Acer TimelineX 4830T - RAM/HDD access/upgrade?

My new TimelineX 4830T appears to be designed for no "user servicing" at all. I'm OK with that philosophy, but I'm also curious as to whether some users have taken matters into their own hands and published some sort of "breakdown guides" for getting at the machine's insides. I'm specifically interested in whether it's possible to extend the RAM or replace the hard disk.

(Yes, I realize that that's likely to be a warranty-voiding pastime.)

 

It shouldn't be a problem. I assume the chassis is exactly the same as in 4830TG. Take a look at this photograph- everything in one place and easily accessible.



Source:notebookcheck

 

Thanks for the information. Do you know offhand how exactly the body panel over that is removed? There's one screw at that end of the machine, well, one screw within what appears to be the panel that's removed in that image. I've removed the screw, but there was no obvious way to get the panel off, and of course I didn't want to start jabbing at it randomly

 

It is actually pretty easy to upgrade the ram and hard disk bay for acer notebooks. I reckon that they would not make it all too complex as the guys on service would just be the ones to suffer if they design it in a hard way.

You would just need some special screw drivers to access the hard drive bay. Or a vice grip would do. You just have to lock it down the screw holding the panel and the disk itself.

 

I just replaced the hard drive. It was a little tricky to figure out, but it's not difficult:

1) Unscrew and remove the one screw in the panel on the bottom of the computer that has a pinhole with a battery icon (I guess only that little hole is for the battery, because underneath the panel, there is nothing battery related).

2) Slide the panel toward the front of the computer to remove it. I used my fingernails to pry into the crack, you could use a screwdriver carefully, if you don't have fingernails.

3) Unscrew and remove the two large, black screws holding in the hard drive. Underneath, there are two posts with gold centers, surrounded by 2 rubber gaskets that are connected to the hard drive mounting hardware.

4) Pull up on that end of the drive, and the gaskets will slide off the posts, then you will be able to slide out the metal tab holding in the other end of the drive, so it's completely loose.

5) Unplug, the drive by pulling carefully on the plastic connector.

6) Hopefully you can figure out the rest. Remove the mounting hardware from it, put it on the new drive, re-attach the new drive in reverse order etc.

Done!

 

No need to remove any posts and gaskets, the drive comes out very easily once you've unscrewed the four silver screws and pulled/pryed gently the left hand end with the metal angle piece. Once it's loose pull the HDD to the left a little then unplug the HDD from the socket on the end of the shortblack cable. The reverse for putting it back but make sure the cable is back snug and out of the way of anything.

The difficulty I had is replacing the lid cleanly - it doesn't easily snap back and the plastic catches are brittle and prone to break. Poor design, over-engineered IMHO just to save a couple of extra screws.

The other design cludge is the battery on/off switch, it's fairly easy to see how it works once you've fiddled around with it but it's hardly intuitive or elegant. (again YMMV).

(the reason I removed the cover was to replace the HDD with a Seagate Momentus XT hybrid SSD, really speeds up the machine!)

 

Might want to pull of the battery and unplug power wired cable. Push the button ON/OFF to finish eliminate the statics.

Then follow good advises posted above...and care of the speakers, those are fragile

 

The battery on the 4830 is internal - hence the reason for the battery switch.

I'm still trying to figure out why I can't get the base cover back on cleanly.