Need New Laptop

Hi Sup Forums,

I need some laptop purchasing help. Right now I have a Toughbook CF-53 running Windows 7 and it is painfully slow. I thought there was something wrong just software wise but the installation is fresh now and it is still slow.

I only use it to diagnose engine problems, flash engine computers, upgrade chartplotter software and that type of thing (I work with boats). So really basic stuff.

What should I replace it with? Honestly don't care about the "toughness" of the toughbook, but it does need to be semi durable.

Want something small? thinkpad X220. Want something normal sized? thinkpad T420.

X220, install gentoo

Those are really cheap when I search for them, but not current models? I'm okay with that but will they be fast enough?

My current Toughbook is an i5 which seems to be the same processor as those so just hope its an upgrade. I don't know why it is so slow, I mean I have an old computer at home and it isn't fast but it loads stuff. Maybe bad RAM or something?

CF-53 is not slow, especially not for kind of software you're using.

Just max out ram, put ssd into it and do clean install

>X220
>T420

Both of those are shittier than CF-53

Thank you. I wonder if it has some bad RAM or something? I'm going to call the IT people to look at it. This thing does get knocked around a fair bit, maybe something got lose?

If the RAM was bad it would be breaking entirely, not slowing down. Swap an SSD in, it's the biggest upgrade you can give a computer.

Sorry to crash the thread, but I don't want to bump off something by making another one. Would one of these be adequate for basic web-browsing and office stuff?

Option 1:
>CPU: Dual-Core Celeron N3350 (2.40GHz, 2MB)
>VGA: Intel HD Graphics (Braswell)
>RAM: 4GB DDR3L 1600MHz
>HDD: 500GB

Option 2:
>CPU: QuadCore Celeron N3450 (2.20GHz, 2MB)
>VGA: nVIDIA Geforce 810M 2GB DDR3
>RAM: 4GB DDR3L 1600MHz
>HDD: 500GB

Why do you think it has slowed down now so much? I might have my IT guy swap the drive then. Just seems like it wasn't so slow in the beginning. Maybe a virus or something on there? It doesn't get used for much but who knows what people do with it.

No worries, appreciate the bump.

well, if you have hdd instead of ssd you might have messed it up since hdds are fairly fragile. ssds can take more physical abuse and they are much faster since there are no moving parts. only drawback is its lifespan.

SSDs have a shorter lifespan if a HDD is taken care of well?

I sometimes take the laptop in the boat and run them pretty hard, so yeah for sure it could get some wacks. Wouldn't it just fail though rather than run slow?

£400 laptop?
Willing to buy second hand, need for general tasks (web browsing, word processor, some coding), and general media consumption (light, 2D-only indie games)
I've had a look around, but so much shite has shitty TN panels, plastic construction, etc. Don't trust the likes of HP/Lenovo anyway.

Option 2 should be fine for facebook and even 1080p Youtube.
Option 1 is getting on Atom level slow, if that is ok and waiting for couple of second ain't bad for you, then it's also valid.

hehe, no. hdds (hard disk drives) are fragile since they have rotating disks in them and they can be easily damaged. on the other hand ssds (solid state drives) are basically memory chips on a pcb and have no moving parts making them more physically durable. ssds have shorter lifespan since memory cells on the pcb tend to degrade faster but you can expect one to last you 3-5 years of moderate use. take your laptop to it guys and ask them about ssd and ram upgrades.

Thanks user

no problem dude

probably not haveing a SSD

>My current Toughbook is an i5 which seems to be the same processor as those so just hope its an upgrade. I don't know why it is so slow
I have HP laptop which is snail-slow until I unplug the power adaptor. Looks like a bug caused by dying adaptor in my case, could be the same in your case. Non-ULV i5 is fine by my standard, it should not be painfully slow.

How do you know it's your case: download Intel TAT (old piece of software), run it and check if it shows dropping frequency (CPU-Z and HWMonitor won't show it for whatever reason). You will probably need XP to check it out but if your laptop starts working faster on battery then it is the case.
In my case laptop runs fine first half an hour but then starts to degrade.
Oh and you could have failing cooling system, check out the temps in HWMonitor.

Same unplugged and plugged for me.

Thank you, I'll tinker with that and see. Didn't know those tools existed.

HWMonitor or others which show thermal throttling will work on Windows 7, you only need TAT to double-confirm of it's the same case. If you have same performance with AC/battery then it's definitely not.

I'm almost ready to bet on thermal issues then.

It doesn't feel hot but maybe its the chip (I'm not a computer guy if you couldn't tell, sorry for the dumb responses)

It won't always feel hot from outside if cooling system is failing. If thermal contact between chip and heatsink is bad (thermal paste dried for example) then it will seem cooler from outside than well working laptop because the CPU/GPU would be overheating and cutting power usage to survive.

If there is dirt in heatsink then it will indeed get hot around the heatsink.

Download HWMonitor, post screenshots.

I just turned it on so maybe too cold to tell if there is a problem? It's still slow.

trying to post the second but its too big, let me size it down...

...

Here are the results after running an installer in the background, the max temps went up a bunch.

Sorry for the photos but easier to post from my computer rather than try to get this thing to load a browser, let alone reduce any filesize.

That looks fine at a glance (if you say that it's already slow then it should be already reflected on screenshots). I do not know the reason then.

Except that PROBABLY your HDD is forced into PIO mode, it's the only other thing which may causing slow operation (but hell that would be PAINFULLY slow then). Check out altavista "hdd pio mode" to see if it's your case. Also post SMART (use HDDScan for that).

>hdd pio mode
It's painfully slow. So maybe that's it. Trying to see how to check for PIO mode now.

I'm still waiting for the device manager to load, that's how slow it is. It has been like 10 minutes.

I closed everything in the background. I couldn't see where to see if it was PIO mode, but it said the drive was normal.

Using HDDScan next.

Got some errors.

..and "Smart Short Test" came back with no errors.

I just uninstalled the SATA Controlled driver and rebooted. I hope I don't completely fuck this thing. I guess it was already bad to begin with.

You are doing it wrong. You will find this only on IDE-emulating chipset though (it does not look like you have one because you do not have "IDE channel" in your list) and true AHCI controller does not have anything like PIO. So it's not the case
When my HDD in another Acer laptop had that amount of #197 error it was that terrible and it did not have any other errors, not even #196 and it still kept loosing information. Your HDD is almost certainly failing and if there is a file which OS tries to access at those failing sectors it will be assmad slow.

Replace it with known good to make sure. If you can afford, replace it with new and it will 99% solve your issue.

Thanks.

>I'm going to call the IT people to look at it.
why are you even here?

I like to learn stuff and I've been on a 4 hours conference call that I only should have been asked to be there for like 10 minutes so this was something I could work on during that. I still haven't called IT since that other user gave me things to try. Looks like the hard drive is going bad though so probably going to call now.

throw the hdd in trash and get an ssd. laptop hdds are really slow and its really noticeable on windows because even basic things like opening a menu has to access the hdd.

I know you guys probably hate Apple stuff here but my gf has this apple laptop that is absolutely amazing, I wish this shit ran on that thing. Plus the case is aluminum and tougher than this "tough book".

Working HDD can't get even remotely close to

There was something running in the background, but yeah. This thing is pretty much unusable. The other user thinks that means the HD threw a rod.

SSD and reinstall.

yes but the 5400rpm drives that almost all laptops have make everything really slow. i had to use a laptop with that kind of drive a while ago and it would always hang for a while with the hdd activity light on because i was clicking things too quickly.

Seems like the problem is not the OS, but the hardware on it. I'd point to the HDD.

Run a tool like CrystalDiskInfo and see if the HDD i'ts in good conditions. If not, replace it with another HDD or an SSD and put more RAM.

That ThoughtBook seem like a bretty good machine for what yo do with it.

get something modern at least