Industrial Revolutions

Alec (thanks Alec!) kindly told me on IRC that RAM is pretty much dirt cheap these days, so I really ought to upgrade while the prices are at its nadir.

I mean, seriously, $33 per 1GB stick of the fastest (667MHz) and latest (DDR2) notebook RAM?



I'm still smarting from the fact that I once paid more than $100 for a stick of RAM that was half that size, and that's not even 2 years ago.



Headed out.



After the bumpy bus ride, I'm at Sim Lim Square.



Got the 2 sticks of RAM. Yay! Am I the only person who calls those longish RAM circuit boards 'sticks'?



Bought a card reader. The internal card reader of the notebook died, and I'm not going to take the risk of replacing it under warranty - yet - because it's hardwired to the motherboard, and the rest of the motherboard is working fine now. I don't wanna get some refurbished lemon in return just to fix the card reader.



And a USB hub, because right now I have too many USB devices to grapple with. I was cheated. After I tested this at home, it turned out not to be USB 2.0 compliant so it's relegated to light duty and low data speed use.



Got the Wombats CD and headed back before the skies started to open up and pour relentlessly.

A quick guide on how to replace notebook RAM:

1. Have safe electrostatic static discharge practices. What I like to do is to simply touch the metal part of an electrical appliance that has a 3-pin plug. The back of a desktop computer, the stand of a stand fan, the back of the microwave oven, they're all fair game.



2. Shut down the computer. Don't just put it in suspend or hibernate. Remove the battery and all cables and adaptor.

3. Carefully remove the screws of the back panel, then slide it away.



4. Orientate yourself to where everything is. You can see the 2 old RAM sticks stacked one above another, and the Wifi module above it.



5. Remove the sticks, by disengaging the catch shown in the following picture.



6. Slide in the new sticks at an angle, then press them back into position.



7. Replace the back panel, put back the battery, boot it up, and confirm that everything's fine and dandy.



Photoshop runs alot smoother when handling large numbers of photos at tandem!