ssd drives

[corvairbob]

can anyone tell me if is worthwhile to install a ssd drive into my pc? i see in the specs some came with an ssd drive 120gb size. but i want to install a 500 or 512gb ssd in place of the hard drive and then move the hard drive into a cd caddy. but if the speed is going to be that same with not much performance improvements then it may not be worth spending money on this. also my pc has a sata3 port but when i used that port i did not notice any speed improvements when i had a usb hard drive plugged into that port, so that is why i ask . i have a bit of a stutter on my pc and i'm looking at upping the ram to 16gb and adding the ssd drive to help this as nothing else is helping. i updated the bios the firmware and all the drivers and i still get it. it is not the modem as i get the same thing if i use the wifes phone as a modem. 

thanks.

[WAWood]

@corvairbob 

You're raising a number of different issues.

Regarding the memory, you don't need 16G unless you're doing something really memory intensive -- and increasing the memory will do nothing to fix any "stutter" you have.

Your laptop does not have external SATA ports; what it probably has is USB ports, and if the connector part is black, they are USB 2.x, if blue, they are USB 3.x -- but you are going over a USB port so no external drive is going to match the performance of an internal drive, even if that drive is an HDD, not an SDD.

Any SDD is going to give you major performance improvement over an HDD, even if you only replace a SATA HDD with a SATA SSD.

As to the CD caddy being loaded with an HDD, that is very likely NOT to work, and if it does, it is likely to be a lot lower drive performance than you are experiencing at present, so I do not recommend that approach.

As to the drivers and firmware, I have no idea what this "stutter" is you mention, but I would seriously doubt that either of those would fix that in any way.  If this is a display issue, that implies your video chip is failing, and that is a hardware issue.

[corvairbob]

thanks. i was going to use the cd tray with the hhd now in the pc just for backing up the docs, pitures and the downloaded programs i have. so it really does not need to be fast. 

the stutter issue is this. if i'm typing sometimes i can be going along and look up and what i just typed is not completely there and then all of a sudden it appears. or if i see a misspelled word and i backspace sometime the curser does not move and then all of a sudden it moves and 2 or 3 or even more words are gone. or i may move the mouse and the curser does not move and i have to look for it and then all of a sudden it is there, or i use the scroll wheel and nothing happens and then i move the wheel 2 or 3 times or more and then all of a sudden it jumps ahead or back 2 or 3 pages or more.

i hope i made that clear enough for you.

i have 1 esata port 1 usb port 2 ss ports and between the ss ports and the power port there is a small port that has a symbol on it

thanks for the help so far.  i asked about memory because i though that may be the issue as i have 4 or 5 and sometimes 6 or 7 tabs open and i use chrome and they say chrome like to hold memory, but i tried firefox and that was worse. 

 ok i got the dia software app open and will run the tests it has to see if i have issues from the app. i ran the short tests and they all passed. so later today i will run the long tests and see if they still pass and if not let you know what failed.

thanks.

[corvairbob]

ok i ran the hp troubleshooter diagnostic program in the long extensive program and everything passed. so it may be just what these thing are doing now. i never had this happen before but i'm is what it is.  i'm going to get another laptop for a backup and i will run that one and see if this still happens. even while typing this answer i type and the cursor sticks at a part of a word and then after i have typed 2 or 3 words i see it jumps to the end of the sentence. thanks for the help

[WAWood]

@corvairbob 

Thanks for the info -- as that sounds like keyboard lag -- and that could be a hardware issue with the keyboard.

Here's some troubleshooting steps you can try: http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03738933

If you are experienced at laptop repairs, you can often replace a keyboard for $25 for a new one and a half-hours work. I have done this on older HP laptops.

But, if you're NOT, there is a serious risk of breaking fragile connectors and cables doing this -- so I do not recommend it.

Instead, I would recommend you hunting down a local laptop repair place to have THEM replace the keyboard. Sometimes, on some models, you have to replace the entire top surface of the laptop, not just the keyboard. So you should get an estimate of what is involved before you have the work done.

[corvairbob]

thanks. it may be the keyboard but the mouse lags as well quite often. i think the pc is just getting old.  i can fix the pc if needed. but like i said i will get another one and see if it has the same issue. at the worst it will and i will have a spare if even needed. i like the probooks so i will look for another one.  also i will add the ssd drive and see how that does. it just may be something i have to learn to deal with. it is annoying at the worst of this.  again thanks

[WAWood]

@corvairbob 
I know we're grasping at straws here, but the only other issue that can cause severe lag is Windows Update -- as that can drive both the processor and disk utilization to 100% and those can slow the PC to a crawl.  But, usually, the fan is blowing loud during all of that, and you would have noticed that, if that was the case.

[corvairbob · Accepted solution]

wawood  thanks i get the updates as they show up. not fan noises. this happens more as the pc runs if i reboot it then the issue goes away, after it has been on for a day or more and the longer it is on the worse it gets. it is like the memory is not getting released. that is why i said i may try adding more memory and then see if it improves. and i'm still going to do that. plus i have my eye on another pc and i will get one and try that if the issue is not there with a different pc then it is just this pc that is starting to develop an issue.  if i still have the issue then it is just the way it is and might have been there all the time and it now grabbed my attention and is now bugging me.  thanks

[WAWood]

@corvairbob 

IF you're running into a memory "leak" issue such that you feel you need more, that is not going to cause the fan to run faster as that is driven by processor demand, not lack of memory.  We're talking about system memory here, not disk space -- as folks here often confuse the two. IF you run short of memory, you will get a popup message about that and your PC will slow down noticeably because it is "thrashing" -- paging in and out of memory trying to use the disk drive as an alternate memory source.

IF it slowed down, the fan would get quieter, not louder.