CSI: Inside the Verus

[Billcmat]

I posted this over on the iATN Snap-On forum, but I thought some of you might find it interesting.

My Verus is well out of warranty, so it was time to perform the memory upgrade that so many have talked about. Since I have not seen any inside pictures of the Verus, I thought I would take some pictures and document the procedure.

I would recommend you do this on a soft cloth so as to not scratch the touch screen. You will need a thin Phillips screwdriver, a small flat pocket screwdriver and long thin tweezers. Allow plenty of time so you can be VERY CAREFUL!! Take great care with all connectors and ribbons. These are
very fragile and breaking one will require a trip to Snap-On and lots of dollars!

First, take off the rubber grips on each end of the Verus. Remove the battery by pressing down on the latch and pulling. It is a tight fit. Remove the screws on the rear case (7) and front case (6).
iatn 1.jpg
iatn 2.jpg

One of the rear screws in inside the battery compartment. It takes a short Phillips or a thin long one to remove. You will have to break through the warranty seals to remove all the screws. Also remove the screws at the serial port and the scanner cable port.
iatn 4.jpg
The plate around the serial port will fall out later, so don't lose it or forget to put it back when the cases go together.

On the front side there are several small slots at the top and bottom of the black screen cover. Use a small pocket flat screwdriver to remove the black screen cover.
iatn 3.jpg

Flip the Verus over. Be careful of the button pad on the right as it is now loose.

BEWARE there is a fan connected to the rear cover half. Pick the black rear cover by picking up the bottom of it; it kind of slips in at the top of the Verus. Don't pull hard until you look under and disconnect the fan connector from the circuit boards! Then slip it out of the front cover at the
top and set it aside.

iatn 5.jpg

This is what you will see with the rear cover removed. The system memory in on a sub-board under the fan and heat sink. You need to flip the circuit boards over, but FIRST you have to get the touch screen loose and disconnected. At the bottom and top are 10 plastic clips that hold the screen to the red case half. There are several connectors that you must disconnect when removing the screen (speaker, screen and pad). This must be done
carefully after releasing the 10 plastic clips that hold it all together.
iatn 6.jpg

There are 2 gray wires that you can leave connected, but be careful so you don't break them. Pay attention to how they are routed and clipped in place. Once the screen in disconnected and removed, you can see the 7 screws that hold the circuit boards to the red plastic case. Fig 6 shows where they go. Once the boards are loose, you need to unplug the small board and fan assembly from the main circuit board. There is one small white connector for the fan, and 2 row connectors from the small board to the main board.
iatn 7.jpg


Pay attention to how it goes together. Once it is unplugged, there is a single screw in the center of the small board that holds it to the fan/heat sink assembly. Remove this screw, and they will separate.
iatn 8.jpg

There is heat sink compound on the bottom of the heat sink. Don't
wipe it off or disturb it.

You will now see the 512 meg memory module. Remove and
replace it just like any other laptop (I used a 1024MB
PC3200 DDR 400MHz SODIMM module I had left from another
laptop).

CAREFULLY reassemble the Verus. When you boot it back up, it
may say you have an authorization problem. Check the time
and date of the system. Mine reset to the default, and all I
had to do was correct the time/date, and all rebooted fine.

My system boots faster now. I don't know yet how much better
it will function as I performed this on a Friday, but I
will report back after a few days of use. I did not swap the
hard drive, as I remove and store the files onto my laptop,
so disk space is not a problem for me yet.

Enjoy!!

Willie


It's been a week now, and so far everything is working great. The Verus boots faster, and seems to shut down faster. The apps load faster, and when running 2 (scanner and scope) they switch easier and with less fuss.

Willie

[Nickb]

Did your say anything about authorization problems? If so what did you do to get it through the no Authorization?

[Billcmat]

The only issue I had was the date/time was not set correctly. Once I reset that to current all loaded correctly.

I think that is a issue when changing hard drives or reinstalling from the program.

I have watched Snap-On do it over the web, but I probably couldn't do it now.

Willie

[jm43130]

Great job, have been waiting awhile to get this done and Snapon still has no timetable to do this upgrade for us. Now maybe I can use Pass Thru Pro again on Chryslers. Thanks for the great info and pictures. I am going to do my own now.

[scottw]

Great job documenting the upgrade. I will say I am pleased with the improvement, we did about 4 months ago now.

Ours fired back up and had no issues with authorization or anything else.

Is a larger memory stick available yet? I used DDR400 SODIMM 1GB.

[jhdad88]

Thanks for all the information about this. I just did mine and am happy with the results. I could not have done this with out your info.
THANKS AGAIN!!

[eddiesverus]

Good job Bill, if anyone decided to perform this upgrade this is the best post yet. I did mine on my own knowing the risk but it paid off, like everyone else that upgraded, the Verus is mush faster. One thing that I did notice on My Verus was that the CPU fan was becomming noisy and my Verus was getting too hot. Using The Verus Test JIDA software located in the C:/Program files/SnapOn Diagnostics/verus/tools. I was able to see and test the CPU Fan speed, Temp and control the Fan. I found the CPU Temp was reaching 162F on a hot day. The Verus started to slow down and eventualy crash. I then took it apart agian, I didn't want to send it in for repairs becuase 1st out of warranty and 2nd the fan is too small. so I got a new fan from a PC Video card. it was a low profile but bigger. I had to modify the Fins on the Heatsink to get the larger fan to fit. put it all back together and started. I monitored the Temp and Found fan was louder but the temp has never gone over 125F. If heat is a issue on your Verus, Upgrading your CPU fan Will Help. Good luck..

[TuTa]

Hi, thanks a lot for the informative thread.

Despite all the info and pics I am stack at removing black bottom cover. I disconnected everything else - top panel, lcd but I can't pull the main board out of bottom black cover. I re-read post many number of times and re-checked that all screws are gone but still no luck. I tried to pull motherboard very hard - it feels like it is attached somewhere and is going to brake if I pull it a bit harder. Please see the photos for clues. I would appreciate any help.

http://yfrog.com/cb03backj
http://yfrog.com/f702backj
http://yfrog.com/0a01backpj

[phill57]

Hello Tuta.

I know what you are going through. removing the back cover is probably the most difficult but is quite easy once you know the process. It can actually be removed to access the hard drive without removing all the front stuff. I can have my hard drive out in less than 5 minutes. The cover must be lifted up from the bottom first. If you turn the unit face down with the bottom towards you, put your fingers into the battery charging hole, pull up on the bottom of the cover while pressing down on the battery compartment and the charging stand contacts through the back cover. Once it is lifted from the bottom it can be tilted off of the multimeter jack which pass through the top. Be sure you have removed the two small bolts beside the data cable connection in the top of the unit. (where the scanner cable attaches). The battery compartment will stay attached to the back of the motherboard.

HTH and good luck

[TuTa]

Thank you very much for your reply. I guess I was doing the right thing but was not sure if I have to pull a bit harder. I will try again in the morning.

I am going to put SSD hard drive and 1GB memory stick. Not sure if somebody tried to upgrade CPU but I would definitely like to try.