Upgrading Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 Laptop. Memory and Add HDD. 

I pressed the Ram a little too hard and it touched the Motherboard and (and I forgot to remove the battery also had a metal cooling plate on the ram) a small smoke came out, it was worth a small soldering piece. Fortunately, it just got a little dark and nothing else happened. I wrote this to remind you to be careful when supplementing Ram. My computer almost died.

I’ve never taken a computer apart before and this video helped so much! Thank you so much!

Just bought this laptop and couldn't find any videos on upgrading it. Then found yours and it answered every question I had. Thanks so much!

Never taken apart a computer or even built one. This helped me a lot. Appreciate your work.

Thank you so so SO much for this visual guide! I was terrified of changing out my RAM my self, and this simple and straightforward guide was exactly what I needed. I got everything in, no issues, didn't forget to disconnect the battery and everything went smoothly. I had to rewind a couple times to see how you got the stick out, but I was fine overall. It's just as you say--don't touch anything that you don't need to, keep metal away from the internals, be careful and you'll get it done. Again, thank you so much for posting this!

I’ve just done this and it is working like a charm, thank you!

I'm currently using the same laptop and I'm gonna save this video on my playlist so that once I decided to upgrade this laptop I'm gonna rewatch this as a guide in order for me to install the new components correctly. Thanks for making this video, there's no other tutorial like this on RU-vid.

I had the same laptop for months and decided to add 1TB of HDD on mine. This video made it so much easier to do the upgrade! Thank you for uploading this!

Thanks for this video. I just bought my son the same computer, and I did the same upgrades: 8 more Gigs of DDR 3200, and a 2.5" HD. Your video was just what I needed.

You're the man. Was going to take my new laptop to a store to get this done but changed my mind after your tutorial. Successfully installed RAM and can play MUCH better performing games. Thanks!

This made me buy more RAM for my laptop and this guide made me feel like a master technician (I nearly had a panic attack each step of the process) thanks for the helpful video!

Thank you so much man. I just upgraded my laptop. your tutorial was super helpful and straight forward. much love from Malaysia ! 💜

This was my first time ever upgrading a laptop. Thanks for helping me not blow it up 👍

saved this video a while back to use as a tutorial for when i get new ram, i have the same laptop, and right now i'm about to install 32gb of ddr4 ram with this guide

Your video has been invaluable help. Most the other videos are for the older model. Thank you!

Thank you for your help! I did this today on my laptop! It's working great now.

You truly are the best! I installed my SSD following your instructions and it works flawlessly. thank you so much for everything you've done

Just bought this laptop recently and found this video, it was a great help - I upgraded the RAM to 16GB and added an 1 TB HDD and i love it. Just like your customer I just wanted to put lots of music on the hdd since i'm learning to DJ these days. It's working beautifully so far!

Thanks for this tutorial, makes me more confident upgrading this laptop

I liked your videos cause they are well-lit. I can see the parts clearly.

Thanks! This was easy to follow. I used a plastic credit card to ease the cover off my laptop.

Thanks to your video I was able to easily add a 8G stick of RAM and 1TB SSD SATA HD to my sons's Lenova Gaming 3 Laptop. Great tutorial!

Thank you so much for this video. I've been looking for the exact model of laptop as a guide. Thanks again!

Thanks for the tutorial! Got both a new memory and SSD upgrade

Thank you, Sir. It was the first time for me working inside a laptop, I just broke a pair of those little tiny pieces of plastic but I guess is not a tragedy XD I installed the new RAM and everything went well :) thank you again, amazing tutorial.

Thanks for this. Really appreciate this. Gonna be doing just this tomorrow. Got an SSD coming and some new ram!

Best video to service this laptop. Instead of the other videos I’ve seen prying the plate. Easily removed after watching this vid.

I just found a really good deal on a low spec version of this laptop. I really appreciate this upgrade walkthrough. Thank you! I was able to upgrade both the ram and the rom without any issues. I forgot to partition the ssd for usage and panicked a bit before remembering I had yet to do so. ( xD )

I got a stand off and a hold down screw and installed a M.2 2280 , 1 TB . Very simple to install.

Thank you so much for uploading this. Now I feel way more confident ordering the parts and upgrading this same laptop but with a 3060.

Thanks for video, is big help for me. I don't know if it's a coincidence, but the moment the cut in the drive cable connection came up, an ad started. if it was intentional, it's a beautifully camouflaged cut.

Hey I appreciate the tips ! just wrapping up my fresh ram install, hopefully it all worked well !

Thanks for this video. Though my memory is the newer (DDR5) version this still helped update me from an eight gig to a 24. Wonderful video for a good laptop

Installed m.2 2280 on mine, used a spare screw and some foam pads to level it out. Had no issues for 6 months now

That's really great video grandpa 🤩 thank you so much for putting hard work so that we can understand it easily..... really appreciable 👏👏

Thanks a lot TechGrandpa, I've seen your video like twelve times, installed and nvme ssd and 2 ram sticks.

Thank you sir! I just bought a Lenovo with same model and layout(different specs) and watching this video I was able to upgrade the ram and ran a memory diagnostic test. Everything works fine. Thank you grandpa lol!

Superb work fella! I won't call you grandpa, I'll call you a seasoned computer vet! I've been in I.T. at various stages since 1997 and a computer user since Commodore 64. But I'm impatient and wanted to see someone walk through the process instead of me figuring it out. I was doing a RAM upgrade and swapping in my old SSD. You were great at showing a few quirks and I didn't need to do anything but follow your lead. Maybe 15 minutes later and I was pumping 16GB RAM and 500GB SSD - all showing up. Had to grab my readers to get that HDD snap down in there. Anyway, snazzy laptop which is grinding now. Keep making those vids CCC!

Dear Grand Pa ! Thank you very much for guiding me with this great video !!!! Greetings from Istanbul !!! I wish you the best ,stay safe !!!!! God bless you!!!

thanks for showing how to do the updates - it works

I bought this same model several months ago. It came with a 512 GB SSD and a 1 TB SATA so I didn't have to fiddle with that. I did replace the ram to upgrade the memory. The hardest part I experienced with the process was getting the case open. I have been into Dells, HPs, and Samsungs and this is by far the hardest to pop open. Really tight seams.

Hey tech grandpa, thankyou for the step by step tutorial upgrade for this specific laptop... It really improved my confidence to do the upgrade myself! I really hesitant to open and place back the ram heatsink, but you make the process so seamless and easy, thanks again.

Thanks man. Just upgraded mine with another 8gb of ram and 1tb ssd following this guide.

Thank you so much for this helpful vid. I just bought this laptop, and this vid helped upgrade my laptop

I noted on a couple comments below that the Lenovo documentation states that the 2280 M.2 slot is limited to 2 lanes (x2) vs the 2242 M.2 slot which is x4. I ran some benchmarks last night and it turns out that on my laptop (AMD 5600H with RTX 3050 ti, purchased Dec 2022) the 2280 M.2 drive appears to run FULL SPEED (x4)! Here are my max benchmarked results: Sabrent 2242 M.2 512gb: max 2425/1861 MB/s sequential read/write Crucial P3 2280 M.2 1tb: max 3661/3227 MB/s sequential read/write My guess is that this may be dependent on the CPU used and the Lenovo documentation is too generic or simply outdated. For example, the documentation also does not indicate the laptop supports 32GB RAM, but mine certainly does.

I've had this laptop for 6 months now... And this really is the best bang for the buck laptop. (Ryzen 7, 3050, 16gb ram)

Such a good explanation. Thank you for the video ❤. It really helped me to put 1tb.

Thanks for Video! You did a great job talking nd building.

I must have a slightly different model. My HDD drive bay is oriented 90 degrees differently to the one here. Glad I watched this, coz now I know the problem I had was trying to connect the cable upside down. 🙈

Great tutorial, thanks! What are the size of the screws used to secure the HDD?

I didn't know how to remove the ram cover, thankyou so much!

Great effin tutorial. Followed all the steps now posting on my website linking your video of course!

"A long screw in a short hole is not good" story of my life

Hey grandpa love from India!!!!!!

A clear, smart, simple, with a lot of common sense, thanks for explain the correct way of working in a upgrade, sorry the english isn't my native language, best regards from the corner of the world, South América, Chile, Santiago, Recoleta.

got this laptop for my birthday thanks for the help hope I can upgrade it soon

I just got the Intel version of this and thanks for the great video, good in-depth things about not breaking it and being safe with battery and electrical components. My only caveat - you mention you guided your customer on using only 16GB of RAM because he was opting to go with the stock 256 NVME drive and a regular 1tb HDD. Which I'll normally say, even these days and for this machine, 16GB is fine for memory. But it isn't tied to your storage space necessarily. Some folks may not need a lot of storage but do virtual machines. Or they have a lot of memory intensive programs - storage and memory can be 'mismatched' if you have use cases. Just as someone who only uses it to store a lot of videos and music - they'd need maybe a 2tb drive but they don't do anything intensive otherwise - 8gb of ram is probably sufficient.

Hi tech grandpa. Thank you for such this helpful video! I live in South Africa and purchased this exact device on Amazon (shipped from the US) and I got it this past Monday. I've been wondering on how to go about upgrading it and I'm thankful I've come across your super helpful video here. I've not opened the device as yet but one thing I'm kinda worried about is the mounting screw for the SSD. I'm planning on getting a 1TB 2280 drive to upgrade it. Could you please suggest what I can do in the event my laptop also doesn't have the mounting screw?

Thank you so much!! I really needed this and your tutorial helped me upgrade my fiancés ram :) preciate you sir!

thank you so much your way of explaining is very professional

I bought this exact same laptop (GTX 1650, 8GB RAM DDR4, Windows 11 home ;-;) but with 512 GB m.2 nvme ssd and it works like a charm

I ended up installing a 2280 in mine and screwed a spare screw I had where the standoff should be. The drive is at a little bit of an angle, but doesn't seem to be putting much stress on either the drive or the port itself, and seems pretty movement stable. I've had it like that about 6 months, and after just upgrading the RAM, I checked ant it hasn't budged a millimeter.

The most informative video out there . Thanks a lot

Thank you so much, I have the the same laptop. I put in 48 ram,and 2 Tb hd. It runs like a champ, your video help me through the steps, thank you so much. Joe

You could use thermal pads under the NVME if you do not have the standoffs 👌 I did this on my laptop, and it's been doing fine the last 3 years..

It seems odd that it was designed this way, but i used that anchor screw he mentions and the second M2 mounted quite sturdily. The slot itself springs the card upwards and the screw anchors it down, plus it's tight enough that it provides lateral support as well. Looks like YT won't let me link to an image showing the install...

thank u tech grandpa! this video helped me upgrade my ideapad gaming 3 15ach6 from 8gb to 16gb of ram

Preciate you man. This video was very helpful.

My IdeaPad 3 Gaming came with a 6800H cpu, RTX 3050, 500 G ssd and 16 G of ram. I wonder how much of this applies to mine.

Just a quick question is it alright to only use one 8Gb crucial ram stick with the ram that originally came inside the laptop?

12:26 "here they already got it pre-bent so we're just going to take it the way it is" Lol! Thank you for the informative video my friend..Respect!!!

Thank you for this awesome video.

Just bought this laptop. What do you suggest for an upgrade to get use as a graphics design purpose? Definitely going to increase the RAM. Any suggestions is appreciated.

RAM can go up to 16+16 (dual channel) is a major plus, but no 2280 support is a bummer, but 2.5" SSD can go up to 4TB for huge capacity. I will receive Thinkpad E15 Gen 3 tomorrow and I will add 2TB 2280

Great videos . Keep up the good work

Thank you so mutch for this video was able to put a 4tb ssd drive and 16gb of ram your video is very helpfull thanks

Great video. Anyone has an idea or a workoround for the SSD space?

Can this support 32gb of ram? What's the recommend Voltage on the ram??

Thank you so much for new info about upgrade my notebook. In my country 8gb RAM version is 120 dollar cheapest than 16gb RAM with same spec.

So glad I found this video your great

Why would NVME storage capacity have anything to do with how much ram you recommend to a customer?

Hi mate. This video came in right on time. I do have a few questions though. Do you think I can add another stick of Kingston 8GB of RAM, 3200MHz CL22 alongside that Samsung, or should I buy a 16GB Dual-Channel Set?

Great video Granpa. You saved me on this one

Thank you for a very useful video.

Guys, I need some advice. My device came with a 2280 SSD which blocks hdd space. I want to add hdd but I don't want to loose SSD also😢. Can't buy 2240 SSD cause it's too costly for me. Is there any way?

Don't screw down a 2280 drive in there without a standoff. You will literally bend down the motherboard and probably break the m.2 connector it needs to be even with the other 2242. I just took a standoff for a motherboard and cross threaded it in there. It was the next size up from the small type standoff. It was even with the other 2242. And you need the same thickness thermal pad if you want to. It's verified that a 2TB 970 pro drive works and I'm sure a 4TB will work since there's nothing under the 2280. I have no idea why they don't include parts for a 2280 drive. Maybe the thermal pad cost too much. The IdeaPad 3 is a cheaply made machine. Guess that's why they only give parts for a Sata 3 drive for more reliability. It's Lenovo. They do care about quality of their main boards. Not like Asus trying to take on an Apple trend soldering everthing in and unpopulating hardware. Do be careful when re-pasting the heat sink is one fragile thing a whisp of wind can bend it. Look closely at the screw tightening numbers. They are there, but faint to see. Artic MX-5 is good. That stuff will last the whole life of the laptop. These laptops are good bang for the buck if it gets rough around a lot since they don't cost as much as the premium Legion or thinkpad line.

Finally a good tutorial the type of model im getting and the 2.5 inch because i broke my l340 so i have to steal its drive and its caddy.

Thank you! This was a very useful video

Dale I wonder if the standard M.2 standoffs would work for the M.2 if you wanted to add one?

Hi, can you please tell me the exact info of the factory 8 gb stick of RAM ? I want to buy a matching one for mine .

Great Video! keep up the superb work...

Thanks for the video. Helped me out

Meanwhile, MacBook's: _Noooooo! You cant just upgrade whatever you want! I will try by best to explode if you so much as think about opening up the bottom cover!_

The way you handle the laptop is super rough

Liked and subbed. Great video thanks!

I have the identical laptop. I added a second NVMe drive after buying an assorted kit of standoffs from Amazon. You are totally correct about disconnecting the battery first I discovered almost the hard way. Had a couple of sparks but no harm done luckily

Thank you i needed this thing

Fantastic video, thank you!

Thank you. Saved few bucks

I use a 2280 in mine and it works great. There's a slight slant to it but the connector it uses flexes to enable installation anyway. Haven't had any issues.