How to find my laptop's second RAM slot

January 24, 2007 7:55 PM

Why can't I find the second RAM slot in my laptop?

Photo 1

Photo 2

I have an Acer Travelmate 804Lci, which I bought a couple of years ago. According to the computer's specs (scroll down), it has two 256 MB RAM sticks and can accomodate a total of 2 GB of RAM. But when I tried to install two 1 GB sticks of RAM (I've never installed RAM before), I only saw one RAM stick. Where's the other slot? See photos above (sorry, not great quality.)

posted by zembla3 to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

It is possible that the extra RAM is hidden under the keyboard or (if this model has one) the touchpad.
posted by Diskeater at 7:58 PM on January 24, 2007

Is it under the RAM stick that's showing?
posted by ODiV at 8:14 PM on January 24, 2007

i've seen laptop memory designed so that one stick sits on top of the other. the top one slides forward and flips out, revealing the bottom. kind of like a SIM card in a cellphone.
posted by sergeant sandwich at 8:16 PM on January 24, 2007

Well, the manual says:

There are two memory slots on your computer, one of which is occupied by standard memory. You can upgrade memory by installing a memory module into the one available slot, or replacing the standard memory with a higher-capacity memory module.

Unfortunately, it doesn't provide specifics on doing the latter, only on the former.
posted by cerebus19 at 8:52 PM on January 24, 2007

looks kind of like it might slide in above the one pictured? thats how it works on my Dell, took me a while to figure it out too.
posted by drjimmy11 at 9:03 PM on January 24, 2007

Using my mad Intranet skills that are not unlike a ninjas, I found this thread. Looks like the second slot is located under the keyboard.
posted by Diskeater at 9:14 PM on January 24, 2007

Here is a link that should help you get under that keyboard:
http://folk.uio.no/arew/acer_tm_803/
posted by tresbizzare at 10:15 PM on January 24, 2007

When you're removing the plastic panel above the keyboard near the hinges, avoid prying against the keyboard.
Laptop keys are fragile.
posted by tresbizzare at 10:23 PM on January 24, 2007

Response by poster: Ahhh ... how tricky of them to put it under the keyboard! I must now attempt to remove the keyboard without inflicting serious damage. Thanks for all your responses.
posted by zembla3 at 9:19 AM on January 25, 2007