Upgrading My old (2017) Lenovo Laptop with Intel Wi-Fi 6e Ax210 (and more delicious RAM!)

So, recently I realized my ancient laptop was suffocating under the weight of low RAM and snail-paced Wi‑Fi. Sitting in the library, waiting 5s for a page to load, while juggling endless browser tabs, VS Code, music, and—who knows—other random crap. Apparently, every website nowadays gobbles up 300 MB per tab. Maybe browsers need to go on a diet. Either way, my current 12 GB RAM just wasn’t cutting it.

I decided it was time for a dual upgrade: more RAM and a new network card. My IdeaPad 520 (model: ideapad 520-15IKB Type 80YL) already has 4 GB soldered on, and rumor has it that the motherboard might only support a total of 16 GB. So, I was left scratching my head over whether adding a 16 GB stick into the lone available slot would work—or if it’d either break the thing or only let me see 16 GB out of a potential 20.

Then came the Wi‑Fi problem. My current AC3168 only handles Wi‑Fi 5 and Bluetooth 4.2, but I’ve got my eye on the shiny Intel Wi-Fi 6e Ax210 that boasts Wi‑Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. There’s a catch, though: the new card needs to be BIOS‑whitelisted. No clear answers online meant I was crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.

The price tag was even more ironic—a 16 GB DDR4 RAM for $30 and a Wi‑Fi card for $30, totaling a cool $60. I figured, “What the heck? If it fails, I return it. If it works, hello, super fast paced life!” Spoiler alert: I installed both, and now my laptop is running at an utterly impressive 20 gigabytes—yeah, right, as if—and enjoying its fancy new Wi‑Fi.

On top of that, I’ve been a DIY repair ninja with this laptop since 2017. One know issue of these mid-range laptops is their ability to bend! I mean, it took it 2-3 years before the hinge decided to throw a tantrum and break. A professional fix would’ve cost me $200, so armed with creativity and a bit of trial and error, I fixed it with a $2 five-minute epoxy. Now, that hinge is tougher than your ex’s resolve— I’m certain it’ll survive even if a meteor decides to drop by. Gotta give to the inventor of epoxy. Damn this thing is rock solid!

I also kicked out the clunky HDD and outdated optical drive (CDs and DVDs, RIP) in favor of a sleek SSD at the very beginning. Eventually, I even ditched the HDD altogether, making the laptop a lean, mean, 2‑kilogram machine.

And as if that wasn’t enough drama: back in 2020, my charger went kaput—its backup’s wire got cut. I patched it up, and it lasted a couple of years until it finally gave up. I ordered a new adapter a few months back for just $15, and it’s been working flawlessly ever since.

So here I am, still in love with my stubborn Lenovo. Running Linux Mint, it may lag a bit on 4K (native mode, that is), but lowering the resolution makes it sing. This retro machine might be old, but it’s got enough spunk to keep me company for at least another year or two—maybe even a full decade—before I finally trade it in.