Faulty reg. of physical memory

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G

Guest

After switching off all background programmes, still I have only 80MB
available out of 512MB. The system information have registred Physical memory
to be 4.224,00MB or 4,2GB. This cannot be correct as the memory is 512MB!
There must be a fault somewere - can anyboddy help me?
 
Hoff

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak?
This freeware programme is excellent for getting information about
your computer:
Everest Home Edition (freeware)
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

Tip: To copy select Report, Quick Report, Plain Text, highlight
required text, right click and select copy. However, whilst this is
fine for posting small amounts of information into newsgroup messages
longer reports will irritate other newsgroup subscribers.

In Everest expand Motherboard, Chipset and post the details for each
Memory slot.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Hi Gerry tks for fast responce.
Taskmgr. states: Tatal physical mem = 523756, available = 160780, Sys.cache
= 148000
 
Hoff

Those aren't the figures I asked to see!

Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak?


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Ok Jerry,
I think I found the figures
Total: 462000, Limit: 1277136, Peak: 585720
(Still how come the System Info says Physical Memory 4.224,00MB) since the
RAM is 524MB?
 
Hoff

In System Information information regarding memory appears like this:

Total Physical Memory 768.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 404.44 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB

Total Physical Memory = Installed RAM, which you say in this latest
post is 524 mb but earlier you said it was 512 mb. The figure of 512 mb
seems more likely. Sometimes the figures for RAM disclosed are reduced
where some is used for other devices e.g. a video card.

Available Physical Memory is what remains for use. If it is a
negligible amount it is of no consequence given the purpose of having
RAM is to use it in preference to virtual memory (the pagefile).

These two figures mirror those disclosed in Task Manager.

The Commit Charge figures are indicating that in this latest session you
are currently using little virtual memory but you have been using more
earlier. You get an approximation by deducting the amount of RAM from
the Total and the Peak figures. For the Peak figure of 585,720 this
suggests pagefile usage of 73 mb but in reality this will be more
because some system and programme operations require virtual memory
(pagefile) and not RAM. If you are consistently using more than 50 mb of
virtual memory (pagefile) you would be advised to add RAM. Note that
graphics programmes, especially those incorporating undo features) will
have significantly greater memory requirements than other programmes.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Hoff said:
After switching off all background programmes, still I have only 80MB
available out of 512MB. The system information have registred Physical
memory
to be 4.224,00MB or 4,2GB. This cannot be correct as the memory is
512MB!
There must be a fault somewere - can anyboddy help me?
Click to expand...

Which programs did you switch off? Also, you are still surely running a
number of background programs/processes. Run Task Manager (Ctrl-Alt-Del)
and click on the Processes tab. Click on the Mem Usage tab twice and you
will see the largest memory users at the top. Anything of interest?

Where are you getting this 4.2 GB figure from? Are you running
msinfo32.exe? If so, what is the value next to Total Physical Memory?

Is your PC not performing efficiently lately? Or is this just out of
curiosity?

Finally, if you *don't* switch off these programs, what are your Total,
Limit, and Peak values under Commit Charge (the same thing Gerry asked
you)?
 
Total Physical Memory = Installed RAM, which you say in this latest
post is 524 mb but earlier you said it was 512 mb. The figure of 512
mb seems more likely.
Click to expand...

I'm sure Hoff came up with 524 by rounding off the 523,756 KB figure he
provided in an earlier post. What he meant was 524,000 KB. However, that
is not the same as 524 MB!

There are actually 1,024 KB in 1 MB. Therefore, dividing 523,756 by
1,024 yields 511.48 MB RAM, which is practically 512 MB.
 
Daave

I was aware of that. Trying to explain that just adds another
complication, where there is already an element of confusion.

--
Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Hello Jerry and Daave,
Yes my first confusion is the faulty reg. of Physical Mem. 4,2GB, figure
from Windows System Tools prg. "System Information" (name translated from
Danish).

Reason for concern: My 3GHZ PC is rumming slow, also display slow in
updating and some times freeze completely after which a mains switch off is
required. Wondering if the 512MB of RAM is degraded or do I have to add RAM.
Further after Start Up during launghing Windows "No Disk ......" is
popping-up 2 to 3 times.

Bach ground prg. I switched off were: VNC Server, HP Digital Monitor, TV
Remote Control, Power Cinema, Quick Time etc.

Task Manager before switch off above programmes: Nip.exe 37000KB,
npcsvc32.exe 37000KB, Nvcoas.exe 19000KB, explore.exe 18000KB, hpqste08.exe
11600KB, svchost.exe 9300KB, etc.
Commit Charge before switch off above bg. pro.: Total 738900, Limit 1277136,
Peak 748056.

I do not run msinfi32.exe!
 
Hoff

You're system is needing to use the pagefile (virtual memory) to run the
programmes and applications you have installed. The solution is either
to add RAM memory, reduce the demand for memory or to do both.

You need to understand that Task Manager does not record pagefile usage.
The figures you quote e.g. Nip.exe 37000KB are an allocation which may
or may not be in use at any given time.
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

You can do a better check on pagefile usage using pagefilemon.

Use page file monitor to observe what is the peak usage. Start it to run
immediately after start-up and look at the log. Pagefilemon takes
snapshots. You need to run it at the beginning of the session at then
run it again at intervals throughout the sessions. The log is Pagefile
log.txt. If you right click on the file in Windows Explorer and select
Send to, Desktop (Create Shortcut). The same applies to
XP_PageFileMon.exe.

A small utility to monitor pagefile usage:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

Note that programs using undo features, particularly those associated
with graphics and photo editing, require large amounts of memory so if
you use this type of programme check these first observing how the page
usage increases when they start and whether the usage decreases when you
close the programme.

You should understand what is included to start when you boot your
computer as many programme providers have an inflated idea of the
importance of their programme. It may be better started manually as and
when needed or is better dumped because it provides little of value.
However, it is important to fully understand what a programme is about
before making changes because you can damage your system if you jump the
wrong way.

Use Autoruns to find any unwanted start ups!
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/Autoruns.mspx

With Autoruns you can uncheck an item, which disables it from starting,
or you can can right click an item and then delete it. If you uncheck
you can recheck to re-enable the item. It is a much safer approach than
editing the Registry. Another useful feature of the programme is that
you can right click an item and select Search Online to get information
about the item selected.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Hoff said:
Hello Jerry and Daave,
Yes my first confusion is the faulty reg. of Physical Mem. 4,2GB,
figure from Windows System Tools prg. "System Information" (name
translated from Danish).
Click to expand...

Have a look at "Memory size information does not appear correctly in
System Properties in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2":

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888664

This article pertains to the Finnish version of Microsoft Windows XP.
Perhaps your Danish version has a similar bug. But since we know you
have 512 MB of RAM, I wouldn't be too concerned.
Reason for concern: My 3GHZ PC is rumming slow, also display slow in
updating and some times freeze completely after which a mains switch
off is required. Wondering if the 512MB of RAM is degraded or do I
have to add RAM. Further after Start Up during launghing Windows "No
Disk ......" is popping-up 2 to 3 times.
Click to expand...

Gerry is correct. You either need to purchase more RAM or run more lean.
You are definitely relying too much on your pagefile, which is
definitely slowing you down.

Regarding the "Windows 'No Disk ......'" message popping up, what is the
*exact* message?
Bach ground prg. I switched off were: VNC Server, HP Digital Monitor,
TV Remote Control, Power Cinema, Quick Time etc.

Task Manager before switch off above programmes: Nip.exe 37000KB,
npcsvc32.exe 37000KB, Nvcoas.exe 19000KB, explore.exe 18000KB,
hpqste08.exe 11600KB, svchost.exe 9300KB, etc.
Commit Charge before switch off above bg. pro.: Total 738900, Limit
1277136, Peak 748056.
Click to expand...

Your total and peak values are both significantly above 524,288 KB of
RAM (or 512 MB of RAM). If you can run more lean and get those values
below 524,288, you'll notice improvement in performance (again, because
you will no longer rely on your hard drive's pagefile).

I agree with Gerry that you should run Autoruns to find any unwanted
start ups:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/Autoruns.mspx

The following Web sites are helpful in determining which programs you
don't need to run:

http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_index.htm

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/
I do not run msinfi32.exe!
Click to expand...

Typo!

What I meant was to try Method 2 listed in the above Microsoft artice:

"Click Start, click Run, type Msinfo32.exe, and then click OK." If you
do this, you *should* get an accurate figure for your Total Physical
Memory.
 
Hello Jerry and Daave,
Great, you have beeen very helpful (and patient). I have the faulty Windows
version as the Finnish you refer to, cheked by Msinfo32.exe. This explains
that the registrated RAM is incorrect. I will check the programmes running in
the background and get som more RAM. As for the "No Disk ...." pop-up I will
return with exact message. Apperently, there are some random into this, last
Start-up did not show this message! - I´ll return after checked out your
proposals.
 
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