Unlike many other laptops, the Aspire 5349 does not have a memory cover on the underside of the computer. I began to wonder if the memory was upgradeable, despite what the sticker says. I found the answer–it is upgradeable, and a bit of work.
A few steps are required to upgrade the memory. As always, protect your work surface with a soft cloth or towel, and use a grounding bracelet to draw off static electricity. The steps:
- Remove the battery; remember to unlock it first.
- To the inside of the Windows 7 license sticker, you’ll find one single screw that is flush with the bottom of the case. Remove this screw, and remove the DVD drive.
- Now…remove all 23 (!) screws from the bottom case. Remove the case carefully, making sure to nudge the headphone and microphone jacks through the holes in the case.
- Install the memory by inserting the contact edge diagonally into the memory slot, then tilt it down parallel to the motherboard and snap it into place.
- Now, put ‘er all back together–install the rear cover and all 23 screws, slide the DVD drive in and attach its single screw, and reinstall the battery. Done! Tedious, but rather easy.
Fire up the computer and check that all of your memory now appears. If all went well, you will now have a decent amount of memory in your laptop! I opted for a 4GB module, although I think you can replace the existing 2GB module and bring it up to a total of 8GB. Cost? $18.99, and a careful hour of time. Windows 7 ran surprisingly well on 2GB, but 6GB takes away any remaining lag. To really give it another boost in performance, you could insert a large SD card into the front of the laptop and use ReadyBoost to act as a cache.
