Ram

[MrJag]

i had a memory stick go bad , i pulled it out and everything is working well again , but i took a peek in my system information
and i only have half or just under half of my total memory avalible
i cant see whats useing all of that , any helpfull hints how i can free some up? my sound and video are not chip set. only real difference i see having to remove the 1 stick of ram is i zone slower , was thinking if i could free up some of whats left it could help that.

thanks

the self taught computer noob

[RexChaos]

Shut down everything you don't need to play with in the taskbar. No IM's, no update wizards, no audio or video players, and check the startup folder in the start menu. Get rid of stuff in there as well. Also kicking the textures down a notch and turning off a couple models will give you better performance and shorter load times.

[MrJag]

thanks

only thing ever running on my task bar is my vol controll
my start ups are bare min and when i boot first thing i do is shut
down what few prosesses (ctrl alt del) ther is i can play with out
i really dont know a ton but was wondering could it be
windows xp that uses up so much ram ?? my new hardware has been shipped for my other comp so ill be on that one soon its far better but i still would like this one working to its potenial
granted its a dell so thers only so much that can be done lol

[ltlruss]

XP is a huge memory hog. How much RAM do you have. I'm not an expert but I think that 512 is probably about the minimum you'd want to run.

[MrJag]

im down to 256mb 333ddr had 1 stick go bad but only 125mb
avalible :/

just ordered a stick 1gig 433ddr with copper heat spreader but thats for my other system,
i think ill just have to replace the stick that went bad in here but its not priority was just wondering if i could free any up some how

thanks for all the help

[ltlruss]

There are some memory managers out there that you can download. They really just refresh your RAM. I believe that you can set some of them to refresh when your available gets down to a set limit. You can also manually refresh if you want to. I don't remember the name of the one that I used to use. You can probably find something on download.com. Don't know exactly how much that will help but I don't think it would hurt.

[RexChaos]

Ah yes...XP is a big ram hog indeed. That's the problem. There's no hidden problem really. You just simply do not have enough ram to run smoothly. Buy some ram. I like www.pcinfinity.net for my parts. No shipping at all. You pay a small insurance fee (like a dollar something) when you order, but that's it. Getting a whole pc shipped for a dollar or two is a nice deal.

[smogo]

just wondering if i could free any up some how

Yeah, just get rid of Win XP !

No kidding, if you don't need your spare box to run Win, just consider running linux, or free BSD. It's free, runs smoother multi-task, and you get the same services for about 20 Mb memory footprints as a 100+Mb WinXP.

[samandhi]

On the side of the box that contains the windows xp cd you will see that the minimum requirements are 256mb of ram... This does not mean you CANT run it on less, but you will be running very slow... and even run out of memory from time to time. IE>> working with graphics and such.

Other than windows 3.1 Microsoft products are NOT very streamlined as far as memory and performance are concerned, unless you have hardware that is overkill, in which case ANYTHING will run on your system hehe.

[Daeklaz]

Another thing you might want to do to maximize the memory avaliable:

If you have Windows XP do a Ctrl+Alt+Delete and Click on the Processes Tab - Click off Everything Except explorer.exe and rundll32.exe and all the stuff that says SYSTEM, NETWORK SERVICE and LOCAL SERVICE (DO NOT CLICK THOSE OFF) under the "User Name" Section

[RexChaos]

I just want to know who put the ram in the rama lama ding dong? Oh...and who put the bop in the bop shoo bop shoo bop?

Some answers continue to elude me even after countless years of searching...

[Arcadius57]

theres an easier way to free up for processor with out having to do it everyday... i think this works only if yu have xp, but im not sure... ok first, go to start, run, and type MSCONFIG, after that it brings up a new window with a few tabs on it. Click the starup tab, notice how everything check it in that windows, is running when you start up your computer, check off all the ones you dont want, or dont know what they do, keep stuff like your virus protection or whatever, i dont care. It'll ask you to re-start, do it... takes like 5 seconds outta your time... when you start up next time, only the stuff you want will be running and you freed up so much extra speed that was stuck bhind like your quicktime coming up and crap like that msging crap.... yeah it works trust me. (make system restore before just in case, did this on 98 and was not pretty)

[samandhi]

Well, if you want to go that deep, there is another way to free up used memory that you may want back, but only in windows nt, 2k, and xp, and 2003... Just open up control panel, then go to administrative rights, then go to services. There are tons of things in there that are NOT needed for a simple OS, but are used for businesses and stuff like that (generalizing a bit). But you SHOULD do a google search for some tips on what you can safely turn off.. But this WILL save more system memory than you would think.. .

[Lasiel]

Just hit Tweakxp.com and check out their gaming section. TONS of services load that aren't needed or even used by most ppl.