Lift the fan and detach the cable that connects the fan to the motherboard.
The fan can break easily. Be careful when removing.
When detaching the cable, do not pull on the cable itself. Instead, use a small spudger to detach it at the white section that connects it to the motherboard.
a lot of stuff missing in terms of unscrewing certain screws to get the cover off. I got stuck at step 10 because the cover was still attached by various screws.
Maybe I have a different model, but it is for sure an Acer Aspire 5100.
I also broke a lot of connection where screws thread in to, hopefully it goes back together rigidly enough.
It is not neccessary for a full strip down, just to get at the CPU. Access from the main cover, remove fan and heatsink. The CPU can now be removed as in the final steps.
You have to remove the video cable, wifi cables and LCD before you try to remove the touchpad/upper cover. You must also remove two screws from the bottom labeled 10x. In other words, you should complete steps 12 to 16 and remove the 10x screws before attempting to complete steps 9 to 11.