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The Lenovo S21e-20 Features a small, 11.6" display ideal for a student or a commuter.

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How to upgrade RAM, harddrive or chance battery for Lenovo S21e-20?

Hello ladies & gentlenerds,

I bought my Lenovo S21e-20 because, among other things, it features non-glare display and was very affordable. I later found out, that it is not designed to be upgraded ever with additional ram or a bigger hard drive. I know, on this price level one cannot expect a device, which is easy to upgrade. But still, I want to try this.

There is no service opening but you can remove the keyboard by removing the srews on the bottom of the casing and then it is possible to remove the screws underneath the keyboard. I did this in order to open the casing but I could not open it completly without using force. There seemed to be clamps on the backside next to the screen, but I could not rech them. So I was not able to see, wether or not the RAM and harddrive is soldered or removable but I could identify the battery, which is L14M4P22 and seemed to be removable. This battery model can be ordered online, so assume, there must be a way to open the casing (unlesss this battery is used for other easier to service lenovo models as well, which I doupt.)

So to anybody who found out how to upgrade this thing, please help me. It would be so good to do the impossible. Tank you.

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Thank you, jayeff. According to this manual, you can only change the mini WLAN card and the battery.

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Thank you, to be honest I didnt think of using a micro SD for regular storing. I just read that there are very different sizes and speed classes. So I think I will find something apropriate.

The micro SDs are faster than USB (2.0 and 3.0) pen drives, arent they?

These gadgets are really small. I would use one of these.

"It’s faster to read various small files from your USB stick than it is to read them from your hard drive"

Is that so?

So with my 2 GB of RAM installed and having Win 10, which I use for surfing and movies mainly, is it worth a try? Because I would have to buy a stick. I have one here, but it is really old. I found out, that at times nearly 100% of my RAM are in use. Up to 1,9 of 2 when I use youtube for a longer period of time. So would it be wise to try ready boost here? Until now I didnt have the feeling, that RAM is at it's limit.

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It looks the HDD is part of the mother board. https://download.lenovo.com/consumer/mob...

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Hi,

Here is a link to the service manual for your laptop.

https://download.lenovo.com/consumer/mob...

It shows how to dis-assemble the laptop.

On p.60 it shows an expanded view of all the components. After that it details the part numbers for all the parts. You are correct in that the RAM and HDD are mounted on the systemboard. To upgrade you need to replace the entire systemboard. This is evident by the fact that the various systemboard RAM and HDD variations have a different part number.

There is only one battery spare part number so I'm assuming that it is suitable for all the various systemboards.

Hopefully this is of some help

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Hi @moosmutzel,

If you wish to increase your HDD, try inserting and leaving connected ,the largest capacity MMC/SD Card that you can afford and use it as a "second drive" for storage. You should be able to direct all your data folders e.g. My Documents, My Pictures etc to that location so you can free up your 'HDD' storage for just your programs etc. An added benefit is that if your PC fails you haven't lost your personal data, if you haven't backed it up. It is also unobtrusive and out of the way.

Not sure if this will work but you may wish to try Windows 'Ready Boost' feature to improve RAM but this requires a small USB pen drive to be inserted. This may prove to be awkward as it will stand out from the case unlike the SD Card. Here is a link regarding 'Ready Boost' and a possible pendrive solution

http://www.howtogeek.com/123780/htg-expl...

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Mini-Micro-Sm...

I am also not sure if the one external drive e.g. an SD Card can perform both functions i.e. additional storage and Ready Boost simultaneously. Just a thought, that way you only need the one card.

If you have already thought of these things, apologies.

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Hi @moosmutzel,

Firstly, I do not think that your laptop physically accepts 'micro' SD cards, just standard size SD Cards, unless you have an adapter card that is. (the difference is only in the physical size, not the capacity or speed). Just ensure that you get Class 10 (C10) type cards. They are the fastest.

As far as data transfer on storage devices goes USB is faster than HDD, BUT this is when the HDD is a mechanical disc type storage device. With eMMC type storage, which I think that your laptop has they are probably the same.

As regards Ready Boost with your laptop, upon reflection it may not improve the performance. The idea with Ready Boost was that you changed the 'temporary storing' of non urgent RAM info off a 'slow' mechanical HDD and stored it on a faster USB storage device. That way the info could be retrieved faster. As you have eMMC storage (not mechanical) this would not apply anymore.

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Hi, Just to add, SD Cards may or may not be faster than a USB. There are too many variables to take into account, e.g. what type of flash memory is used, is it USB1,2 or 3, is the card reader connected to a USB bus or a PCIe bus in the PC, how many other devices are on the bus etc.

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