TargetTalk

Hi all.

I have a SCATT USB that I've been running on a bottom-rung Lenovo laptop and it's so painfully slow that it took all the joy out of training. I upped the memory to 8 MB thinking that might help (because I know nothing), and it's still awful. I haven't used it in over a year.

I get the impression that the software now runs on Windows 10 (11 too?), so I'm thinking of getting myself a new laptop for pretty much this use only. Can anyone recommend the lightest and/or cheapest PC laptop that would be better than the absolute minimum required? In other words, a little machine that will run the software reliably and without taking 10 minutes to boot up? Thanks!

Pretty much any modern laptop or PC is capable of operating the Scatt software. I've setup 2 systems using sub-$200 laptops. Just make sure the selected computer exceeds these minimum requirements Here's a link to the Scatt software and driver download links. Based on the Scatt USB manual, the Scatt Professional software should work.
https://www.scatt.com/downloads/

Replacing the existing laptop may not be necessary. The Scatt operating requirements are pretty minimal. It's more likely that there's a bunch of malware or other unknown/unwanted programs operating in the background. You might be better off updating the PC's security suite (anti-virus, malware protection, firewall) or taking it to someone who can.

Thanks for that information! It could be malware, but the thing was slow right out of the box. I think my problem might be bloatware, so I'll try to get rid of that.

Since you mention Windows 10, I'm going to guess this heap is running Windows 7. Don't waste your time. Literally anything on the shelf at Walmart will outperform it.

1848 greyhound, I didn't know Explorer computers could be used for anything. Are you saying I can still use my old computer with XP still, I thought they were obsolete and didn't work anymore? I'm not that computer savvy.
Stan

@porkchop, I'm no IT expert, but I do know that an obsolete operating system (i.e. Windows XP, or 7) alone isn't a reason for a computer not to work. That said, obsolete operating systems are no longer supported with security updates/patches. That means they are (extra) susceptible to viruses and malware if they are connected to the internet.

Doesn't SIUS software still need some ancient OS?

BTW, eliminating bloatware did a lot to improve my Lenovo. It still sucks compared to my Mac, but it works!

I've run a SCATT MX-02 on an 8" LINX tablet running W10 that cost <£100 (garbage-grade Atom processor IIRC). It does not need a powerful computer by any means, though you can't run an older USB-SCATT on the tablet because it seems to be fussy about "native" USB ports (in the same way the old serial SCATT was fussy about Serial-USB converters as I understand it). Most tablets only have the one port and USB-SCATT can be fussy about being asked to go through a splitter/hub.

If your system is slow beyond belief, it's most likely using a spinning hard drive? The processor is almost never the limiting factor. Swapping the HDD for an SSD will be like light and day. A bargain-basement 128GB or 256GB SSD can be had cheap these days, which will be sufficient for a dedicated SCATT-rig and a lot less than a new machine (plus less e-waste going to landfill).

I recently updated my parent's 2012-era Macbook (which was crawling) from HDD to SSD and any suggestion that they might buy a new computer went out the window.