Presario w/Intel Celeron 1.76GHz & 128RAM will another 512 help much?

[Denvers Dawgs]

I have an old Compaq Presario Intel Celeron 1.76GHz with 128mb/RAM that I gave my parents to use online and stuff. It is slow as hell. Takes for ever to boot up and start virus software. Programs/folders take forever to open. If I were to put an additional 512mb/RAM would that help increase load/open times or does that all have to do with the processor?

[SingSing]

Put in XP and at least 256MB RAM.

[Denvers Dawgs]

Forgot to mention it is running XP, actually that's why it is probably slow as hell. XP needs at least 512mb or that's what is recommended. So if I put in an additional 512 + original 128 = 640mb that should help with the speeding up of programs/folders?

[JerryB]

Forgot to mention it is running XP, actually that's why it is probably slow as hell. XP needs at least 512mb or that's what is recommended. So if I put in an additional 512 + original 128 = 640mb that should help with the speeding up of programs/folders?

hi,
Yes for a winxp adding more ram t your present 128 megs will help a lot.... wixp like at least 512.. smile.... but also a good idea...
1. purge the internet cache, clear history files and defrag..... improves a lot of things.
2. is go into your msconfig.exe>startup tab.... and disable all needless programs that startup at windows boot.. this will improve performance and stability of the system!!

[edDV]

Forgot to mention it is running XP, actually that's why it is probably slow as hell. XP needs at least 512mb or that's what is recommended. So if I put in an additional 512 + original 128 = 640mb that should help with the speeding up of programs/folders?

It shouldn't have worked with 128MB at all.

256MB is very tight for XP.

128+256=384MB should be considered a working minimum today. 512MB or better if doing anything with video.

[bevills1]

When's the last time Disk Cleanup and Defrag were run? Running those periodically will also help regardless of system memory, but any system running Win2k or later should have 256 MB memory minimum and 512 MB is even better as already stated by others.

[Denvers Dawgs]

defraged recently, clean up as well, Already changed start up to mainly be xp needs and antivirus. I'll get them another 512 and that should do them fine....It's not like I'm going to be using it....haha

[Conquest10]

It shouldn't have worked with 128MB at all.

I used to run it at 64mb and it was a lot smoother than ME. Right now, I'm at 192mb.

[Super Warrior]

Forgot to mention it is running XP, actually that's why it is probably slow as hell. XP needs at least 512mb or that's what is recommended. So if I put in an additional 512 + original 128 = 640mb that should help with the speeding up of programs/folders?

Contrary to what others would have you believe,Windows XP does not require that much ram and 256MB would be about right. My new Dell Laptop has a 1.4Ghz Celeron and 256MB ram, and it runs XP fast with no problems.

Sounds to me like the problem lies with whats there currently, did your parents know how to maintain a computer properly without it getting all bogged down? It probabley has a bunch of unescessary programs & junk opening all at once taking up all its memory. How long has it been since scandisk+Defrag were ran on the Hard drive? That can slow things down a lot if it has'ent and everything is all cluttered up.

If no valueble files are left on the comp i'd say just reformat and erase all the old junk, then do a clean reinstall of Windows.

[kschang]

The amount of mem XP needs depends seriously on the amount of programs being loaded and/or run.

I have 1 GIG of RAM, - 64MB for built-in video, and after booting I get about 400+ megs free. So technically I could have lived with 640 MB. However, if I load several programs in a row and run them together my "free RAM' amount drops quickly to nothing.

So again, it all depends.

[Super Warrior]

The amount of mem XP needs depends seriously on the amount of programs being loaded and/or run.

I have 1 GIG of RAM, - 64MB for built-in video, and after booting I get about 400+ megs free. So technically I could have lived with 640 MB. However, if I load several programs in a row and run them together my "free RAM' amount drops quickly to nothing.

So again, it all depends.

If you have 1GB ram and only 400MBs free after startup, you must have a lot of junk loading up in the background. Do you use any of whats loaded most of the time?

I go to: Start>Run>Type Msconfig>Startup menu: Then disable all the stuff that might needlessly auto-load upon boot up when i don't need it too, and use up memory. So no extra stuff loads unless i want it too.

With that i do quite well with 256MB ram in XP.

[edDV]

It shouldn't have worked with 128MB at all.

I used to run it at 64mb and it was a lot smoother than ME. Right now, I'm at 192mb.

It all depends on what application software you are using. This is a video forum. Many video apps are large. Even MS office would choke on 128MB. I just rebooted here and XP is using 134MB (58MB Kernal and 134 "Commit Charge") before opening anything other than Firefox. And that is with antivirus turned off.

When you exceed physical memory, Windows or any OS thrashes the HDD with virtual RAM page calls and slows to a crawl.

There are ways to run XP with a much smaller footprint if that is your goal. See
http://www.litepc.com/xplite.html

[edDV]

I revised my figures above after another reboot.

[Denvers Dawgs]

Some may be confused. This computer my parents are using was one of my old computers. I deleted/removed all software that they would not use, so it is stripped down to basic MS, Internt, and photo programs. I have cleaned the harddrive (defrag, disc cleanup), scanned it for any spyware that I may have left behind (clean), and did virus check (clean). I also have only the necessary apps running at startup (anti-virus, etc) I don't want them to spend $$ money on this system, so I said that adding RAM would be the cheapest and easiest for me to do ( I don't want to bother with this machine at all). So I posted just to see if adding 512mb SDRAM would help with the slow windows start up, and slow application startups.

[ROF]

Adding the RAM to this system would certainly help. Your parents are not probably going to be using memory intensive programs or be bleeding the edge of that system. If you have a single 128MB stick in that machine I'd add another 128MB and be done with it. If all memory slots are full I'd pull all the RAM buy a 256MB or 512MB stick and again be done with the system. If you pull the RAM list it on Ebay. You'd be quite surprised at what morons actually pay for it on there. You may make most if not all your money back doing that.

[jtoolman2000]

Do your parents really need XP? I have an even older Compac Presario Pentium 3 500 megahurtz PC with just over 300 MBs of ram and lousy 8 mb on board integrated video. On XP it is a total DOG. Running on its original Windows 98 OS and sepcially after a full cleaan install ( Easy as hell to do with the simple image disk it came with ) it runs nice and zippy. I even used to rum Photoshop V4 ( old but totally able to do anything anyone may need ) and it ran effortlessly. On XP Pro it is a 100% piece of crap. Yours is 3x faster than mine and should even run better on an earlier, not so resource intensive OS

[guns1inger]

98 is no longer supported by Microsoft (hasn't been for some time), which can present problems when seeking support in other areas. A number of ISPs now refuse to assist clients who are running windows 98 because it is no longer a supported OS.

[Denvers Dawgs]

OK guys, I think I'm just gonna upgrade some ram and be done with it. If need be I'll try the ebay idea, not sure what number of slots are in the pc or are being used at the moment (haven't checked it in years).

So thanks for all the help......and no need for others to reply

I wish topic starters had the ability to close a thread when their problem gets solved.


I'm considering this thread Closed

[Super Warrior]

OK guys, I think I'm just gonna upgrade some ram and be done with it. If need be I'll try the ebay idea, not sure what number of slots are in the pc or are being used at the moment (haven't checked it in years).

So thanks for all the help......and no need for others to reply

I wish topic starters had the ability to close a thread when their problem gets solved.


I'm considering this thread Closed

What makes you think your problem is solved? I'd be willing to bet that even when upgradeing the ram to 256MB or even 512MB, you'll still have problems. Do you know EVERYTHING your parents did on there? In addition to any settings they may have unknowingly screwed up, you could have spyware and viruses on there too.

Before you bother to psysically upgrade it, i'd suggest to try reformating the hard drive clean and reinstalling XP fresh.

My Dell laptop with its 1.4Ghz Celeron and 256MBs runs XP fast with no issues. Your laptop seems to be about as powerfull, if it can't run XP decently, then the problem probabley does not lye with the psysical hardware itself.

[rkr1958]

98 is no longer supported by Microsoft (hasn't been for some time), which can present problems when seeking support in other areas. A number of ISPs now refuse to assist clients who are running windows 98 because it is no longer a supported OS.

Not true, support for 98 ends this July according to http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/default.asp

End of support for Windows 98 and Windows Me
Effective July 11, 2006, Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Me (and their related components) will transition to a non-supported status. After this date, Microsoft will no longer provide any incident support options or security updates. Microsoft is not offering a custom support agreement for these products.

[Denvers Dawgs]

Super[/url] Warrior]

What makes you think your problem is solved? I'd be willing to bet that even when upgradeing the ram to 256MB or even 512MB, you'll still have problems. Do you know EVERYTHING your parents did on there? In addition to any settings they may have unknowingly screwed up, you could have spyware and viruses on there too.

Before you bother to psysically upgrade it, i'd suggest to try reformating the hard drive clean and reinstalling XP fresh.

My Dell laptop with its 1.4Ghz Celeron and 256MBs runs XP fast with no issues. Your laptop seems to be about as powerfull, if it can't run XP decently, then the problem probabley does not lye with the psysical hardware itself.

My parents haven't even used the computer yet. And it was one of my older computers so I know what was done/changed on it. I just set this old computer up for them. I find it slow, noticed it was running 128mb ram, asked if 512 would help some, and then got all these posts about changine OS and stuff. Also, if you would have taken the time to read a previous post of mine, you would know that I have scanned for Spy/adware and viruses. All I asked was would an additional 512mb ram possibly help with the startup/apps. That's all. So I decided to get the ram. It's no big deal because I got the ram real cheap, and it is crucial ram, so I know it's decent.

Maybe it is just me thinking it's slow, because I'm used to P4w/HT and dualcore computers mainly.

I do thank everyone for replying

[Faustus]

Anytime you go over 512mb of Ram on a decent CPU its gonna help XP a WHOLE LOT.

edit: ah you decided already, good stuff

[MackemX]

hi,
Yes for a winxp adding more ram t your present 128 megs will help a lot.... wixp like at least 512.. smile.... but also a good idea...
1. purge the internet cache, clear history files and defrag..... improves a lot of things.
2. is go into your msconfig.exe>startup tab.... and disable all needless programs that startup at windows boot.. this will improve performance and stability of the system!!

a little off topic but can I ask why you type ....smile....?

cheers

[Conquest10]

It all depends on what application software you are using.

It also depends on how much RAM you have. The more you have, the more programs will use. On the computer with 192, for example, Zone Alarm only uses up 4-6MB at the most. On 512, it uses a minimum of 15MB. And that is just one example.