Laptop Upgrade
Well, it must be that time of year again. I don't use the laptop as anything more than a glorified typewriter, but I still like to be able to extract the best from it.
In an effort to do so, I figured that it was due for another upgrade. Now, when it comes to laptops, there is very little that one can do to upgrade them. Generally, laptops need to be bought the way you want to use them. Want to upgrade the CPU? Good luck! Want to change the video card? Not likely - you'd need to swap out the whole motherboard!
There are pretty much only two things that you can (easily) upgrade on a laptop - the hard drive (hdd) and the RAM.
So here's the laptop, as it looked prior to the upgrade:
Actually, that's also pretty much how it'll look after the upgrade as well, since it is all internal.
The First thing you'll want to do is the standard procedure before any changes to a computer - back everything up! Especially any important files. Although the old hdd is not being discarded, there is always the possibility of data corruption.
The next step is to make sure you get all the drivers. It is important to do this prior to removing the old hdd as you want to be able to run tests to determine what hardware was fitted to your particular Extensa. The manufacturer, Acer, shipped these with a variety of configurations depending on when it was bought.
For example, going to the Acer website and navigating to the Driver Downloads page will show that for the Extenssa 5220 there are two video card drivers, three modem divers, two webcam drivers plus a couple others that I can't remember right now.
Check with your particular laptop first. You should be able to get all this from Windows Device Manager (assuming that you are running Windows). Mine came with Vista, but as noted before, I upgraded to XP Pro on mine (though I'm tempted to run Windows 7 while it's still free).
Once you have the right set of drivers, it's usually best to unzip them and burn them all onto a CD. Odds are you'll want to install most of the drivers before you start installing software and you probably won't install WinZip first. Having all the drivers in one CD in their own folders ready to go will save you a lot of hassle.
Once you are happy that your data is secure and that you have all the drivers, you are ready to proceed.
Flip the laptop upside down:
Step One: Remove the battery! This is simple, easy and only takes a few seconds. If you don't remove the battery, then you might accidentally cause a short inside the laptop - which falls into the "bad" category.
Locate all the screws on the bottom of the 5220. Odds are that there will be between 5 and 9 of those little suckers. And just to make it more fun, most models come with seated screws (they don't come all the way out).
What this means is that while you are unscrewing the little screws, the bottom cover of the laptop is rising up off the laptop.
This would be a non-issue except for one teensy detail:
On three sides, the bottom cover has these little plastic tabs that stick out and prevent the bottom cover from simply sliding out easily (the fourth side has bigger, non-flexible tabs!).
So as you are undoing the screws, the place where the screws are is lifting up but the edges where the tabs are won't. This can result in an alarming amount of bending in the bottom cover (especially near the corner screws). This is normal and should not cause undue stress. The bottom cover will bend a lot more when you try and remove it.
Removing the bottom cover can be quite traumatic when one does it for the first time. Acer laptops (actually, most laptops) need to have the bottom cover flexed a fair bit in order to get them out. Gentle presistence is the key here. Odds are that unless you are using a large screwdriver as a lever, you won't break the bottom cover. It'll bend a lot before it breaks. Lots of jiggling, fiddling and firm pressure ought to get it off.
Once you have the bottom cover off, you should be albe to see the guts of the laptop:
What we are interestd in is the RAM and the HDD. All the rest we can ignore for now, except the CPU Fan and associated heatsink. While you have the bottom cover off, it is a good idea to give this section a bit of a clean. Odds are there will be a bunch of dust there that the fan picked up and this part needs to be clean to ensure good heat transfer.
Do not use liquids! A can of compressed air, a hand blower of some type, camera lens cleaner or other non-fluid method of extracting the dust is needed. Even an old toothbrush will do - all you need to do is move the dry dust off. If you get it wet, it'll just turn into mud and stick and worse - you could short out the motherboard.
Step Two: Replacing the Ram. There are two slots for Ram and your laptop will either have one or two chips. There are two slots available. The lower one is Slot 1 and the upper one is Slot 2. If you are only putting in one chip, it's recommended to put it in Slot 1.
It is fairly straightforward to get the Ram out. On each chip, there are two little tabs, one on each end. These are holding the Ram down. By gently pushing these outwards (away from the Ram), the chip will be released and it will "pop up".
Since the mounts are spring loaded, be gentle when pushing on the release tabs. Once popped up, the chip can be easily extraced. Pull out the old chip(s) and set aside, then insert the new chip(s).
Double check to make sure that the new chips are seated properly, then push down. Preferably, push down at the corners and not in the middle. Since the tabs are sloped, the new chips should simply lock into place.
Step Three: Swapping out the HDD. Removing the old HDD is actually easier than pulling out the Ram. The only critical step is to remove a rubber block (or other obstruction) that normally holds the HDD in place.
This is basically a wedge of some type that keeps the HDD in position. If this is the first time it has been removed since installation at the factory, it may be slightly stuck but can usually be pulled out with very little effort.
Note that the HDD will normally be in some type of caddy with a handle on it to make it easier to extract. Do not pull on this handle until after the rubber block is removed.
With the block removed, the HDD should slide out very easily.
When handling the HDD, it is important to only touch it on the load points (where screws would go). The underside of the HDD normally has a lot of circuitry exposed, and if you have a static charge on you or you put too much stress on these sall components you could destroy the HDD.
Granted, there is a fairly low chance of this, but it could happen. Not so important for the HDD that is being pulled out, but you want to tke every precaution on the one going in.
Once you have the old HDD out, it may look different to the new HDD that is going in:
This is because the old HDD will normally have some tye of plastic or rubber caddy around it. This is to absorb vibrations - both from the HDD when it is working (to keep noise down) and from external forces (such as dropping the laptop) reaching the HDD.
This caddy normally pulls off the old HDD quite easily and would then be placed around the new HDD. Installin the new HDD is simply a reversal of the procedure to get the old one out.
The new HDD ought to be pretty much the exact same dimensions as the old one (these are fairly standardised), but it might feel more snug since the caddy may have been stretched slightly when it was removed. Don't forget the rubber block!
And there you have it! All the parts are now in the machine. I inserted two 1Gb Ram chips and a 160Gb HDD, effectively doubling both specs. Although it is tempting to get more Ram, note what type of OS you are running. Since I'm running an older version of XP, I am pretty much limited to 2Gb. In theory, I could have dropped in one 2Gb chip and one 1Gb chip, but the hardware wouldn't handle it.
Once it is all re-assembled (the bottom cover is fiddly to get back on, but once in place, simply screw down), it's time to re-insert the battery, flip it over and spend a few hours re-installing everything.
Here's what I did:
- Partition drive as needed (most people will just use one large partition. I split the drive into four in order to help me keep different files organsied.)
- Install XP (the machine detected the CD and booted automatically. You may need to drop into the BIOS and change the boot order.)
- Install XP Service Pack 2 (I was lucky enough to get this on disc off a computer magazine a while back.)
- Install Drivers for the laptop hardware.
- Install Service Pack 3
- Install remaining software as needed.
Your milage may vary. If you bought a copy of XP more recently, odds are that it'll have the three service packs already bundled in. If you are installing a different OS, then your procedure will be different.
I would prefer to install Linux, but it is usually a bit of a pain to get the wireless connection working so that's why I keep using XP. Most of the software that I use has GPU equivalents anyway.
So as it turns out, upgrading a laptop isn't that hard, it can just be a little stressfull the first time - especially if you paid a lot of money for it!
Last updated: October 2009