markgaskell007

Distinguished
Jun 9, 2002
13
0
18,510
Hi, all
i was wondering if more ram is always better? I currently have 512mb of SDram and a 1.4 AMD athlon cpu. Sometimes programs take longer than they should laoding up. i may have about 3 things running at once, an internet site, media player and kazaa. If i'm changing from these programs every now and again it often takes longer than necessary to load up (Sometimes it looks as my PC has frozen). Will more ram solve this problem of 'slow down' or may it be my psu which is only 250watt.

Any help will be greatful
Thanks Mark.
 

HammerBot

Distinguished
Jun 27, 2002
1,342
0
19,290
It has allready been pointed out that a too small PSU can cause many problems. But I must add that its STABILITY problems. If your system runs stable (no BSODs, sudden crashes etc.) your PSU is good for now. Slow loading of apps etc. is not caused by a insufficient PSU.

Further 512MB should be enough for anybody (dont quote me on that. I just suddenly remember the famous '640KB should be enough for anybody' :smile: ) so with the apps you are running, more memory will not make any difference.

You probably have a software problem. Check the task manager for processes taking up CPU time when the system appears slow.
 

Jeff68005

Distinguished
May 4, 2001
279
0
18,780
512 should be okay. I have one MB that 512 is the max.
I have another MB that will go 768. The one negative for more memory is the CPU overhead to keep it refreshed. There is trade-off. The slower your CPU, the bigger the tradeoff matters.
I don't know much about kazaa. The other two don't take that much.

Every working computer must be improved .... or replaced ...
 

HammerBot

Distinguished
Jun 27, 2002
1,342
0
19,290
The one negative for more memory is the CPU overhead to keep it refreshed. There is trade-off. The slower your CPU, the bigger the tradeoff matters.
No. The CPU is not involved in refresh. A separate memory controller does this. But yes, total memory bandwidth is reduced due to refresh cycles. And more memory means more refresh cycles. But the overhead is so marginal that I doubt it is of any practical consequence.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Kazaa is most probably your problem. There are like forty different adware programs that auto install during the Kazaa install. You might try Kazaa Lite.

I was getting the same problem with my system, removed Kazaa and all is well. Now I make my lttle girl and my wife do their Kazaaing on there own machines. My computer has been liberated, but I sure feel for those other computers.
 

trashstar

Distinguished
Sep 24, 2002
5
0
18,510
i'm not too sure it's the spyware that's the problem...

i've been running kazaaLite for a while now (and i ad-aware check my system every two or three days), and it hogs system resources like nothing i've seen before. must be quite badly written code.

audiogalaxy, won't you please come back? *sob*

/jac
 

JPWRana

Distinguished
May 2, 2002
114
0
18,680
yeah... i miss audiogalaxy... only prog. that got me AALLLLL the songs i requested!!! that was an amazing prog. for me.

Anyways, how can i check if my pc has adware, spyware, and any other of those annoying warez that are out there? And what are all of the types of warez out there?

The greatest risk of all is not taking one!
 

bum_jcrules

Distinguished
May 12, 2001
2,186
0
19,780
Not always but I don't want to get into it...

As HammerBot so nicely shared it is not the PSU.

As knewton brought up the point of applications with unused .dlls and junk running in the background...Let me add this to see if this helps.

Try downloading two programs to help you manage you memory setup.

<b>Cacheman 5.11</b> by Outer Technologies

and...

<b>Memory Cleaner for Window 2.4.02</b> by Alian Carmagnat.

<A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/bum_jcrules/Memory-Tweak-and-Benchmarking-Page.html" target="_new">You can download both here.</A>


I also would like to know what OS you are running and what you have your <font color=red><b>*</font color=red></b>VM/PF levels set at. (<font color=red><b>*</font color=red></b><b>V</b>irtual <b>M</b>emory / <b>P</b>aging <b>F</b>ile) I also am wondering, when your system grinding away while loading, does everything seem to hang while you HDD (Hard Disk Drive) is going nuts?

<b>"If I melt dry ice in a bathtub, can I take a bath without getting wet?" - Steven Wright</b>
 

trashstar

Distinguished
Sep 24, 2002
5
0
18,510
well, i'm not an expert, but lavasoft 's( http://www.lavasoftusa.com ) ad-aware is good, but it really needs the newest signature files to work satisfying. but all that's available at ther homepage.

the other questions i'll leave for other, more recourseful ppl to answer.

/jac
________________________________________
a.f.e.e.l.i.n.g.c.a.l.l.e.d.j.o.c.k.e
http://trashstar.com
________________________________________
 
G

Guest

Guest
ya, ad-aware with the latest ref files. I have been using that too. it seems pretty good.
 

markgaskell007

Distinguished
Jun 9, 2002
13
0
18,510
The operating system i'm running is windows XP, i'm not sure how to check the virtual memory or the paging file but the HDD drive sometimes does sound if it's going nuts when loading
 

slvr_phoenix

Splendid
Dec 31, 2007
6,223
1
25,780
Yikes! XP!

There are probably a million invisible gremlins running around and throwing mud and rocks in the gears.

Oh ... wait ... this isn't Xanth... This is mundania!

I mean there are probably a million background tasks being 'managed' by XP that are clogging up your system's resources badly.

<pre><A HREF="http://www.nuklearpower.com/comic/186.htm" target="_new"><font color=red>It's all relative...</font color=red></A></pre><p>