Computer question

[Susie Hamilton]

My memory is getting full, got an 80 GB hard drive, 512 MB DDR Sdram memory. My puter is slowing down. How do I increase memory? I am not a geek so I know nothing about this. Can I buy another memory board and add to what I have? Does it have to be a specific type? I have been getting rid of a lot of old programs that I do not use anymore in order to free up space. Thanks.

[Billy n NC]

Rahab I think you may be confused.

You make the statement my Memory is full.

How do you know? Are you getting an error message that says something like you are running our of virtual memory or something like that. or.

Are you getting an error saying you do not have enough disk space to install programs. you mentioned that you are removing programs.


Here is the way I like to explain it.

You say you have a 80 gig Hard Drive
That is like saying you have 80 shelves for library Books. aka Programs or documents.

You say you have 512 meg of Sdram memory.
That is like you can memorize 512 pages of one book or many books.


When you click on a icon to load say Outlook the computer goes to the HD/LIbrary and read all the instructions for the program into its memory.
On my computer right now Outlook is using 10 megs of the 512 meg of ram I have. And that goes for each program you have loaded. of which a lot of the programs loaded may be operating programs etc. Once the computer loads say 80 or 90 % of the 512 meg you may be getting a virtual memory problem. At this point it starts swapping information or program info to a temp file on the Hard drive. This is what slows a lot of computers down Swapping info between the memory and the Hard drive.


A few questions.

What kind of computer do you have. brand model I/we could find out exactly what kind of memory you can add if any. Adding memory is not difficult, just got to be careful.

If you are having Disk Space issues You can add additional diskspace also but depends on the computer You can go Internal or external on the disk space.

[Susie Hamilton]

Ck your PM. Thanks

[beckrl]

Some of the time hd size are ram is'nt the problem for slow pc's
You maybe infected, scan for adware, etc. You can use somethink like
Adware 2008 http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

Check your startup list you may have too many progarms running at startup. In XP go to start,run type in msconfig go to startup tab. you can disable all or uncheck the one's you don't want.
Restart there will be a window about your change check the do'nt show again button.

To find out if you need more ram or any other question about your system. Download SIW System Information for Windows

You may have another slot for ram another 512

http://www.gtopala.com/siw-download.html
Get the standalone version.

[Jeremy Gault]

One handy utility I have found: If you are in need of more RAM, and are not sure what type to get, go over to Crucial and use the free tool to find out. (NOTE: This requires Windows, and possibly IE even.)

It'll tell you how much RAM you have, what kind you have, what kind your system can take, how much it can take, and even gives you easy options for upgrading (you can buy it from them.)

My (limited) experience has been that they are a tad more expensive than some other outlets, but not much. If you don't want to fool around with finding memory (RAM) and just want an easy, one-stop solution, that may be a good option.

Not meaning to hijack the thread.. if you have spyware, or disk space issues, this isn't the answer. But, something I wanted to put out there.

[Susie Hamilton]

Some of the time hd size are ram is'nt the problem for slow pc's
You maybe infected, scan for adware, etc. You can use somethink like
Adware 2008 http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

Check your startup list you may have too many progarms running at startup. In XP go to start,run type in msconfig go to startup tab. you can disable all or uncheck the one's you don't want.
Restart there will be a window about your change check the do'nt show again button.

To find out if you need more ram or any other question about your system. Download SIW System Information for Windows

You may have another slot for ram another 512

http://www.gtopala.com/siw-download.html
Get the standalone version.

I have a good adware/spyware/antivirus program. That is not where the problems are. I did go to the sit you recommended and got these numbers

Memory usage 85%
379MB used
69MB free

Virtual memory
1059 MB total
632MB free
Memory load 84%

Disk space

24GB free
70GB total.

[Susie Hamilton]

Thanks to Jeremy and Billy n NC I have learned a lot about my computer today. I took their info to Office Max and the clerk pulled up the info on my puter and showed me how I could upgrade it even more. They did not have the 512 chips in stock. I went over to Circuit City, they had the chips and could put them in for $40.00. Their price was $79.99 each. On the website Jeremy sent me I can order them for $19.99 each. That is a big m/u at the stores. Think I will do it myself. I know, don't do it on carpeting due to electrostatic shocks. Any other advice? A BIG Thanks to all for the help.

[Pianoman]

Any other advice? A BIG Thanks to all for the help.

If your computer is more than a year old - expect to find
a lot of dust inside the case. Would be a great time to
pick up a can of air duster to blow it out while it's apart.
Dust will make your computer run warmer & shorten it's
life some. (Will probably want to take it outside when you
open it up & blow it out - it will most likely be very dusty).
Blow the power supply out good as well (this is usually
a silver box on the inside of your computer where your
power cord plugs into the back of the computer). It will
have holes in it & lots of red & yellow wires coming out of it.

Most computers come with documentation showing how to
open them up & install memory chips. If you can find that
(either in your book or online manual) - or download from
the computer manufacturer - that may save you a little time
(especially if you've never had your computer apart before).

Be sure to touch the frame of your computer BEFORE you
touch the memory chips just to make certain you've displaced
any static. (Make sure it's unplugged as well!)

This is pretty easy to do - but if you are the least bit hesitant -
be sure to ask around at your church. You've most likely
got some teen computer geeks who have done this gobs of
times and would glady do it for you!

[beckrl]

Thanks to Jeremy and Billy n NC I have learned a lot about my computer today. I took their info to Office Max and the clerk pulled up the info on my puter and showed me how I could upgrade it even more. They did not have the 512 chips in stock. I went over to Circuit City, they had the chips and could put them in for $40.00. Their price was $79.99 each. On the website Jeremy sent me I can order them for $19.99 each. That is a big m/u at the stores. Think I will do it myself. I know, don't do it on carpeting due to electrostatic shocks. Any other advice? A BIG Thanks to all for the help.

Curcial Ram I think is one of the Best and it is easy for the do it yourself type. Great to hear you found what you needed.