HP Pavilion laptop - can it be improved?

mickdw

Ive HP Pavilion x360 laptop, Model 15 br017na.
It has touch screen and can be folded into a tablet but its a piece of crap performance wise.
It could take ages to open ms word for example if there are a few things open and is generally hopeless when jumping around between fairly basic stuff like hoping from web browser to opening a pdf to opening word or excel. Huge lag also if i flip the screen over.
Is there anything that can be done to improve this machine or is it just cheaper to buy new.

minitrue

Looks like replacing (upgarding to 8GB which seems to be it's max) the ram is easy and likewise swapping out the hard drive for an ssd. I'd say the lack of ram ("only" 4GB) explains a lot of your problems and then the fact it's also a hard disk really makes it painful. My instincts would be it's worth it for about €100 for both (replacing the 500GB drive with a similar sized ssd).

If you want to clone your hard disk to the ssd you might need a usb to sata adapter and a usb stick also but that's probably under €20 (maybe even €10) and would let you use the old 500GB disk for backups/external storage.

Xenoronin

This is the spec sheet for those interested: https://support.hp.com/ie-en/document/c05534077

You can replace the HDD with an SSD, that'd improve things a hell of a lot. I'm not sure what I'm seeing online, but I think it has a sata interface, and an m.2 slot so you could keep the current HDD and just add an m.2 drive, though you'd need to double check by opening the back of the laptop.

You could also chuck in some extra RAM, 4GB is quite limiting nowadays, don't mix and match sticks either, so look at getting a 2x4GB kit anything over 8gb is probably wasted on this laptop. https://eu.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/hp---compaq/pavilion-x360-15-br017na#ssd

minitrue

Oooops, sorry, that's interesting. I'd landed on a less specific crucial page which suggested one slot and max of 8GB and likewise no mention of M.2 (and no mention of it on the HP page either)! So yep, throwing in a m.2 ssd would make things easier again if you wanted to clone across the existing system to the ssd. Personally I wouldn't buy 2*4GB, I'd buy 1*4GB and mix and match or just buy 1*8GB (or 2*8GB if I was feeling flush). I would open up the back though to check it really does have two accessible memory slots and the M.2 before ordering though!

mickdw

Thanks for all the info.
Now im pretty handy with stuff - ive opened up laptops and soldered in new power connectors and stuff but ive no clue about the technical stuff re what i should be looking to buy other that what has been suggested here.
What should i be looking for if i open it up?

minitrue

The so-dimm socket is a "long" (about 70mm) connector, here's an image from hp which might correspond to what you will see:

It's just possible their are two so-dimm sockets stacked on top of each other which might be tougher to easily recognise, if you don't want to take out the ram you have to check a good photo or two here might be enough for someone to tell.

The M.2 socket is much shorter (about 22mm) and parallel you should see some holes, ideally including one with a pillar, about 80mm away. This is a normal photo, not sure where it would be hiding in your laptop :-/

K.O.Kiki

Maintenance & service guides for HP Pavilion 15-br000 x360 Convertible PC:

https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-pavilion-15-br000-x360-convertible-pc/15551167/manuals

Looks like it only has 1x RAM module - makes sense seeing as it's a Pentium & thus limited to single-channel RAM.

mickdw

So i should be buying 8 gb ram to swap in instead of the 4gb and look for a solid state drive?