Update - I ordered an HP Pavilion AIO with an i7-12700T chip / 256 NVME / 8GB ram / wireless keyboard. Net $884 USD. Got the SATA ribbon cable on eBay. Dropped in another 8GB stick and a 256 GB WD 2.5 SSD. That ZIF connector was in a hard to reach spot so much so I had to take pictures of it to see what I was doing. After the white clip came off and I got it back on I was finally able after about 5 tries with a tweezer to push in the cable and snap the white clip down. That ZIF connector would be easy to use except for its location in this PC.
Anyway, its up and running. Thanks to one and all for the advice and counsel ! ea
My Computer
At a glance
windows 11 64i7-12700T32 GBNvidia GeForce 1650 / Intel 770
Manufacturers make it difficult to replace parts to discourage users doing it. They want us to either ask for their professional paid service or buy a new one. For some HP or Dell laptops you need to completely disassemble them, including removing the motherboard, just to replace the disk! Ridiculous.
Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB SATA Device (250 GB, SATA-III)
Internet Speed
VDSL 50 Mbps
Browser
MICROSOFT EDGE
Antivirus
WINDOWS DEFENDER
Other Info
Legacy MBR installation, no TPM, no Secure Boot, no WDDM 2.0 graphics drivers, no SSE4.2, cannot get more unsupported ;) This is only my test laptop. I had installed Windows 11 here before upgrading my main PC. For my main PC I use everyday see my 2nd system specs.
Glad you got it to work. I have an old GW2K AIO that came with 1TB HDD and Win7. I added a 2.5” SATA SSD for the OS and upgraded the HDD to 2TB for data drive and it runs well to this day. Gateway went out of business so small parts were unobtanium but I found a small plastic mirror clip worked perfectly to hold the SSD in its slot.
Glad you got it to work. I have an old GW2K AIO that came with 1TB HDD and Win7. I added a 2.5” SATA SSD for the OS and upgraded the HDD to 2TB for data drive and it runs well to this day. Gateway went out of business so small parts were unobtanium but I found a small plastic mirror clip worked perfectly to hold the SSD in its slot.
When "retrofitting" an SSD to an old tower I either hold it with one or two screws at one side at a 5.25" drive bay (DVD), or I stick it with dual side adhesive tape, or I just let it loose in the tower. It doesn't matter. The best you can do is use a 2.5" to 3.5" tray to fit it in a 3.5" bay (HDD), but hardly anyone wants to pay the extra cost for the tray. So the next best thing is to hold it with a couple of screws at one side of a 5.25" (DVD) bay.
Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB SATA Device (250 GB, SATA-III)
Internet Speed
VDSL 50 Mbps
Browser
MICROSOFT EDGE
Antivirus
WINDOWS DEFENDER
Other Info
Legacy MBR installation, no TPM, no Secure Boot, no WDDM 2.0 graphics drivers, no SSE4.2, cannot get more unsupported ;) This is only my test laptop. I had installed Windows 11 here before upgrading my main PC. For my main PC I use everyday see my 2nd system specs.
