Blue area is battery. Top Orange is hardrive caddy, slides in like CD ROM, Bottom Orange arrow is CD ROM Caddy. BIG screws are to lock them in after installing. Top RED arrow is for attatching Laptop to a car docking desk. Bottom RED arrow is for securing battery in its place.

The area in red which appears to be a lighter shade of gray should be removable.

Anyway that is where I suspect the RAM lays. Sorry for the squiggly line.

Hey Jephree, how about you go ahead and close this thread as I posted a new one in Hardware issues. After I get a responce to my thread in hardware issues I am going to go ahead and try and break down the laptop further by accessing your red outlined area because I've gotten this far already. I keep things posted and up to date on the new thread. By the way, I can't upload pictures tody on the new thread. Happy Trails, ROKY

I have got 2 of these and, like you, the intrigue of the beasts let the costs mount and mount.
One of my specs is 500MHz 256Mb PC100 SDRAM (144 pin) 20Gb running Windows XP Pro and the other is 650 MHz 512Mb PC133 SDRAM 120Gb running Sun Java Desktop 2, Ubuntu 7.10, Xandros 3.02oce, Fedora core 6, 2 Windows XP Pro partitions and Windows 98.
The processor speed makes no difference to the memory speed, and I just wanted to boast about the rest.
I had some PC133 SDRAM knocking about, so I contacted an EXTREMELY helpful lady at Amrel, who advised me that EDO or SDRAM would do. I put my 512 PC133 in one and chips from both laptops (128 PC100) into the other. As far as I know, RAM is backwards compatible, anyway. Theoretically, using too fast a speed is just a waste of resources, but the cost difference is probably insignificant, if not inverse. I believe using a slower speed is possible, but it makes all your RAM, if differing speeds, run at the slowest speed. I am trawling some of this from distant memory, so I may not be correct.
Anyway, to add some memory to your Rocky 2, you will need a nice-fitting screwdriver. You need to take ALL the screws out around the body. Once you carefully disconnect all the plugs and connectors to seperate the top from the bottom half, you will expose an empty RAM slot. Your 128Mb chip will be located under the processor on the bottom of the motherboard. I had no luck accessing it from the flap on the bottom of the laptop. If you take the motherboard out, be aware there is a brass screw under a 'Warranty void......' sticker going straight into the processor heatsink. I nearly trashed mine with a screwdriver/lever before I noticed that one.
Hope this helps. If you need any more info, give me a shout. I have dedicated weeks on end to these things and know them quite well. I wish I had your peripheral hardware. I drew the line at disk caddies. If (IF, IF, IF) I had had a BIOS update (hence running Win 98) beforehand, I could just run everything off USB, and they really would have been a bargain. As it is, they are great things to have. Good luck with yours.

I have some problem with the Sodimm several descriptions presents the low density memory as a 16 chips block 8 for each side and the high density as 4 chips for each side.

In some threafd i have saw the the amrel needs low density memory , but i discovered a memory with 4 chips for each side in my laptop RT 686 ( Rocky II) .

So, this laptop needs an high or low density memory ???

low density is the safest way to go.

Hi, I would agree that low density is the safest way to go, but I don't think it's that necessary. Apart from being twice the price (in the U.K., anyway) it's limited in size. I would say that these things are beyond the era of low density requirements, and that anything that fits into the 144 pin slot will do. I don't really think the amount of chips matters too much. As good as they are, these are now reasonably aged machines and, although fully usable, will never beat a benchmark test on any laptop sold in any shop today. Specs aside, though, they are damn good machines with a huge novelty value. The only obstacle is the amount of screws to be removed before you get to anything! If yours is running high density already, stick with it. You won't break anything by experimenting, either. It will just work or not. And I reckon it will work.
Good luck with it. It'd be good to hear how you get on.
Cheers, Liam

Greetings
I have (got) a Amrel Rocky RT-686EX, which I bought cheaply on Ebay, I'm looking to upgrade.
I have a problem the power connector is the military, I believe, save someone where I find the plug or connector type is searching for local distributors, I'm Spanihs
Where can I find the hard drive and DVD's cradle of time? It is possible to extend the processor speed and RAM? sorry for my bad English

Hi,

Amrel.com is pretty much the only place for spares. You can be creative, though! As long as your BIOS is new enough, you will be able to use a USB CDROM, and an external hard drive. Your power connector can be changed to a barrel type, or, to preserve the waterproof integrity, you can solder wires for an extra barrel connector onto the original pins. A couple of folds in the cable and a couple of cable ties, for strain relief and you're away. Be aware, though, that the chances of hitting the correct polarity is only 50-50! I do't know what would happen if you got it the wrong way round (I would suspect it just wouldn't work..... but it MIGHT damage something). I did both, so I had a chance to take an educated guess with the second one. I know I should have written it down somewhere, but I didn't think. And I certainly can't remember.

Anyway, I confined my purchases from Amrel to just HD caddies. The parts prices are almost reasonable, but the international shipping kills it. Especially if you don't know for sure if the thing will even work.

Good luck; and keep us posted!

Leave the processor alone. No advantage will come from going through changing it. They are very hard to find also. Caddies can be found from here Programmable Power Supply/Supplies, Rugged Computer, Electronic Load -- AMREL
You can also purchase a used power supply with the right cable from Amrel. I remember paying $45.00 US for the power supply, $25.00 for a used floppy drive, and I think cdrom/dvdrom caddies were $45.00. You can try and see if a used hardrive with caddy or a used CDRom with caddy shows up on Ebay. Me and another guy from England Liam have 2 of these beasts. Linux runs good on them. So does Windows XP and 2000 Pro. To make it go faster, bump up the ram. It takes 2 sticks. 256mb per slot is the max. Pc133 SDRAM 144 pin is what works. The 18 screws around the side of the outside of laptop (Phillips screws) right below the keyboard are what you need to remove to access ram. Careful with the keyboard ribbon cable. It's tricky. You should see one empty slot for ram, the other is underneath the mother board which will have to be pulled if you wish to change it. If your EX already has 256 mb and that one slot is empty on the top part of motherboard you have accessed after pulling all 18 screws. A 256mb stick will bump up the laptop to 512 mb which is the max anyways.

Cable for connecting to back of laptop can be found from here 36-inch Output Cable, Special Deutsch MMP16C connector and what needs to be done if going that rout is to find a generic power supply that will mimic amrels and connect/solder and heatshrink to insulate that cable to said power supply. Good luck. I use mine every day as heavy duty netbooks on my motorcycle and use them wirelessly on battery power for up to 4 hours, using Puppy dingo linux

Hey Liam. Ya beat me to it HA