Select Walmart Stores: HP Omen 15.6" Laptop: i7-7700HQ, GTX 1050Ti Expired

For all those who are looking for an upgrade to SSD M.2 NVMe, I did that over weekend and I could not found a single post including all the details so I thought of putting all the details for your reference.

1. ScrewDriver Set: $4.12 only (Go to target and do a pricematch with home depot price)
https://www.target.com/p/stanley-...3&jb=84459

2. HP Manual:
Disassembly: http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c05357609
Hardware identification: http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c02876562
I referred both these documents to make sure I use the right component and screwdrivers to open and install new m.2 SSD.

3. SSD:
I bought 500GB M.2 Samsung Evo 960 NVME SSD for $194.
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-96...ng+evo+960

4. M.2 SSD Screw
NOTE: Our laptops motherboard and Samsung SSD do not have a screw included for M.2 NVME SSD. The screw specification is M2.0 X 2.5 (2 is diameter and 2.4 is length). I went to a nearby computer repair shop and asked for it and he handed over one to me free of cost.
I did look up for this screw on the internet and it is very cheap but most of them were available on Ebay and gonna shipped from China. No way we can wait so long .

I saw a video on youtube where the guy did not put any screw back on. I do not recommend it as there are chances that over time and hard handling, the SSD may loosen up and your system won't boot.

5. Making a Recovery USB Disk (MUST)
Surprisingly, HP only allows us to create one recovery disk. If you want them to send USB recovery disk to you, they charge 48 dollars (way different that Dell who ship the USB free of charge with next day air)/
Buy 32 GB USB drive and use HP Recovery Manager to create a backup USB recovery disk. In case of any issues, use this to restore your laptop to factory default settings.'

6. Opening the back Case and Add SSD.
Refer this video - It is not mine. I found this on youtube. Thanks for his help!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlJyh2zHWFk

7. Installing Windows 10 OS
Note that you cannot use the recovery USD disk you created to install Windows on SSD. It seems it is per-configured to select the existing HDD as destination for OS installation.
Create Windows 10 USB media with media creation tool. Power up system and F9 to select boot device or F10 to change BIOS to boot sequence.
My installation was finished in less than 10 minutes I guess so I was impressed a lot.

8. Install drivers and chipset
Download and Install HP Support Assistance and let it scan your system and install drivers one by one. You will be asked to restart system. I advise doing it just to make sure everything works fine.

9. Perform Windows update
This will set your system.

10. Any Issues observed?
- Did not observe any issues while installation and upgrade.

11. Any Laptop issues observed?
Heat!! My laptop get heated near numeric keypad area where we keep our palm while typing. I was not happy and did some research to know the heat profile. Found this article and the heat profile of this laptop is exactly same as what I experience. So it seems it is the way this laptop is built.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/HP-...090.0.html
Thought of returning it but for 500, I could not get configuration like this so I have retained my laptop.
With casual use, it was not as hot as I experience earlier. This also changed my mind. I need this mostly for image processing.

12. Important for heat: HP CoolSense.
I recommend instaling HP Coolsense. It came pre-installed with this laptop Surprising HP Support assistant does not install it. So I downloaded and installed it and works fine and i think it is keeping temperature low. It needs .net 3.5 so install it prior installing HP Coolsense.

13. Any warranty violation if we do so?
I found few post where warranty issue was getting discussed if we upgrade to SSD ourselves. I spoke to HP tech and he mentioned warranty will remain as it is.

At walmart, the price will always go lower. The question is, will there be any left by the time it does?

Only seeing $750 after pickup discount. Not sure how that can go down to $500