Help with Asus EEE S101 (SSD model)

streever

Hello,

I own an ASUS Eee PC S101 EPCS101B-BRN057X Brown Intel Atom N270(1.60GHz) 10.2" WSVGA 1GB Memory 32GB SSD Netbook.

I added a gig of ram for 2 gigs total, and it runs Windows XP.

I am mostly happy with it, except when it completely seizes up--looking at Task Manager, I see no reason why. System Idle is usually using almost 90% of CPU, and memory is not at max use either.

The only indication is that the hard drive light is on and stays on when it is going really slow.

I've installed Chrome to a memory card, which helps--the computer can mostly run well like this.

I spoke to Asus repeatedly and each time they said "clean install of Windows"--so I did that. I've completely wiped the machine twice and fresh-installed Windows, but the same problem always persists. The minute the machine needs to write to the hard drive, it completely locks up and proceeds to do so in an incredibly slow fashion. This doesn't happen after I've gone online and gotten viruses or something like that--it literally happens the minute the machine is done being reinstalled, even without connecting to the internet, if I just try to copy and paste some files from one folder to another.

I think it must be the SSD just not being very good.

Does anyone have a good suggestion on fixing this? Could I buy a non SSD and put it in there? The SSD is pretty buried inside the system, so that may be hard.

Thanks in advance.

Synthesis

First thing's first--it's not a SSD "bolted" onto the motherboard, right? This is actually quite rare, but it's been appearing on a handfull of laptops. The small size is what led me to think that might be the case this time.

If it is, swapping it isn't really an option, obviously. Sorry I can't be of much use.

streever

I think it is bolted :-/.

Djeet

Haven't worked on this particular netbook, but have worked on similar ones from ASUS and Dell. Cursory googling shows people have replaced the SSD on this device. Note that it's a special form factor (mini PCIE SSD) which is not the same as a 2.5" notebook SSD. Back when I worked on these the replacement mini PCIE SSD to get was made by runcore and they were difficult to source, but that's probably changed now.

On the ASUS EEE netbooks I've worked on, the major pain in the ass is getting the keyboard on and off without scratching the finish or over-bending the pin/hooks securing the keyboard, after that it's not too bad to work on. Also be careful not to damage the fasteners that secure the keyboard/touchpad cable to the motherboard.

Synthesis

Ah, so it's not bolted. Then you're not quite screwed, it would seem...I'm surprised mini PCIE still comes in as small as 32 GB, but I may be overestimating the sizes.