Computer takes forever to startup/do things

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Guest

My laptop only has 256 memory, would increasing to 512 memory speed things
up? Anything else I can do? Appreciate help thanks Dorothy
 
Hi,

1) Yes, it would.

2) Limit that which loads at boot. Start/run msconfig and uncheck
unnecessary programs on the startup tab. Doing so does not remove the
programs, you can always run it from the start menu. It just prevents it
from loading into memory at boot and tying up your system.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
Dorothy

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the
Performance Tab. What is the Total, the Commit Charge
and the Peak?

You may check on pagefile (virtual memory) usage with
Page File Monitor for XP:
http://www.dougknox.com/

If you get anything much more than 50 mb virtual memory
usage for most users this means you need to add RAM
memory. The system uses virtual memory for a limited
number of tasks rather than RAM memory.

Make sure you study the readme.txt file carefully to ensure
you get the utility to work as it should.

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
dotbowels said:
My laptop only has 256 memory, would increasing to 512 memory speed
things up? An
Click to expand...



It might. It depends on what apps you run. You get good performance if the
amount of RAM you have keeps you from using the page file, and that depends
on what apps you run. Most people running a typical range of business
applications find that somewhere around 256-384MB works well, others need
512MB. Almost anyone will see poor performance with less than 256MB. Some
people, particularly those doing things like editing large photographic
images, can see a performance boost by adding even more than
512MB--sometimes much more.

If you are currently using the page file significantly, more memory will
decrease or eliminate that usage, and improve your performance. If you are
not using the page file significantly, more memory will do nothing for you.
Go to http://billsway.com/notes_public/winxp_tweaks/ and download
WinXP-2K_Pagefile.zip and monitor your pagefile usage. That should give you
a good idea of whether more memory can help, and if so, how much more.
 
Sat, 7 Jan 2006 14:22:55 -0800 from Jabez Gan [MVP]
In addition to what Rick has suggested, actually there's a lot that you can
do.

1. Defrag
Click to expand...

It's questionable whether that will actually make a noticeable
improvement. There was a long discussion about it a few months back,
and as I recall the results were inconclusive.
2. Move pagefile (virtual memory) to another hard disk
Click to expand...

Important: another _physical_ disk, not another _partition_ on the
same disk. Putting it on another partition of the same disk could
make things worse!

See "Should the file be left on Drive C:?" in the middle of
<http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm>.
 
Sat, 7 Jan 2006 11:41:44 -0000 from Gerry Cornell
If you get anything much more than 50 mb virtual memory
usage for most users this means you need to add RAM
memory.
Click to expand...

Like most rules of thumb, this needs to be taken with a giant shaker
of salt. I have a GB of RAM and run only a few programs at once (and
nothing memory-hungry like video editing), so I think it's safe t say
I don't need more.[1] Yet my virtual memory is around 100 MB.




[1] www.memtest.org revealed bad RAM in the 350 or 380 MB area. It
took me a long time even to suspect a memory problem, because I had
crashes relatively infrequently, showing that even that much RAM
wasn't often used.
 
Stan

That's why I said "for most users"!

--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stan Brown said:
Sat, 7 Jan 2006 11:41:44 -0000 from Gerry Cornell
If you get anything much more than 50 mb virtual memory
usage for most users this means you need to add RAM
memory.
Click to expand...

Like most rules of thumb, this needs to be taken with a giant shaker
of salt. I have a GB of RAM and run only a few programs at once (and
nothing memory-hungry like video editing), so I think it's safe t say
I don't need more.[1] Yet my virtual memory is around 100 MB.

snipped> --
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
"Do I smell the revolting stench of self-esteem?"
-- Jon Lovitz, in /The Producers/ (2005)
Click to expand...
 
Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the
Performance Tab. What is the Total, the Commit Charge
and the Peak?

You may check on pagefile (virtual memory) usage with
Page File Monitor for XP:
http://www.dougknox.com/


Original message said 256mb do i need to double up, I actually have 512mb
and run slow so wondering if I should double ??? Advice in next paragraph,
results below that. Results are meaningless to me. Any help appreciated.
Thanks Dorothy

"If you get anything much more than 50 mb virtual memory
usage for most users this means you need to add RAM
memory. The system uses virtual memory for a limited
number of tasks rather than RAM memory".


Totals
---------
Handles 8273
Threads 381
Processes 39

Commit Charge (K)
-----------------------------
Total 256752
Limit 1078660
Peak 292836

Physical Memory (K)
-------------------------------
Total 458096
Available 127452
System Cache 202348

KernelMemory (K)
 
Yes I do a lot of photo touchups etc with Digital Image Pro 10 and the
computer hangs up

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the
Performance Tab. What is the Total, the Commit Charge
and the Peak?

You may check on pagefile (virtual memory) usage with
Page File Monitor for XP:
http://www.dougknox.com/


Original message said 256mb do i need to double up, I actually have 512mb
and run slow so wondering if I should double ??? Advice in next paragraph,
results below that. Results are meaningless to me. Any help appreciated.
Thanks Dorothy

"If you get anything much more than 50 mb virtual memory
usage for most users this means you need to add RAM
memory. The system uses virtual memory for a limited
number of tasks rather than RAM memory".


Totals
---------
Handles 8273
Threads 381
Processes 39

Commit Charge (K)
-----------------------------
Total 256752
Limit 1078660
Peak 292836

Physical Memory (K)
-------------------------------
Total 458096
Available 127452
System Cache 202348

KernelMemory (K)
-------------------------------
Total 58808
Paged 48964
Nonpaged 9844


Gerry Cornell said:
Dorothy

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the
Performance Tab. What is the Total, the Commit Charge
and the Peak?

You may check on pagefile (virtual memory) usage with
Page File Monitor for XP:
http://www.dougknox.com/

If you get anything much more than 50 mb virtual memory
usage for most users this means you need to add RAM
memory. The system uses virtual memory for a limited
number of tasks rather than RAM memory.

Make sure you study the readme.txt file carefully to ensure
you get the utility to work as it should.

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Click to expand...
Was this post helpful
 
Dot

You haven't tried Page File Monitor for XP:
http://www.dougknox.com/

but I guess judging by "Yes I do a lot of photo touchups etc with Digital
Image
Pro 10 and the computer hangs up" that your pagefile in use will go much
higher than 50 mb.

More memory will help!

How large is your hard drive? Is it partitioned? How much free space on
each drive / partition. How is the drive formatted -FAT32 or NTFS. To
get this information whilst in Windows Explorer place the cursor on each
drive in turn, right click and select Properties.

What is your CPU speed? Right click on the My Computer icon on your
Desktop, select Properties to get this information.

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
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