More Memory

[Salinger]

My Acer Aspire T180 appears to run slower and slower as time goes by. Running windows Vista Home Premium

 

Spec:

 

AMD Athlon 64 x 2 Dual Core Processor 4200+, 2200MHZ, 2 Cores, 2 Logical Processors.

Installed Physical Memory 1 GB

Total Physical Memory 767 MB

Available Physical Memory 229 MB

 

Total Virtual Memory 1.76 GB

Available Virtual Memory 677 mb

 

I do not use PC for gaming, mainly internet access. I have IE 8 installed as well as Google Chrome, which i tend to use, and have just started using Microsoft Security Essentials.

 

It seems to take a relatively long time to boot up and freezes a lot if I open more than one or two web pages.

 

Is it a simple fact that I just need more memory. Any help would be appreciated.

Edited July 6, 2010 by Salinger

[Dalo Harkin]

open a cmd (command window) and type msconfig

 

when it opens you want the furthest right tab called 'startup' you will probably have a lot on there that is unnecessary, using resources.

 

As you say its not always been like this, I would say this is the cause rather than RAM

[Salinger]

open a cmd (command window) and type msconfig

 

when it opens you want the furthest right tab called 'startup' you will probably have a lot on there that is unnecessary, using resources.

 

As you say its not always been like this, I would say this is the cause rather than RAM

In the start up tab it shows Adobe Acrobat, Adobe reader & Acrobat Manager, Microsoft Security Essentials, Microsoft Windows Operating System and Google Update all with a tick in the box. I have deleted the tick for Adobe Acrobat and Adobe reader......

Under the General Tab of the three options Selective Start Up is ticked. The box for Load System Services is ticked and the box below Load Start Up Items contains a smaller blue box. Use Original Boot Configuration is ticked but not active.

Under the services tab there are a lot "running" but I am afraid I do not know what most mean. eg There is one called Telephony that is ticked and running.

 

Cheers

[Dalo Harkin]

Onloy change the startup ones for now and apply and exit or just ok it.

It then brings up a box saying restart now or later.

choose now and see if its any better - Google you can also untick if you want as from memory you can manually update it from Control Panel

[Salinger]

Thanks for your reply.

Have amended start up programs but does not make any difference.

System appears to lock up / go really slow when opening browser and e-mail at same time, sometimes with Microsoft Security Essentials updating at the same time.

Thought the Dual Core processor would stop that happening.

Last question, what improvement would an extra 1 gb of RAM make ?

Many thanks

[RandyL]

Just my opinion but I think 2Gb Ram is mininum for running Vista. I used to think Vista could squeak by with slightly less but having used it for quite some time I would reccomend 4Gb.

 

I currently have 2Gb on mine with Aero enabled and it normally runs fine. However with other intensive programs running it can slow down. A Mcafee virus scan for instance. If you throw in other programs running in the background it would be even worse.

 

After twice removing programs that were installed by family members I can tell you that not everything will show in the startup. Of course this includes viruses and trojans. Poker programs, P2P, torrents and games were a few others.

 

Like Dalo said though it's most likely that it's programs (or malware) that is eating your resources.

 

Adding memory might help but not if you have something installed that is eating it or if you have other issues.

 

A quick trip to our malware section may or may not shed some light on what you have running. Either way it's my personal opinion you should have at least 2Gb.

 

If it's a memory issue though Dalo knows more than I.

[Synapse]

Looking at the numbers, you do not even have 1GB to play with, some has been removed as shared video memory.

 

Best plan is as already suggested, upgrade to 2GB or even 3GB and you will be amazed at the difference.