SSD Upgrade and warranty status

[Danielsan]

Good evening everyone,
Yesterday I just bought a new laptop 13'' Hp Pavillion x360 model 13-u104nl.

I am very pleased with the features and performance of this product.

The only flaw that I noticed is the lack of a valid SSD drive; there is a classic obsolete mechanical WD drive 1 TB.

Now, my idea would be to replace the mechanical hard drive inside with a SSD (like Samsung 850 evo) with a modest capacity of only 250 GB, but I noticed the lack of the classic inferior doors for the "user replaceable part". My model requires a bit of disassembly before I can access the hard drive and replace it.

My question is, according to your opinion, mounting a new ssd, following all the instructions in the service manual, will void my warranty? There are any warranty seals that will be violated by opening the laptop?

In any case, I will keep the original drive in a safe place, and I will put it back into the PC if I have to send it to repair.

Any suggestion is very appreciated. Thank you in advice 🙂

[GBL84]

Hello Danielsan,

Welcome to Forum !!

The act of opening your notebook should not void your warranty. 

Upgrading your computer's RAM or hard drive will not affect your HP warranty unless you break something during the upgrade process or the upgraded components damage your system.

Check here : 

http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for/HP---Compaq/hp-pavilion-x360-convertible-(intel...)

Hope this helps, for any further queries reply to the post and feel free to join us again

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Thank You,

GBL84

I am not an HP Employee

[Huffer]

Your plan is valid and as long as you do not damage the warranty will not be affected. I have this on good authority from a reliable HP source. 

This is the Manual HP has posted under your Model Number's support page. The title of the document seems to suggest it may not be the right manual so let me know if it does not seem to represent your model and I can try to find the right one. 

At a minimum this manual should be similar since it is a current 13 inch x360 machine.

Manual

This Manual shows hard drive replacement on page 42-44. 

The procedure is fairly involved so make sure you are comfortable with it. We are happy to provide any information you may need. 

If this is "the Answer" please click "Accept as Solution" to help others find it. 

[Danielsan]

Thank you my friend! The manual you have posted is the same that I've seen this morning, you're right it seems not for my model but I've noticed that exterior seems identical and I'm thinking that the name indicated is a "commercial" name for x360 series model.

I'm pretty comfortable with disassembling, but I'm not an Hp assistance's guy, therefore my doubts seems legit 🙂

I've two question about the content of the manual at the pages that you indicated:

1 - the manual talks about an HDD caddy and a SDD caddy, the one included on my laptop (certanly for hdd) is not compatible with mounting ssd of standard format 2.5 inches? I've to replace also the caddy with the right spare part?
2 - in the manual is mentioned an M.2 slot, can I mount an M.2 ssd drive to get better performances or it is just an illusion?

Thanks for your time 🙂

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

Glad you asked. The solid state caddy is actually for the M.2 disk. There is a single SATA connector to the motherboard for a ribbon cable. You can attach a 2.5 inch wide SATA 7mm SSD or hard drive using the hard drive caddy or an M.2 mSSD SATA disk using the solid state drive caddy. But you cannot have both. If your laptop came with a hard drive, you have all the hardware you need to install a 2.5 inch wide SATA 7mm SSD in place of the "spinner" hard drive. If you want an M.2 disk you need the other type of caddy/connector and those are hard to find and expensive. A good 2.5 inch SATA SSD such as the Evo 850 is every bit as fast (or at least very close to as fast) as a SATA M.2. PCIe M.2 disks are 2 or 3 times faster, but your laptop will not support a PCIe M.2 disk since the M.2 has to connect through a SATA port. 

So your clear course of action is to get the SATA 2.5 inch SSD and put it in place of the hard drive. Make the HP recovery usb thumb drive first from the HP backup and recovery app and use that to install factory software on the SSD. 

Good luck and if you run into any issues post back as we have your back. 

If this is "the Answer" please click "Accept as Solution" to help others find it. 

[Danielsan]

Thanks a lot for your experience! Reading with more attention the manual is clear that the M.2 drive is on the SATA connection with can't get any advantages for me because it isn't on pcie mode.

I will follow your advices 🙂

Thanks another one time 🙂