Inside ASUS X554L – disassembly, internal photos and upgrade options

We recently got our hands on the new budget-friendly everyday notebook from ASUS – the X554L. The notebook not only offers good hardware for the price, but it’s also easy to maintain and disassemble. Keep on reading to find out what the upgrade options are.

1. Removing the keyboard

Firstly, you have to take off all the screws from the bottom of the machine, but only if you want to access all the internals. But if you are aiming at upgrading your RAM, you can only remove the small plastic cover on the right. Under it, you will find only one RAM chip slot. After all the screws are removed, continue with popping out the keyboard with some kind of plastic tool for example and be careful with the two cables attached once you open the keyboard piece.


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2. Upgrade options

You are limited with one 2.5″ HDD/SSD slot that in our case is occupied by 1TB HDD (5400 rpm) manufactured by HGST (Western Digital). Also, our configuration lacks optical drive and you can easily add another HDD or SSD for extra storage since no M.2 SSD slot is present here. Another interesting fact, the included 4GB of RAM is soldered to the motherboard so you are left with only one slot at your disposal as mention earlier.


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3. Battery, Wi-Fi and fan cleaning

A few more screws hold the mainboard to the chassis and by removing them you can access the Wi-Fi module from Broadcom with model number BCM943142HM and the CPU fan located at the back of the motherboard. As for the battery, only three bolts hold it. The battery is in-house made by ASUS rated at 37 Wh.


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Darkriser4
Darkriser4
8 years ago

how do i open the plastic cover to access the rams because it does not want to open

belalik
belalik
8 years ago

Thanks for the detailed review – it was really helpful. I ‘m thinking of buying this laptop since I can find a very good offer (390 euro), and it really fits my needs. Most of its time, it will be used as a ‘desktop replacement’, basically with a closed lid and a connected keyboard/mouse and monitor. So most of its drawbacks wont really matter. Anyway, the main reason I m writing, is to ask about the possibility to easily add an SSD drive in the optical drive slot. I ‘ve never done that before, I never actually had an SSD… Read more »

Alejandro
Alejandro
8 years ago

Hello..My cuestion is same the first…. the plastic cover to the ram access is protected by a cap on the screw…how to remove??? THANKS!!

Max
Max
8 years ago
Reply to  Alejandro

USE A CUTTER TO REMOVE THE ROUND SMALL DISK THAT COVER THE SCREW AND THEN UNSCREW THE COVER.
This is the only screw covered by a round plastic.
AFTER INSTALLING THE RAM, REBOOT.

Mark
Mark
8 years ago

Hallo, i’ve installed win7 64Bit, all ok, but the single usb port at the right of laptop, don’t work. The pendrive and other device, not recognized by the system. In the device chain, it’s all ok, and is not present any anormality.
What is the problem?
Thanks for your reply.

AsusUser
AsusUser
8 years ago
Reply to  Mark

This laptop spec and hardware is not friendly with Win7. Just update to Win8>. If you still insist on updating then you have to download and install the drivers one by one. Hope this helps.

Mark
Mark
8 years ago

Hi there. I’d like to upgrade the RAM. Can you suggest me wich kind of RAM I should buy ? Thank you in advance.

Juanin
Juanin
8 years ago
Reply to  Mark

Hi

I extended my 4 Gb Integrated RAM with a same one 4Gb , Samsung SODIMM Pins 204 S/N M471B5173DB0-YK0. It works properly

Francesco
Francesco
8 years ago

Hi, I’ve a question: how did you remove the flat cable on top of the HDD? The one going from HDD to IO…. it seems to be glued to the hdd in my case. Was it the same for you?

Juanin
Juanin
8 years ago
Reply to  Francesco

just unpasted it when the HD is out from its dock

MonkY
MonkY
8 years ago

If you want to install a HDD Caddy instead of ODD, what size does it need to be? 9.5mm or 12.7mm?
Thanks for the details!

melih
8 years ago
Reply to  MonkY

9.5 mm Normally 8.9mm But 9.5mm is happening

MonkY
MonkY
8 years ago
Reply to  melih

Thank you melih!

imran khan
8 years ago

i am upgrade Ram but i Dont know who is Company Ram plz tell me

Juanin
Juanin
8 years ago
Reply to  imran khan

mine is Samsung S/N M471B5173DB0-YK0

prabath madusanka
prabath madusanka
8 years ago

if i upgrade processor what are the processors that support to this one please tell me

AsusUser
AsusUser
8 years ago

i bought this laptop with a free dos. after installing the os there is no wireless connection appear. No wireless lan appear on the Network Adapter in device manager except for Realtek Family Controller and Bluetooth stuff. Any1 Help? Please?

Psix
Psix
8 years ago
Reply to  AsusUser

go to asus.com and download drivers from asus, Windows native don’t work good

Alif
Alif
8 years ago

Why i found 2 slot of ram….in cpu-z ?

Bas Nijland
Bas Nijland
8 years ago
Reply to  Alif

One RAMslot is free, but the other 4gb of RAM is soldered onto the motherboard. Hence, there are 2 slots of RAM, but only one is free to change. (Needs verification)

cenk
cenk
8 years ago

i have 2 ram one of them samsung other one i dont know , i try to upgrade ram i try both ram but machine didnt read . What is the problem ?

Trung
Trung
8 years ago

I bought a 4gb corsair vengeance and installed it on my laptop Asus X554la, but when i opened cpu-z it only showed that i have 4gb of ram. What is the problem?

ragn
ragn
8 years ago

how to install the dvd +Rw to this laptop

tobi
tobi
8 years ago

how to “force ” this machine to accept Win-install CD or USB key? It’s new machine, brother asked me to install OS to it, but I can’t boot neither from original install CD, nor USB key (made from my CD). BIOS doesn’t offer possibility to boot from CD. With “USB boot” = enabled laptop can’t boot – always shows BIOS screen. Thanks for help.