Upgrade your laptop's RAM Video

Upgrade your laptop's RAM Video Transcript

>> As your laptop gets older you'll notice is loses some of it's vim and vigor. That's okay old boy. But, there's a healthy silicon supplement that can perk your old companion right back up. I'm Tom Merritt, Editor from www.CNET.com. On this edition of Insider Secrets, I'll show you how to put more RAM in your old laptop. ^M00:00:19 [ music ] ^M00:00:29

>> First, you need to find out how much RAM you have already on your laptop. Right click on My Computer and choose properties. I've got 1.5 gigabytes in my laptop. So I'd like to bump that up to 2 gigabytes, which means I'll need 512 megabytes more RAM. That's just the way bits and bytes add up. 512 plus 512 equals 1 gig. All right. But I can't just put any RAM in here, I have to have the right kind for this laptop. One way to find out what kind you need, is to go to a memory sellers website. Like Kingston or Crucial. Without having to buy anything, you can use their tools to figure out what kind of RAM you need for your laptop. Now you shop around, order your RAM, wait a week or so and then it arrives. Ah, thank you. Now you've got a brand new stick of RAM. But where do you stick it? Different laptops will be different. In my ThinkPad I pop the back off like this and I've got easy access to one of the sticks of RAM. Of course, your laptop may differ. Check your manual to be sure where the RAM is located. Don't have the manual, go to the manufacturers website. They've probably got a pdf version of your manual up there. Now, we need to take this stick out of here but, be sure your computer is turned off. In fact, for good measure, let's take the battery out. Once you make sure there's no juice running through the laptop, make sure there's not juice running through you. I'm gonna touch the metal table leg here, get rid of the static electricity. Good. Now it's time to take the old stick of RAM out of there. There may be some clips you need to pop open to get it out. Once you've got it out, set the old stick to the side and carefully pull out the new stick, making sure not to touch any of the metal parts. Slide the stick into the empty slot, you can see there's a little notch there, there's usually there to tell you which side goes in which way and then press it in until you hear that click. Don't force it, just until you hear the click. Push it in until the clamps lock and close it up. Now you can put your battery back in and fire up the old laptop and if all goes well, you should have a zippier, faster laptop. That's it for this edition of Insider Secret. I'm Tom Merritt from www.CNET.com. Feel better boy? Good. ^M00:02:42 [ Music ]