there's nothing connected to it, it's just an antenna)
AND BEHOLD, THE INTERNALS! (and that damned battery.....)
Alright now don't get too excited (I learned this the hard way...), there's a few things you must do first, look around and get familiar where everything is, and DISCONNECT THE BATTERY CONNECTOR!(Warning: as soon as you disconnect the battery, the whole tablet will shut down COMPLETELY, so make sure you save anything you haven't saved like game progress etc...then unplug it)
Now the left side is where the good stuff is at, so ignore everything else and just go to the left side.
Notice there is 3 connectors, the Microphone connector (black), some other connector (white and black), and some other connector (yellow), all of these have to go out, and once they are out there are 2 screws holding that small chip down in place, one black and one silver, these 2 have to go out too.
First connector (white and black), just open the small black tab and pull the flat thing out, should be really easy:
Second connector (yellow), this thing just pulls off the board, just easily lift it up:
and now remove the 2 screws and put them aside:
And now really gently pull the small board out, might need some wiggling around but it'll come out, it will be obstructed because the microphone is still in its place, but just lift the microphone out, it slides right out
So I accidentally deleted the rest of this post and lost all the images, but its pretty straight forward, just desolder the microphone, solder a new one on and pop everything back into place, make sure to put the battery connector on last and close up the tablet.
Enjoy your new microphone and hope this wasn't too long, please use the thanks button if it helped you
, so let's startBefore beginning note: make sure to work on a towel or something soft as the tablet will be upside down, I didn't use one and I got pretty bad scratches on my protector, as you will see in the last picture.
BEFORE BEGINNING NOTE #2 YAY!: I am in no way responsible of any damage to your device, your life, your marriage, your emotions, your cream cheese bagel order at Tim Horton's that wasn't discounted 18 cents, or your cat. So do this at your OWN risk.
Before beginning note #3: This will void your warranty....DUH. But I really don't care about mine because my slogan is "I VOID WARRANTIES
"Things you will need:
1) Set of small philips screwdrivers
2) Soldering iron
3) Solder (optional, not necessary as the mics have solder on them already)
4) Something to pry the plastic open with (I used my nail but you can use a flathead screwdriver...etc)
5) Another microphone you are going to use (preferably from a webcam/ headset, as they need to be the exact size or close to the original one)
Now let's get to work.
Acer A100, great tablet, crappy battery and crappy mic.
In the next few images, I will pry off the plastic sides of the tablet, don't worry if you feel like they bend, just run your finger across and under the pieces until you hear all the snap ins snap out.
Bottom side:
Right side:
Top side:
Left side:
Alright, now that all the sides are off, let's get to the screws, there are 5 screws you have to get off, in these pictures you will see where they are.
Bottom side:
Right side:
Top side(NO SCREWS HERE, CARRY ON)
Left side:
Well now I really don't have to say it cause it's really obvious, grab your screw driver and get to work on these screws, make sure you put them on the side after you take em' out.
NOW FOR THE FUN PART
, Really opening it up, get your nail ready, or whatever you're going to use for prying the plastic apart, and start SLOWLY prying the 2 pieces apart, CAREFULLY!
And now, completely take off the back cover (Don't worry, there's nothing connected to it, it's just an antenna)
AND BEHOLD, THE INTERNALS! (and that damned battery.....)
Alright now don't get too excited (I learned this the hard way...), there's a few things you must do first, look around and get familiar where everything is, and DISCONNECT THE BATTERY CONNECTOR!(Warning: as soon as you disconnect the battery, the whole tablet will shut down COMPLETELY, so make sure you save anything you haven't saved like game progress etc...then unplug it)
Now the left side is where the good stuff is at, so ignore everything else and just go to the left side.
Notice there is 3 connectors, the Microphone connector (black), some other connector (white and black), and some other connector (yellow), all of these have to go out, and once they are out there are 2 screws holding that small chip down in place, one black and one silver, these 2 have to go out too.
First connector (white and black), just open the small black tab and pull the flat thing out, should be really easy:
Second connector (yellow), this thing just pulls off the board, just easily lift it up:
and now remove the 2 screws and put them aside:
And now really gently pull the small board out, might need some wiggling around but it'll come out, it will be obstructed because the microphone is still in its place, but just lift the microphone out, it slides right out
So I accidentally deleted the rest of this post and lost all the images, but its pretty straight forward, just desolder the microphone, solder a new one on and pop everything back into place, make sure to put the battery connector on last and close up the tablet.
Enjoy your new microphone and hope this wasn't too long, please use the thanks button if it helped you
Last edited:
