How to Upgrade the Memory in your Netbook

March 11th, 2009

Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.

Give your Netbook a Little More Pep by Adding Extra Ram

GOAL: You will learn how to add extra memory to a netbook or laptop computer in under 10 minutes.

If you are one of the 10 Million people who bought a netbook in 2008 (that’s right 10 Million!) you probably noticed that they are handy little devices, if not a little underpowered. There is no better way to make up for that anemic performance than a memory upgrade. Typical netbooks come with 1 gig of memory (Ram). They usually have capacity for a second gig, which I strongly recommend.

Image via Wikipedia

I bought my daughter an MSI Wind U100 for Christmas because it made sense with her lifestyle. She travels between her mother’s house and mine regularly and needs to be very mobile. She’s also on the tiny side, so the smallish keyboard is not a problem for her. I wanted to give the machine a little more oomph, so I ordered a stick of memory to install when she came to the house. (She was the camera person on the video below.)

Let’s Get Started!

What you Will Need

This is about the cheapest, quickest, easiest computer upgrade that you can do. ($10 – $15, 10 minutes, 1 screwdriver)

Important: Before you purchase your memory stick, head over to Crucial.com and run their Memory Advisor tool to determine the correct memory type for your computer.

Instructions

The actual process of adding the new memory stick to your computer is very simple.

Unscrew and remove the bottom plastic cover
Locate the empty DIM {definition}
Line up the notch on the memory stick with the notch in the empty DIM
Insert the memory stick into the DIM (slot that the memory stick goes into) at a 45 degree angle
Press the memory down until it is flat against the motherboard and the two side clips “click”
Screw the plastic cover back onto the computer
Power on the computer and verify that the memory is detected

The following video shows you just how simple it really is.

Download the Upgrade the Memory on your Netbook video.

Upgrade other netbooks:
Here are instructions for some other popular netbooks:
Acer Aspire One
Asus EEE
Dell Inspiron Mini is not available (Nice work Dell!)
HP Mini