RAM Upgrade - M18x (with pics)

Many people had or have issues upgrading the RAM on the m18x since its under the KB.

Since I was going to send the system back - I figure why not snap a few pics since I need to take out the memory/HD anyway


Before you work on your laptop, please take off any jewelry, watches, bracelets, or anything else that could harm it

Main Manual ( read well before doing this):
Documentation

These pics assume you are comfortable taking the laptop apart, so if you have any questions or feel I should elaborate some more, please let me know.

I assume you know how to take off the bottom cover by now. If not take out the battery and remove the 4 screws. Once you have done that, then you can slide the cover off towards the back of the laptop.

Remove all the screws as indicated with the letter " I". I tried to give you a good idea as to where they maybe.



Once you get all the screws out (could be a pain since a few times they don't just fall out), flip the laptop over carefully and open the lid. From there start with the right side and pry the back up.



Once you get a good enough force on it, it will just pop right up.



Start on the other side and do the same, and it will pop right up as well.



Move your finger slowly around the edges and it will just pop right up.







Once it has popped up, you can gently place it near the screen of the laptop. Notice how I put some microfiber sheets on the screen to protect it from damage



Remove the screws from the top of the keyboard as indicated by the arrows.



Pick up keyboard with your hand and lay it flat on the trackpad/palmrest. You could use a microfiber or a cloth to protect the trackpad/palmrest if you wish.



Install the memory as you normally would

Now when you are done, install everything in reverse order.



Showing how the HDs are stacked and the connector.



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wow very nice, + rep

 

Thank you for sharing these! It's really helpful~

 

An excellent step by step guide.

 

Detailed, visual guide with signs, simple and good makes its awsome guide.

 

Thanks for the pictures very useful and pretty straightforward +rep

 

+rep thanks man. I've never opened up a laptop before so this guide will be extremely useful when I upgrade my HD and RAM

 

Very nice guide! Need someone with as much patience as you to do one for CPUs and GPUs......I sort of Leroy Jenkins'd mine and it all worked.....lol

 

+rep thanks for this pics

 

A great (and simply) tutorial! +rep

Maybe the moderators can make a special folder just for tutorials so we don't need to search the all forum for them?

(Just my 0.01 cent)

 

+Rep indeed!

Awesome stuffs!


Cheers.

 

What a ridiculous process to get at the memory. It's almost like they dont want people putting their own memory in and buying directly from dell! :O

Either way great tutorial!

 

Why dya think Dell charge so much for Ram LOL.....

 

I didn't want to start a new thread, so I figured I'd ask here: How do you get at the 3rd and 4th sticks of RAM? I only see 2 visible there.

 

I had enough trouble with model aeroplanes. Taking my AW to pieces would feel me with fear.

 

Hahaha, this thread IS showing how to get at the 3rd and 4th slots...under the keyboard, like the pics on the first page show

 

@Smooth

very good work thx !!!

Just ordered my first AW notebook -> M18x of course
First issue will be to upgrade the memory from 4 to 16 GB

 

Like Steviejones133 said, this guide is showing the 3rd and 4th sticks. The 1st and 2nd are easily replaced by simply taking the back off. You can see those sticks very prominantly in the center of the 2nd picture on this guide.

 

That's a great guide, thanks for sharing

 

Its really hard to remove keyboard panel. Good enough force wouldnt pop it up. I need more explanation how to take this panel off

 

Oooooohhh...

Well now I feel silly

 

awesome pics! Thanks!

+1 rep

 

Nice guide rep+, but why dell wanna make things so complicate. I'm not going to upgrade ram for now , I'm afraid my keyboard's soft panel breaks off.

 

That was the only way to get 4 dimms close to the CPU socket. They need to be physically close to avoid EMI and because the data rate is so high

 

I just recently broke my system down to see if I could figure out what was causing my keyboard to be a bit higher in one spot. I couldn't find an obvious cause, although I did notice that one of the "I" scews wasn't actually screwed in. Gotta love Dell QA.

Anyway, the reason I'm making this post here is to say that when I cracked my soft panel open, the right corner (where this document says to start) may as well have been super-glued down. I put quite a bit more force than I was comfortable with, and it still wouldn't budge. If I started from the left corner, and actually did that right corner last, it came off quite a bit easier.

So, the moral of this story is that either of the upper corners is really a good starting place. If one corner seems to intent on staying put, it's perfectly okay to start from the other one, and may even save you from applying too much force and hearing something pop that shouldn't have.

 

but...but....it is so annoying lol everytime you gonna upgrade ram.

I guess I should shut it with x2 8gb and seal it forever.

 

These aren't potato chips we're talking about here, man! How often are you swapping these bad boys out?

 

Bump - just in case someone else needs this.

Thank you all for the comments

 

Wait, based on these pictures, if I were to get an M18x and change the HDDs myself, I would have to go through those steps and get behind the keyboard area??

 

The HDD on 2nd picture , top left , you don't need to remove keyboard area etc , just bottom cover.

 

Is there any chance you'll be doing a SSD How-To as well, or if anyone knows of one that exists they could point me in the right direction?

Appreciated

 

Installing an SSD or HDD is quite simple....that is in the manual that comes with the laptop

 

I have a noob question. If I order the minimum 4GB ram from dell and decide to add ram later, where will the original 4GB be located at? The 3rd and 4th slots underneath the keyboard or the 1st and 2nd slots on the bottom of the laptop?

 

bottom of the notebook

 

thanks for the quick reply

 

my m18x is arriving tomorrow and I purchased the Kingston HyperX Plug n Play 8GB (4GBx2) 204-Pin DDR3 1866MHz Ram.

I have an i7 2720 QM processor. This wont present any problems for me will it? (still a little bit of a noob)

 

nope, works fine with any i7

 

good news

thanks!

 

thanks for pics, didnt know how remove keyboard

 

no wonder there is severe keyboard flex on these models. there are literally gaping holes behind the keyboard lol!

 

Question:

Does it matter where we put the RAM in?

I'm thinking of removing the 4gb in slots 1 and 2, and putting in 8gb hyperX 1600 in slots 3 and 4 just so I never have to go there again. Should I want to add more (which I probably won't) that way I could just open the bottom and add to 1 and 2. Is this possible?

 

no the laptop won't boot up if you use slot 3 and 4 only you have to use 1 and 2

 

Lame. Ok, thanks!

 

Hi, thanks for the tuto. Listen, I'm from mexico and I'll buy a m18x in USA. The problem is that the m18x is not on sale in mexico yet, so the keyboard obviously will come in english. However, Speedy told me that the m17x r3 and the m18x have the same keyboards and the only difference is that the m18x has the left keys, but the rest is the same, even they have the same part numbers. This tuto helped me to see that those left keys are actually separated (i tought that maybe internally they could be connected to the rest of the keyboard). Well, do you think that the m17x r3 keyboard fixes on a m18x??

 

Good guide. Good pictures.
When I lifted the frame, the F2 and F3 keys became detached from their base. Once the frame was removed, I noticed there were two missing screws from the row that is supposed to be holding the keyboard down.

Update: So i call Tech Support and am told that since "I" damaged the keyboard during disassembly, that a replacement keyboard is not covered under warranty.

Update: Tech Support is not budging on the damage being my fault. A replacement keyboard is going to be around $100 shipped. They will however, send replacement screws. When the new keyboard arrives, Tech Support will walk me through installing it, while on the phone with me. If anything gets broken during the install, then that damage will be considered 'under warrantee' because I was following tech support instructions.
Note: I purchased/received this system in June (last month) through AAFES and had to Register/Transfer ownership in order to get parts shipped to my house. That transfer will take up to two business days, which adds delay to the process. Lesson learned: Don’t wait until you need tech support to register your system, especially if you bought through a 3rd party EPP.

Update: Had to go out of town for a few days. Got the replacement keyboard ordered to the tune of $109USD. It went backorder and should ship next week. Dell/Alienware is going to provide an in-house support call to come and instal the new keyboard. There were missing screws from the keyboard (2 of the 5 were there when i removed the frame - so guess quality assurance at Dell missed that one) and the support tech that comes to do the keyboard swap will bring those replacement screws too.

 

Thank you for the tutorial, it's highly appreciated.

 

He can go with slots 1 & 3 or 2 & 4 to get dual channel if he only has 2 sticks. So one stick on bottom and one stick on top of laptop.

 

So are you saying that if my order has only 4gb ram (2x2) that if they go in slots 1+2 it isnt in the best onfiguration, as one should be under the keyboard for dual channel?

 

If I am putting in only 8GB RAM (2x4GB) is there any advantage to using the slots under the keyboard instead of the 2 slots underneath which are easier to access? SAW ANSWER ABOVE POSTED THIS FROM PAGE 2.

Also, when adding an SSD, do you need to put in the bay that the original HDD was in or can you put in the other bay? Can you use the BIOS to assign the letter to the drives i.e. I would like to SSD to be the C: drive.

Finally, when you buy an SSD do you need to format it in some way before installing an OS on it? If so, which format type?

Thanks.

 

What's the advantage of doing this?