'Cinnamoroll'
HP Pavilion 15-n008tx
Current Status: Working fine
CPU: i5-4200U CPU 1.6GHz x2
GPU: Radeon HD 8670M (?)
RAM: 8GB DDR3 (can take 16GB)
Storage: 240GB Crucial BX500 SSD
Optical: DVD-RW
Current OS: Linux Mint 22 - Cinnamon
This is my partner's laptop, bought in 2016 I think. It has worked well for her needs since then. Originally came with Windows 8, which I never got used to using.
Certain keys on the keyboard stopped functioning after a few years. Luckily replacing the keyboard was easy, and spare boards were cheap. The battery had needed to be totally replaced two or three times, luckily it is an externally removable one. Most repairs on this laptop are easy-moderate difficulty. Although, once you get into it many parts are sort of loose, only connected by cables.
In 2024 I replaced the harddrive with an SSD and installed Linux Mint 22 - Cinnamon, it now runs like new :)
Usage
- General use; web browsing, video playback, image editing, light gaming.
- Digital Art; used with a Huion Kamvas 13 and it's proprietary Linux drivers. Also works with the built in tablet drivers on Mint and Debian, the Huion one just has an easy GUI app.
Troubleshooting
- USB Boot issue: I think this had the problem of not allowing boot media from the USB 'ss' port (SuperSpeed, now known as USB 3.0). You just need to try the other ports when installing another OS. Update: further to this, it seems kind of random which USB drives will and won't show up. I think it either needs a specific boot file name (mmx64) or perhaps won't boot from USB 3.+ at all. I do not have a solid solution for this other than maybe don't use USB 3.+?, and/or make sure the distro installing has the right boot file name (kinda like my asus laptop).
- Bluetooth isn't working: Tbh I don't know if it ever did, I almost never use bluetooth so I never check for it after install. But recently trying to connect a bluetooth keyboard showed the bluetooh daemon won't start and it says it's a hardware fault. I tried several fixes from the Mint forums but nothing worked, so we just use my asus laptop instead for when bluetooth is needed. Could try fixing it again, or try another distro to see if it's a Mint problem, very low priority for us though I might even make this 'my' laptop instead.
Resources
- iFixIt.com HP Pavilion 15-n210dx Repair page - not the exact model, but everything is in the same place