When upgrading the RAM do you need to....?

[Delmarco]

Also have to reconfigure the "virtual memory"?

I've upgraded my T41 from 768MB to 2GB of RAM and notice I've been having some boot up lags.

At any rate I also did the same upgrade to my DELL XPS 200 Desktop PC and as soon as the RAM was upgraded to 2GB the "DELL Support Pop Up" told me it needed "to reconfigure the virtual memory and warned that the computer may be experiencing performance lags as a result of recent hardware change"

I also at the sametime upgraded the DELL's harddrive from 80 GB to 250 GB and was wondering if the virtual memory had to do with one of those things and if I applied to my IBM T41?

Thanks.

[digwarrior]

Did you reinstall Windows after the memory upgrade?
I might be wrong, but I was under the impression that you have to reinstall Win XP after you've upgraded system memory, as it does not "see" it...

if you go to my computer->properties, what does it tell you - 2Gb or 768Mb?

[brentpresley]

Did you reinstall Windows after the memory upgrade?
I might be wrong, but I was under the impression that you have to reinstall Win XP after you've upgraded system memory, as it does not "see" it...

if you go to my computer->properties, what does it tell you - 2Gb or 768Mb?

Um, this is completely false. Computer manufacturers would KILL microsoft if that were the case.

[cmarti]

With IBM T4x you just need to open the memory cover or remove the keyboard install the memory. Turn on the lappy and that is all. It will be recognized don`t worries

[digwarrior]

Um, this is completely false. Computer manufacturers would KILL microsoft if that were the case.

Ah, I think it stuck in my memory since some RAM incompatibility issues I'd come across in the past... never mind...

[GomJabbar]

It is true that with at least some older computers, you had to go into the BIOS and reinitialize it for the added memory to work properly. I do not think this is the case with the T41, but I am not sure. To do this, you just enter the BIOS menu, save changes and exit.

There is an Extended Memory test option in the BIOS. Normally this should be Disabled to speed up boot times.

Enable or disable the Extended Memory Test and initialization during boot. Enabling this function will increase boot time. Recent operating systems usually do not require Extended Memory Initialization.

There is also a Quick Boot Mode option in the BIOS. Normally this should be set to Quick to speed up boot times.

Screen during POST:
Quick: IBM and ThinkPad Logo screen is displayed.
Diagnostics: Test messages are displayed.

Beep at POST completion:
Quick: No. Sound on error case only
Diagnostics: Yes. Always sounds.

"Ctrl-S" prompt for Intel on-board Ethernet:
Quick: No.
Diagnostics: Yes.

Memory testing during POST:
Quick: Quick test (or no test).
Diagnostics: Full test.

Testing other devices during POST:
Quick: Minimum test (or no test).
Diagnostics: Can perform necessary testing for critical devices

[bill bolton]

I do not think this is the case with the T41, but I am not sure.

Its not. Just plug in the memory and go!

For absolute confirmation that a T4x has actually recognised additional memory has been installed, the most straight forward method is to use the ThinkPad System Configuration utility.

Cheers,

Bill

[Delmarco]

Thanks guys. I looked at the BIOS and it recognized the memory.

[rickg17]

Re the virtual memory... this is normally set to let Windows manage it, so that the size of the VM file will automagically adapt to the new memory size. However, if you've manually configured this, you may need/want to update it. Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance > Virutal Memory/Settings.

[davidspalding]

Re the virtual memory... this is normally set to let Windows manage it, so that the size of the VM file will automagically adapt to the new memory size. However, if you've manually configured this, you may need/want to update it. Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance > Virutal Memory/Settings.

Rick's right, letting Windows manage the size is the easiest thing to do, but if you want to do it manually, many people recommend 200% of physical RAM initial size, and 300% manual size, up to 1 GB. E.g., if you have 512 MB RAM, set initial size 1024 MB, and max size 1536.

With 2 GB, I'm not sure so much is needed, and have tinkered from time to time making it smaller (2 GB pagefile). But finally ... I just let Windows do it.

Either way, you shouldn't have see boot lags if you'd had a pagefile sufficient for 768 MB RAM.

The Dell behavior sounds like something Dell computers do. Don't expect others to be so clunky.

[Kyocera]

I tried turning page file off completely in my t30 since it has a gig of memory just to see if anything screwed up. It ran fine even with multiple programs (word, paperport, adobe reader, and i.e.) running. I know these aren't huge memory hogging programs but i just wanted to see at what point page file would really be benificial.

[dash7540]

If you want to know more about virtual memory, read this very comprehensive article at Adrian's Rojak Pot:

http://www.rojakpot.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=143

First of all, turning off virtual memory is actually a bad idea, even if you have a large amount (i.e. 1-2GB+) of physical RAM, since Windows and many applications require virtual memory to operate correctly/efficiently.

Secondly, the rule that you should set your virtual memory 2x, 2.5x, 3x, etc. to the size of your physical RAM is really not a good guideline, since in many cases it tends to either waste HD space by making a paging file that's too large or end up having an insufficient amount.

I suppose for most people it would be ok to just let Windows manage the virtual memory size, however, the default setting is usually not efficient and can lead to paging file fragmentation.

A better way to determine how much virtual memory you should have allocated is to bring up the Task Manager and look under the Performance tab; if you look at the Commit Charge section you should see three values: Total, Limit, and Peak. If I remember correctly, the Total is your current PF usage; the Limit is your physical RAM + virtual RAM; and the Peak is the highest amount of memory that has been required by applications during your current session. Run your most resource intensive applications, and if your Peak reaches or exceeds the Limit, then make your paging file larger to smooth out performance. If your Peak is always drastically lower than the Limit, then you can make your paging file smaller to save some HD space. I also have the paging file set to a static size (512MB minimum, 512MB maximum) so that way it won't become fragmented.

[christopher_wolf]

Just a quick note, Virtual memory isn't exactly the same as the paging file...there are some differences. Depending on what you do, a large paging file might or might not help; Windows, however, will always have some VM in the background as you can never really turn it off. See

http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... -us;555223

Virtual memory will always be in use and can't really be turned off.

Virtual Memory != Page file usage

HTH

[davidspalding]

Quite right, the virtual memory = pagefile myth probably dates back to how Windows 3.1(1) did it.