Gday and Welcome
have a read of the info below .....,some of it is relevant and some is not. It will at least give you something to think about.
Hi, I'm thinking of buying a HP Stream 14-z051sa or a 14-z050sa and I was wondering if the RAM and SSD could be upgraded. I would only want to upgrade the RAM to 4GB and the SSD to probably 240GB. Thanks,
forums.tomsguide.com
have a model HP stream 14 ax067nr. You can upgrade the memory to 8gb, perhaps 16gb/RAM (it *IS* after all, a 5thGen processor). Mine has 8gb/RAM. You must use PC3L, NOT PC3 memory. Ram needs to be "low voltage". I know this, because I did the upgrade myself. There IS a way to install a SSD, into the Stream 14, however, IT'S TEDIOUS, runs a high risk of failure if you're not *VERY* careful, because you have to patch the SSD into one of the USB 3 ports, internally. It's easier just to turn it into a Chromebook, than to do this.
Here are your options to give your HP Stream14 (ONLY!, This will not work, on the 11, or 13, as the memory is not upgradeable), a new life.
METHOD ONE!
First, do a factory refresh. If you can not, due to your eMMC drive being too full, You'll need "Unlocker" (free), and butcher up your O/S. It won't boot afterwards, however, Win10 needs at least 4gb of space to refresh. You can kill the C: partition, with a number of 3rdParty programs.
Take the laptop apart (easy to do), remove the 4gb stick of ram, then install an 8gb stick of PC3L 12800s. Reboot, and "Restore" your drive.
Once restored, you'll need to do a few things.
Kill the swapfile. If you have 8gb< or better of RAM, most likely, you won't even need one.
Turn off "Hibernate". With 8gb/RAM, it will boot adequately fast.
Install an SDcard, that never gets removed... EVER.
Get a high quality, high speed, 32gb, or 64gb SDcard (recommend SanDisk, don't skimp here!).
You'll need an external HDD for doing backups. I use a Mushkin, 960gb SSD to store programs and such, via a USB 3 port. Not as fast as a SATA, but adequately fast. I have set these up with mechanical drives (7200RPM), and they're "adequate". A SSD is better.
Send your "personal" folders to the SDcard, or the external drive. IF you *NEED* a swapfile, send it to the external drive. If you do this, it will need to be plugged into the computer whenever it's on.
Send Windows Temporary files, and your browsers Temporary files, to the SDcard. This can be done from, Computer>Properties> Advanced System Settings>Environmental Variables. If you need details on how to do this, Let me know. I'll post a separate "How To".
Save your pics, video's, music, downloads, etc, either on the SDcard, or better yet, the external HDD.
However, to me, this method is akin to the computer needing a colostomy bag, but, it is the SUREST way to successfully, keep it useful.
Here's the big one. You NEED to completely shut off Windows 10 updates. YES, you *CAN* do this. I do it all the time, and it WORKS. You'll also need a way to turn them back on, if you want. I do this on all my Win10 machines, and have since day one of the "free" windows 10 upgrade, here at home. I have a Windows 10 machine, that hasn't updated ONCE, since I installed the original, free version, the day it was available (ongoing experiment).
Want to know how to do this? You'll have to "google" it, as I'm not sure if HP, or Microsmurf would take kindly to me posting the registry edits here. I already have two, "Cease and Desist" orders from Microsoft for things I did, to improve Windows.
THIS will make your Stream 14 much more useful, and even play a few games on it, if that's what you like.
METHOD TWO!
Turn it into a Chromebook. There are dozens of YouTube vids on how to do this. It's easy to do, and doesn't take much time.. This will work on ALL stream models, however the Stream 14, can be "future proofed" a bit, as the memory is upgradeable.
METHOD THREE!
Install a smaller version of LINUX, and have a decent Linux box. YouTube videos, apply here too.
There IS a fourth method as I mentioned earlier in my post, however you're better off just purchasing a new HP15 budget computer.
