Asus 1015PN/1015PEM/1015PED/1015PE hard-disk upgrade to SSD

Greatly increase the speed of your netbook with SSD upgrade
 

The ASUS 1015PN netbook is probably the best 10" netbook available at this time. Featuring a dual-core Atom N550 processor and NVidia ION 2 graphics with Optimus support, this little marvel is capable of playing 1080p video and playing some previous-generation 3D games at good framerates. However, the Achiles heel of this netbook is it's hard-drive. The 250GB 5200RPM 2.5" hard drive slows down the netbook considerably and it needs to be upgraded in order to unleash the full potential of the Asus 1015PN netbook. Having purchased such a netbook lately, I have replaced the hard-drive with an Intel X25-V SSD. This is a cheap and rather small capacity SSD at 40GB, however it is very fast and reliable, with TRIM command support guaranteeing it does not slow down over time. Perfect for an Asus 1015PN SSD upgrade ! This guide also applies to Asus 1015PEM, Asus 1015PED and Asus 1015PE.

WARNING: by performing this upgrade, you will lose the netbook's warranty because one of the screws under the keyboard has a warranty sticker over it which needs to be removed. Only attempt upgrade if you are technically inclined, have enough patience and you know what you are doing. In order to begin the SSD upgrade for the Asus 1015PN/1015PEM/1015PED/1015PE, you need a plastic prying tool or another similar plastic object (see pictures). If you use a flat screwdriver instead, it is guaranteed you will scratch/damage the plastic case of the Asus 1015PN. It will never look the same and you will regret it.

First place the netbook upside down on a soft surface (the lid can scratch easily) and remove the battery. Remove the 4 screws under the battery, and then push back the 5 tabs holding the keyboard. Be very careful with pushing backwards the two side lateral ones.

Next, pull up the keyboard from back to front, very carefully. Do not attempt to remove it completely because it is linked to the motherboard by a fragile connector. Just work with the keyboard detached, very carefully.

After pulling back the keyboard, carefully remove all the screws holding the plastic top attached to the bottom. The top is also attached to the bottom with plastic clips, you will have to carefully split them with the plastic prying tool. This is a very delicate operation !

Continue to split the top from the bottom part clips, by moving the prying tool horizontally between the two sides of the case.

After the separation, the netbook covers should look like this:

Very carefully lift up the upper cover together with the already detached keyboard. The hard drive is now exposed. Notice that you cannot take aside the cover because it is linked by the motherboard with another fragile cable. I do not recommend to disconnect that cable

Remove the two flat connectors that run over the hard drive, by pulling up the connector's lever with a fingernail.

Remove the 4 screws holding the hard-disk tray in place. Then pull out the hard drive with a semi-horizontal movement. Do NOT pull up the hard drive vertically !

Remove the 4 screws attaching the tray to the hard-disk, and attach them to the SSD.

Now reverse everything. Things to note:

• When reattaching the hard drive connectors, make sure to push the flat connector as much as possible into its socket before pressing the lever down
• When rejoining the front and back covers, make sure the keyboard and mouse pad connectors sit properly. Reattach the plastic clips by pressing the up and down covers together using your fingers. You will hear a series of clicks.

You are done ! Start the netbook and enjoy the ~3x bump in perceived operation speed ! :)