slow computer

[Ed Fenwick]

Aloha,

My computer is acting as though it has no memory. It will take hours to run processes that before a few months ago would take maybe 45min. The computer says that it has 1G of RAM, is it possible that it only thinks it is 1G but the card is really no good? More memory is expensive!

Thanks Ed

 

[Jacob Dryer]

Chances are something is slowing it down.



Clean up the startup using autoruns/msconfig or something similar.

Run a spyware/malware program, I prefer malwarebytes.





Ram does go bad, but that usually results in random computer crashes or not booting at all.

 

[Kevin Palmer]

In cases where I had 2 bars of RAM installed and the second bar, (Meaning not in th primary slot) had failed and EVERYTHING was slower. When I removed the defective bar it actually sped up.



I replaced them both with 4 gig bars.



Cost a few bucks, but even if you have something hogging things up, it will still run pretty fast..

 

[Tom Schindler]

Memory is expensive? Memory is dirt cheap these days.





Tom

 

[TomT]

If it's an old computer new memory is expensive but you can usually find it cheap on ebay. What operating system are you using? Download CCleaner. It's free and will help you cleanup your hard drive.

 

[Gerry Mac]

Tell me what memory it is and if I have some here I will send it to you for nothing. If I have some that matches. You take a couple of cans of food to food bank and we are square. Let me know.

That said, clean up dead and junk files. There are lots of free downloads for those. Depends what OS you are running. I can probably email you a small program to help clean out the junk. Once that is done run a defrag and do not interupt it. Those two alone will help.



This is not tough stuff, you can easily do these. Heck, my Goldie does it.



Mac



[Broken External Image]:

 

[Jacob Dryer]

I see a 5 1/4" drive there!

 

[Ed Fenwick]

Aloha Gerry,

As soon as I finish this project (sermon videos), I will open the case and check on the RAM numbers. I often run eraser and a registry cleaner and virus and spy-ware programs. I even ran PARTITION MAGIC to free space on "C" drive, but it didn't work. That is another thing I want to try after these videos.

I do remember that the memory cards are much longer than others I have seen. I'll be taking in some cans of chili tomorrow.

God bless Ed

 

[Tom Schindler]

Ed,



Go to crucial.com and run the program that tells you what memory you have. Takes 5 minutes.





Tom

 

[Richard L]

Also, run Disk Check and do a clean up on any unnecessary files, then run a Defrag.



Some old applications do not always release all the memory when they end causing your computer to think there is not as much memory available.



Finally, be sure that your computer does not contain any Spy-Ware or AdWare that sucks up your memory. There are several free software programs available for detecting and removing SpyWare and AdWare. I have used them all and currently use MicroSoft's Defender. Some of the Anti-Virus software contains anti-SpyWare and anti-AdWare. I use Symantec, but find that Defender will detect some SpyWare that sneeks in past Symantec.



...Rich

 

[Mark K 2]

Go to crucial.com and run the program that tells you what memory you have

I need to buy memory and found that my nVidia hardware requires that I get some special memory. Good thing I checked.

 

[EddieS'04]

I thought nVidia hardware has its own built in memory. Didnt' use any of the computer ram. Im not a geru, though.

 

[Mark K 2]

I've got two DIMM slots and have them filled with 768MB of memory. I can go as high as 2GB and that's what I plan to do. Crucial.com has only two different cards of memory that will work with my machine. There's only a couple of other manufacturer's cards that will work, but they're twice the price of Crucial.

 

[Richard L]

Mark,

2 DIMM slots with 768MB of RAM sounds like you are running different DIMM memory strips, a 256MB and a 512MB.



While most newer computers will allow you to do that, it is not wise to mix different memory strip sizes because the computer will not use that memory as efficiently as it would if both strips were the same size even if they are the same speed.



I agree that you should upgrade to the full 2GB's of RAM using 2 each 1GB memory strips, or one 2GB strip if 2GB is the max your system will support.



...Rich

 

[TomT]

If your not running a machine that uses DDR memory (and with 2 different sizes I'm thinking your not) at least than it's time to send it to the scrap yard. Personally I wouldn't even use a machine that didn't have at least DDR2 but that's easy for me to say because I build my own.