#hp stream

I recently discovered that LINUX OS comes in various forms and that it typically requires far less computing power than Windows 10. This is perfect for the HP Stream I own which is basically useless when running Windows 10. The originally installed programs took up approximately 21gb of the 32gb hard drive. This laptop is not made for upgrade, alteration, or any type of re-configuring of the hardware so my only option to increase it’s stock performance was to use a USB storage device as my “C:” drive. Doing that allowed me to direct any newly installed or stored information to be placed on that device instead of the internal storage. While that helped a small amount, there are non-removable stock programs that would automatically update and take my available internal storage down to 5gb or less. I fought this multiple times and was only able to achieve 8gb of free storage (the minimum required to make a bootable fresh Windows 10 install thumb drive) after deleting many core functions we typically use with Windows 10. My solution was to dump Windows 10 all together and install Linux Mint 20.

After a bit of research, I created a bootable Linux Mint 20 thumb drive using BalenaEtcher. I first downloaded Linux Mint 20 onto my desktop of a separate and far more powerful Windows 10 PC, then opened BalenaEtcher and flashed the drive into a bootable device within a couple of minutes.

After getting my bootable drive squared away, I booted from that drive and tried to install Linux. I encountered multiple errors while attempting to do this (because I have never used any Linux OS and because I kept receiving storage device errors) so I decided to wipe the drive from the BIOS and attempted to give Linux a fresh drive to install on.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c06204100

This link provided detailed instructions on how to wipe the drive. In my case, the steps were slightly different (BIOS>Security>Secure Wipe), but it accomplished the task. I am now reinstalling Linux Mint 20 again to see if this helps.

Here is my dilemma. I’ve been having some minor problems w/ the my Touchpad on my HP Stream 11. This is one of my problems that I’ve come across, but it’s rather simple & new for my computer. I’ve noticed that when I installed the drivers for my Drawing Tablet from WACOM, that the Touchpad stop working after awhile I’ve been using the WACOM. I wonder if this is just a problem w/ this model (let be my laptop or tablet) or is it common for all laptops that have a Touchpad. The cure was to reinstall my OS & reinstall all of my drivers & updates etc... BUT, the thing is that the drawing tablet’s drivers are indeed the cause of the failure that no matter what I do I still will have the same problem because I need to use my WACOM.

The other problems are as follows...

Windows Update feature doesn’t work.

Trying to access features like Weather, Maps, Reader, Windows Store, PC Settings, Camera, Sound Recorder etc... just won’t work nor launch at all.

The WiFi won’t work at all or just disables itself. (I’ve sorta got this one fixed)

Locks SD card. (This one is a bit odd. I need to take apart the laptop to see why this is happening at all)

Doesn’t see’s the SD card.

Screen Recording software won’t work right. (It just acts like it’s working proper but when you go to see what you’ve recorded, it comes up blank w/ a small error window. Every Screen Recording software I’ve used did the same.)

An Error w/ using the WACOM drawing tablet & screen recording software at the same time. (At first it look like it is working, but when I try to draw w/ the WACOM nothing would happen. It wouldn’t make a mark, but I can use the colour picker just fine.)