Acer Aspire 9300 hardware upgrade tutorial

Ok, today we will see how to change the RAM and HDD on a Acer Aspire 9300.

You will need:

* a white piece of paper, to put your removed screws on it (so you don't loose them - they are so damn small and black)
* a screwdriver with a small enough tip to fit into the screw (a star / cross type)
* good light
* patience

The target / battlefield




We will replace the existing / original components with new ones, as follows:

2 x Sycron 1GB DDR2-800MHz SODIMM memory



1 x HDD Western Digital Scorpio 2, 120GB, SATA 150 MB/s



Ok, here we go:

Disconnect your notebook from the power supply, remove all the plugged in devices (mouse, LAN cable, etc) and the battery.



Find the cap with a memory like icon on it



Remove the two screws an place them on that white piece of paper that i was talking about earlier



Now remove each one of the two memory plates inside, by pushing the safety clams to the right respective left sides



Replace them with the new ones, by fitting them firmly in place, and secure them with the safety clams



Screw back in the cover cap, removed earlier, insert the battery, and power up. Press F1 to enter BIOS, and, on the first screen you will have the new RAM amount counted (for me it's showing only 1790 MB from 2048 MB because the difference is occupied by the video - shared memory)



And that's it for the RAM upgrade.

Power off your notebook, remove the battery and let's move along with the HDD replacement. First of al make sure you have backed up your data, as there is no room for two HDD in this notebook model. So the old one will be good for flowerpots... your choice

Find the cap that has a icon like a drum on it



Remove all three screws and the cap, and you will see your self, but relax... is only the rack that holds the hard-drive.



Now remove the extra two screws and push to rack to the right... there are no cables between the hard drive and the notebook itself... just a slot...



Ok, prepare yourself to remove four more screws (the one that holds the hard-drive itself attached to the rack)



Now, follow the steps above in reverse order, to insert the new hard-drive in place. Screw back in the cover cap.



Plug in your battery, power supply, mouse, LAN cable etc. and power up the notebook. Press F1 to enter BIOS and... ta-da... you have a new bigger hard-drive installed.



That's it. It's not difficult and also, it's not time consuming...

TIPS:
* try to use a screwdriver that has a magnetic head, to retain the screws on it, or else, you will have to remove many others screws, if you dropped one (ore more) inside the notebook... and believe me, they are many more...
* try not to sweat very hard, or you will drop drops (damn...) and the chances to perform a "beautiful" short circuit will grow

If you have any questions or extra infos, feel free to post them here.

Thank you and have fun with your upgrade.

PS: sorry for the low quality of the pictures, the light was not very good...

 

Hi, ive got a problem with my Acer Aspirer 9300. The harddrive is givining up. So I wonder if you could fix the pictures, or send them to me on email or something. And what is the name of the harddrive I can buy?

 

too bad the pics have disappeared