# HP Stream Laptop 11-y012nr



## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

I have to admit I have a certain fascination with these little plastic cloudbooks. I have played with older Acer and Lenovo versions. 11.6 screen. The older ones had 2GB RAM, the newer ones like this Stream have 4GB. One of older ones only had 16GB eMMC drive. Think it originally had win8 "BING". They quickly stopped offering the 16GB drives with windows. Kept using them for Chromebooks though. Some of latest cloudbooks finally got a clue and come with 64GB eMMC. Seriously you want win10, you need minimum of 64GB boot drive.

Anyway these have amazing price resilience on used market. I assume students wanting the long battery life and smart enough to put linux on them or at least clean install win10 and lock it down so it isnt phoning home in constant search of new bloat update features. I was curious about the Stream version but usually sell for far more than they are worth. They are most popular brand. Seriously an older 2 core Latitude or Elitebook is same speed and whole lot better built. The main claim to fame for the little plastic cloudbooks is that they are fanless and go very long time on battery charge (assuming you let screen dim some while on battery).

So I see this Stream on ebay. "For stripping parts only, not for repair." Scared people off it I think as I have seen real beater versions with busted LCD screen go over $30. It will turn on but has internal problems. Yea real specific. Buy it now for $20 and says good cosmetic condition. I knew it was worth $20 just cause it had unscratched screen that would work in Acer or Lenovo that I already own.

I get it while back, but dont have adapter with correct barrel plug so have to order $3 plug adapter. Old Dell power supply plugs into the adapter and adapter plugs into the Stream. I get it couple or three days ago. Ok, amazingly the Stream is pristine looking (its white), screen indeed in pristine shape, and boots right up. Goes to password screen for win10. I have no idea of password. Remember this sold for parts only....

I go into bios and thankfully no bios password. And amazingly its set to legacy bios emulation. Ok, boot Lubuntu from usb thumb drive. Open Gparted and whew, win10 was using 29GB of the 32GB eMMC. Assume somebody tried to reset it and not enough space so thought it was junk. I nuke windows from Gparted in Lubuntu. Install 64bit Lubuntu 19.04 that I had played with last summer. It insists on reformatting drive and installing UEFI. Ok whatever. Seriously not enough space for multiple operating systems anyway.

Fresh install Lubuntu was using little over 4GB of drive space!!! I now have it updated and WINE installed along with lot other software. Its up to using 7GB of the 32GB drive. Win10 wastes lot space with all its hidden Mata Hari processes running background.

Hey its fine for a $20 laptop, the battery is surprising good shape, I dimmed screen some and ran it off battery power, down half way after 4 hours. Thats darn good. Old eyes dont really appreciate the 11.6 inch screen but its livable, beats heck out phone screen. It has hdmi out so could plug it into desktop monitor if I so wished.

Just saying you need long battery life and something small and light weight to carry around, this works. Its about speed of early 2 core laptops, dont expect miracles with speed. You can surf ok and watch youtube videos, that sort thing. Lubuntu comes with full LibreOffice install. That opens quick enough. I sure wouldnt give new price of these for $200 to $300. Arent worth that. You want the bargain find a retired biz laptop with an i5 or i7 or AMD equivalent processor. The celerons are usually only in low end consumer laptops.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Neither here nor there, but I have version 76 Chromium Browser on Puppy and works fine. Installed version 79 on Lubuntu and it hung trying to go back to previously viewed page. Firefox works fine. Installed version 78, not as bad but glitches. Today installed latest stable version 80 Chrome Browser direct from Google. It works fine, just more privacy settings to set. Google likes personal info and to play big brother knows best games.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

If I were looking for an ultra-portable (small screen) laptop, I would probably be looking for a business class HP model like the EliteBook 2540p. It is a dated model, but has a first generation i7 processor that still performs pretty well for most users. You can pick those up for around $60-70.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/323950718190

That item has 4GB ram, which would be fine for most users, but it wouldn't cost much to expand memory to 8GB. Add a 256GB SSD for about $30 and it would be a nice laptop, even for Windows 10 use.


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## dyrne (Feb 22, 2015)

HP business laptops are quite nice. I never thought much of them until I worked for HP for a while. I must have had 4-5 of the things, different models during my time there. Pretty impressive build quality on each of them.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

I do pitty the fool that tries to run one of these HP Stream as it comes out of box. But I have been tweaking resolution, zoom, etc and gotten this little bugger to where I could use it day to day if I had to. Though if it were my only computer, I would have it plugged into large desktop monitor when using it at home. Tiny screens not pleasant. Having only two usb ports is also annoying. Means really needing usb hub. Say just about any computer you need minimum four usb ports.

I had played with this version Lubuntu before. Its my favorite of the Ubuntu family I think and good choice for these mini laptops. I have Puppy on an old Acer cloudbook similar to this with only 2GB RAM. This Stream has 4GB. I will say I like fanless, completely quiet. Havent noticed it getting hot. Some reviews saying with win10 constantly churning on it, it will get hot on the bottom.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Nevada said:


> If I were looking for an ultra-portable (small screen) laptop, I would probably be looking for a business class HP model like the EliteBook 2540p. It is a dated model, but has a first generation i7 processor that still performs pretty well for most users. You can pick those up for around $60-70.
> 
> https://www.ebay.com/itm/323950718190
> 
> That item has 4GB ram, which would be fine for most users, but it wouldn't cost much to expand memory to 8GB. Add a 256GB SSD for about $30 and it would be a nice laptop, even for Windows 10 use.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Nevada said:


> If I were looking for an ultra-portable (small screen) laptop, I would probably be looking for a business class HP model like the EliteBook 2540p. It is a dated model, but has a first generation i7 processor that still performs pretty well for most users. You can pick those up for around $60-70.
> 
> https://www.ebay.com/itm/323950718190
> 
> That item has 4GB ram, which would be fine for most users, but it wouldn't cost much to expand memory to 8GB. Add a 256GB SSD for about $30 and it would be a nice laptop, even for Windows 10 use.


Actually I liked the older Elitebook tablet. Nothing like modern tablet. But the quality of them was amazing and maybe best keyboard ever. Touchscreen using a stylus. https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Elitebo...HDD-Tablet-Touch-screen-Laptop-B/274286543566 Interesting for 12 inch screen, it was really easy on the eyes. Unlike the cheapies. It was also LOT heavier than plastic mini laptops today.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

HermitJohn said:


> Actually I liked the older Elitebook tablet. Nothing like modern tablet. But the quality of them was amazing and maybe best keyboard ever. Touchscreen using a stylus. https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Elitebo...HDD-Tablet-Touch-screen-Laptop-B/274286543566 Interesting for 12 inch screen, it was really easy on the eyes. Unlike the cheapies. It was also LOT heavier than plastic mini laptops today.


Computers with Core 2 Duo processors will work with contemporary operating systems and applications, albeit somewhat sluggish. But there's no longer a financial advantage to using a core 2 Duo processor over early generations of Core i3, i5 & i7 processors. A newer processor laptop will not only perform better, but will also remain serviceable for a lot longer.


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## mrghostwalker (Feb 6, 2011)

I got an HP 2740p for next to nothing. It was overburdened with Win10 so I replaced it with LinuxMint 19. Aside from replacing the key board, which had a loose key, I picked up a docking station for a bout $15.
I use it as my back-up laptop. It's tough and well made. I have only used Linux in my house since the days of Win98. Linux can add many years of life to older computers.
By the way- an older Desktop makes a good server or storage device when running Linux.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

mrghostwalker said:


> I got an HP 2740p for next to nothing. It was overburdened with Win10


That laptop typically came with 2GB ram, which isn't really enough for Win10. I'm wondering is that was the problem. A 1st generation i5 processor should run Windows 10 without a problem.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Actually depends on how you are using win10. With it locked down (blocking it via firewall) to where it isnt trying to do all kinds of mischief hidden from view and going online without asking, 2GB RAM is enough. 2GB means you do one thing at a time, not try to watch youtube while having half dozen active browser windows open. Lower spec computers, you have to thinkof them as you would a basic Android phone with say 0,5 to 1GB RAM. They work but not like a high end laptop with fast processor and 8GB RAM.

I personally never try to multitask much cause my internet connection would bottleneck such efforts anyway.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Nevada said:


> That laptop typically came with 2GB ram, which isn't really enough for Win10. I'm wondering is that was the problem. A 1st generation i5 processor should run Windows 10 without a problem.


I dont remember for sure but think they were upgradable to 4GB RAM. That plus using a SSD instead of a hard drive, helps lot.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

HermitJohn said:


> I dont remember for sure but think they were upgradable to 4GB RAM. That plus using a SSD instead of a hard drive, helps lot.


I had to look it up, but it will take 8GB ram.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

I hadnt really been thinking about win10, been playing with the Stream and Lubuntu. But before it had been playing with some old HP 6535b with AMD Athlon x2 Dual Core QL-62 3GB RAM.  Has a VISTA sticker on it. Looks like it must come without hard drive as seems to have a SSD in it. Which no doubt I put in it. 

Anyway I have both locked down version win10 and Puppy on it. Perfectly normal, not slow. Locked down, win10 is perfectly fine with relatively limited resources. But as say this isnt trying to open ten browser tabs and watch two youtubes all at same time. Its about same speed as the HP Stream that I originally posted about and like Stream really only useful to do one thing at a time. But bigger screen and no soldered eMMC. Put any hard drive or SSD you want into it. Battery lasts about an hour, probably squeeze upto twice that if you suffer really dim screen setting. Put brand new battery in it and probably do wee bit better yet.

Like say the ONLY real advantage to the mini cloudbook computers like Stream with the 2 core Celeron (still sold new) is the light weight and extreme battery life. You dim screen as dim as you can tolerate and it will go 8+ hour. Less if you have usb stuff plugged in. The downside is that cynical 32GB eMMC drive soldered to motherboard that win10 updates quickly fill up. I think MS gave computer makers a bargain rate on win10 as long as they limited size of boot drive, to force people into renting online storage space from them. The idea being to compete with Chromebooks. The Stream and similar are basically low end Chromebook hardware with win10 on it. MS really pushing to turn it into a perpetual rental system.

That Athlon x2 is early generation two core. Similar to around I would say a 2Ghz C2D. Oh and the C2D ranged from I think around 1Ghz to 2.6Ghz (maybe some faster but they were rare), thats off top of my head without googling, but wide range speeds. You really want at minimum of 1.6Ghz for modern operating system. The 2.2Ghz and up are quite nice and similar to lower end modern computer with Celeron or maybe i3.


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