Do laptop manufacturer...

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Purposely make the system as difficult to get into as possible? I was switching HDD around between two laptops and it was a mighty task. The ACER laptop took me about 30mins to get apart whilst my old broken compaq laptop only came apart through litterally ripping it to shrefs (it was old and broken with numerous faults I'd never be up for fixing) Got me thinking that the OEM don't actually want you to upgrade the hardware of their systems.

 

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A lot of laptops do have easy access HDD and RAM slots but I've noticed it's becoming less common. I've started to see internal batteries lately too which is a real pain. I do think it's a deliberate manoeuvre to prevent people from repairing/upgrading their systems a lot of the time. Tablets and phones are far worse offenders than laptops too. Especially now they're becoming waterproof.

 

You'll find the more expensive ones are 10x easier. especially ones aimed at the enterprise environment

We use Dell and HP in work, for me to swap a HDD between two HP laptops takes around a minute to take both apart, swap the HDD, and put them back together.

 

I actually have a question about laptop RAM, you maybe able to help me.. After taking my laptop apart I noticed the RAM slot was under the motherboard which was half glued down but I managed to get a decent enough look underneath. I could only see on slot for RAM modules to be inserted, but when I went on a website (I believe it was called crucial) to see if my RAM could be upgraded and it did its check and said it could take up to 8GB of RAM.. Now as far as I know RAM sticks come in nomore than 4GB. So is it actually possible to upgrade my RAM?

 

Some older laptops have RAM slots under the keyboard. If I remember correctly crucial scan should tell you how many slots you have, if you can find only one easily accessible then possibly the other one is hiding under the keyboard.

Not all boards can handle all sizes of RAM, crucial should also tell you the max supported size.

 

Funnily enough, my current laptop has 4GB onboard RAM plus one extra slot, so I bought an 8GB module to bump it up to 12. I think they must be the largest DDR3 DIMMs you can get. I think, if there is one slot, if it's unpopulated then you most likely have 4GB onboard and an extra slot for upgrading to 8GB. Or if it already has a DIMM in there you'll have to replace your 4GB for an 8GB. The 8GBs are quite pricey unfortunately. I think I managed to get mine for £30-40 on ebay. Just make sure your CPU, MOBO, chipset support the speed and size you're buying. Hope that helps!

 

HDD and RAM, normally there is an access panel underneath, one screw and few plastic lugs, makes the job 5 minutes.

Some of the newer slimmer lieghtweight machines you need to split a clamshell type case, even then its like 15 minute job.
Once case is open HDD is normally in an easy to remove caddy with just SATA connector to it slides away from.

Never had to remove keyboard to get to RAM, but I've have replaced a few keyboards, again is normally a 2 minute job on most models.

 

Like Nyx mentioned some laptops will have one ram slot under the keyboard. You'll need to remove the keyboard in order to add the extra ram. When you do this be careful and take your time. The ribbon cable connector that plugs into your motherboard from the keyboard can break pretty easy if you're not careful.