Fingerprint reader: Yes
Upgrading RAM: There are two slots: One occupied with a 4GB stick and one free.
Upgrading WiFi: The slot is compatible with both M.2 PCI-E and M.2 CNVi. For WiFi 6, you can use either an Intel AX200 (PCI-E) or Intel AX201 (CNVi). CNVi is Intel's proprietary interface to couple an Intel WiFi card with an Intel CPU and is generally less expensive and preferred.
Upgrading SSD: The slot is compatible with both SATA and NVMe; it is a M.2 2280 slot. There are no additional M.2 slots and no support for 2.5" drives.
Clean-installing Windows: You need to load Intel storage drivers during a clean Windows install
|
Quote
from code65536
First, download Intel's "F6 floppy" driver (f6flpy-x64-vmd.zip) from the following link (back in the 90's and early 2000's, the Windows installer would ask you to press F6 if you needed to load storage drivers before proceeding, and you'd pop in a floppy drive containing the storage drivers and press F6... things work a bit differently these days, obviously, but Intel continues to use that name to label the drivers that you're supposed to use during an OS install):
:
https://www.intel.com/content/www...forms.htm Next, make a folder on the USB flash drive that you're using to install Windows. Doesn't matter where you put it or what you name it. And unzip the contents into that folder. During the Windows install, when you come to the screen where you are supposed to select which drive to install to, you'll see an empty list, since Windows is not able to recognize the drive without the storage driver loaded. Below that list, there should be an option called "load drivers" (or something like that, don't remember the exact wording). Click that, and select the folder that you had created earlier, and follow the prompts. |
https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c06983517
WARRANTY NOTE:
For anyone still watching this thread (@jackharvest adding to Wiki here) please note:
The HP support agent showed "May 2022" as the expiration for the warranty on the two machines I purchased. Noticed it while setting them up prior to Christmas time.
FIX: I got on chat support, and after sending them my invoice from Target, they modified it to be accurate per my purchase date and not the date that Target likely stocked them or unloaded them. This doesn't happen that often, but I guess these were cheap enough, its possible something got screwed up, and the warranty kicked off the timer early by mistake.
MAX RAM Likely 64GB
Here's a screenshot of it running 32GB + 4GB sticks:
Top Comments
This is so much better than the Wal-Mart one.
Display: IPS panel by LG, with vastly better viewing angles and colors than the Chi-Mei TN panel on the Wal-Mart version
CPU: 4-core Tiger Lake i3 vs. the 2-core in the Wal-Mart version
WiFi: The spec page indicates a 1x1 card, but the actual card contained within is a 2x2 card; the Wal-Mart version only had a 1x1 card
Price: $10 cheaper than the Wal-Mart version
And just like the Wal-Mart version, it has two RAM slots, with one populated (DDR4-3200) and one free.
The one and only downside is that the SSD is half the size and is SATA. But if you're going to be opening the computer anyway to throw an extra stick of RAM in, it's not hard to also replace the SSD and upgrade it to something like 500GB. The other upgrade that I'm making, since I'm opening the system up anyway, is replacing the WiFi with an Intel AX201 (can find them for around $10 used on eBay) so that I get WiFi 6.
I've been looking for a laptop in the sub-$300 price bracket to replace the aging dinosaur that my parents are using, and this is by far the best I've seen yet (though it does involve a few simple upgrades to make it great).
If I had to settle for a budget laptop, I'd rather have a faster CPU and an IPS screen. Especially if RAM and SSD can later be upgraded (which I haven't verified).
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It has a non-USB charger. Can i charge from USB? I dunno. Probably not since HP lists no USB chargers on their site for it.
A backlit keyboard is not especially useful. I always turn that off on my computers. Saves power.
With upgraded RAM and a replacement SSD, which many of us have sitting around, this will be a fantastic machine.
Newegg has dual 8gb, for 16gb total, for 47 plus tax. On ebay and newegg.com.
The CPU can handle 64GB of RAM, so dual 32GB should work fine. 16GB is more than enough for most power users. 4GB + 8GB to get 12GB may run the ram slower. But it's a little cheaper to upgrade.
This will run audio recording just fine.
No soldering to upgrade.
The slot will do NVME. HP sells the same model with NVME. It should support PCIE4.0, actually.
This is so much better than the Wal-Mart one.
And just like the Wal-Mart version, it has two RAM slots, with one populated (DDR4-3200) and one free.
The one and only downside is that the SSD is half the size and is SATA. But if you're going to be opening the computer anyway to throw an extra stick of RAM in, it's not hard to also replace the SSD and upgrade it to something like 500GB. The other upgrade that I'm making, since I'm opening the system up anyway, is replacing the WiFi with an Intel AX201 (can find them for around $10 used on eBay) so that I get WiFi 6.
I've been looking for a laptop in the sub-$300 price bracket to replace the aging dinosaur that my parents are using, and this is by far the best I've seen yet (though it does involve a few simple upgrades to make it great).
"worst purchase I have made. I had really high hopes. Laptop comes with windows 10 S Mode witch limits you unless you switch out. I switched Out and then my computer had an upgrade and the laptop went back to S mode and now won't let me out. I have had it less than 24 hours."
Worst case scenario, do a clean install of Windows.
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The stock card uses a M.2 PCI-E interface. The Intel AX201 uses a M.2 CNVi interface, which is a proprietary Intel interface that requires an Intel chipset. This laptop's M.2 WiFi slot supports both PCI-E and CNVi (and yes, I've verfied this personally).
You can install either an AX200 (PCI-E) or an AX201 (CNVi) on this laptop--both will work just fine. But CNVi cards are less expensive than their regular non-CNVi counterparts, so since this laptop supports CNVi, you should use CNVi if you can.
It has a non-USB charger. Can i charge from USB? I dunno. Probably not since HP lists no USB chargers on their site for it.
A backlit keyboard is not especially useful. I always turn that off on my computers. Saves power.
With upgraded RAM and a replacement SSD, which many of us have sitting around, this will be a fantastic machine.
Newegg has dual 8gb, for 16gb total, for 47 plus tax. On ebay and newegg.com.
The CPU can handle 64GB of RAM, so dual 32GB should work fine. 16GB is more than enough for most power users. 4GB + 8GB to get 12GB may run the ram slower. But it's a little cheaper to upgrade.
This will run audio recording just fine.
No soldering to upgrade.
The slot will do NVME. HP sells the same model with NVME. It should support PCIE4.0, actually.
https://www.newegg.com/p/0RM-002H-00122
I switched it out via the Windows Store, and it worked. And then after I updated the BIOS and rebooted, it reverted back to S Mode. I'm not sure why it reverted--whether it was because of the reboot or if it was related to the BIOS update. After it reverted, I couldn't switch it out of S Mode a second time--when I tried, it just got stuck.
I then went into the BIOS settings and reset them (loaded defaults and for good measure reset the TPM) and I also went into Windows recovery and did a system reset. Afterwards, I was able to switch out of S Mode again, and this time the switch persisted and didn't bounce back. Again, I'm not sure which of those two things was the fix: whether it was resetting the BIOS settings or the Windows system reset.
It's also unclear who's fault this is: whether it's HP's or Microsoft's.
In any case, I had planned to replace the SSD and clean-install Windows anyway so I didn't need to do any of that, but after seeing the comments about the S Mode in this thread, I wanted to see if I could get it to switch again before I wiped the system.
Worst case scenario, do a clean install of Windows.
I missed the $300 Costco version and thought this would be a second shot, but I don't want to risk busting the keyboard off of this thing to get at the RAM slot. I nearly did that on my old HP Chromebook trying to get to that BIOS lock screw thing.
I'm also trying to avoid Windows 11 for now. The pictures show what looks to be W11 even though the description claims W10S. I've seen a lot of deals lately where people are getting W11 unexpectedly.
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