I’ve used the drop in cold water, heat to boiling, then turn heat off. Leave eggs in hot water, set a timer for 12 minutes and once complete, transfer to ice bath in fridge.

I just put mint on the same laptop from 2014 that you’re talking about. My intent is to use it as something with more real estate than a phone when lounging around. Replaced battery, fan, and replaced spinning rust with a spare SSD. Last week upgraded the ram to 16gb ($40ish on Amazon for ddr3l!!). Only reason I upgraded it was because Firefox would occasionally stutter on scrolling.