Posted: 10/9/2005 6:01:12 PM EDT
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I've found that my computers performance is little low to run DSL properly. Is there any good online sources to help improve performance, or to figure out which process' I don't need running in the background? Thanks! |
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I'm using XP for the operating system. Now you guys are going to have to speak English for me to understand some of this stuff. My computer only has 43GB of memory, and has 126MB of Ram IIRC. While in Task Manager it lists my Physical Memory as 261600K, my available memory as 79K and my system cache as 73K. What is the best way to add RAM? I'm assuming I'm going to have buy some hardware to accomplish this? |
| go to crucial type in the model number of your pc and it will give you the available memory upgrades for your system. |
| Go here and run the system scan then tell us the results. You might be able to get away with just sticking some larger capacity RAM into the slots on your motherboard, which is the large circuit board inside your computer everything attaches to. |
Did you buy a store brand computer (Dell, HP, Compaq?) A model number would be good to start with. RAM is physical hardware that is installed. |
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It's a store bought computer: HP/Compaq Presario SR1303WM I ran my computer and model number and it recommended that I get this: Crucial recommends this 184-pin DIMM DDR PC2700 module guaranteed to be compatible with your system and deliver the performance you need. 184-pinDIMM Details guaranteed memory product 512MB—CT463722 S Does this sound right? |
Yep. Get TWO |
If you have 128 MB of RAM, windows is using "swap space", which means it treats part of your HD like ram. That is bad, because HDs have moving parts and are much slower than solid state RAM. The best fix is to max out the RAM on your machine. The crucial link above is a good bet. |
For some reason when I try to use IE over my DSL, it won't load properly. I can use Mozilla, but when the numbers drop to low, that doesn't seem to cut it either. |
I'll bet you that the problem is spyware/unneeded crap running rather than a lack of memory. I ran 128 for quite a while without problems. Games and heavy duty apps (database, graphics, compiling) is where you need RAM, not basic stuff like surfing. |
I'm running Spybot and Adaware and they haven't found anything. When I hooked my DSL, the guy I spoke with said that if my process speed was to low, then I woul have all kinds of problems. I'm using Verizon DSL, if that makes any difference? |
Upon further review, I change my vote. My machine, clean, runs about 200M of physical memory. I'm running a stripped down version of Win2K and I'm pretty sure that bloatware XP has atleast that size footprint. Get a Gig (a pair of 512M DIMMs) or, better yet, upgrade the whole machine 
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Crucial says this about your system:
I would get 2 of the 512 meggers for $125. (Notice that they're on sale.) That will do your system wonders. |
you do NOT have to replace RAM in pairs. mix and match will work fine for non-OCed RAM. newegg is usually the cheapest for NIB RAM. |
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ya ya ya, so you've heard all about memory again and again here. Here are some other things you can try to speed up your slug not just for internet, but for everything..... Check to see if your hard drive (the main bottleneck of any system) is 5400rpm or 7200rpm. IF it's worth it, consider upping to a 7200 rpm drive with 8 meg cache. It can make a helluva difference. Check that your hard drive does not share an IDE cable with one of your CD or DVD drives. Those run slower and they'll slow the hard drive down, since the whole ide cable defaults to the lowest speed peripheral on the cable. The rule of thumb is CD/DVD drives on one cable (secondary) and Hard Drives exclusively on the other (primary). Also check that your hard drive is using an 80 pin ribbon connector rather than a 40 pin connector. Hard drives that conform to Enhanced IDE can't deliver the speed unless you use an 80 pin ribbon cable. Check to see that your hard drive is set in the BIOS to use DMA if available rather than PIO mode. You can also check it in My Computer-> hardware->Device manager->IDE ATA ATAPI Controller->Primary/secondary IDE channel-->advanced settings. Set to Use DMA or ultra DMA if available. It makes a difference. Remember PIO old-bad, DMA new-good. Your network card - 10 baseT or 100baseT? Now many will say it doesn't matter because DSL will never overrun the speed of a 10baseT NIC, but that's just not true. Your speed between the ethernet NIC and the DSL box will be faster if your card supports both and you LOCK it down (through network settings) to 100 with Full Duplex. Do yourself a vfavor and don't let it autonegotiate, just lock it down if your NIC and your DSL allow for 100megabit ethernet. Empty the cache on your internet explorer. Set IE to not cache more than 10-20 megabytes at a time instead of the typical 5-10% of the entire disk, since IE will spend an inordinate amount of time going through your hard drive cache instead of just grabbing it from the internet. I've seen plenty of hard drives with a gig of little cache files and internet explorer struggling to search for something instead of just pulling it from internet. Cache is good but not efficient when it's HUGH! Finally, if you have MS office running, go to start->programs->startup and delete that little Micorosft office icon with the flag. It's supposed to make office programs start quicker. In reality, it does very little except increase your boot times, hog memory and takeup resources. You won't miss it, trust me. Also look through add/remove programs to see if there is anything installed from long ago that you really don't need and have forgotten about. Uninstalling old crap you don't need means your computer doesn't need to start up crap you'll never use and you'll save more resources. AFTER you do all this, then defrag your hard drive and defrag it every 3 or 4 months after emptying Internet Explorer cache. You can also consider turning off system restore and bring down it's disk usage space to zero if you don't need it since it takes up resources also, but that one is your call. good luck. |
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You need to be running a firewall of some sort, at least a software one like Zone Alarm. You don't have to upgrade your RAM in pairs, but if you mix and match two different speeds the system will run it all at the slower speed. I'm +1 the cry to get two 512MB sticks. Everything on your machine will run much better. |
| Go HERE ,take your time and go through everything and make an alternate boot up.I have 3 alternate boots,mainly I use the bare minumum when playing online games. |
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out of curiosity id like to see what speed you are getting on your ADSL. run this speed test and post what it says. speakeasy |
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since this obviously isn't getting moved to the computer forum I might as well add this site www.computermemoryupgrade.net/index.html install instructions and everything else you need to know |
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Update: I received the two 523MB cards and installed them. All I can say is WOW! They really do make a huge difference for everything I do with this computer. The biggest improvement I've seen are with some of the games I have on the computer. Thanks to everyone for all the help. |
I've said it before, but it's worth repeating: ARFCOM computer geeks are the best!   The price of a Bronze Team membership has been returned to me many times over with their advice. In fact, I've actually started copying and pasting these threads onto a saved Word doc. 
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