More RAM ???????

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Dear All,

Have just completed my first hardware upgrade by intalling another 256 MB to my equally miniscule existing 256 MB. The sytem is upgradeable to 2GB Max. I'm still experiencing a slow system (although slightly faster than before), quite a lot of disk thrashing and pagefile virtual memory low messages. I also have AVG anti virus I wonder whether this is helping to slow things up. If not - Do you think putting 2 GBs of RAM will speed things up and stop the occasional freeze up ?????
Also - just out of sheer intrigue - will returning the system back to factory setting as received new give it a new lease of life? I suppose there will be less programmes running on there taking it back to this state and therefore less stuff taking up memory and therefore run quicker as a result of this anyway? Any thoughts will be gratefully received.

Many Thanks

Co9 D

 

what he said ^

have you tried defragging the hard drive, increase the page file size and cleaning your registry.

You can use cclaner and easy cleaner for cleaning registry issues and deleting cookies they are both free to download.

 

Yeah the best thing to do is start with the free things, such as Defrag, registry cleaning and incresing page file size, as a general rule of thumb your pagefile should be at least 1.5Xs the size of your physical RAM. These options should increase your system at least some, especially if you saw a dramatic increase with just adding 256MB RAM in the first place. At this point though I would also look into upgrading to the max allowable RAM of 2GB seeing as you are not going to be getting DDR3 since this is an older rig and anything other than that is pretty cheap anymore.

 

I honestly can't understand why people still recommend defragging... sorry to be so negative, but it's a waste of time. And if you absolutely feel the need to clean your registry, you'd be far better off wiping and reinstalling... I've seen "registry cleaners" do more harm than good.

Yes, more memory will absolutely help your system. Understand, over time, AVG isn't getting smaller... it's checking for more and more and more viruses as time goes on, and thus, its virus signature library is getting larger and larger and larger, consuming more memory.

Also, over time, you're collecting and installing more and more and more things... apps, patches, security updates, browser add-ins/plug-ins... many of which stay resident (to some degree) on your system. Wiping your system and reinstalling ONLY the things you need will work wonders.

 

I recommended it because this sounds like a fairly old rig, which means it could possibly have a somewhat small HDD and be running an older OS so defragging could be a decent option for it. It really just depends on the size of disk how much has changed on that disk and the OS running on it.

 

Anything that is running XP or later really doesn't need to be defragged.

The size of the disk is irrelevant unless you're trying to claim space consumed by fragmentation... and in that case, you're not speeding up the system, you're gaining disk space.

 

Thankyou everybody for your kind support and comments.

I'll start with my basic system specs first :

O/S : Windows XP
Pc Model : eMachine 370
CPU : Intel celeron Willamette
RAM : 512 MB

A cheap system I'm afraid!

Boson - when you suggest this - 'Wiping your system and reinstalling ONLY the things you need will work wonders.[/QUOTE]'
- are you recommending my original thoughts re taking the system back to factory settings ??? I have a disk supplied for this when I bought the computer about eight years ago. I know some of you are probably thinking - time to get yourself a new rig but I'd like to keep this going a bit longer if at all viable.
Will certainly upgrade now to 2GB - this will cost me around £70 from 'Crucial Technology' Does anyone have any suggestions for a cheaper option supplier with exact product for my system. Unfortunately I don't have the mobo book.

Thankyou all once again for your time and support - it reallly is very much so appreciated!!!

Kindest Regards

Co9DD

 

he was meaning formatting the hard drive then reinstalling the OS disc and motherboard drivers etc.

You say you have a disc this will be a restore disc that contains the OS and motherboard drivers so eesentially the pc will go back to how it was the day you got it or it should do anyway.

Just remember you will have a lot of updating to do through windows update.

 

Well, first, you're on a Celeron, which is not considered to be a workhorse. Second, you're on an eMachine, which is probably the worst hardware out there, and that's just because Packard Bell isn't selling PCs anymore (at least, not in the States). And finally, 512 MB of RAM is not enough these days.

Yes and no. Personally, I don't use the factory reinstall disk because it tends to put a bunch of bloatware on my computer that I don't want/need. I just install straight from the Windows installation media (which is typically hidden somewhere on the supplied disk).

That said, you have to know how to reinstall all your drivers, and it's not for the faint of heart. If you have any concerns whatsoever, then yes, I would recommend backing up your data and restoring to factory settings.

Dunno how much new systems are there in the UK... but if I can get my wife a 15" Core 2 Duo LAPTOP with 3 GB of memory for $429, certainly you can get a lesser-spec'ed desktop for less!

Old memory is expensive, dude. For the record, I just got 4 GB of DDR2-800 memory for LESS than $20.

The computer is 8 years old, man... at some point, you've got to wonder whether it's worth it to upgrade. In my opinion, if I were going to spend £70 just for a memory upgrade that will be a band-aid to a system that was low-end almost a decade ago, I'd just put that £70 towards saving up for a new computer.

 

Thanks Boson - some real food for thought !! I new the system was pretty poor. And thanks once again to you all for bearing with me on this one.

Will let you know how I get on !!!

Co9DD

 

I'd say that depends whether it has been formatted with FAT32 or NTFS, the latter of which suffers much less with fragmentation

 

Point taken! I would agree with that!

Still... while I've seen some space reclaimed by defragmenting a FAT drive, I have yet to see a system speed up because of defragging (or slow down due to a lack of defragging).

 

Co - I agree with the above, emachines aren't the best out there and I have brought a load of em in the past for work. They are good for what we brought them for - wordprocessing - and not a great deal else

Have you looked at upgrading the processor to something a little faster? If you can track down any info on the machine (not always easy) you might find you can upgrade it to somehting a little better.

Are you sure about the £70.00 price tag for the ram? Over the last 6 months I've helped a couple of familly members upgrade their machines, which included purchasing 2GB of ram from crucial for under £30.00 total each time.

 

You should be able to get 2gb for £40 or under in the uk,that pc uses ddr memory
i bought 2gb of pc 3200 for just over £40 on novatech recently,the speed is just above the suggested ram for your pc
yours uses ddr pc2700 [see here]
http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=0EC3DD69A5CA7304
personally for that machine i'd only buy 1gb of ram,i hardly notice that i have 2gb installed,1gb was fine with xp.

 

points at post #11 ^^

 

Points to himself having brought ram in the UK, from the same company quoted by the OP.