Need some laptop advice / recommendations

Each laptop brand has its good/bad points. HP generally does well for sound, other brands are good for graphics. I just use computers for basic internet surfing. I currently use an HP, but my last 3 laptops were Toshiba. There all the same based on my purposes. They usually only last one year because I abuse them.

 

Before you completely give up on that computer, have you done basic troubleshooting?

Updated your touchpad drivers? Either the generic ones from the touchpad manufacturer or the OEM ones?

Updated your wifi driver?

Also, i highly recommend putting an SSD in your computer. That should speed things up tremendously, an i5 chip isn't that bad.

 

Ah, sorry. I clicked on your link but it was dead. I fixed it, it just had an extra character at the end.

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Ultrabook-S500CA-DS51T-15-6-Inch-Touchscreen/dp/B00BC4QMVE

Looks like you do have a solid state drive but it seems to be just for the cache? I'm not sure your operating system fits on that. See if your normal RPM hard drives need to get defragmented. Hit windows button, type defrag, and you should get a result. DO NOT SELECT YOUR SOLID STATE. You'll know which one is the SSD by how small it is.

Also, go here
http://www.service.asus.com/#!Downloads/c1wax

Enter your model number S500CA

Go down to "touchpad" and "wireless". Don't get confused by the multiple options, download the newest drivers. See if that helps!

 

You need to do a little basic research it sounds like since your unsure of what an SSD is, have one in your laptop, but think its slow. I agree with the other poster that troubleshooting is in order. If the machine has steadily lost performance overthe last several days you should retrace the software you've installed and the sites you've visited in case you may have picked up some malware.

1) visit the manufacturers (Asus) website, look up your hardware model, and then download the latest available drivers for your components (SSD possibly, network and graphics drivers, etc.

2) did this machine come with any virus protection? If not, find a free tool online today, install it and scan your machine. See if it picks up anything with a scan. I'm sure guys around here can point you to something else, but even just installing the free Microsoft version will be safer than nothing at all.

3) read up on configuring the Windows with msconfig which will allow you a little more granular control over what applications startup with the machine and which do not. This speed up your boot time into the OS, but it should've pretty quick already since you say you have an SSD rather than conventional platter hard disk.

4) uninstall any junk you don't need. Run through Programs & Features and have a look at what is installed. Take stock of what's installed and what you need. Remove the rest at your discretion. You should have a manufacturers accessories or install disk that has some of these pre-installed apps on the OS in case you needt reinstall them.

 

The one that is newest. Should have a date on the bottom right. I'm not clicking that link, please use imgur if you would like for me to look at it.

Edit: I clicked on it. Okay so there appears to be two models of your computer. Go to start type in "device manager" scroll to network adapters, select the wireless one, and look for any manufacturer information. Do you see Qualcomm? Or do you see the other brand mentioned?

 

While Asus is a strong manufacture, a low end laptop is a low end laptop. $500.00 is entry level.

I recently purchased this one as a work replacement for a coworker.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231378

It is an i7 quad core CPU with 8 Gigs of memory. Im not sure if it has the same touchpad. I have always hated touchpads and Ive only had one laptop with a decent one.

The caveat is that this is a refurbished laptop so it has a limited warranty. I have purchased a lot of refurbished/open box stuff and its always been in great condition.

This laptop has a international keyboard, so its layed out a bit different. It was bad enough that I ended up using a keyboard remapper to remap a couple keys.

The moral of the story is don't be afraid to shell out a couple hundred bucks more for a good quality build.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231433

Here is another one, a little more expensive, standard keyboard, same crappy touchpad. However, it has a stand alone video card (that is a significant difference).

Unfortunately, the return policy sucks on this one. You can only return for a replacement.

 

I use to have similar type of problems. I would have to de-crapify the damn thing, add some sort of virus protection that would slow the system down, then usually something for malware and then the computer still took a lot of work to make it run the way you want. I have even had to do things like upgrade my hard drive to make it work better.

Then I bought an Apple Computer. No Malware or Virus protection. No unnecessary crap already downloaded on it. It just works. Always.

 

I mean you are paying 500.00 for a laptop. Windows 8 alone is 100+ in most situations.

Besides, you'd be surprised at the lack of information that computer is giving you in the specs. No mention of the motherboard. Generic graphic card, generic hd, generic memory. No mention of ps. All of these things adds up to crappy performance.

So I wouldn't exactly call what you got as GREAT specs. Not really true.

 

Do you have Windows 8.1? Select Windows 8, you'll then see the options for the touchpad driver.

Also. Windows+Print Screen creates a screenshot. Or you could use snipping tool

 

What was the price difference?

 

Strange, Asus is usually on point.