When I used a program to read how much of my 495 mb sdram is currently being used by the programs i have running in the background of my windows xp.
It showed that about 80% of my ram is currently being occupied by programs running in the background. Is this too much?
My computer is "stucky, not smooth" lately. I’ve checked with spybot and ad-aware there’s no spyware on my laptop. Also ran anti-virus and there’s no virus. I’ve cleaned my harddrive and registry with CCleaner and Ashampoo win optimizer. Lately, happened couple of days, i couldn’t even use my web browers[IE & firefox] to visit any websites! though i know i am connected online with my isp.
Could the 80% ram usage be the source of the problem? Also harddisk is 56Gb in total and now only about 6 gb freespace left. I’m running on Intel M processor 1.6 GHz. win XP sp3. Had the laptop for 6 years.
[side note: system went 'dead froze' several times [about 20? ] over the course of my 6 years usage. whenever that happens i just had to unplugged the power chord to turn off system abruptly without going thru proper ‘ turn off ‘ button in windows. Also had a few very hot summers so laptop couldn’t stand the heat so it auto ‘turned off’ by itself. though now bought the laptop fan cooler. Not sure if these conditions will damage the physical hardware of the system, but i hope it doesn’t…..]
What are your suggestions?
Only answer if you know the answer.
Thankyou very much.
The major deal might just be the age. Having been used for 6 years can wear on a computer. My other desktop is around 6 years old and was doing the same thing until I reformatted it. If it is using 80% constantly, I would suggest buying for RAM. Laptop RAM isn’t incredibly expensive and is easily installed. You can download a scanner tool at http://www.crucial.com and scan your hardware. It will tell you how much RAM you have and how much you can add. Along with the exact kind you need.
6GB is enough for the computer to run on. But at some point, unless you plan on getting a new laptop, I would suggest buying an external hard drive and moving some of your files over to it so you can free up space. Because as you continue using it, you will undoubtedly use up more hard drive space. Windows XP has programs that you can run to clean unnecessary stuff from your computer. Go to Start> Accessories>System Tools and run the Disk Clean Up and Disk Defragmentor. If you’ve never ran these before, and you rarely clean unneeded files from your computer, running those two will speed up your computer pretty well.
If the virus and spyware scanners came up clean, then the best thing to do so you can speed up your computer is going to Crucial and buying at least another stick of 512 RAM, if you can, add another Gig of RAM.
yes
Bascially, your laptop sucks.
You can imrpove it by upgrading the RAM
http://www.crucial.com/
You could also add a new HArd drive but not a new processor
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
Try upgrading the ram if possible if not time to buy a new laptop
You need to add more RAM and clean the junk on the hard drive. Watch this video it shows you how.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnbvOXzOTJ0
1-upgrade to 2 gig ram it wont cost a lot around 40 dollars
2- press ctrl+alt+delete (task manger) go to process and end all the process ur not using
3-formate your computer
4-go to run ans type msconfig and disable all the stratup programs
wish i helped
Good Luck
WARNING: Do not do what MMM tells you to do. Formating a harddrive will fuck up all your files on the computer.
Formating a harddrive is done only after one has completely deleted everything on the harddrive. Repeat do not do that.
And sure getting more RAM always speeds up a computer a little, sometimes real noticeably. SDRAM is for older computers an is indeed cheap these days. Don’t ya think you should find the maximum Ram your motherboard can support before buying more.
Sure, his second step abot CTRL-ALT-Delete will open task manager and you can END TASK on some processes that are running but without specific knowledge of which to end task on you’ll end up restarting your computer and those processes (background services) will start all over again.
My suggestion:
Free up some hard drive space by uninstalling some programs you no longer use by clicking Add Remove programs in the Control Panel, but be careful. Only remove programs you have personally added. That will increase your hard drive space. Then Increase pagefile size. You can look up what to do online, but only trust reliable sources.
Or make sure your first drive is a "master" and install a second hard drive as a "slave". Install additional programs and what ever else on the new additional drive.
Note: Your first drive will continue to be C: drive and the second new harddrive will be D: drive. This will give you additional storage space. But you’ll still need to increase the pagefile size of drive C..
If this is too technical for you, take your computer to a repair shop and tell them the problem. Also tell them you want an additional harddrive installed. With most laptops you’d want an external usb Harddrive added. In which case disregard the internal installation procedures.
PS The Spybot remover and Registry cleaner program you recently installed are probably responsible for slowing your computer way down. Most of those online programs are developed by beginners who are just trying to get money by getting "hits" on their websites by the number of downloads they get. Remember what I said about "reliable sources" I’d say you need to read up on how to maintain your compter properly. If you are still unable to connect to the net and can’t figure out what to do, take it to a repair shop. They’ll restore your computer system to proper operating condition.