Will more RAM fix this performance issue?

[james2008]

I'm wondering how much of a performance improvement I'll get if I increase my RAM from 1GB to 2GB (or 3GB, depending on cost). I'd only be buying one more chip.

Right now, in XP, I get a long delay when restoring large applications that have been idle for a while. The hard disk spins like crazy during the delay. Web browsers, some office applications, Acrobat, and some other applications are affected.

I ran XP's "performance monitor" utility to see how often the swap file is accessed. I don't think it's accessed very often at all. So I'm not sure if I'll see a difference from extra RAM, or whether it's worth it.

[Neil]

With the cost of RAM for the T6x what it is today, I would not hesitate to add a 2GB stick. It will very likely help with the problem, but for the money, it sure can't hurt anything including the wallet.

Any applications that are still running, whether idle for a long time or not, should still be in RAM, so restoring them should be almost instantaneous. But if you are seeing a lot of hard drive activity during this delay, that would sure seem to indicate a shortage of RAM. But, on the other hand, XP is not very good at memory management, so while more RAM will help, a better OS would be more of a solution.

[Tasurinchi]

I also agree with Neil, it won't harm having totally 2GB or 3GB RAM, it's not expensive and I think it's worth the money. If your applications are not CPU intensive a RAM upgrade will be better than a CPU upgrade.

Another thing you may try is checking that your HDD is not full, maybe clean some temp files and defrag the disk.

My 0,02 cents...

[AMATX]

go to 3G total right away. Classic signs of a paging/memory constraint situation.

[RealBlackStuff]

My 0,02 cents...

That's a rather worthless advice: 2/100 (two/onehundredth) of 1 cent
It should be:
My 2 cents
OR
My $0.02 (notice the full stop between the zeros)
or in your (Swiss) case:
My 2 Rappen
OR
My CHF0.02

[Tasurinchi]

DOH!! I have to review my financial math skills...

That sould have been then my 2 Rappen advice... (around 2.5 US cents with the current rates )

[AndrewTo]

I think itz more abt ur hdd prob
get a SSD, used SSD 50gb Vertex 2 is really affordable
after u tried SSD, there will be no return

[james2008]

An SSD is tempting, but I don't want to put that much money into the computer. It was manufactured in 2006, and I think some expensive components may be on their last legs.

Hopefully an extra 1.5GB of RAM will help. I'm hoping the HDD is accessed when apps are restored because there isn't enough RAM. That doesn't really make sense given the numbers I'm seeing. For example, the "commit charge" total in task manager rarely exceeds the amount of physical memory. And during sessions when I've had the performance problem, the peak is also often below the total physical memory (e.g., right now it's at 840MB, and I have 1GB of RAM. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that only a portion of the physical memory is available for task-switching type functions?). Still, the RAM was cheap enough that I'm willing to take the risk that it doesn't make a difference.

[dsvochak]

While I agree increasing ram is appropriate, this:

I get a long delay when restoring large applications that have been idle for a while. The hard disk spins like crazy during the delay

sounds what I've seen as the first signs of drive failure (hitting bad sectors, etc.). I'd run a thorough drive test.

[james2008]

I didn't find any errors from two tests, but I'm not sure they're the best ones. I ran the hard drive test accessible through the BIOS, and PC-Doctor 5's extended hard drive test (which includes the SMART status test, SMART extended self test, random seek test, funnel seek test, and two surface scan tests).

I have a Hitachi drive, so I tried getting the Hitachi drive fitness test, but the site is inaccessible. Is there anything else I should run?

[james2008]

Thanks for recommending RAM. I removed a 512MB chip and replaced it with a 2GB chip, and I feel like I have a new computer. The task-switching lag and hard-drive churning seem to be completely gone.

I ran Memtest86 before and after installing the new RAM, and noticed something odd. Before, the "Chipset" and "Settings" lines read as follows:

Chipset : Intel i945GM/PM (ECC : Disabled) - FSB : 166 MHz - Type : DDR2
Settings : RAM : 332 MHz (DDR 665) / CAS : 5-5-5-15 / Dual Channel (Interleaved)

Now, those fields say:

Chipset : Intel i945GM/PM (ECC : Disabled) - FSB : 304 MHz - Type : DDR2
Settings: RAM : 609 MHz (DDR 1219) / CAS : 5-5-5-15 / Dual Channel (Asymmetric)

Does this mean that the 512MB chip I removed may have been slowing things down, somehow?