I’m proud to present the Official Langabi.name guide to Adding 256MB of RAM (memory) to your laptop:
- Turn off your computer. Open the relevant part of your laptop to expose the memory slots. Check that you have a spare (unused) memory slot.
- Remember (correctly) the result of the above check.
- Assuming the success of the above steps, order a 256MB RAM chip for your laptop. Sites like Crucial allow you to order the correct RAM for the exact model of laptop that you have.
- Wait for the RAM chip to arrive (allow approximately 3 days for shipping and damage. Though hopefully not much of the latter).
- Turn off your computer. Touch a metal part of it to remove any static charge you might have. Open the appropriate part to expose the memory slots, and insert the RAM chip. Close the computer again, and turn it back on.
- Live in eternal bliss. Or at least until software becomes yet more bloated.
All this can be had for the low, low price of 102.988 Del Taco “Taco Tuesday” tacos*. Or, if you must know, $36.79.
But wait, you say — there are surely lots of far more complete guides (with pictures!) on buying memory, all over the internet? True, but they all leave off the vital step 2.
So yes, I checked my laptop, and found it didn’t have a spare slot. About a week later, I ordered the memory, having forgotten the actual result of step 1. I now have an unopened and entirely useless 256MB RAM chip, and a particularly bad mood.
What’s the moral of the story? My memory sucks. Clearly, I need to make it better. Which, if you refer to the title of this post, is what got me into trouble in the first place…
*Assuming sales tax of 8.25%. And that you have an Acer Travelmate 530 series laptop. And that prices haven’t changed. And that your zipcode is 91125, or similar. And that you buy the RAM from Crucial. And that you don’t get cash rewards on your credit card. And that your credit card is issued by a US bank. And that Taco Tuesday still offers tacos for 33c plus tax.
Paul Cook 
Nice to know that Caltech still has the cream of the world’s genius. Would be terrible if standards were to slip and they let any old morons in.
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Speaking of extraneous computer accessories, I should advertise that I have a good number of tacos worth of extra black* ink cartridges for an epson printer now that my all-in-one has been turned into a scanner with a lot of decorative machinery beneath it, in case anyone’s interested…
I almost wrote black and white. I blame it on the noisy birds outside my window that kept me awake all night.
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Well, at least you didn’t go for the 1GB option. Although, I’m guessing that had you done so, you’d probably be swapping the memory rather than trying to fill a nonexistant slot.
I’m sure you can put up some fliers and resell the memory quite easily on this campus.
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Exercise for the reader: Remind me to post exercises for the reader. This post would have been ideal for one, but I was so busy remembering what I’d forgotten that I forgot to remember to tell readers to: remember not to forget something technology-related. I suggest tying a knot using, say, your power cable.
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All’s well that ends well — or at least it looks that way at the moment. Crucial Technology has agreed to give me a full refund (minus the cost for me to ship to them), without any fuss. So I’m really impressed!
Now if only all my mistakes were as easy to undo….
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