memory upgrade

[Martin Clapton]

having got xp pro i decided to up my ram from 256 to 512, brought chip
from crucial and fitted it to slot 2, Post displays 512 and so does
windows but i don't see any real improvement in speed etc.
to check memory was working i replaced the original chip with the new
one, computer worked fine and displayed 256.
i then fitted the original chip in slot 2 at the same time but it was
not recognized by the computer.
Could this mean that there might be a problem with the new chip or am i
expecting too much from a 256meg upgrade.
yours
Martin

 

[Ken Blake]

In

having got xp pro i decided to up my ram from 256 to 512,
brought chip
from crucial and fitted it to slot 2, Post displays 512 and so
does
windows but i don't see any real improvement in speed etc.

Many, perhaps even most, people will see little or no improvement
by going from 256MB to 512MB. Although many people will tell you
that the more memory you have the better, that isn't necessarily
true.

How much memory you need depends on what apps you run, but almost
everyone needs at least 256MB for decent performance. For some
people, for example those who edit large photographic images,
more than 256MB--even much more--can be required for good
performance.
If, when you had 256MB, you were currently using the page file
significantly, more memory would have decreased or eliminated
that usage, and improved your performance. In your case, you were
apparently not using the page file significantly, and more memory
did little or nothing for you.

 

[Yves Leclerc]

Are the two memory sticks rated at the same spects???

 

[Ron Martell]

having got xp pro i decided to up my ram from 256 to 512, brought chip
from crucial and fitted it to slot 2, Post displays 512 and so does
windows but i don't see any real improvement in speed etc.
to check memory was working i replaced the original chip with the new
one, computer worked fine and displayed 256.
i then fitted the original chip in slot 2 at the same time but it was
not recognized by the computer.
Could this mean that there might be a problem with the new chip or am i
expecting too much from a 256meg upgrade.
yours
Martin

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."

 

[Martin Clapton]

i dont know
the new one from crucial is the one reccomended to work on my computer.
the original memory has no identity markings apart from the individual
chip details. The original has chips on both sides wheras the new one
has chips on one sde only. i was told by crucial to increase my paging
file to a minimum of 512 and max 1000.
the new memory is pc133.
my computer is a 1 ghz celeron with pcChips motherboard and 40g h/d
approx 3 years old
Martin

 

[Alex Nichol]

having got xp pro i decided to up my ram from 256 to 512, brought chip
from crucial and fitted it to slot 2, Post displays 512 and so does
windows but i don't see any real improvement in speed etc.
to check memory was working i replaced the original chip with the new
one, computer worked fine and displayed 256.
i then fitted the original chip in slot 2 at the same time but it was
not recognized by the computer.
Could this mean that there might be a problem with the new chip or am i
expecting too much from a 256meg upgrade.

How much you will get out of more RAM depends on your workload, but is
likely to be noticeable rather than magical. How are you checking on
RAM available to Windows? The System Information is unreliable.
Control Panel - System will show the correct figure at the bottom of the
front page