PC Crashed again with alarming message

[Lance]

Have you noticed any improvement, David?

[Simon]

Nice one, David! 

[David]

Have you noticed any improvement, David?

HI Lance its smother if that makes any sense and a lot quieter the clicking has disappeared completely and a lot quicker in comparison so Im very happy 

[Lance]

That's good then. Worth the effort!!

[David]

Nice one, David! 

Great lesson though first time took me 15 minutes by the time I had finished with the 3rd lot,taking out the old and then putting them back I did it in about 3 mins.....pity the 512 I have don't fit my other machine still at least I have the correct part number.lol The one upstairs has just 256 so Im going to put 2GB in that as well.now that should show a real difference.order them on Monday somehow I don't foresee any problems..I wonder why 

[Sebby]

256MB is very low, even for XP. 1GB would probably be fine, but the more the merrier, as they say.

[David]

  why not its size that counts don't let them say different 

[Sebby]

True.

[Glenn]

More is better, but more than 3.5gb on a 32bit OS is a waste of money, as 32 bit systems can't address more than that.

[Sebby]

Absolutely.

[Rik]

Interesting thought, David, but the clicking was probably the hard drive thrashing to keep up with page file demand.

[David]

I guessed this Rik,although Im dumb with these things it was the first thing that occurred to me its like its taken all the stress off the hard drive and made its work easier,I assumed it has much less to cope with now,and in theory should extend the life of the Hard Drive perhaps..ok Im guessing but it seems logical.I must say it is a lot faster dealing with the programmes,like photos and any installed programmes it is almost instant.
I don't know if there is much more to learn but Im staying with RAM where my learning is concerned as I want to know exactly about how it relates to the HD and also the role it plays.I have been reading and watching the videos so got an inkling but I don't want to go onto another part of all this before I am ready..that sounds as clear as mud but you may get my drift.
Glenns point is a good way to explain

[Rik]

Ideally, Windows runs everything in RAM, David. When it can't it starts to use the pagefile. That's when you hear the thrashing and see speeds drop. The more RAM you give Windows, up to the limits Glenn sets out, the better it runs. It works better still if you can move the pagefile from the C drive to another physical drive.

[BrianM]

I'v been following this thread and thanks for the info in the last few posts    I've been thinking of adding more Ram but lacked the confidence to do it as every simple task i do these days seems to go belly up.   Anyway i took Sebby's advice of earlier and bit the bullet.  I ordered an extra 512 MB stick last Thursday from Crucial as recommended by them, £15.26,  it arrived this morning and have added it to the existing 2 sticks (both 256MB). From start to finish it took me about 15 minutes.  Fired up the PC and it booted as normal, no messages or anything to alter, checked settings and it's showing 1GB.  Things are a lot faster now, working on photo's in Photoshop especially.              

[Rik]

Great news, Brian.  Photoshop will use all the RAM you give it.

[BrianM]

Thanks Rik, yes i've used Photoshop 7 for a few years but bought Elements 5 because it had the Raw facility and Elements seems to be more resource hungry than PS 7.

[Rik]

There was a time when PShp4 4 couldn't cope with a gig of RAM as Adobe didn't think anyone could afford it. Now it will east as much as you give it. I allow it 85% of my 3.5GB.

[BrianM]

Thanks Rik for reminding me, I allowed 40% of my old 512MB so i've just upped the allowance to 70% of my new 1GB ram, should that be ok or would it be ok to allow a bit more? 

[Sebby]

Ideally, Windows runs everything in RAM, David. When it can't it starts to use the pagefile. That's when you hear the thrashing and see speeds drop. The more RAM you give Windows, up to the limits Glenn sets out, the better it runs. It works better still if you can move the pagefile from the C drive to another physical drive.

I have my pagefile disabled.

[Rik]

I've always been told that's bad practice, Seb, as it messes with Windows memory handling.

[Steve]

Agreed Rik, as the OS commits a certain amount of memory to an application that may not eventually be required,so in fact this could lead to a performance decrease as a certain amount of "free" physical memory is unavailable.

[Rik]

Thanks for confirming that, Steve.

[Sebby]

I've read different things, Rik. What I can say is I've been running it for months without a hitch. The problem is that Windows does use the pagefile even when there is RAM available, so in my case, having 2GB RAM is a waste unless I disable the pagefile.

There are some registry tweaks if you disable the pagefile - perhaps this resolves the problems that disabling it can have?

[Steve]

I guess you could run into trouble though with 2Gb,no pagefile and vista

[David]

I'v been following this thread and thanks for the info in the last few posts    I've been thinking of adding more Ram but lacked the confidence to do it as every simple task i do these days seems to go belly up.   Anyway i took Sebby's advice of earlier and bit the bullet.  I ordered an extra 512 MB stick last Thursday from Crucial as recommended by them, £15.26,  it arrived this morning and have added it to the existing 2 sticks (both 256MB). From start to finish it took me about 15 minutes.  Fired up the PC and it booted as normal, no messages or anything to alter, checked settings and it's showing 1GB.  Things are a lot faster now, working on photo's in Photoshop especially.              

Nice one Brian  wish I had read this forum first