i7 processor

[NonSequitur777]

@miltaryman,

Any time -yes, I would appreciate a follow-up on the RAM.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[miltaryman]

Hi,
So I finally swapped out the 8 GB of ram I had in my laptop, for the new 16 GB total that I bought off of Amazon.
And amazingly enough, it did work.
And here the things I noticed when I powered on my computer:
-the colors on the screen seemed more vibrant, but they look grainy.
-I lost about 11 GB of space on my hard drive, from 122 GB used, down to 111 GB.
-I can shift around from screen to screen and from program to program quicker.
-it seems as though the sports streams that I wanted to improve, are coming in with less buffering. (but I'm not totally sure it's because I still haven't put the bottom cover back on my laptop, thereby having less interference between the wifi card and my router).
-as you'll notice in the screen shot I have attached, the windows index score has improved on the RAM from 7.1 to 7.3. But you'll also notice that two of my other scores went down, can you form an opinion as to why that occurred? (specifically the "disc data transfer" rate drop significantly).
On another note I purchased a used DV7 on ebay for $60.00. I did this because I needed a few cosmetic parts that were broken on my laptop, such as the monitor bezel, a crack to screen, and the power input. But this used laptop I bought also has the faster processor chip (the A8-3520 MX, instead of the A6-3400M).
I know it's not much faster and I'm not sure I can swap those chips out by myself without messing something up, so I'm not sure if that will get done. I also found an A8-3530 MX in China for $56.00, which is significantly faster than my current processor, but again I'm not sure if I feel confident in swapping them out myself.
I also purchased a Crucial SSD on Amazon, and on sale for $75.00. I chose this one because it has a five year warranty. It also comes with some sort of clone program specifically devoted to that SSD, (Acronis).
I know you told me that I could use that Macriom program you sent me. Do you still think I should use that one or the one that comes with the Crucial?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078211KBB?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
And I was wondering if you feel that those window index scores will improve once I install the new SSD?
I ask this because if the new SSD does increase by improvements, then I may not swap out the processors.
Thanks for your help again!

[NonSequitur777]

@miltaryman,

Great news on the RAM -Excellent!

To cut to the chase, I would think that the disk data transfer rate drop you noticed has nothing to do with your RAM.

And yes, I have some ideas why you see what you see, but let's just focus on what you need to do next, which is cloning your new Crucial SATA SSD to replace the old drive at your earliest opportunity -and by the way, a great deal for a quality drive.

To that end, I want to make sure you have a USB 3.x to data/15-pin SATA adapter, like this one: Amazon.com: BENFEI SATA to USB Cable, BENFEI USB 3.0 to SATA III Hard Driver Adapter Compatible for ....

And as a matter of fact, the Crucial drive Amazon link you provided is a reminder that you need this part (see below), including a "Dual SSD Mounting Bracket (3.5” Internal Drive Bay to 2.5")", though you may not need the bracket -you'll have to determine that:

The cloning process creates a literal mirror image of the original drive: meaning, you swap drives and BIOS should simply boot from your original drive (C:) and your computer shouldn't even 'know' what happened so to speak.   Other than that you will notice significantly increased I/O speeds.

Before you start cloning, there are a couple of preparatory steps I would strongly recommend you do.

If you haven't installed this most useful freeware utility program "CCleaner" yet, please do it now -from here ("FREE" version): https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/download.  Run "Health Check" (may have to close any running programs) and then: "Make it better".

Also run CCleaner's "Registry", "Scan for Issues", "Review selected Issues", and answer "No" when it's asking to back up your registry. Then "Fix All Selected Issues", and "Close".

You're done with CCleaner for now, exit out of it.

Next, go to "Properties" on your boot (C:) drive, and hit the "Disk Cleanup" button.  Another little dialog screen will pop up. Make sure all boxes are checked off (✔) and hit: "Clean up system files". Another little diagram screen will pop up -again, make sure all boxes are checked off, and hit: "OK".  Upon: "Are you sure you want to permanently delete these files?", you hit: "Delete Files".  This may take a while.

Then: type in or copy/paste: %temp% in your Windows search bar. Left-click your mouse on the %temp% file folder, click on the very first file or folder in Temp, and hold the Ctrl key plus hit the A key.  Then within the blue field, right-click your mouse and hit delete. The majority of 'temporary' files should disappear, if the system objects to any temp file deletions, you can just "skip" them. 

Next, make sure Windows is all updated ("Check for Updates").

At this point, please restart your PC.

Once you are back up, run CMD as administrator and copy/paste:

sfc /scannow

And Enter. May take a while to complete.

Once completed, copy/paste:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

And Enter. May also take a while to complete.

Next: restart your PC.

Now you can either use the Crucial Acronis cloning software, or the Macrium Reflect Free cloning software.

Since you got a Crucial SSD, you may as well use Acronis.

Next, connect the USB 3.x end of the USB to SATA adapter into your PC, and insert the new drive at the data/15-pin SATA end of the adapter.

Run the Acronis cloning software -for a how-to/refresher course, see this link: How to clone your Crucial SSD with Acronis | Upgradeable Australia. (why the Aussie linkage showed up on my browser, I have no clue)

Upon successful completion of the cloning, power off your PC, remove the USB to SATA adapter, take out the new drive, remove the old drive, and install the newly cloned drive in your PC.

Restart your PC.

If all has gone as it should have, your laptop will be noticeably more responsive and start-up time should be a lot faster.

Let me know when you got to this point.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[miltaryman]

Hi,

I forgot to mention in the previous message that I realized there are 2 hard drive ports inside of this DV7 (one occupied & the other one is empty).  Does this affect the solution which can be done? Can I insert the new SSD NAND 3 into the empty slot & transfer the data any easier? Or does it not help? Thanks!

[NonSequitur777]

@miltaryman,

Yes, you can install your SSD in the empty drive slot -I assume you have the SATA data/power cables to connect it to your motherboard.

The cleaning steps for your old drive still stands.

Also, once the cloning has completed and your PC has powered off, make sure that when you power back up again, to access BIOS to move up your SSD to become the first drive your PC will boot from.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

@miltaryman,

Rereading my previous response, it occurred to me that you may not have changed your laptop's boot order before -or on any PC for that matter.

So, here's a nice how-to DIY link (scroll to HP): https://www.windowspasswordsrecovery.com/fix-windows/how-to-change-boot-order-on-hp-laptop-desktop.h....

Kindly,

NonSequitur777

[miltaryman]

I dont want to have both drives in the laptop at once after Ive transferred the data, I dont have much on my drive currently to where I could/would fill 2 drives. I forgot about buying the SATA cable. I was foolishly thinking that one could stick an empty SSD into the spare dock & internally transfer the data from the full SSD already in there. In a logical world that would be a simple resolve, but I guess thats too simplistic...hahaha...So Ill have to order that SATA cable & procede w/the steps youve outlined for me once I get it from Amazon. Thanks!

[NonSequitur777]

@miltaryman,

Yes, that's what I would consider the preferred method.

Regards,

NonSequitur777

[miltaryman]

What does "boot order" do?

[NonSequitur777]

@miltaryman,

The Boot Order tells your laptop where to "look" first to boot up in Windows.

Since generally speaking pictures are more telling than words alone, I just restarted my HP Z240 SFF and accessed BIOS (tapping F10 repeatedly) and took the following two pictures for show-and-tell purposes, so to speak:

At least in my (legacy) HP desktop, I selected "Boot Options" under the "Advanced" tab, then scrolled down to show you this:

As you can see, "Legacy Boot Order" is disabled in favor of "UEFI Boot Order" and the first bootable drive position aka "order" is a 1TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 NVMe SSD fitted on a PCIe to M.2 NVMe SSD card in the PCIe x4 "Slot 4" position.

Whilst in BIOS, you can use your keyboard's up & down arrows to change the Boot Order.  Then follow the menu's instructions (see previous message I posted) to save the revised Boot Order.

However, if you use the USB to SSD adapter cable, and exchange the old drive with the new drive in the very same drive spot, you don't have to change anything.

The reason why I changed my Boot Order is because of this:

Your fastest drive should be your primary (boot) drive.  You can see which one that is.

Here's the link to my rig (incidentally the most powerful of its kind -at least according to UserBenchMark): HP Z240 SFF Workstation Performance Results - UserBenchmark.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777