Opinions On Increasing Ram

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Bill

Hi

My father has an older computer that he uses primarily for spreadsheets,
word processing and surfing the web. He does not play any graphically
intense games. The machine is very slow, especially the web.

I'm wondering if a significant increase in speed would result by increasing
ram, or would it just be a waste of money? If an appreciable increase in
speed should be expected, what would be the appropriate amount of ram?

Machine summary:
-200 mhz Pentium MMX processor
-Matrox MGA Mystique graphics card with probably 2megs of ram
-64 megs or ram,
-OS WIN98
-high speed telephone internet connection.

Thanks in advance
Bill
 
Hi

My father has an older computer that he uses primarily for spreadsheets,
word processing and surfing the web. He does not play any graphically
intense games. The machine is very slow, especially the web.

I'm wondering if a significant increase in speed would result by increasing
ram, or would it just be a waste of money? If an appreciable increase in
speed should be expected, what would be the appropriate amount of ram?

Machine summary:
-200 mhz Pentium MMX processor
-Matrox MGA Mystique graphics card with probably 2megs of ram
-64 megs or ram,
-OS WIN98
-high speed telephone internet connection.

Thanks in advance
Bill
Click to expand...

Most motherboards from that time frame had a limit of 64Mb on how much they
would cache. In cases where there were not many memory intensive programs
being ran, more ram actually caused the system to slow down, as some
critical windows components end up getting loaded in uncached ram areas. If
it is the 72 pin simms, they are not cheap or easy to find. If the machine
can cache the memory, then there would be a noticable increase in speed,
but for the same money, etc. you could probably get a more modern machine
that is much faster.

JT
 
Hi

My father has an older computer that he uses primarily for spreadsheets,
word processing and surfing the web. He does not play any graphically
intense games. The machine is very slow, especially the web.
Click to expand...

The web is usually bottlenecked most by a dialup internet connection (even
if it is touted as "high speed", it isn't high speed, relatively) , slow
hard drive for temporary internet files, and complex animations like flash
due to slow CPU.
I'm wondering if a significant increase in speed would result by increasing
ram, or would it just be a waste of money? If an appreciable increase in
speed should be expected, what would be the appropriate amount of ram?
Click to expand...

It would help in "some" situations to have more than 64MB, but the
motherboard chipset may only cache 64MB, it could slow down the
spreadsheet work and misc other functions, though that would be offset by
reducing virtual memory usage, depending on the filesizes used.
Machine summary:
-200 mhz Pentium MMX processor
-Matrox MGA Mystique graphics card with probably 2megs of ram
-64 megs or ram,
-OS WIN98
-high speed telephone internet connection.
Click to expand...

Given the strong possibility that the motherboard chipset can only cache
64MB, that you already have 64MB, and the relatively equal performance of
all the parts, there's not a lot than can be done to that system as a
worthwhile upgrade... it's time to replace it. Any low-end semi-modern
system will run circle around it, for example the typical used $200 system
would be far better than pouring more $ into what you have. Also consider
that if some parts like the hard drive haven't been replaced yet, they're
at the age where their expected lifespan is practially depleted, it's a
gamble to rely on it.
 
Hi

My father has an older computer that he uses primarily for spreadsheets,
word processing and surfing the web. He does not play any graphically
intense games. The machine is very slow, especially the web.

I'm wondering if a significant increase in speed would result by increasing
ram, or would it just be a waste of money? If an appreciable increase in
speed should be expected, what would be the appropriate amount of ram?

Machine summary:
-200 mhz Pentium MMX processor
-Matrox MGA Mystique graphics card with probably 2megs of ram
-64 megs or ram,
-OS WIN98
-high speed telephone internet connection.
Click to expand...

If the machine is slow it's either one or a combination of the following:

You are infected with spamware/adware (VERY likely)

Your dialup connection is slowing you down (more and more sites are being designed for cable and DSL
users)

The computer is loaded down with shit, delete any .tmp files, empty out the browser cache, clean out
the system startup folder and use msconfig to take out any hidden startup programs that shouldn't be
there, boot into safe mode and delete any driver duplicates that aren't in "system", empty yer
recycle bin (you'd be surprised at the number of people who simply don't), run scandisk and defrag
at least every 6 months or so.

....or just save all the important stuff, reformat the lil bastard, and VIOLA, it'll probably be a
LOT faster.

Just for the benefit of knowing, increasing memory won't really make your machine "go fast", it
*might* make it run more efficiently and CERTAIN tasks/programs will "go faster", but not anything
you're running. And always remember, you can't drive a McLaren F1 in a school zone. In other
words, anything you put in there, no matter how fast, will get slowed up by the other components.
Like on my system, it's got PC3200 memory, but the board is limited to PC2400, so it doesn't ever go
any faster than that.
 
Bill said:
Hi

My father has an older computer that he uses primarily for spreadsheets,
word processing and surfing the web. He does not play any graphically
intense games. The machine is very slow, especially the web.

I'm wondering if a significant increase in speed would result by increasing
ram, or would it just be a waste of money? If an appreciable increase in
speed should be expected, what would be the appropriate amount of ram?

Machine summary:
-200 mhz Pentium MMX processor
-Matrox MGA Mystique graphics card with probably 2megs of ram
-64 megs or ram,
-OS WIN98
-high speed telephone internet connection.

Thanks in advance
Bill
Click to expand...
Hi I have a similar machine 300mhx Cryic processor ( probably
slower than your dads), I have 128 meg ram which I increased
from 64 (and from 32 prior to that).
Despite what someone else said in this thread you can get
edo simms fairly cheap as I paid £10 for 128 meg on ebay,
although I am unsure of the quallity.
( I actually have a problem with my machine rebooting itself
but it maybe totally unrelated to the ram (which is why I am here)).
Unless he runs loads of applications extra ram will not effect his
surfing speed as a 56k moden or 128 isdn is a slow connection,
"high speed telephone internet connection"- I am not sure what
you mean by this, as high speed dial up is almost a contractiction
in terms. Do you mean broadband?


Anyway your machine is able to process 300 million instructions
per second which is much faster than 56kbs, or about 5k bytes (not bits)
per second.
Put it this way, your machine can perform 60,000 instructions for every
byte it receives so 99.9% of the time it is *waiting* for data to
be transitted to it.

His problems may be due to software viruses and such like or his
machine may have been hijacked. (search for "hijackthis" on google)
My machine was once "hijacked" and it was slowed to a crawl on
many websites. A free prog called hijackthis solved it.

Also he needs to check what is running at start-up and disable
any stuff that is not required.
(Many software vendors unnecesaliary run thier software at
startup).

64 meg is ample for one application, it is only if he is running several
at the same time that their might be a problem.

What will slow the machine down is when it has to swop between
applications because it cannot hold them all in memory at once.

If he runs several applications and swaps betewwn then more
ram will help, but if he basically running one application more
ram will make no difference.

I suspect he has a software problem which will not be helped
by more ram.
He needs to scan for viruses and 'hijackers' and adware.

He can increase to 128 for about £10-15 which will do no harm
anyway.(probably, unless the ram is faulty)

half_pint.
 
Onideus said:
If the machine is slow it's either one or a combination of the
following:

You are infected with spamware/adware (VERY likely)

Your dialup connection is slowing you down (more and more sites are
being designed for cable and DSL users)

The computer is loaded down with shit, delete any .tmp files, empty
out the browser cache, clean out the system startup folder and use
msconfig to take out any hidden startup programs that shouldn't be
there, boot into safe mode and delete any driver duplicates that
aren't in "system", empty yer recycle bin (you'd be surprised at the
number of people who simply don't), run scandisk and defrag at least
every 6 months or so.

...or just save all the important stuff, reformat the lil bastard,
and VIOLA, it'll probably be a LOT faster.

Just for the benefit of knowing, increasing memory won't really make
your machine "go fast", it *might* make it run more efficiently and
CERTAIN tasks/programs will "go faster", but not anything you're
running. And always remember, you can't drive a McLaren F1 in a
school zone. In other words, anything you put in there, no matter
how fast, will get slowed up by the other components. Like on my
system, it's got PC3200 memory, but the board is limited to PC2400,
so it doesn't ever go any faster than that.
Click to expand...

Can't help, but I've just sent an almost identical system to silicon
heaven - the graphics card was shot (again a Matrox Mystique, though I think
it was a 4MB model) but all other parts tested OK, but no one wanted them (I
keep an ancient Compaq box in the loft for testing ancient components). The
hard drives (13.5 and 5GB) were also dead.

Did me proud that computer. My mother inherited it and used it for years
(until the graphics card and drives died, obviously). I'd love to see what's
on those drives - I would have been doing my GCSEs then, might have old
coursework on!

Ah well...
 
Bill said:
Hi

My father has an older computer that he uses primarily for spreadsheets,
word processing and surfing the web. He does not play any graphically
intense games. The machine is very slow, especially the web.
Click to expand...


Spyware is probably the problem. For what he does, that amount of Ram/CPU
should be fine. Run someing like ad aware, also run mscofig and see how
much crap is being loaded at startup. People like to install all sorts of
taskbar BS that runs all the time in the background. Another thing is AV
software can bring a machine like that to it's knees. It's better to run
"as needed" to check files that are e-mail attached ect than to run it full
time in the background.

One ofther thought, how long has it been since windows was reinstalled?
Might be due. As someone else pointed out, anything over 64 megs will not
be cached and can majorly slow down one of those systems, been there done
that. You should be able to get it to be fairly zippy if it's cleaned and
leaned.
 
kony said:
Any low-end semi-modern
system will run circle around it, for example the typical used $200 system
would be far better than pouring more $ into what you have.
Click to expand...

Unless it's loaded with spyware like this one probably is. It seems like 90%
of the machines I "work on" for being slow have 100's of spyware apps/files
on them!
 
Onideus said:
...or just save all the important stuff, reformat the lil bastard, and
VIOLA, it'll probably be a LOT faster.
Click to expand...


Bingo, that's probably exactly what's going on. Even a 2.0Ghz machine will
be slow if it's loaded down with adware etc. WOnder when they are going to
start going after those people? I mean IMHO spyware/adware is vandalism, it
costs people time and money to repair the damage this software costs and
the companies doing it are openly doing this crap. It's WAY more a problem
than any viruses have been to my customers.
 
" Machine summary:... "


You would do well to update Windows 98 as much as you can. Order the free
CD from http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/cd/order.asp , run it when
it arrives (2 - 4 weeks), and then use http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com to
finish off any updates.

Update the virus definitions for the virus software, and do a full system
scan.

Install Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy. Update them before running.
These will eradicate most, if not all of the spyware on the system.
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ ,
http://www.safer-networking.org/

De-fragment the hard drive.

Find out what motherboard the system has. You can then see if the CPU can
be upgraded and how much EDO / SDRAM it can take. If it doesn't state the
motherboard on the PCB, then you can use
http://www.motherboards.org/moboidtools.html to identify it. Upgrading the
CPU and EDO memory can be done very cheaply with second-hand stuff from
www.ebay.com or www.ebay.co.uk .
 
Hi

My father has an older computer that he uses primarily for spreadsheets,
word processing and surfing the web. He does not play any graphically
intense games. The machine is very slow, especially the web.

I'm wondering if a significant increase in speed would result by increasing
ram, or would it just be a waste of money? If an appreciable increase in
speed should be expected, what would be the appropriate amount of ram?

Machine summary:
-200 mhz Pentium MMX processor
-Matrox MGA Mystique graphics card with probably 2megs of ram
-64 megs or ram,
-OS WIN98
-high speed telephone internet connection.

Thanks in advance
Bill
Click to expand...

Don't spend a penny on that machine, if you can find some free DIMMs then
it would be helpful to put them in but new RAM that will fit into a system
that old will cost you more than the system is worth. If I were you I'd
buy a new low end machine, you can get something for $400-$500 that will
run rings around that thing.
 
I would not spend one dime or even work on a computer that old.

Might be better off replacing it with a new integrated video
motherboard and windows XP. You could use a cheap video card if you
were inclined. You can get a cheap Dell or build one yourself with a
1.8G P4. I prefer AMD processors for budget or low-end builds. Their
processors are quite good and the retail heatsinks are getting real
good too. You can buy an XP2800+ AMD for about the same as a Intel
1.8Gig processor. I would not get a Celeron at all.
 
That old machine is inherently slow throughout its components. Time for a
new machine if you want more speed.
 
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