Memory Issues

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Newsgroup

I am using XPPro sp2 and use 1GB RAM. Lately, my boot-up and general PC
actions (not screen activity) take longer than I would have thought. 1 GB
of RAM is adequate for most people. How do I go about improving it?

I have noticed in Task Manager when trying to load a program, it takes a
long time --relatively speaking but most of the activity happening with the
HDD. My CPU & RAM utilisation remains well below 50%.

How do I improve the speed and can anyone direct me to a site that explains
the connections between all the different type of memory that a PC uses:
e.g.; pagefile, RAM, virtual etc....

Thanks.
 
Newsgroup said:
I am using XPPro sp2 and use 1GB RAM. Lately, my boot-up and general PC
actions (not screen activity) take longer than I would have thought. 1 GB
of RAM is adequate for most people. How do I go about improving it?

I have noticed in Task Manager when trying to load a program, it takes a
long time --relatively speaking but most of the activity happening with
the
HDD. My CPU & RAM utilisation remains well below 50%.

How do I improve the speed and can anyone direct me to a site that
explains the connections between all the different type of memory that a
PC uses: e.g.; pagefile, RAM, virtual etc....
Click to expand...

The slowness is unlikely to be a physical memory issue or even a pagefile
issue. Most people do not need to tinker with their pagefiles. Here is a
link to an excellent article about Virtual Memory handling by the late,
great MVP Alex Nichol:

http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

However, to troubleshoot your particular problem you should first determine
that the computer is completely virus/malware-free:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

Once you know the machine is clean, you can do clean-boot troubleshooting to
try and pinpoint the culprit(s):

Clean boot in Windows XP - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353

Clean-boot advanced troubleshooting in Windows XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316434

How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310560

Also see these links:

http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/slowcom.htm
http://aumha.org/a/health.htm - Take Out the Trash

Malke
 
Newsgroup said:
I am using XPPro sp2 and use 1GB RAM. Lately, my boot-up and general
PC actions (not screen activity) take longer than I would have
thought. 1 GB of RAM is adequate for most people.
Click to expand...


It's considerably* more* than adequate for most people

How do I go about
improving it?
I have noticed in Task Manager when trying to load a program, it
takes a long time --relatively speaking but most of the activity
happening with the HDD. My CPU & RAM utilisation remains well below
50%.
Click to expand...


These days the most common cause for performance issues is malware
infestation. The first thing to do is always to be sure you are free of
malware. I see that Malke has already given you a link to her excellent
malware removal site, and I second her recommendation to go there.
 
Are there any yellow question marks in Device Manager? Right click on
the My Computer icon on your Desktop and select Properties. Hardware,
Device Manager. If yes what is the Device Error code?

Try Start, Run, type "sigverif.exe" without quotes and hit OK. What
drivers are listed as unsigned? Disregard those which are not checked.

Check the Application and System logs in Event Viewer
for Warning / Error Reports.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning
of the error, information regarding Event ID, Source and Description
are important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us

Part of the Description of the error will include a link, which you
should double click for further information. You can copy using copy
and paste. Often the link will, however, say there is no further
information.
http://go.microsoft.com/fw.link/events.asp
(Please note the hyperlink above is for illustration purposes only)

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button resembling two pages. Click the button and close Event Viewer.
Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of the
message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from Event
Viewer.


--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
No issues with the devices as such... I recall some days ago the windows
update downloaded IE7 and I declined to install it (although it was already
downloaded by the update manager)... since then the update icon has not
appeared again in order to check what exactly happened to that file....

Could this be responsible in some way for the slow down of the system and if
so; any remedy of either deleting the download (or installing it)? Insofar
as malware etc... goes, my system is pretty well up to date on the primary
anti-virus/spyware etc.. hence it is not likely to be the case.
 
Event Viewer Reports?

A lot of people have not had problems installing IE7! I have no
problems. If installing I would go Offline and turn off all real time
protection until it is installed.

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
well it's not an installation problem, i just did not want to install IE7 by
choice. I don't have problem installing IE7 --if I have to... the problem
is where is the downloaded IE7 update kept, if not installed when prompted
initially by windows update manager....and whether having it downloaded and
not installed could lead to my PC slowing down.
 
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