HP 15.6" FHD, Ryzen 5-5500, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, Silver, Windows 10 Home......$399.99

[ElFenix]

memory controllers are smart enough to work around mismatched sizes to maximize bandwidth. a portion will run in dual channel and a portion will run in single channel. this has been the case for a decade.

 

[pbroussard]

Mine finally got here, first impressions, it's a great budget ultralight laptop with good battery life. Short on ports, plastic body, viewing angle so-so and no keyboard backlight, but at this price point, can't ask for much more. This is AMD's low power cpu for thin and ultralight laptops.

 

[gibster]

I received the ASUS from COSTCO as well... The screen flickers like crazy, one has to find a good screen angle so it flickers slightly less, looks like the screen connection is wonky... Too bad, seems like a nice laptop, just not sure if I want to try another one or just start the search over... From what little I could see, the CPU gets pretty toasty just getting into Windows, there is a nice hot breeze blowing from the left side after a few minutes... Not so sure I'm happy with that at all...

 

[pbroussard]

Huh, bad connection and maybe missed thermal pad? I dunno, this HP I haven't seen even a warm shell. When the memory gets here I may do the thermal paste thing, something I've always done.

 

[bbhaag]

Huh, bad connection and maybe missed thermal pad? I dunno, this HP I haven't seen even a warm shell. When the memory gets here I may do the thermal paste thing, something I've always done.

Hey if you don't mind let me know how the tear down goes to access the ram slots. I noticed the manual said "Not user serviceable" but we all know that isn't always true. I noticed there are only 2 maybe 3 screws on the back so it doesn't look to hard to take the bottom cover off. So anyway if you don't mind maybe even snapping a few pics I would appreciate it.

One last thing. Are you having any connection issues? I noticed the wifi on mine is really flakey so I was just wondering if you've had a similar experience.

 

[pbroussard]

Teardown from the service manual says remove the ribbing strips from the bottom there's like 8 screws total, and the bottom snaps off with a plastic flat tool. WIFI card, ram, m.2 ssd, fan and cooler all easily removed once cover is off. Ram is in SmartPost limbo might get here tomorrow, I'll open it up then.

I don't have any issues with wifi, never booted into windows until I wiped the ssd and ran an bootable custom win 10 installer with apps and programs, everything was updated, and has been up for going on 4 days. There is no HP specific driver used save what would come from win 10 updates, the Realtek chipset is using driver 2024.0.10.221. I will post some pics for you.

 

[pbroussard]

Well it would have been pretty easy, but I was first trying to separate the bottom cover at the wrong point, but a quick look at the service manual corrected it. Good news was I'm glad I decided to redo the thermal paste with MX4 I had laying around. This is what it looked like-


The plastic protector that should shield the cpu top from paste getting on the surface mounted stuff on the top of the cpu was way off. I cleaned it up with a Qtip and alcohol, used paste sparingly then put it back together.

Bad news is the 16GB stick did not work, laptop would not POST with it installed. The wifi card is easily accessed once the cover is off, at the top left. You can check if antennae and card are installed correctly.

or

Will dig into why the single 16GB stick did not work. May be bios limitation, incompatibility or bad module. It's a GSkilll
F4-3200C22S-16GRS

 

[gibster]

OOh, so it looks like there are 2 true slots for the memory... Maybe 2 8GB sticks will work, they may limit to 16GB total. No spot for SSD I assume?

BTW, that CPU paste job looks truly hideous...

I decided to return the ASUS and since this hp came back in stock, I grabbed it instead. Will probably look at that paste job as well, I doubt the one I get will be any better. Will test out with an 8GB stick I have from another laptop, fingers crossed... I even have a spare 500GB nvme, that will be another cheap upgrade in the future, I'm sure the one they supply is pretty low-end.

 

[pbroussard]

There's more hands on stuff at slickdeals if you want more info. Also a video or 2 on youtube upgrading memory. I just don't have any ddr4 so-dimms laying around to see what the problem is without buying another 16GB matching stick. Going to look at bios updates too. Pretty sure this mainboard series has been used with other ryzen cpus.

edit- it did ship with the F12 bios which is the latest.

 

[pbroussard]

OOh, so it looks like there are 2 true slots for the memory... Maybe 2 8GB sticks will work, they may limit to 16GB total. No spot for SSD I assume?

BTW, that CPU paste job looks truly hideous...

I decided to return the ASUS and since this hp came back in stock, I grabbed it instead. Will probably look at that paste job as well, I doubt the one I get will be any better. Will test out with an 8GB stick I have from another laptop, fingers crossed... I even have a spare 500GB nvme, that will be another cheap upgrade in the future, I'm sure the one they supply is pretty low-end.

I posted on HP's support forum and a mod stated that HP listed 2x8GB is supported. I will try later to use this 1x16GB by itself to see if it works. Kind of pathetic bios limits max 16GB ram when the hardware is capable of more.

There is no space for an additional hdd, their product page lists intel m.2 or Toshiba (KIOXIA) m.2, mine shipped with the Kioxia.

 

[pbroussard]

Well looks like I'm sending this back. I could handle all the shortcomings in this laptop because of it's price. Save for one, the 16GB memory limit. Back to using the old Inspiron 7559 and continue looking for a good deal. May even stay with the Dell since I need a new m.2 drive in it.

 

[bbhaag]

Well looks like I'm sending this back. I could handle all the shortcomings in this laptop because of it's price. Save for one, the 16GB memory limit. Back to using the old Inspiron 7559 and continue looking for a good deal. May even stay with the Dell since I need a new m.2 drive in it.

Yeah I don't blame you for sending it back. The 16gb ram limit doesn't bother me to much because I just use this to browse, watch youtube/netflix/plex ect, check emails and stuff like that so the 8gb is fine for me.

I know this is a VERY budget laptop but so far I'm just luke warm on it. The creaky keyboard, flaky wifi, mediocre screen, and a couple of other things add up to this being just an ok laptop. It isn't great for the $399 price but it isn't horrible either......its just ok.......

 

[gibster]

Got mine really fast (on Sunday). The screen readability is indeed very bad as reported by many, and you cannot open the laptop further to make the angle better, tough to believe we still have to put up with screens like this in 2021, but I guess this is why the price is what it is. I think hp may have a configuration page for this laptop, but the price is a bit higher even for what you get here. 16GB limit, no backlit keys, and 256GB nvme is not necessarily a deal breaker, but the screen may be for me, would hate to give this to my daughter - especially since the laptop we are replacing had a better screen. Performance-wise the laptop is good, plastic casing is also off-putting and makes the whole unit "bendy". Oh well, will have to probably send it back as well, I may as well spend a little more to to find a deal that gets us a better unit.

 

[bbhaag]

So after doing everything I could think of to troubleshoot the issues I was having with the Realtek wireless adapter I have also decided to return this laptop. I could deal with the mediocre screen and creaky keyboard but the flaky wifi was a no go for me.

Quick question before I return it though. I used the "Reset this PC" option that is available through Windows 10 recovery. Do you guys think this will be good enough before I return it?

 

[gibster]

So I just ran across this: https://frame.work/
Not a deal in our sense of the word, but if you are looking for a modular and upgradeable laptop, this may be for you. I am considering it, even though it is a lot of money, but in the long run, it may be the best investment way to use your money.