Reasoning For This:
As Netbooks become more and more popular in our lives, it will be nice to know you can extend the Netbooks life longer with a few easy upgrades you can do yourself. Most Netbooks will come with 1GB of RAM, which in todays world or memory hogging applications, is an extremely minuscule amount of RAM. You could get some work done, but if you wanted multiple programs open or even multiple documents open at the same time, you will start to push the boundaries of the 1GB capability. I ran into this problem, which was most noticeable while typing reviews and trying to listen to music on Youtube and Pandora. I would start to get random freezes in my system, which would make me want to toss the Netbook out of the window from pure frustration! The multiple tabs in my Firefox and Chrome browsers were too much for the lonely little 1GB stick of RAM. I finally had enough and bought a Crucial 2GB stick of RAM, max for my Netbook, and decided to install it while taking some pictures to share with everyone else.
Model and Specs:
Uninstalling The RAM:
To get started, turn your Netbook over and you should see something close to this.
Before we do anything, we will need to make sure the power brick is uninstalled for safety reasons. Better safe than sorry as the old adage goes. To do this, find the two buttons highlighted and push them inwards and the power brick will be released.
Once the power brick is out of the way, find the highlighted area on your Netbook. Once you lift of the tab you will find a screw, unscrew it and give the tab a good yank. We basically had to pry the cover off because it was stuck on there pretty good.
Once you get the covering off, you will be greeted by your RAM. There will be two clips, one on each side, holding it into place. Take a look at the second picture for an up close look at what I am talking about with the clips. Just use your finger and pull it back on both sides, like you see in the bottom picture.
When both locking mechanisms have been pulled back, the RAM can pop up to be installed/uninstalled. From here the RAM will slide out nice and easy for you.
Installing The New RAM:
Once you get the old stick of RAM out, just slide in your new stick like you see above. Make sure it is fully inserted, which we have highlighted in the picture. It should look exactly like this if it is installed correctly.
Now back to the locking mechanisms for the RAM. Push down on the memory to get it ready for locking in place and then push the clips back into place. It should look like the highlighted area in the picture if done correctly.
Let’s double check your installation real fast. Make sure both locking mechanisms are pushed in holding the RAM down in a locked position, and make sure the RAM is fully inserted into the RAM slot. It should look exactly like above if done correctly.
To shut the covering, line up the two pieces that you see highlighted above and insert them. Once that is done, push down on the covering and it will pop back in place.
Now that the covering plate is back on, make sure to tighten the screw back to make sure the plate does not come off. You have now, hopefully, successfully installed your new RAM. Install your power brick back and boot up your Netbook to see if it has been successful.
Final Thoughts:
The plate covering the RAM is somewhat of a pain to get off, like we said above we had to somewhat pry it off. Overall everything was simple and easy to do, took about 10-15 minutes to complete.
I must warn you that my 1015PN was extremely picky about what type of RAM was installed. I went through about 3 different types before I found one it liked. This RAM from Crucial was the winner after all the time spent to find compatible RAM for this ASUS Netbook. Now my Netbook does not freeze or stutter when I have multiple applications open, which makes me very happy.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments section or join our Forums to ask your questions there.
Stay tuned for a new “How To: changing hard drives in your laptop” … coming soon!
