Thinkpads Forum

Anybody know where a good instructional video can be found to show one how to install ram in a ThinkPad L430 ?

Looking to upgrade from 8 gigs to Corsair Vengeance 16GB kit, and wanted to see if it's any more difficult than simply removing the panel on the bottom which was all I had to do on my X230.

Thanks.

I believe they are the same. You can always look at the HMM if you get stuck.

Main index for Service and Support Training for Thinkpads:
http://service.lenovo.partner-managemen ... m?eid=1369

Click "ThinkPad L Series Laptops"
Click "ThinkPad L430/L530 (RTPW1010)"
Click "Take Course"
In the pop-up window click "FRU Videos"
Click "FRU Service: Bottom Door"
After watching the removal instruction then
Click "FRU Service: Memory Module" (note that they have rotated the laptop 180° from the Bottom Door removal video)

Or simply download the Hardware Maintenance Manual from here:

http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... 570_02.pdf

Great, thanx!

Based on the service manual... it does appear that the hard drive and RAM is accessible through the bottom door.

I'm not only going with 16gigs of RAM, I've also got a 1 TB SataIII hard drive I'm going to install.

The manual said something about there being a slot for a SSD... it is possible to have a regular drive and an SSD without giving up my optical drive?

Just curious...

Like, could this be used... ?
http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-256GB-mSA ... tate+Drive

If so, how would you do a fresh install of Windows? Just make sure this
is the only drive in the laptop when installing and go from there?

Absolutely you can use the mSATA SSD, but doing so means no WWAN if you care. You can download a Windows disc here.

So, how reliable is the mSATA SSD?

And, would I need to disable the mechanic hard drive to do a fresh install on the mSATA SSD?

Just trying to figure out the exact steps for a fresh install on to the mSATA SSD so Windows doesn't try to install on to the mechanic drive.

The neat thing is that, if the mSATA SSD ever failed, I can use my Acronic image to restore Windows on the mechanic drive and be back up and running in minutes.

mSATA SSDs are no more or less reliable than other types of SSDs. Failure rates for all SSDs are pretty low. I've had my 80GB Intel mSATA SSD for two plus years and haven't had an issue with it.

Do they now compare with regular drives that often run 5+ years, some even longer than that?