Reasonable PC for running all the apps?

[SimmoW]

Hi, the other night I was going really well, running EQASCOM, Cartes du Ciel, BYEOS and Astrotortilla all at once, doing some first ever plate solves and PC based star alignment.

But I hit a hitch, my old Dell laptop, model N5110, must be around 5 yrs old, seemed to implode with all the programs running. EQASCOM froze up.

Is this normal? I have all my cables for the guider, mount and cam connected separately to the PCs ample USB ports. Do I need to upgrade?

I thought the laptop would be fine, it's a gen 2 core i5 with 4gb of memory.

Any help or suggestions appreciated.

Thanks

[rmuhlack]

I would have thought that your laptop should be fine. I currently use a Core 2 Duo E7400 and a Core 2 Duo E8400 as my obs computers, both run all the relevant software (EQMOD, CdC, SGPro, PHD2, BYE, SharpCap, Astrometry.net local server) without a hitch

my hardware would be 6+ years old, running vista business and win7 pro respectively. 4GB of RAM in both.

perhaps one of your USB cables is dodgy, or the USB cable run is too long?

[OzStarGazer]

Have you installed any new program(s) recently?
Sometimes if a program doesn't work well it can mess up your whole computer.
I had installed a program called CoreTemp for example and it froze my computer all the time. After I uninstalled it everything runs smoothly.

[DavidTrap]

If you're using Win 7, are all apps being run as administrator? Apparently causes issues for ASCOM if things are trying to talk to one another with different privileges.

DT

[SimmoW]

Thanks everyone, I'll check the admin settings.

USB cables - I only have a 3m extension cable for the camera, everything else is stock, going direct to the separate ports.

I've seen many use powered, dedicated hubs, could this be the way to go? any recommendations if so?

Ta

[ZeroID]

Short direct is always better in my experience. The less connectors, boxes and length the better. Seperate ports is the way to go and from what I've heard use the same ports for the same device each time, ie don't swap devices on ports between sessions.