Enough RAM?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dan
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Dan

Basically I was wondering if I have enough RAM.

I have six computers networked togeather just using a
router. The computers are all running xp home. The
computers are all the same, AMD Athlon 2400 processors
and have 256 MB of RAM.

All we use them for is to use the internet, Microsoft
Access and nortons antivirus run in the background.

The backend of the microsoft access file is stored on one
computer and it has 768 MB of RAM. The backend is linked
to the frontend which is stored on the other computers.

The computers seem to have a hard time staying
connected to the network. One computer will seem to loose
the connection and then has to be restarted in order to
regain it again. Three computers are using Access 2003
and the other three is using Access xp.
 
256 Mb should be quite enough RAM for the applications you are
running. I would look elsewhere for the cause of your internet
connection problems.

Basically I was wondering if I have enough RAM.

I have six computers networked togeather just using a
router. The computers are all running xp home. The
computers are all the same, AMD Athlon 2400 processors
and have 256 MB of RAM.

All we use them for is to use the internet, Microsoft
Access and nortons antivirus run in the background.

The backend of the microsoft access file is stored on one
computer and it has 768 MB of RAM. The backend is linked
to the frontend which is stored on the other computers.

The computers seem to have a hard time staying
connected to the network. One computer will seem to loose
the connection and then has to be restarted in order to
regain it again. Three computers are using Access 2003
and the other three is using Access xp.
Click to expand...


Please respond to the Newsgroup, so that others may benefit from the exchange.
Peter R. Fletcher
 
Check on how much disk access is actually being used by
virtual memory on each machine, also how big are those
ACCESS files? Adding some more RAM won't hurt, but might
not help if pagefile swapping is minimal.
You can add another 256 MB to each of your 6 machines for
less than $180 total cost. If your machines use shared RAM
for video and you have the Internet, the LAN, ACCESS and
Norton, I think adding the 256 to the most troublesome
machine as an experiment can't hurt.


--
The people think the Constitution protects their rights;
But government sees it as an obstacle to be overcome.


"Peter R. Fletcher" <pfletch(at)fletchers(hyphen)uk.com>
wrote in message
| 256 Mb should be quite enough RAM for the applications you
are
| running. I would look elsewhere for the cause of your
internet
| connection problems.
|
| On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 09:30:26 -0700, "Dan"
|
| >Basically I was wondering if I have enough RAM.
| >
| >I have six computers networked togeather just using a
| >router. The computers are all running xp home. The
| >computers are all the same, AMD Athlon 2400 processors
| >and have 256 MB of RAM.
| >
| >All we use them for is to use the internet, Microsoft
| >Access and nortons antivirus run in the background.
| >
| >The backend of the microsoft access file is stored on one
| >computer and it has 768 MB of RAM. The backend is linked
| >to the frontend which is stored on the other computers.
| >
| >The computers seem to have a hard time staying
| >connected to the network. One computer will seem to loose
| >the connection and then has to be restarted in order to
| >regain it again. Three computers are using Access 2003
| >and the other three is using Access xp.
|
|
| Please respond to the Newsgroup, so that others may
benefit from the exchange.
| Peter R. Fletcher
 
Dan said:
computers are all the same, AMD Athlon 2400 processors
and have 256 MB of RAM.

All we use them for is to use the internet, Microsoft
Access and nortons antivirus run in the background.

The computers seem to have a hard time staying
connected to the network.
Click to expand...

You don't say what the size of the database or the extent of the
transactions are, but...

First, check your pagefile for adequate size. Try adding another 256 MB to
that computer. If the problem is fixed, your RAM and/or pagefile may be
marginal.
 
Dan said:
Basically I was wondering if I have enough RAM.

I have six computers networked togeather just using a
router. The computers are all running xp home. The
computers are all the same, AMD Athlon 2400 processors
and have 256 MB of RAM.

All we use them for is to use the internet, Microsoft
Access and nortons antivirus run in the background.

The backend of the microsoft access file is stored on one
computer and it has 768 MB of RAM. The backend is linked
to the frontend which is stored on the other computers.

The computers seem to have a hard time staying
connected to the network. One computer will seem to loose
the connection and then has to be restarted in order to
regain it again. Three computers are using Access 2003
and the other three is using Access xp.
Click to expand...

Adding more memory can noticeably improve performance only if the
added memory results in reduced usage of the virtual memory paging
file. Therefore if the paging file is not currently being used to any
significant extent then adding more memory will not provide a
significant improvement.

Unfortunately there is no ready way of determing actual paging file
usage provided with Windows XP - it does not have an equivalent to the
'Memory Manager - Swap File In Use" reporting provided by the System
Monitor utility in Windows 95/98/Me.

There is a free utility that you can download and run which will
provide this information for you. It was written by MVP Bill James and
you can get if from
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm or from
http://billsway.com/notes_public/WinXP_Tweaks/

If that utility shows actual page file usage of 50 mb or more on a
regular basis then that is indicative of fairly significant paging
file activity. Adding more RAM will reduce or even eliminate entirely
this activity thereby improving performance.

This apples regardless of how much or how little RAM is currently
installed in the computer, at least up to the 4 gb RAM maximum for
Windows XP.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."
 
7/26/2004 12:30:26 PM


<[email protected]>


Basically I was wondering if I have enough RAM.

I have six computers networked togeather just using a
Click to expand...
router. The computers are all running xp home. The
Click to expand...
computers are all the same, AMD Athlon 2400 processors
Click to expand...
and have 256 MB of RAM.

All we use them for is to use the internet, Microsoft
Click to expand...
Access and nortons antivirus run in the background.

The backend of the microsoft access file is stored on one
Click to expand...
computer and it has 768 MB of RAM. The backend is linked
Click to expand...
to the frontend which is stored on the other computers.

The computers seem to have a hard time staying
Click to expand...
connected to the network. One computer will seem to loose
Click to expand...
the connection and then has to be restarted in order to
Click to expand...
regain it again. Three computers are using Access 2003
Click to expand...
and the other three is using Access xp.
Click to expand...



Another consideration is your network card. What brands are you
using? Are they all the same on the Athlons? On the DB Server? Do
you have the latest drivers installed for them?

There are a number of factors that can lead to NICs losing connections...
 
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