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Bit of backstory; in a month I'm starting a new job which is quite software-intensive, mainly ArcGIS but likely some stats software as well. My main laptop is an Acer notebook-like thing, really nothing too fancy, but I managed to get my old uni laptop working which is much more capable, an Asus X550C. I think it's an excellent piece of kit personally and am hoping to use it more often. Before anyone says "Build yourself a desktop for cheaper", I really don't have the space in my flat for a desktop PC.

However, I've run into a couple of issues:

1. It's slow as balls. There isn't anything major installed on it, one or two softwares I used for uni, including ArcGIS but also RockWorks and R*, but at the time it was working fine with them. Now, it's slow to the point where it's unusable. Even clicking on File Explorer takes more than a minute just to recognise the task. I've gone on Task Manager and identified a couple of systems that may have been slowing it down and disabled them, but even then there's very little improvement. I'm wondering if it's just because the laptop is a bit dated or there's something else I'm missing. As far as I'm aware there aren't any viruses/malwares or the sort.

2. More of a hardware issue, there's something wrong with the internals in that if you hold it a certain way, the whole system freezes and can only be reset by removing the battery and starting it up again from scratch. It seems to be if you hold it on the right side, even with your hand underneath it so it's not putting too much strain, or even resting it at a certain angle. I'm certain this means something is wrong with the internal components but not sure exactly what it could be. Does anyone have an idea, and if so, is it something that can be repaired?


I also have a couple of questions about it in general:

1. Is it worth repairing in your opinion? I repaired my first one pretty easily and that worked fine until the screen gave out from an unrelated issue. I'm also very suspect of the laptop repair shops you seem to see everywhere. While I'm naturally suspicious about a lot of things I'm not 100% sure if they're trustworthy.

2. If I do indeed decide just to get a new one, what would be a good laptop to choose? The X550C has 8GB of RAM and a 1TB HDD. Not too fussed on the display size, it's a 15.6" but don't mind going a bit smaller. Online retailers have it listed at around £400 but it appears to have been discontinued, and I was having a browse around PC World last week laptops with similar specs seem to be going for over £800.

3: Would a general laptop of this size be suitable for gaming? Nothing too intensive but perhaps some games on Steam? Never used Steam before so some ideas on the system demands would be appreciated.


If anyone has some advice and ideas it would really be appreciated.

1. GIS tools here are horribly slow when used outside the head office. GIS systems seem to be heavily affected by latency (and other network issues). If it is all locally stored, it's probably hard drive speed slowing it down. Upgrading that gets messy.

2. It might be an electrical short.
When I used to build PCs, we had a standard way to put the motherboard pegs into the case, and we plonked the mobo on them to screw them in. A new model of motherboard got released and we had similar issues to what you mention. We twist the PC case, and it will power up. Put it down and it stops or reboots. One of the pegs was now touching components that used to be a screw-hole.

So:
Get your hard drive speed checked. If you an add a 2nd drive (M2, or something), do that for a fast drive. Install the GIS app and/or data on there.

Employer not providing you with a machine to work on?

I'm probably a bit too used to enterprise-level support, but if someone showed up here expecting to be able to use their own computer I'd laugh hysterically before telling them to get it off my damn network.

Skinnereal wrote:1. GIS tools here are horribly slow when used outside the head office. GIS systems seem to be heavily affected by latency (and other network issues). If it is all locally stored, it's probably hard drive speed slowing it down. Upgrading that gets messy.

2. It might be an electrical short.
When I used to build PCs, we had a standard way to put the motherboard pegs into the case, and we plonked the mobo on them to screw them in. A new model of motherboard got released and we had similar issues to what you mention. We twist the PC case, and it will power up. Put it down and it stops or reboots. One of the pegs was now touching components that used to be a screw-hole.

So:
Get your hard drive speed checked. If you an add a 2nd drive (M2, or something), do that for a fast drive. Install the GIS app and/or data on there.

Thanks for the advice. I spend an hour or so after work disassembling it as much as I could, giving it a good clean out with the air compressor and checking for any internal damage. I noted a couple of small things, there was a small screw loose and the thin metal foil surrounding the screw holes was rather warped, I figured it's possibly shorting our the system as I move the laptop a particular way. I've put it back together and it's greatly improved, in fact I'm writing this post from the machine itself.

I've also deleted the GIS software as well as some others which may be slowing it down, that seems to have improved it greatly, although it's still not 100% perfect it's a lot, lot better.

Crispy78 wrote:Employer not providing you with a machine to work on?

I'm probably a bit too used to enterprise-level support, but if someone showed up here expecting to be able to use their own computer I'd laugh hysterically before telling them to get it off my damn network.

Oh yeah they'll provide a machine, it's more that this has been bugging me for a while, and I figured just in case I need to go over reports or stuff while I'm at home this machine will be better to do it on.