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Michael said:
Try adding more RAM. For example. 1GB or RAM or more.
Very few people need that much RAM, especially for a task as
mundane as opening a help file. It's highly unlikely that his
problem is insufficent RAM.
How much memory you need depends on what apps you run.
If Michael is currently using the page file significantly, more
memory will decrease or eliminate that usage, and improve his
performance. If he is not using the page file significantly, more
memory will do nothing for him.
He should go to
http://billsway.com/notes_public/winxp_tweaks/ and download
WinXP-2K_Pagefile.zip and monitor his page file usage. That
should give him a good idea of whether more memory can help, and
if so, how much more.
Also, to
ensure that Windows XP runs smoothly, refer to the installation
specifications on the amount of spare RAM you need on your
system.
"Spare" RAM? Nobody needs spare RAM.
Wanting to minimize the amount of memory Windows uses is a
counterproductive desire. Windows is designed to use all, or
nearly all, of your memory, all the time, and that's good not
bad. Free memory is wasted memory. You paid for it all and
shouldn't want to see any of it wasted.
Windows works hard to find a use for all the memory you have all
the time. For example if your apps don't need some of it, it will
use that part for caching, then give it back when your apps later
need it. In this way Windows keeps all your memory working for
you all the time.
