How hard is it to open up the T550 to upgrade the RAM?

[kshaw]

I recently bought the T550 and was planning on upgrading the RAM myself as I have done with previous Thinkpads. On older models it was easy, with them usually having a trap door on the bottom that could be opened just by removing a few screws. But I have just discovered that the T550 has to have the entire bottom plate pried off to get at the RAM slots. This sounds kind of scary to me

If there is anyone who has done this, I'm just wondering how difficult this is to do? Are there any specific prying tools that have been found helpful in this process? Any tips would be appreciated.

[ZaZ]

Looking in the HMM, it doesn't seem that bad.

[Recife]

Have you upgraded yet?

Any slim spudger or guitar pick will be a big help to avoid scratching the case.


I did it on my T440 so assuming it's similar then it's not very difficult. However do leave yourself plenty of time to carry out the work and slowly and patiently work around the case gently seperating with the spudger. If one section doesn't seem to seperate double check you haven't forgotten a screw and maybe move onto another section/side and then come back to it.

[kshaw]

Have you upgraded yet?

Any slim spudger or guitar pick will be a big help to avoid scratching the case.


I did it on my T440 so assuming it's similar then it's not very difficult. However do leave yourself plenty of time to carry out the work and slowly and patiently work around the case gently seperating with the spudger. If one section doesn't seem to seperate double check you haven't forgotten a screw and maybe move onto another section/side and then come back to it.

Thanks for the reply. No I haven't done it yet. My T550 should be delivered in about a week and a half, so I will be attempting it then. I went ahead and ordered this set of prying tools on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PHN ... ge_o00_s00

Hopefully they will be helpful in removing the bottom plate to access the memory and hard drive. I'll come back and post about how it went after I make my first attempt.

I still think it's a shame that Lenovo has made it harder to access the ram and hard drive. My T520 is so easy to slip a hard drive in and out of. Just 1 screw and it slides right out. Oh well. This is "progress" to Lenovo I guess.

[Recife]

That spudger kit looks perfect. I used the flat bladed side of the blue spudger with a notch from that kit for my T440.

I hear you about ease of access but it's really not too bad and at least in my case once my new internal battery is fitted in theory I won't have to open her up again for a good while. I am pleased with the slimline form factor though I pray that the Retro Thinkpad will come to fruition and get a nice balance between slim/light/durable.

[mschaffer]

Well, opening the T450s wasn't that bad---once I loosened all of the screws.
Still an access panel to get to the RAM and HDD would be nice!

[Recife]

Don't get me started on replacing the screen on a T440. After the nightmare of peeling off the front I nearly had a heart attack when the new screen turned on all wonky and strange. I had to reboot it a few times before it recognised the new screen/resolution.

[kshaw]

The upgrades are done and I guess it wasn't too bad, but it was definitely more challenging than with the old-school trapdoors. Once I unscrewed all 8 screws (and figured out that the screws don't actually come completely out), prying up the bottom cover around the perimeter was relatively easy. But then when I got to the part where the removable battery sits, I started having a little trouble. It took me a while to figure out that you can't just pull up on the bottom plate at the removable battery portion the same way you can around the outside perimeter. Once you get the outer perimeter pried loose, you have to slide the bottom plate horizontally towards the removable battery section for it to come completely off.

Once I got the backplate removed, installing the memory upgrades and SSD was simple. The memory modules popped right in, and there are 3 screws holding in the hard drive. Getting the bottom plate back on was a lot easier than getting it off. You just work your way around the perimeter snapping it back on and then finish off with the screws. Ordinarily, I wouldn't have replaced the RAM and hard drive at the same time, but I really didn't want to have to remove the bottom plate a second time, so I just did them both at the same time. It worked fine.

[Recife]

Good job, it sounds like the bottom cover on the T550 is a bit different around the external battery as I don't need to do that on my T440. In fact since trouble shooting internal battery problems the the bottom cover pops right off with just my fingernails now.

If you had wanted to install the RAM and SDD seperately you could have switched on the laptop without the bottom cover using only the charger. Ideally you would need something suitable to lay the laptop on, for a quick test a piece of cardboard would probably suffice to avoid any risk of damaging the exposed internals. I've run my T440 for short periods a number of times like this.

[Recife]

Does your T550 have a FHD screen? The screen is something I would prefer not to have to change ever again unless I can get my hands on a cheap replacement sticker/screen surround.

[kshaw]

Does your T550 have a FHD screen? The screen is something I would prefer not to have to change ever again unless I can get my hands on a cheap replacement sticker/screen surround.

Yeah I paid a little extra to get Lenovo to install the FHD screen. It looks pretty good. I would have really liked to have the 3K IPS display, but I couldn't justify the price Lenovo wanted for it. I've never actually changed out an LCD screen on a laptop before. I've considered doing it and watched a few how-to videos about it. But I've read some people have had trouble with getting the adjustable screen brightness to work after replacing screens on Thinkpads, and that's not something I really want to risk. Having a replacement screen stuck on full brightness would be awful.

[Recife]

On a brand new machine you were probably wise to pay lenovo the extra, especially with this adhesive screen bezel.

Don't even want to imagine having a screen stuck onfully brightness!!