The Acer Aspire One netbook. It’s inexpensive, it’s tiny, and the base-level version only comes with 512MB of RAM. I cracked open the case, voided the warranty, and added an extra gigabyte. Watch the above video to see how. More details after the jump.
Tools Needed
- Small Philips screwdriver
- Two small flathead screwdrivers (or something similar) to get at the keyboard
- 512MB or 1GB stick of RAM. For best results, use PC2-5300 RAM.
- Time, patience, and a blatant disregard for your warranty
Step One
Remove the battery and the following eight screws. Two of them are hidden under the rubber feet.
Step Two
Use a flat object (like a flathead screwdriver) to push each of the three tabs toward the screen while using another flat object to gently pry the keyboard upwards.
Step Three
Disconnect the keyboard and trackpad ribbons, followed by the following six screws.
Step Four
Unscrew the two screws near the Wi-Fi module, unplug the audio cable, and disconnect the SSD ribbon. The RAM slot is on the underside of the motherboard in the lower left-hand corner. Carefully lift the board up and insert the RAM.
Step Five
Reassemble the computer and tap F2 while it’s booting to enter the BIOS. Under the “Main” tab, make sure your total memory is 1,536 megabytes. That’s it!
Tip of the hat to AspireOneUser.com and its forums. I got a lot of the info for this project from over there. It’s a great resource for Aspire One owners.
God people, do not use metal screwdrivers to pry plastic computer components apart, unless you like the dinged and scratched look.
Instead, use something plastic like a credit card, which is what I used for this procedure and it worked wonders. You can use the corner of a credit card to press the tabs in, and work the keyboard out, without scratching, nicking, or otherwise damaging it.
lol american express or visa?
dude its in dim slot 2 are you rilly a+?
Doug, thank you for the excellent video! Also the tip of using a credit card as the tool for detaching the keyboard worked fine. The plastic frame was also easy to remove by going around the outer edge joint with the card. The only trouble, which I had was due to not attaching the SSD cable properly deep into its connecter while reassembling. For that reason, the machine did not boot and I had to go back to redo the SSD cable mounting. Thereafter, the machine worked just fine. So, please, be careful while reassembling that all the flat cables get well attached to their connectors.
Thanks for that, GREAT help in upgrading my memory.
1) Yes, the credit card trick is handy, I found it very awkward trying to prise the keyboard out but keep at it, I kind’a prised the corner of the credit card in and then turned my AAA1 upside down and shook it a bit to help move it out of it’s tight fitting..
2) I found some of the screws very difficult to remove, they were on VERY tight and the far right one in photo three nearly defeated me, I was worried about flexing the motherboard, same goes for the middle lower one in photo four but I eventually got them out… Of course your mileage may be different.. of you have a less cheap jewellers screwdriver kit than me..
3) I have a hard drive rather than a SSD so I could not raise the motherboard as it was caught slightly by the circuit board on the far right therefore I had to remove that circuit board by removing the three screws on it, then the motherboard came away with a little judicious manipulation..
4) With the motherboard loose the AAA1 really is completely disassembled and it would not have been a problem to upgrade the hard drive at the same time..
Thanks for the guide, been very useful..
FYIO I’m very please with my 1.5gig 120gig Hackintosh, I get some VERY envious/surprised looks in the local Starbucks :)
Cheers
minerva1961
Oh man, that sucks. I just got my Aspire One yesterday, and already I noticed that Firefox + OpenOffice.org Spread = swap. I was all about throwing in an extra GB of RAM until I saw this. Now? eesh.
I think I’ll just move my swap partition to my SDHC card when I tell Linpus to take its leave (in a couple days).
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Doug, thank you for the excellent video
I just got my Aspire One a month ago only yesterday i try to restart and since then it would not start the green led light is working but the hdd indicator light is not. also the screen is off. there is no response for some reason. someone think it is a virus and the motherboard affected. I also attach the external DVD Drive with winXP TO TRY BOOT FROM THERE BUT NOTHING HAPPIND.
….WHAT SHOULD I D ?
bios probs all aa1’s get it at some point there is a acer guide at macles blog just search google for macles then bios in his site search acer do a howto but i cant find it and darn it is better so google for that
DOUG Thanks
I got aspire one a month ago only yesterday i try to restart and since then it would not start the green led light is working but the hdd indicator light is not also the screen is off there is no response for some reason. someone think it is a virus and the motherboard affected. I also attach the external DVD Drive with winXP TO TRY BOOT FROM THERE BUT NOTHING HAPPIND.
….WHAT SHOULD I D ?
Johani
Did you ever get this problem worked out. My AAO did the same thing to me today. Geen light nothing else.
thanks
it sounds like you killed your bios my frined
ive done this a few times as i tinker with mine a lot luckey your you and me i found a way to fix the bios if it does that go over to
http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/08/acer-aspire-one-bios-recovery.html
The AA1 has a built-in BIOS recovery routine, making it possible to flash the BIOS even if the system doesn’t boot anymore. It’s only meant for emergencies and may void your warranty, so use at your own risk.
Follow every step carefully!
First format an USB stick with FAT.
Download the latest BIOS, and put both FLASHIT.EXE and the BIOS file in the root directory of the stick. Rename the BIOS file to ZG5IA32.FD, that’s important. Do not remove the USB stick.
Turn the AA1 off, make sure both battery and AC adapter are connected. Press Fn+Esc, keep it pressed and press the power button to turn the AA1 on. Release Fn+Esc after a few seconds, the power button will be blinking. Press the power button once. The AA1 will now initiate the BIOS flash, do not interrupt it under any circumstances. After a while the power button will stop blinking, and the AA1 will reboot shortly after. Wait patiently.
The BIOS has been flashed and all settings reset to default.
If for some reason you made a mistake during the procedure and it doesn’t reboot by itself wait 5 minutes before turning it off, just to be safe that it isn’t still flashing the BIOS.
also i found easyer way to make a usb flash fisk was use a freeware program called unetbootin-windows-304.exe
then select the freedos option load it to your usbkey put the bios files in and away you go
if u need any help this is my msn
dj_denims@hotmail.com……..yay watch as the spam goes in
You rock Meercat! I was just about ready to order a new motherboard and stumbled on this page by accident when looking for memory (thinking to go from 1g to 1.5g while in there) and that BIOS recover routine saved me a few $100 and the effort. Thanks a lot for the post!
Hey very informative well done demo. Many thanks, I am a novice but thanks to your excellent video managed to upgrade. Great job…btw your accent is really cute!!
Doh… I mistakingly thought I could add 2gb. Well at least I found out before I reassembled. Thanks for the guide, that helped.
Can anyone tell me if the Model AOA150-1570 Aspire One Netbook (which ships with i gig RAM) can also be upgraded? Or is the DIMM slot already populated as shipped? If there’s a 512K DIMM in the expansion slot, can it be replaced with 1 gig DIMM? If there’s nothing in the slot, can I add a gig and end up with two gig?
Thanks.
Thanks for this guide.
Just upgraded to 1.5 GB on my new AcerOne White Perl.
bye.
–
slack? smack!
JWWHITE,
I have the same notebook that you have. It comes with WinXP Home and is already populated with 2×512 so both slots are used. NOBODY knows the answer to your question. One would think that it’s possible–you sacrifice one of the 512k and swap in a 1024k of memory.
I even talke with a tech-line person at Acer and even he did not know or could not be sure.
One day soon, we’ll know for sure. Then, in view of the above, I would suggest have a professional do it for $10 or $20 (the charge for swapping memory).
Good luck!
JWWHITE,
I have the same notebook that you have. It comes with WinXP Home and is already populated with 2×512 so both slots are used. NOBODY knows the answer to your question. One would think that it’s possible–you sacrifice one of the 512k and swap in a 1024k of memory.
I even talke with a tech-line person at Acer and even he did not know or could not be sure.
One day soon, we’ll know for sure. Then, in view of the above, I would suggest have a professional do it for $10 or $20 (the charge for swapping memory).
Good luck!
YES YOU CAN!! – I did it and it works!
Yes, the process works. I have an Acer Aspire One with WinXP, 120HD, and 120mb RAM. I upgraded today by replacing the 512mb chip with a PNY 1mb chip and now have 1.5 megs RAM.
PC seems a little more quicker, although what I was hoping to improve didn’t work. I have a Pinnacle TV USB adaptor that the tv reception is quite jerky.
Hi Don,
Your Pinnacle TV adaptor will cache (buffer) the data on the hard disk and this is the slow bit.
The answer is to use a RAM disk and then change the location of the cache to this new disk.
The Gavotte one is free and very easy to use…
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/05/27/free-ramdisk-for-windows-vista-xp-2000-and-2003-server/1/comment-page-4/
While you are at it, direct your browser cache too for speedy sufing.
Hope that helps.
Great video and comments/tips from other subscribers. Will definately give this a try once my 7yrs old has got tired of his Christmas present and has started to play with the box (usually about New Years eve).
What I dont understand is why the manufacturer doesnt already fit it with 1gb of RAM which would save all of this. Even Notebook RAM is very cheap these days and for say an extra £20 they could do this and I would have paid the extra. Ahh well suppose that would have been too easy :-)
Thank you!!
Invaluable advice.
Worked like magic!!
:o)
I haven’t taken my aspire apart yet but will when my new wifi card gets here. I wanted to order ahead of time a new fan unit. Any ideas as to what size the fan is?
HI, SOMEBODY KNOWS IF IS POSSIBLE UPGRADE WITH ONE MEMORY MODULE OF 2GB???
THANKS FOR INFORMATION……
The credit card trick works (w00t), however a 2GB RAM stick will prevent the computer from running (this is from personal experience). Stick to a 1GB stick.
it is possible to use a 2 gig stick, you have to put it in a laptop that will accept more than 2 gigs ram, alter the stick so it reads as 1 gig. The only other option is to keep harassing acer to release a bios update that will disable the integrated stick
I’m having trouble with the reassembly. In particular it seems impossible to put the little plastic bit back on to the keyboard and trackpad ribbons. I can get them on without the ribbons inserted. I can put the ribbon in and put the plastic bit on upside down, but that is loose and comes off easily.
I can’t do it for the trackpad, where the ribbon is naturally in place, let alone holding the keyboard and the ribbon in place at the same time.
Any tips happily accepted …
that little clip for the ribbon cable flips up, it does not pull out like older notebook ribbon clips. Use a piece of masking tape to hold the facia close to the netbook, freeing both hands to reattach that little ribbon cable
Thanks Doug, excellent video! Everything worked out fairly well the first time around and now I have an Acer Aspire with 1536 mb.
The hitch I ran into was with the keyboard cable. In my haste to get to the next step, I pulled it out of the wrong socket and did that to the trackpad as well. Luckily, they have the blue pulltabs that allow you to easily push it into the socket, otherwise it would’ve been a long night. Agree with the posters above about the screws. Some were on so tight that I had to pull out my power screwdriver/drill to loosen.
If any of you have the black keyboard version, you could always use a sharpie to cover up the scuff marks from the keyboard removal step.
Now if there’s only some way to turn off the fingerprint magnet feature…
Google something for the fingerprint magnet ….you might find something =)
Very ………very…..very Thanks for u provide us to good technicial support vidios.
Having solved my trouble with the keyboard and trackpad ribbons, thought
I might report back here to let folks know how.
As herrold says, the little clips are designed to flip up, not pull out
as I did (and the video appears to). So if you read this before
disassembly then do that.
Otherwire, when reassembling, put the clip back in *without* the cable
inserted. Then just flip up the clip, insert the ribbon, and flip down
again. :)
@mish Just saved my bacon! Thanks.
This seems remarkable similar to the disassembly of most other Acer models. I have had to disassemble both my travelmate 4720 and my older 4220 because of falling accidents. I have to admit though that this would be a trial of patience to simply install a little bit of extra ram, especially since mine came with 1024MB pre-installed. On the other hand I do have 2 1GB PC 5300 DDR2 dimms just lying around.
Thanks Doug, excellent video! will work on it ASAP.
Hmm… the 8 Gb SSD drive shows up as “X free of 6.4 GB” in the file manager; presumably because of the 1 Gb swap space (according to ‘top’) and 0.5 Gb for a hibernate partition? So after upgrading the RAM to 1.5 Gb does the hibernate function still work? I’m guessing not, without repartitioning to likewise increase that partition by a gig.
Thanks for the info. Cracked mine open today, memory in, back together in under 20 mins.
What you DO need is an ESD strap. Lots of tiny components in there that you won’t damage with hands but you might with static.
Cheers.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I nearly damaged my Aspire thinking adding a RAM is a straightforward task. I wouldn’t have known the 2 hidden screws, how to remove the keyboard and oh by the way the credit card trick is really effective …. man with a brilliant mind! My baby is now working like a dream!!!!
Hi, its a very interesting guide, I have a quetion for you, How much can i upgrade my mini pc, i mean the max of RAM it can accept so it can work at full speed. thnks
will it be supporting RAM upto 2 GB?? and i wanna know how many RAM slots it got?? pls reply .. Thanx
HELP:
After attempting this mod, my screen no longer works, any trouble shooting would be appreciated.
Thanks for the info. But I am not able to download the video, can anybody please send me the video on xraj@yahoo.com.
Thanks : RAJ
When I did this ram upgrade I broke the plastic clip for the keyboard ribbon. I should’ve read the comment about flipping it up and down and not pushing it out.
Anyone knows where to get those?
Thanks
If you still have the black part of the clip, you can put it back on pretty easy, you have to be careful though.
Line up the clip on the connector (without the the keyboard attached of course) so it has the “bulky part” facing up and it fits into the connector properly (think puzzle pieces).
Now position clip up so it’s perpendicular to the connector (the first part was just to line it up properly)
Here’s the tricky part… using a pair of tweezers, line up the holes in the clip with the prongs.
Slide the clip onto the connector.
Using a sharp object (like a pin) VERY CAREFULLY push the edges of the clip in until they “click”
Now you connector/clip should be as good as new :D
**could someone take a pic of the connector so he knows what it looks like (without the ribbon in it so he can see how it is aligned and positioned, etc (my descriptions kinda bite)). I’ve opened mine up a dozen or so times till I figured out how to do it and am just sick of it…
shoot, the second part of the description made no sense… what I meant is that the clip should be in the upright position (vs. laying flat in the closed position…)
In the first step, the fit should be more described as kind of like having a symmetrical puzzle piece in upside down, it fits, but it’s upside down… sorry I suck at explaining these things).
5300 memory or 4200 memory? Which is best? Does anyone know the speed of the onboard memory of the Aspire One? I got the 4200 cause I thought it would be more compatible and reliable. Any suggetions?
FYI, I’ve tried a 2GB module in my Aspire One and it does not work. The Acer powers on with a green light and then sits there dead.
Swapping back to a 1GB module and the Acer booted up normally though I notice in the System information panel it shows 2048 MB guess this is adding in the swap? In the BIOS screen it shows 1536 MB.
I generally think that I should not be allowed to have tools around any computers and when I saw what needed to be done, I was ready to take the whole thing to someone else BUT – I watched this video a couple of times and didn’t rush it. I’m very thankful for the help – half the folks in my office have this computer and mine will now be bigger, faster, stronger!! THANK YOU!!
From my understanding these machines have one Dimm slot for ram and an on board stick of 512 megabytes of ram. I am considering upgrading my aspire one I have AOA150-1570 model which includes a Hard Drive and has a gig of ram, so I would effectively be removing a 512 stick from the dimm slot and replacing it with a 1gig stick to get a max of 1.5 gig of ram. I am not sure if it will be worth the trouble. If it would support more ram like upto 2.5 gig as the max bus I would do it in a heart beat, but I’m fairly sure that at max it is supposed to just support 1.5 gig, if anyone knows for sure please let me know.
I have read now and see the many comments about 2 gig not allowing for boot. That is a shame. I should have gotten the Asus Eee PC. It has 160 gig hard drive and 6 cell lithium battery and allows for upgrade to upto 2 gigs of ram. It is a shame, I feel very cheated now about this machine, fuck Circuit City.
You’re kidding, right? YOU bought the computer, but you’ll blame it on Circuit City? And you’ll use profanity to shift the blame away from you? Get real and deal with it.
Doug,
You are the man! I checked other sites for info and almost resigned myself to pay $$$ to get it done but having built a few desktop machines from scratch and having a few leftover 1 gig sodimms around I gave it a try. No problems thanks to your great video. Took less than 20 minutes.
eXCELLENT instructions works well and the plastic card is a great idea
thank you for the instructions. i now have 1.5 gb ram. it starts up not too much faster but web pages run better, and even my 3g modem works faster. thanx
Does anybody know what the small compartment on the underside is for – two screws and the cover lifts out – but what is it for !?
The little cover is for a 3G cellular modem card. Most models don’t have the connector soldered to the board for the card, it was intended to be a “future option”.
Of course the 3G AAO are now available through Radio Shack in the USA.
Sure, you can spend $499.00 at Radio Sluts -or- as they put it, get it for $99 if you sign up for a $60/month contract for two years and this deal can cost you about 2 grand!
RS sucks, get one from Insight for $250 w/out the 3g and be happy!
Or just install a $20 bluetooth micro usb adapter and use your phones 3G – all inclusive!
does it matter which memory stick you replace…the inside one according to specs is a
512 MB onboard DDR2 533 MHz SDRAM single channel with onboard SDRAM and one soDIMM slot
Upgradeable to 1 GB/1.5 GB using one 512 MB/1 GB soDIMM module
which one do you need to change
disregard……my bad…..makes sense now…
I’ve found lots of different PC2-5300 RAM, but im not sure which to buy, where did you buy your RAM from?
woooot thanks for the guide I bought the acer aspire one with 1 gig ram preinstalled and the 160 gig hard drive and there is a little more to take apart (like three screws) to make room the slot had a 512 piece in it so I took it out and put my 1 gig in it
I bought 1 gig of crucial 200 pin ddr2 sodimm pc2 5300 and it works fine
An excellent how to guide. Good job!
i installed the ram and started it up
however, the bios does not read 1.5gb for the
ram it still reads 512mb
thanks for guide
I have the same problem… :s
I have the Aspire One with 512mb preinstalled and bought 1gb ram (Kingston ZD8000C6-1G)
any idea? thanks!
i have an acer aspire one that has 1gb ram pre-installed can i upgrade it so it can have 2gb ram?
“mr one” the maximum supported total RAM in Aspire one platform is 1,5GB, so you have to take out your 512MB at install 1GB one.