Project 1- Refurbish & Update
Brand: Lenovo IdeaPad s400 Touch
OS: Windows 8 from 2013
Parts: All are original and intact parts from the manufacturer
Problem(s): Outdated OS and computer response is slow
Plan of Action: Upgrade the RAM (original RAM was 4GB) and update the OS to Windows 10
Solution: I chose to replace the RAM first because I wanted to make sure the minimum system requirements for Windows 10 were met.
This image, I identified the location of the original RAM in the laptop. I installed a SO-DIMM 8GB RAM, which is the highest RAM supported for this laptop.
This image shows the successful installation of the RAM with no issues.
Since the OS is outdated, this can present a security issue because Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 8 on January 10, 2023.
This specific laptop required access to the BIOS menu from the Change PC Settings (vs. accessing the BIOS by powering off the laptop and pressing the F12 key).
There was nothing of importance on this laptop that I needed to back up so I went with the option of "Remove everything and reinstall Windows" option. Just to test out the laptop and create a baseline in case something went sideways with my upgrade
Of course, it was successful so I decided to take my next step and create an image of Windows 10 on a flash drive and have the laptop install the new OS.
I went back into the BIOS menu to change the boot order and have it boot from the flash drive on start-up.
So far, things were looking good, the system recognized the drive and Windows 10 was starting to install and start up.
The problem I ran into was initializing the disk. The system would not let me initialize even though it was I partitioned a new disk. I was stuck on this menu and the system did not want to move forward.
The problem I ran into was initializing the disk. The system would not let me initialize even though it was I partitioned a new disk. I was stuck on this menu and the system did not want to move forward.
I decided to shut off the laptop, not knowing what exactly was going to happen. I turned it on, and the screen (image on the left) showed up. Worst of all it was flashing. But this gave me a clue: the system has nothing to start up from. It was trying to boot but there was nothing on disk to boot from. So I had to create the flash drive into a bootable drive.
I configured the flash drive into a bootable drive by using Rufus. I plugged it into the laptop, powered it on, and then succeeded! This worked and now I have my laptop operating on a Windows 10.
The laptop does have some lagging issues (I know the laptop is outdated, so that could also contribute to the problem). My next step is to upgrade the HDD to an SSD if possible. I have to conduct the research and see what I can do next.
Edited March 16, 2024
