There is no need to flash the BIOS if all you want to do is replace the battery.

I definitely miss working on the Pixel, but the thing just gets way too hot and the battery life is abysmal.

@ adimas hanindika -> No video (I have since sold my laptop). However, you are welcome to make your own and link it in the iFixit description :)

I do check the posts that you guys leave, I'm just not active in responding to them since I don't contribute to iFixit as much as I used to. I made a post on the Chromebook Reddit page a few months ago listing what does and doesn't work. One of the things that doesn't work without the drivers are the trackpad and touchscreen. You'd need to learn I2C interfacing via the Intel iGPU and unfortunately that information isn't really public (I think?) This is one of the reasons why Coolstar hasn't been able to make it work.

The Pixel will function as a normal laptop. The addition of peripherals such as a USB mouse will greatly help aid your use of the laptop in Windows. The driver that I was able to create was (and still is) buggy. I have since sold my Pixel laptop a month ago and discontinued development. Mr. Chromebox, various others in the Reddit community recognize that by releasing a public driver without the consent of Intel might spell trouble. So no such driver will be released for the original Pixel system architecture.

Yup, the track-pad works (mostly) how it supposed to. I just can't post the driver since Mr. Chromebox noted that it's closed source; therefore I've decided to go solo with my work. It's definitely not impossible, just hard to figure out how to use the Intel I2C interface which drives the touchpad. I'd recommend starting your research on the official Intel datasheet for the specification and take a look at the Linux community drivers written in C for inspiration. You should check the Reddit page in case Coolstar or Mr. Chromebox has found a way to circumvent the legality issues or issued a fix of their own.

Lucky you! You might actually have the M.2 wifi card. Swap out the WWAN module with an M.2 SSD. Reroute the antennea wires and add an mPCIe WiFi card or tie them back and use an external WiFi adapter.

Hi Danny. The metal (they are plastic) supports can be removed with some pliers and a steady hand. The "lock nut" can be ripped out, sanded down and moved to accommodate a full size mPCIe SSD. I will say, if you don't want to do surgery on your laptop, you can simply buy a half-width mPCIe card, but make sure that you get one that is "mPCIe" because mSATA will not work. As some other users pointed out, I can't guarantee that all cards will work because HP whitelists cards in the WiFi slot.

On another note, it might be better to get a USB WWAN Board that has an M.2 slot soldered on. I think that the M.2 is faster and has a broader range of compatibility for SSDs. This is part of the HP Card Reader Board, HP Part #792769-001 if you are interested in this route. Image: http://partsurfer.hp.com/ShowPhoto.aspx?... . They are about $60, but no surgery is required to use it with the HP Stream 13 and you'll likely avoid HP's card whitelisting.

I ended up selling my Stream 13 a while ago, but I remember I was on the stock version (downloaded around December 2014).

I haven't had much luck with any Stream 11/13 laptop on Linux, save for Ubuntu and Mandriva. Not sure if Antix-MX will detect the SSD, but you are welcome to try it and post your results here!

: )

Unfortunately, there is no way to upgrade either the processor or RAM on this laptop without reflowing the board to remove these components. You'd have to know what Bay trail CPUs and RAM ICs are compatible with this laptop to do so. Most laptops that are in the low-end, inexpensive zone of the spectrum typically have both the CPU/RAM and Hard Drive/SSD soldered on-board to save on costs. I'd recommend an older used laptop if cost is of concern to you. I can't recommend a laptop to you unless I know your price range, but stay away from new laptops that are less than $250 unless you think it's worth it. Good luck to you on your laptop search! Let me know if I can be of any assistance.