Introduction
Upgrading your laptop’s hardware—your memory and storage, specifically—is a great way to breathe new life into an aging machine. You can expect an increase in hard drive space, faster processing speeds and shorter load times for programs or files, and even improved battery life. But upgrade the wrong way, or at the wrong time (say, when you’re trying to finish an essay for class or submit a work report), and you can end up with some serious headaches. We’re not saying you should never upgrade your laptop yourself; we just want to make sure that you know what to do before getting started. That’s why this post will walk through how to safely add new RAM chips and a solid state drive (SSD) to your computer, taking all the right steps along the way.
Determine your laptop model.
To begin the memory and storage upgrade process, you’ll need to determine your laptop model number. This can be found on a sticker at the bottom of most laptops. If you can’t find it there, you may also be able to look up your laptop’s model number online using an internet search engine such as Google or Yahoo!.
Once you have determined which type of memory module is compatible with your computer (DIMM or SO-DIMM), consult this chart for recommended maximum capacities:
Make a list of what you plan to do with the new hardware.
When shopping for new hardware, it’s important to take into account your personal needs. Ask yourself:
- How much RAM do I need?
- How much storage do I need?
- What kind of processing power do I need (CPU) and how much battery life will that require?
Also consider if you’ll be using any programs with heavy graphics requirements (like Photoshop or 3D animation software). If so, you may want a separate graphics card that can handle those tasks in order to offload the CPU and save power. If not, the integrated graphics on most laptops will probably suffice.
Research and purchase the new pieces of hardware you need
Now that you’ve decided how much RAM and storage you need, it’s time to look into what hardware will actually help meet your needs. You’ll need to find out:
- What type of hardware you can upgrade (RAM, SSD, etc.)
- How much each piece costs
- Where in the world it’s possible to buy it (online or brick-and-mortar)
- If any additional parts are needed for installation (if applicable)
There are a few different places where this kind of information is available: user comments on Amazon product pages, and even YouTube videos comparing different products’ specs side by side. Once you’ve gathered all this data together and read up on what other people have said about their experiences with specific products, it’ll be easier for you to make an informed decision about which memory sticks or hard drives will work best for your laptop’s upgrade path!
Remove your laptop’s old hardware.
Before you can upgrade your laptop’s hardware, you’ll need to remove the old. Fortunately, this part of the process is straightforward and easy to do with a little bit of know-how.
First and foremost: use a screwdriver! You may not think that something so simple could be helpful, but trust me—it’s key in getting started. A screwdriver will allow you to remove all of the screws from your laptop’s case (if there are any), which will then allow for easy access to its internal components. If anyone ever needs help opening up their computer or phone case, I recommend asking them about their favorite kind of screwdriver because it really does make things easier!
Second: Use a spudger! This tool will help remove any leftover components from inside your computer after removing all those pesky screws we talked about earlier on in this section. The nice thing about using these tools together is that there won’t be anything left over after they’re done working together — which means no messes around here either!
Install the new hardware.
- Remove the old hardware.
- Install the new hardware and make sure it’s seated properly in its slot, with no loose connections or sharp edges that could damage other parts of your system if pressed up against them for long periods of time (or at all).
- Test that everything works as expected by starting up your computer, opening the program you installed from step 1 above and using it normally for approximately 15 minutes (or however long it will take you to feel confident in your upgrade).
Test that the upgrade works, and the laptop is still running correctly
Once you’ve gotten the new hardware in and tested it, it’s time to make sure everything is working correctly.
- Test the new hardware by running stress tests both on your old and new RAM. You can try Memtest86 (available from https://www.memtest86.com/), which works with Windows Vista or higher, Linux-based operating systems, and Mac OS X 10.4 or higher. Run this for about 15 minutes, checking for any errors that pop up during that time frame. If there are no errors detected after 15 minutes of running this test, then congratulations! You’re good to go!
- Test the laptop itself by running benchmarking tools like Geekbench 4 (available from https://browsermobbinga-kaliforninanotsogeekyweekendgetaway) and Cinebench R15 (available from https://cinebench-15). These will give you an idea of how well your computer performs under load so that you can compare how much faster it runs now than before you upgraded its memory and storage space.* Test software by installing popular programs such as Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus—you know, just so they’ll work better—and then open them up along with other apps such as Spotify Free Music Streaming App–we all love free things right? Those two should prove their worth in terms of processing power.* Finally but most importantly: test battery life! While doing this last step may seem obvious at first glance (after all batteries are what power our laptops), it’s actually important because sometimes upgrading either RAM or storage space might cause unexpected problems that affect battery life negatively over time (i
Upgrading your laptop can be difficult, so take your time and do it right
Upgrading your laptop can be a daunting task. You should take special care to back up your data and carefully follow the instructions below.
- Before beginning, make sure you have the right tools for the job at hand. You’ll want to have a Phillips screwdriver, plastic pry tool (like this one), and possibly some needle-nose pliers handy. If you’re unsure what kind of parts are inside your laptop, it may be worth looking online or asking someone at a local computer repair shop to help figure out what needs replaced before purchasing any parts.
- Once all of that’s done, check over every inch of your machine so there aren’t any stray screws or other pieces that could cause damage when removing them—you wouldn’t want anything falling into place and causing an electrical short! The best way we know how is by using our [recommended product here]–it’s much simpler than trying it yourself without having made mistakes first!
- Finally comes actually replacing those old parts with new ones: once again make sure everything is loose enough so nothing gets damaged while installing but not too loose so everything stays put when powered on again later down the line! Then follow our guide step-by-step until done safely upgrading memory capacity (hm… maybe we should write more about this subject sometime soon).
Conclusion
Hopefully, this post has given you a confidence boost and some tools to help you with upgrading your laptop. We know it can be a little intimidating for some people to upgrade hardware, but this doesn’t have to be a scary process! Just follow our advice above, and you should feel good about taking your laptop into your own hands.