Issues after RAM update in R50e series

[rachitdhasmana]

Hi all

I am using IBM r50e thinkpad, recently i upgraded its memory by adding a new 1GB DDR1 RAM at other free slot.
the overall performance of the system has improved to an extent but not like i expected. plus it takes hell lot of time while opening and shutting down.

my hardware engineer suggested, since the windows xp was installed at time when ram was just 256, thats why while start up system considers only 256 mb of memory. and if i need to improve the start up speed i need to format and re-install my windows with upgraded memory.

pls provide me with the best possible solution.

can it be corrected without formatting and re-installation


regards
Rachit

[rkawakami]

The only thing that might need to be "adjusted" on your hard drive when adding more memory to a system would be the (hidden) paging and hibernation files. However, Windows should automatically take care of that for you. Re-formatting and re-installing the OS will not do anything other than possibly defragmenting your hard drive and clean out any programs that you've installed in the past and don't really need anymore (viruses and malware included).

If start up and shutdown speed is a concern, then I'd recommend that you defragment the disk drive first. Windows has a built in utility that does an okay job; there's other aftermarket programs which do a better job I hear. If you are using hibernate mode to shutdown and restart the system, then that time will increase slightly because you now have more memory to save/restore. In that case, the only way you might speed up that process would be to replace the hard drive with a faster unit (i.e., 7200rpm).