How to speed up your Macbook 2010 edition

Is your Macbook a white or silver? Both of them you can change the memory the same way. You need a #0 Phillips screw driver.

First, flip your mac upside down. You will see 8 screws that hold the bottom case on. Remove these 8 screws. There will be 5 small and 3 long ones. 

After that, stick your figures in where the slot is on the back (where the exhaust is) and pull up. The back case should pop loose.

Now, you should see something similar to this:

But the White and Silver Unibody Macbooks have the same procedure for removing and installing ram.

you should see the ram sitting on the battery in the picture. Remove the 2 that are in your system. There are 2 tabs that hold the memory in place on both sides. Use a screw driver and push out on both tabs. One stick should pop up. Remove it, then do it again to get the second stick out.

Now put the new ram in, bottom slot first. Make sure you push the ram in securely or you will get a 3 beep error saying indicating a memory issue. Put the ram in at an angle then push it down until it clicks into place and is parallel with the logic board. Do the same for the second stick.

Put the screws back in and you are all set. 

BTW I am a ACMT (Apple Certified Macintosh Technitician) and work at a local ASP (Apple Service Provider).

As for speeding it up even more? Installing an SSD can really speed things up, but that is about all you can do. Also be aware that if you have permission issues or an out of order or unclean file system/OS, it can cause the system to slow down. Same for corrupted User profile, or even a combination of them all. Also the same goes for if you have a failing hard drive.

Additonally, the system officially supports 4GB of ram, but unofficially supports 8GB. If you are simply browsing the web, using Word, listening to music, and other general use, there is no need to upgrade to 8GB and you not see a performance increase past 4 unless you are doing memory intensive tasks like photo editing, virtual machines, etc. Furthermore, bare in mind that the machine is a Macbook, so it is not going to have a lot of power at hand. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by powerhouse 

@Lord Xeb and others: My Macbook is white. I don't know about other versions of the Macbook, and if and how my instructions differ if you have another Macbook.

is it one of the old unibody white macbooks or the non-unibody ones? The nonuni is the one that has a removable battery by taking a coin and turning a lock the bottom. Once you remove the battery on those, there is a metal strap that goes along the inside. There are 3 screws holding that in. Loosen the screws and pull the silver L piece out. You now have access to your RAM and your hard drive. Also, the hard drive will only go in one way and is guided by a rubber guide. If you force it back in the wrong way, you will have to  take apart the mac to reseat the rubber guides...