Ram Upgrade – Bitterjug

I just upgraded the RAM in my laptop. I had to trawl the web to find some instructions; there weren’t any in the manual. So for anyone else out there who has a Medion Akoya LS, SIM 2010 or the equivalent MSI Megabook S260 or any of its derivatives, here is how I did it. I offer this for documentary purposes only, if you open your laptop, you do so AT YOUR OWN RISK.

I ordered the replacement RAM from Crucial‘s UK site. This was cheaper than paying in Euros because the tax was higher in France. I had to select “other manufacturer” from the drop-down list to get a list that included Medion, then my model was listed by its model number SIM 2010, not by its model name “Akoya LS”. I had to call them to verify that I wanted it delivered to France but I was paying with a UK credit card. Then they sent it to me by UPS.

I shut down and removed the battery. Then pressed the power button for a while to remove any charge in capacitors. Then let it stand for a while and then did it again to be sure.

Underneath there are 6 screws that hold the palm-rest in place. They are labeled on my follow the ink to the flickr page to se them labeled. I took those out with a good quality cross-head screwdriver.

I removed the PCMCIA and SD card blanks. The palm-rest won’t come off with them in.

By raising the back of the palm-rest, near the keyboard, I was able to lift it and find the four clips that hold it in place: two are on the sides near the left USB slot and the modem socket. Two more are on the front between the fire-wire and the mic sockets on the left and in the same place on the right. By flexing and lifting the palm-rest I was able to get it free.

I lifted the palm-rest forward carefully because there was a short ribbon-cable connecting the touch-pad and I didn’t want to put any tension on that.

Once the palm-rest is out of the way, the keyboard slides forward a few millimeters. Then, to get the keyboard out I had to lift it in the middle so it bowed up in a curve because there were four little clips on the sides that kept it in place. It came free of these with some lifting and gentle flexing.

The keyboard is attached by another ribbon cable but this one is longer and folded so the keyboard can rotate and rest o the body. Under it there was a metal plate just to the left of the processor fan. This was attached by one screw and some small clips. I removed the screw and gently lifted out the plate. The plate was looped over the keyboard ribbon-cable so I had to slide it up and under the keyboard rather than remove it completely.

Once the keyboard and the metal plate were stowed well clear, the RAM modules were visible. There were two 256MB modules. There were small clips on the sides of the two RAM slots, I pressed these gently until the RAM modules popped up, then I lifted them out.

Next I opened the anti-static bags with my new SODIMMs in from Crucial. At this point I took some superstitious steps to make sure I wasn’tÂ carrying any additional static charge. I lifted the new modules out of their bags, avoiding touching the contacts, and put them into the empty sots in the laptop. Then pressed down gently on them until the clips engaged.

I reassembled the case: replacing the metal plate and its screw, the keyboard (which took some careful flexing to get it back under its clips and then some gentle nudging back into place) and the palm rest which I clipped down; but I did not replace the screws at this point in case I had to go back and adjust anything.

So with the screws still out I reconnected the power cable (but not the battery), switched on and hit F2 to enter the BIOS screen to make sure that the memory was visible to the system (and that the F2 key was working!).

Next I booted my favorite operating system and tested all the keys on the keyboard and the touch-pad. Since they were alll working I shut down, replaced the screws, inserted the battery pack and then restarted.