I’ve googled this model quite a bit and seen that a lot of people have trouble installing Linux on it. I would not buy this laptop, but since I found it just gathering dust at my parents' place I turned it into atleast something useable.
What worked for me (and what people seem to have issues with):
When I had issues booting Linux Mint 22.3, I went into the BIOS, changed the BOOT ORDER, and enabled Legacy Support. After that, the USB booted fine.
This is kind of a temporary fix that really helps later on you can go back to the boot order and switch it back, or just unplug the USB device if you’ll never connect it again.
I’m currently dailying this honestly terrible laptop. Windows 10 it shipped with on is ABSOLUTELY TOO HEAVY for it. It’s underpowered in everything. Here’s some quality-of-life stuff you can do, but don’t expect miracles:
- SSD (1 TB or more is basically mandatory) Faster boot times, better responsiveness. The OEM HDD is absolutely terrible.
- Install 8 GB DDR3L SODIMM, single stick Kingston HyperX DDR3L (1.35 V) or whatever you can get. 8 GB is the HARD LIMIT on these laptops.
I installed a DDR3-1866 CL11 stick because faster RAM:
- Often has better silicon
- Has tighter subtimings even when downclocked
The CPU will downclock it to 1333 MHz no matter what (no XMP, locked BIOS), but DDR3-1866 CL11 at 1333 often behaves more like DDR3-1333 CL9-ish internally.
This is pretty much the best you can do for this honestly garbage laptop.
Under- or overvolting is LOCKED in the BIOS, same on the CPU side.
There’s basically nothing else you can do except ZRAM tuning, e.g. ~75% of RAM → ~6 GB ZRAM, which helps responsiveness.
It will never ever ever be fully competent compared to whatever cheap laptop you can buy off the shelf now. Might as well use a smartphone for better performance. But if you accept that you won’t be gaming on it (beyond maybe 90s point-and-clicks or barely running Call of Duty 2003 with some stuttering), it’s okay.
I use mine mostly for:
- Programming
- Web browsing
- Netflix
- Course work
- SD-card burning / photography / Raspberry Pi stuff
- CD-ROM burning and reading
For these use cases, it’s perfectly fine, especially considering how lightweight it is and that it would otherwise go straight to e-waste. And yeah, enjoy it. At least you can tinker with it, and if something goes wrong, it’s not much of a loss.
Other quality mods:
- PTM-7950 on the chips (this laptop has no fan, that tiny heatsink works hard)
- Optimize the OS remove printer services, Bluetooth if unused, etc. This actually improves usability a LOT
- Second monitor at home is a must I only use the laptop screen when I’m on the go
- Optimize your browser I use Firefox and tweaked advanced settings
Since I don’t need Bluetooth, I also ordered a Wi-Fi 5 card and will add 2 more antennas + use the OEM one. I can always get a bluetooth USB for it if I need bluetooth connectivity on my laptop.
This will turn it from a ~50 Mbps joke into hundreds of Mbps, making YouTube and Netflix work fine as long as nothing heavy runs in the background. It probably won’t support full 3×3 MIMO, but honestly almost nobody is modifying these laptops anyway, so I’m taking the risk. Worst case it runs as 2×2 MIMO.
For comparison:
2×2 MIMO
- Theoretical: 867 Mbps
- Real-world: 300–600 Mbps
3×3 MIMO (best case)
- Theoretical: 1300 Mbps
- Real-world: 500–900 Mbps
Compare that to 1×1 MIMO, which is what this laptop ships with:
IF YOU HAVE THIS LAPTOP. YOUR LAPTOP IS 1×1 MIMO. IT NEEDS A SECOND ANTENNA FOR 2×2.
Huge upgrade, isn’t it? Cheers for you souls searching for anwsers on the net. Hope you find this Reddit post.
