Don’t think me heartless for carrying on as usual. I just wanted to post this to give people an idea on how to upgrade their mac’s ram. As you will see over the next few posts I’ve been keeping myself busy. I’ve also made a new layout which you can see. More on that in upcoming posts. Though in theory this ‘tutorial’ applies to every laptop. Just ensure you have the right ram and then undo every screw until you find where it goes. Trust me, thats the way the professionals do it.

I’m not as good as this tutorial because I didn’t make a video of it, but if I’m honest it wouldn’t make for interesting viewing because halfway through I went home and then it took me 4 hours to get the last screw out, by which time you’d have gotten bored.

If you don’t trust my instructions (possibly a wise choice) be sure to print off the Apple official guide to have handy and don’t worry about your warranty, its considered a user upgrade so it doesn’t void it.

First you need to get the right RAM. This all depends on the configuration of your mac. Mines a 2.16Ghz Intel Core Duo with 1gig of ram (which is how I ordered it). To find out your computers spec click the apple in the top left hand corner of the screen and select About this mac a little window will pop up.

There we go, slow little bugger isn’t it. I’m upgrading because I need to run photoshop, flash, neooffice, firefox, adium and itunes all at the same time and it just makes my laptop die. I usually run with 10mb free ram! Damn this program intensive course!

ok, so now we know our computers spec we need the right RAM. Looking on the apple docs site shows us we need SDRAM in Double Data Rate Small Outline Dual Inline Memory Module (DDR SO-DIMM) format, 1.25 inch or smaller, 512 MB or 1 gigabyte (GB), 200-pin and PC2-5300 DDR2 667 MHz Type RAM. Gibberish

What you do is take the east way out. You go to Crucial.com and select your country. Type in your manufacturer (Apple in case you weren’t sure!) select your product line macbook pro - dont get confused with mac pro here! Then the model you found out from the about this mac. In my case 2.16Ghz Intel Core Duo. It’ll present you with the correct ram for your laptop at really good prices. No I’m not pimping them or anything - they really are pretty good prices. I ordered a 1gb stick.

Now wait a few days, Why not entertain yourself by commenting on every single entry on my photoblog?

When your post arrives take a moment to erase your address in photoshop.

Then you may open it. I was surprised at the lack of packaging tbh, but I’ve seen ram in worse state. I used to built little forts out of them when noone was looking! (they were just lying around!)

I laughed when I saw the label. I used to live in Singapore.

Turn your macbook off (gasp! I know I hadn’t rebooted for over a month let alone turn it off!) then turn it over I placed mine on a tshirt so I didn’t scratch my desk, I made it for my A level technology i’m allowed to be protective! Slide the two latches up and remove the battery. I’d suggest waiting till your laptops cooled before you do this, it gets HO.

At this point the apple guide recommends you touch a metal surface to remove static. Bollocks to that, onto the screwdrivers.
It was at this point I realised, as good as they are for almost anything else, my fluffy femdrivers weren’t quite up to this task. (yes I have pink fluffy screwdrivers!)

So I closed up the laptop, waited a day and bought some new ones in homebase. ¨£4.99 and they threw in a pair of tweezers, how nice :) You need a size 00 philips screwdriver

Once you’ve got your screwdrivers sorted out you need to locate the screws to the memory door.

Now for the gratuitous ’screwing’ shot. (hey - it amused me so it should amuse you - geek pr0n)

If you can’t get the last screw out - make your dad do it - so he gets the blame if he stabs the motherboard with the screwdriver. Then mock him when he can’t do it!

Once you have those removed you can lift off the memory door cover. You’ll see an odd arrangement. You want to get your ram and align it so the small tabs on the left and the large bits on the right and insert it at a 25% angle. (its at this point the video I linked earlier really comes into its own) I ran out of light at this point so no photos :S) Push quite hard until you can just see a glint of the silver connections. You’ll feel some resistance then it wont go any further, you’ll hear a click too. Give it a little prod to make sure its gone in. Then do up the screws, click the battery in and turn your laptop back on.