A 32GB stick works with soldered 4GB.

Yes, you can install a 32GB stick and get 36GB total. The laptop will run in flex mode: the first 4GB of the new stick pairs with the soldered 4GB for dual-channel speed, and the remaining 28GB runs single-channel. That usually means a small (sub-5%) performance hit for memory-heavy tasks, but for most people it’s unnoticeable.

The real limit is your CPU. Check its official max memory spec – most modern ones support 32GB per slot, so 36GB is fine. Older or ultra-low-power chips might cap at 16GB per slot, but that’s rare in the last 5-6 years.

The only gotcha: if your motherboard is dumb and doesn’t support mixed memory configurations, you might get a boot failure. But I haven’t seen that in any mainstream laptop since DDR3 days.

Double-check your specific model on the manufacturer’s support page, but you’re almost certainly good.