Let's walk through upgrading the m.2 ssd and the RAM on the Thinkpad Yoga 460 (or Bestbuy 20FY 2 in 1) 16GB Compatible RAM www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012... 512GB M.2 SSD ZTC 42mm www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...
I know this is old thread but I still use this laptop. I made both changes (added ZTC 512GB SSD in open M.2 slot and swapped out Memory -- Crucial 16GB) as described in video and works great. Lenovo does not recommend memory over 8 GB but I am not having problems with 16 GB installed. I also changed out original hard drive with SSD (Samsung 990 PRO Series - 1TB). I used CloneZilla to clone drive (I recall it was partition to partition and then used Disk Manager to extend partition to extend volume to full size).
Great to hear. I was also wondering if there is any reason at all to spring for the Lenovo brand 16gb memory vs the Crucial part. Crucial is about yoga 260 less expensive
I bought this computer and upgraded the motherboard to an I7 and did these upgrades including a new wifi card with wifi 6 and finally a new face for a fingerprint reader which is compatible with this model btw
Thanks for the video. So Crucial RAM worked fine for you did it? What I replaced my Lenovo 8Gb RAM with the exact same Crucial 16Gb RAM, my ThinkPad started to bluescreen/forced reboot at most awakenings. Do you have any idea why can this happen? Notably, I got the very same issue when I've replaced my HDD with 2.5'' SSD (1Tb Samsung).. well, at least the last 3 days of observations look the same. That time I got bluescreens/forced reboots (without bluescreen) on most awakenings unless I close most apps including browsers and Telegram before putting my ThinkPad into sleep mode. In the end, I gave up and migrated back to HDD. Now the issue with updated RAM looks too much similar, I wonder if they have some common origin that I can fix..
Great video. A couple of points first it would be good to unplug the BATTERY also to remove power and not just the power cable. Also this would have been a good time to replace the thermal paste on the cpu for better thermals.
Thank you so so so so so so much! I did a little bit of research, and it turns out that this is a lower specced model of the P40 Yoga! Interesting, right? A kind redditor said that the 940M was (is?) actually a Quadro M500M, but with 940M drivers.
There are architectural differences between the M500M and the 940m... but they are very similar. the 940m is slightly quicker for games, but isn't as "accurate" as the m500m is for industrial usage. See: hardrealm.com/en/video/GeForce-940M-vs-Quadro-M500M
I posted a comment here several months ago to say that this is a great video. My memory and SSD upgrades are working great! I am happy with my Yoga 460 except for one big problem. My 20FY0002US does not have a graphics card. I have two high resolution external monitors attached via a docking station. My machine slows way down when I turn on a video editor or use screen sharing (Skype or other). If the GPU is not upgradeable, is there any practical external GPU possible, or do I have to compromise and just get a laptop with a GPU?
There are upgradable GPU external dock options but they are relatively new, unpopular, time consuming, largely unreliable, and very expensive. Secondly, your CPU will be taxed A LOT higher which creates thermal buildup at various rates based on what you are doing. In short, buy a laptop with a better graphics card.
Hi. Firstly thank you for the great video. I have this computer and I am struggling with the cpu throttling when the computer is charging and the battery is below 25%. Apparently this is a know issue and affects most yogas. Do you have any tips on how to solve this issue? Any help would be much appreciated. Thank You
hello, i have watched this multiple times, how did you get your o/s onto the M.2 drive? and how did you get your machine to boot from it? (BIOS settings?)
hi cbutters tech =) is there a chance of ddr4 to work? or only ddr3l works? and if it's only ddr3l, will ddr3l 1866mhz be compatible? or only 1600mhz is? thanks! Victor
I haven't tried it but usually ram is either ddr4 or ddr3, so you will probably have to use ddr3. To my knowledge, and this is the part I'm not totally sure on, RAM mhz compatability generally depends on motherboard, but usually 1600mhz and 1866mhz are common enough that most motherboards will take either.
Thanks for posting these guides! Just a few of questions. Is the m.2 drive faster than the 2.5"? It says in the 460 manual that it's not advisable to boot from the m.2 drive as it's designed for caching. Do you think it really makes any difference? Are you getting the 30% power issue on yours?
I've not noticed any real performance difference beteween the two interfaces. they may be referring to the 8GB or 16GB m.2 drive that came with the old version of the thinkpad yoga 14 or in other configurations... and yeah, it is a small cache drive so you wouldn't want to use it for the OS; but a large 512GB is fine.
Cool, if it's not much speed difference I'll probably keep booting off the 2.5" and use the m.2 for storage. Thanks. Looking forward to using your guide!
I've had my 460 for a few days and haven't noticed it. Here's the link: forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-S-Series-ThinkPad-Yoga/ThinkPad-Yoga-460-Big-loss-of-performance-while-charging-amp/td-p/3366993
Thanks for the link, So the 30% problem I believe is the Lenovo software power levels that overwrite the windows default, and not a bios problem at this stage. My client had a big problem with performance just going very much downhill, boot times where around 3-4mins,task manager was taking a good 10sec to display the HDD was almost at 100% all the time. I noticed a large number of Lenovo process around 140-150 in task manager. So I installed a 128Gb SSD M.2, and turned the HDD to user data storage only and fresh copy Windows 10 home only, no Lenovo software, boot time is 30sec and system tasks are now around 70-80, system feels very, very snappy now. The tablet mode,back-light, touchscreen still works without Lenovo software; the pen also works but still waiting on the client to report if the pen is still charging without any Lenovo software. If you have the computer skill level to replace the default SDD with a larger capacity and make the boot drive with clean windows to me looks like a huge improvement, it seems that all the problems where coming from Lenovo software for my client.
Just bought and attempted to install the 1TB M.2 ZTC 42mm. Just curious, I see that your slot is also one large slot with the 1 "leg" slot, but the M.2 has 3 "legs" 2 small on the opposite sides and one large one in the middle. Windows 10 does not see it in the device manager, not even as a device that needs drivers. Now I'm going to check the bios. - ok, so the bios had nothing in it, but after 2 restarts, it finally showed up. Don't know why the delay, unless windows was doing something like when you install anything, and it starts looking for drivers. I'm not using the M.2 to boot from, as I don't believe that it would work faster than my 2TB Samsung SSD 860. (It's a QVO not Pro). BUT if I have time, I may rethink installing Windows 10 on the M.2 and using the 2.5 SSD as storage (mainly sync with cloud drives).
how did you get the SSD to boot after a restart. If I shut down and start it works fine but if i hit restart from windows it takes me to boot menu and doesn't see the SSD.
I performed these upgrades and have been very happy with the results. Memory and 2nd storage really improved productivity. My only concern, posted elsewhere, is the graphics performance. My 20FY0002US does not have a GPU. Not a problem 80 percent of the time for me, but it becomes a big problem when I need to record a video or share desktops via Skype or other sharing service.
I'm buying the 20FY version, and I want to upgrade it to 16GB of RAM. Do you know if it's possible?? Every bit of research shows that the 460 IS, but the 20FY may not be. Also, I'm considering the SSD upgrade, but now that I know you CAN add the m.2 - I'm tempted to do that too. 250 GB is nowhere near enough for the kind of work I do ( a lot of heavy photoshop and illustrator ).
20FY will take 16GB of ram. you can do m.2 and SSD at the same time. m.2 is very thin and small, so there is no issue with room. (it has an open m.2 slot which is different than the 2.5" ssd slot)
The crucial uk website has a wee download which will scan your system and let you know which of their products can be used to upgrade your system (don't think they do m.2 ssd). Good to hear another designer chose the 460. You find you needed to calibrate the screen?
Thanks for posting this! Super helpful. Have you confirmed that the M.2 will work as a secondary drive with the original 2.5" SSD still installed as the boot disk? I want to add a 512gb M.2 for storage but keep the original boot drive as-is. Also, any options on the ZTC M.2 compared to Transcend?
I can confirm the 512gb m.2 can be added while leaving 2.5" ssd is still in there as the boot drive. ZTC vs. Transcend... Transcend has a longer history as far as I can tell, and could be more reliable in the wrong run. The ZTC is supposedly a bit faster on writes due to using a little bit better controller. both are MLC drives. I have used both ztc and transcend drives at this point on two different 20fy and both seem to run fine.
Great to hear. I was also wondering if there is any reason at all to spring for the Lenovo brand 16gb memory vs the Crucial part. Crucial is about $40 less expensive :)
Man the bottleneck for me now is the CPU. I have bought 1TB SSD and 16GB ram over the last couple of years. If there is a way to change the processor then this will last me a couple more years. I have the WQHD model so it will be latest and greatest with a new processor. If you can make a video that will be great.
Hi, does anyone know if the Yoga 460 model with 940m nvidia gpu can be replaced by a nvidia 960m gpu or soldered to the motherboard? If someone could help me please.
Hi Cameron, I'd just bought the BestBuy' Thinkpad Yoga 14" 20FY model with i5, 8GB RAM, and 256GB SSD storage. I'd purchased the exact Crucial 16 GB RAM module (16GB DDR3L-1600 SODIMM 1.35V CL11) and Transcend SATA III M2 SSD MTS400 512GB), as per your recommendation with the links. I want to increase the RAM to 16GB (replace the default 8GB RAM), and increase the storage to 768GB (by adding the M2 SSD). At the 1st attempt, I'd replaced the 8GB with 16GB RAM, and added the M2 SSD storage. After I pressed the power button, the green LED in the keyboard "Fn" was lit, but the screen was blank, even after I waited for 1 minute. I turned off the unit, and returned it to the original configuration, then I turned on the unit again. The LED in the keyboard "Fn" was lit, but the screen was blank, even after minutes of waiting. The bottom part of the casing seemed warm, but no image appear at the screen. I'd tested the unit when I received it and it was just fine. Can you help to provide some clues ?
