Ram

[R2D2]

I have a Presario 2111EA laptop which I think came with 256mb of RAM. I then doubled this I presume to 512mb using the empty slot. Recently my computer hasnt seemed very fast so I looked in System properties and it says "Physical memory" 192mb?????

How do I check what memory I actually have and then how do I check what the computer thinks I have??

Go slowly I'm not an IT person!
Thanks

 

[Satch]

For a start download and run this. Sort of a system audit utilty and give you details of everything the machine thinks on board plus history of Windows updates. Might not be recognising your new memory

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

 

[machasm]

What is the memory that you fitted?
According to crucial.com you should be using 200 pin sodimm pc2100 DDR unbufferred NON-ECC DRAM.
Might be you have wrong type fitted.
Also what OS are you running? Earlier OSes had problems with larger amounts of memory.
Lastly, is the BIOS up to date and able to handle the modules that you have fitted?

Mac.

 

[R2D2]

Thanks satch that was really useful. I appear to have a 1.8ghz processor 20gb hard drive and
under memory it says:

192 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'M1' is Empty
Slot 'M2' has 128 MB
Slot 'M3' has 128 MB

I therefore only had I presume 128 when the machine was new, then I doubled it to 256mb but why does t say I've got 192??

 

[R2D2]

What is the memory that you fitted?
According to crucial.com you should be using 200 pin sodimm pc2100 DDR unbufferred NON-ECC DRAM.
Might be you have wrong type fitted.
Also what OS are you running? Earlier OSes had problems with larger amounts of memory.
Lastly, is the BIOS up to date and able to handle the modules that you have fitted?

Mac.

Is what you just written in French??

 

[W210 Fan]

If you have an onboard graphics solution it could be nicking some of your system memory for itself as it probably wont have separate memory. If you look in your BIOS chances are that your graphics is set to 64Mb which is where it has gone to, 256-64=192. you could set this lower if you are only doing office/internet, 32 should be OK and will free up some system memory.

 

[R2D2]

Ah that makes sense! So what i really need is more RAM??

 

[Satch]

Thanks satch that was really useful. I appear to have a 1.8ghz processor 20gb hard drive and
under memory it says:

192 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'M1' is Empty
Slot 'M2' has 128 MB
Slot 'M3' has 128 MB

I therefore only had I presume 128 when the machine was new, then I doubled it to 256mb but why does t say I've got 192??

So where is the 256MB you installed? Possible that the 128 +128 (=256) is actually the original and that M1 is the spare slot.

My ancient IBM laptop slowed down to a crawl last year and it turned out that the "extra" memory card had slightly jumped out of the very fiddley socket.

But I know some machines will simply not recognise extra RAM unless you do something in th e BIOS. Very helpful I know but never had that problem

 

[R2D2]

According to crucial.com you should be using 200 pin sodimm pc2100 DDR unbufferred NON-ECC DRAM.
Mac.

Ah I looked up crucial and now understand. My machine is running fine I just need for ram!!

 

[R2D2]

I have lost track of computers these days where does my machine sit in the market. Is it still OK or now a dinosaur??

 

[Satch]

I have lost track of computers these days where does my machine sit in the market. Is it still OK or now a dinosaur??

If (when) it has got enough RAM should be fine for all basic purposes such as browsing, email, word processing & spreadsheets unless they are vast.

But beyond that all depends what you want to run on it.

What cripples a lot of potentially reasonable machines is lack of memory, no or a rubbish graphics card, something like Norton 2005 chugging the processor, having too many useless background applications running and having more than one Windows user profile on the machine. That just eats up RAM as the idle profile(s) still seem to hover in the background when not in use.

 

[PJH]

I have lost track of computers these days where does my machine sit in the market. Is it still OK or now a dinosaur??

There are lots of Performance Tests available.
http://www.passmark.com/ used in Norton System Works

 

[R2D2]

Thanks for your help guys! I ordered the correct type of RAM from Crucial yesterday afternoon and it arrived this morning! I now have 640mb of Ram and that has doubled the performance of the computer. Thanks again! PS. I now have a spare stick of 128mb 200 pin SODIMM DDR.........