RAM installation question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Francis Marsden
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Francis Marsden

My friend just installed a stick of ram into my xp home system. The
computer recognized the ram, but I have not noticed an increase of speed
generally. Is it possible for the new stick to be damaged (for example,
from static) even if the computer recognizes the ram?
 
Adding RAM does not necessily make a computer faster. That depends on how
you use the computer.

Additional RAM means that - all other things being equal - your CPU does not
have to swap as much data back and forth between physical memory and virtual
memory (the paging file), which makes things go faster IF your typical use
of the computer involved significant use of virtual memory. For typical
office applications, web browsing and email, on a computer of relatively
recent vintage, you would be unlikely to notice much difference, if any.
 
Francis said:
My friend just installed a stick of ram into my xp home system. The
computer recognized the ram, but I have not noticed an increase of speed
generally. Is it possible for the new stick to be damaged (for example,
from static) even if the computer recognizes the ram?
Click to expand...

Do a defrag and see if it isn't a tad quicker. How much RAM did you have
and how much do you have now?

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Francis Marsden said:
My friend just installed a stick of ram into my xp home system. The
computer recognized the ram, but I have not noticed an increase of speed
generally. Is it possible for the new stick to be damaged (for example,
from static) even if the computer recognizes the ram?
Click to expand...

Adding more memory can noticeably improve performance only if the
added memory results in reduced usage of the virtual memory paging
file. Therefore if the paging file is not currently being used to any
significant extent then adding more memory will not provide a
significant improvement.

Unfortunately there is no ready way of determing actual paging file
usage provided with Windows XP - it does not have an equivalent to the
'Memory Manager - Swap File In Use" reporting provided by the System
Monitor utility in Windows 95/98/Me.

There is a free utility that you can download and run which will
provide this information for you. It was written by MVP Bill James and
you can get if from
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm or from
http://billsway.com/notes_public/WinXP_Tweaks/

If that utility shows actual page file usage of 50 mb or more on a
regular basis then that is indicative of fairly significant paging
file activity. Adding more RAM will reduce or even eliminate entirely
this activity thereby improving performance.

This apples regardless of how much or how little RAM is currently
installed in the computer, at least up to the 4 gb RAM maximum for
Windows XP.

Hope this explains the situation.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."
 
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