Do I need more RAM?

[Adcadet]

hey all -
as some of you may remember, I got a nice Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop a while back. I went with a single stick of 256MB RAM, thinking that I could add some later if I thought I needed it. So...how do I tell if I need more RAM? The computer does feel a litlte bit sluggish sometimes and it seems like my computer is swapping to it's HD frequently, but how do I check on this? Using the Task Manager, it always seems as though I have ~4 MB of physical memory left open - I assume this is a trick Windows (XP) uses to try to keep some RAM available for new applications, in which case I'm probably swapping at least some to my HD.

Thanks all!
Adcadet

 

[Mercutio]

Have you set you pagefile to a single size yet? Do that, and see if it's just XP being lame and randomly increasing/decreasing your swap file.

In general, especially with a laptop, where hitting the hard drive is really painful, the answer to your question is "yes, you need more RAM."

 

[Buck]

Adcadet,

It sounds like you need more RAM. Check your Physical Memory availability is a good start. On the same Performance tab in Task Manager, check your commit charge Peak and let us know what that is. But as it sounds, you'll need more memory anyway.

BR

 

[blakerwry]

4MB of available RAM???


Yeah, that 4mb was pretty common in winNT 4 setups.... but those are usually considered "Low memory" situations...


you might want to go through msconfig and get rid of any crap-ware that came with the computer or has been installed since then.

After that I would go to http://blkviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm and read through his list of what services you need and don't need in winXP.


After running these things, you will probably notice ~100MB of RAM is used on boot. If the applications you require push you over the limit of practical computing on your 256MB stick, I would then upgrade to 512MB.


I am not up to date on laptop upgrades... do you still have only 1 SODIMM slot? which often means throwing the 256MB stick away and replacing it with a 512MB stick.

 

[Mercutio]

The inspiron 8200 has two slots. I was just inside of one a couple hours ago, since one of my cow-orkers just got one.

 

[Adcadet]

The inspiron 8200 has two slots. I was just inside of one a couple hours ago, since one of my cow-orkers just got one.

Wow, thanks for the info guys!

My peak commit charge is currently listed at 243552 K. Does that mean that the max memory I've used is ~243,000 K? I'm just running the stuff I always run - mozilla (with a few tab open), Trillian, and Outlook. I haven't yet opened Word or Excel, which I often use.

If I buy memory from Crucial and install it myself (on the one open DIMM slot) will I void my Dell Warranty?

 

[Buck]

The Peak Commit Charge is the peak you've reached at some point. It is too close to your physical RAM capacity. Call Dell about that memory upgrade. Sometimes they allow a technician to perform minor upgrades without voiding the warranty. I know I've done this on Dell Desktop systems. (The upgrades have been hard disk drives and memory.) Notebooks could be different.

 

[Adcadet]

Ok, I disabled more services as that article suggests, and am now down to 211 MB RAM used, with peak commit charge at 237124 (a tad less than before). But, I did disable themes, and noticed a very nice increase in speed. Makes me wonder if themes are worth it.

Thanks again all!
Adcadet

 

[CougTek]

one of my cow-orkers just got one.

Is it because your co-workers are fat ladies you don't like that you call them that way?


Andrew,

Nowadays, less than 512MB of RAM in a laptop is a crime. Add another stick immediately.

 

[Adcadet]

one of my cow-orkers just got one.

Is it because your co-workers are fat ladies you don't like that you call them that way?


Andrew,

Nowadays, less than 512MB of RAM in a laptop is a crime. Add another stick immediately.

Coug - I'll get on the memory immediately. And I don't like your attitude towards farmers and ranchers

 

[Mercutio]

one of my cow-orkers just got one.

Is it because your co-workers are fat ladies you don't like that you call them that way?

Actually, the girl who shares my office is a leggy 6'1" blonde.
The rest, though, are basically pear shaped, like me.

 

[James]

Still seems like your commit charge is very high. Right now I'm only runing MyIE with 1 window open, but then again my commit charge is 89M, which is way less than yours. I have trimmed down my services a bit (not aggressively though!) but then so have you.

I've just opened a document in Word, and Excel spreadsheet, and Outlook, and my commit charge is still only 129M.

I have 512MB of RAM in my desktop.

At work my laptop has 384M, and I rarely get close to using all that - even using Visio, Word, Powerpoint, Outlook etc. open at once. If I work on the cable map I'm doing in Photoshop then it does get close though!

In short, something else is swallowing your RAM. Could you give us some screenshots of the processes tab in Task Manager, perhaps we can work through them and see what's absorbing all that memory?

 

[Pradeep]

I have 384MB in my i8200. Got 128MB from Dell, and 256MB from Crucial. Get the PC2100 SO-DIMMS.

I rarely if ever hit over 300MB use, unless I'm photo editing or printing very large files. Personally I use the dual Athy for such tasks nowadays.

It is perfectly within the Dell warranty to upgrade your RAM. Make sure you open the right part of the base, I opened the one for the wireless Mini-PCI slot, I was trying to figure out how to cram an SO-DIMM in there. The instruction manual pic is not clear at all. The right one has two sockets in it. One thing to keep in mind is if you ever need to return the laptop to Dell for service, remove any third party ram, and send it back with just the stuff you got it with. This way, less crap with them blaming your ram, and no chance of it getting "lost in the system".