What’s All This Then!

In March of last year, I found a great deal on a new laptop. Or so I thought. For $350, I bought an Acer Aspire 7736Z-4088 running Windows 7 64-bit. Since it came with 3 gigs of RAM, I thought I would upgrade as soon as I had some funds available.

Last month, I went to crucial.com and bought a 2 gig module for about $40. I did this after looking at Acer user manual that had been installed on the computer. I was confident that this memory upgrade would be a no-brainer. That’s when the magic started.

As soon as I receive the memory, I excitedly began the installation process. Step one involved discovering that the user manual didn’t actually cover my particular laptop. There was no bottom panel as most laptops have to access the RAM.

No problem I thought. I got online with the Acer tech support (located, of course, in India), A polite gentleman speaking in a rough version of English, told me about my two choices. I could take my computer to one of their authorized dealers or he would have one of his other support people call and walk me through the process. Naturally I chose the second choice. Soon, a second Indian gentleman from Acer tech support called me. The very first step was to ask me about which payment option I wanted to use to buy their help for my computer. I chose none of the above.

Apparently this is why my laptop was so cheap. Aside from boxing material, there is no printed manuals, no operating system CDs or installation CDs. Just a laptop. Right now I’m searching the Internet for instructions to upgrade my RAM. I went as far as searching WikiLeaks since Acer information seems to be classified. It seems nobody else has changed their modules.

As soon as I get a moment, I’ll put my electronic skills of reverse engineering to work. I’m reasonably sure that the memory has to be accessed through the keyboard. I will try and document this process so you don’t have to go through an unfortunate company such as Acer.

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