A laptop is a compromise between size, heat and repairability, and the compromise was decided by whoever designed it. Before spending a penny, find out which side of that line your machine is on: look up the exact model number on the manufacturer's support site and download the service manual. It is more accurate than any advice, including this page.
Memory: often, but less often than it used to be
- Socketed SO-DIMM: you can upgrade, and reaching 16 GB from 8 GB is the single best thing you can do to an older laptop for the money.
- Soldered LPDDR: increasingly common on thin machines. Nothing can be added. Check before buying.
- Some laptops have one soldered module plus one free slot — that still works, you just run in a mixed configuration. Match the speed where you can.
Use Task Manager → Performance → Memory to see how many slots are in use and how many the machine has. The upgrade guide covers how to pick the right modules.
Storage: usually the best upgrade
Most laptops from the last decade have an accessible M.2 slot, often under the bottom panel behind a handful of screws.
- Note the length: 2280 on most machines, 2230 or 2242 on thin ones. A longer drive physically will not fit.
- Prefer single-sided drives in a thin laptop — a drive with chips on both sides can foul the case or the thermal pad.
- Some machines keep a 2.5" bay alongside the M.2 slot; those can take a second drive for bulk storage.
- A larger drive is also the fix for a laptop that is constantly at 95% full, which slows it down and blocks updates.
Battery: a genuine, worthwhile replacement
Older laptops are usually described as "slow" when they are actually throttling on a worn battery. Check health with an elevated Command Prompt running powercfg /batteryreport — compare design capacity with full charge capacity.
- If full charge is under about 60% of design, replace it. £40–£90 for most models.
- Buy a reputable cell with a part number that matches, not the cheapest unbranded one.
- Never replace a swollen battery yourself by prying at it. Stop using the machine and have it done properly — a swollen lithium cell is a fire risk.
Cooling: the free upgrade people forget
A three-year-old laptop with a blocked fan and dried thermal paste loses a large share of the performance you paid for. Cleaning the vents and heatsink restores it. Repasting is a further step and worth doing at the same time if the machine is already open — but only if you are comfortable removing a heatsink with numbered screws.
Wi-Fi card: occasionally worth it
A small M.2 module, usually replaceable, occasionally firmware-locked to specific cards. Worth doing only if the existing card is old and weak; a USB adapter is the low-risk alternative.
What cannot be upgraded
- The processor and graphics. Soldered on every mainstream laptop. There is no upgrade, at any price.
- The screen, in most cases — a panel swap is possible but expensive and model-specific.
- The ports. A dock or hub is the answer.
The practical consequence: a laptop is bought, not built. The purchase-time choices — memory, storage, screen — decide its useful life. If yours has soldered 8 GB of memory, that is the ceiling and no upgrade changes it.
Before you open it
- Back up. Any repair can end with a laptop that does not start.
- Check the warranty. Some manufacturers void it on user opening, most do not in practice — but know the answer before you start.
- Shut down fully, unplug, and disconnect the battery connector before touching anything else.
- Photograph each step, keep screws in order by drawing their positions on paper, and use plastic tools on clips. Laptop plastics get brittle with age.
When to stop
Add up the upgrade: memory, an SSD, a battery, and a cooling service is typically £120–£180. If that is under a third of a replacement and the rest of the machine is sound — keyboard, hinge, screen, ports — do it, because the result is often better than a cheap new laptop.
If the hinge is failing, the case is cracked, the keyboard is worn through, or the processor is the bottleneck, stop. At that point you are funding a machine that is going to fail somewhere else next.