RAM is available but not used

[bretsharon]

I have about 2 Gig of RAM but seldom use more than 40%, despite the use of
all of my CPU capacity, in some instances. Is there an adjustment that can
be made so more RAM can be used to speed things up?

 

[Jim]

I have about 2 Gig of RAM but seldom use more than 40%, despite the use of
all of my CPU capacity, in some instances. Is there an adjustment that
can
be made so more RAM can be used to speed things up?

No.
Jim

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I have about 2 Gig of RAM but seldom use more than 40%, despite the
use of all of my CPU capacity, in some instances. Is there an
adjustment that can be made so more RAM can be used to speed things
up?

Jim gave you the direct answer. No.

Why would you *want* to use all of your memory? If you ever get to the
point where you are using all of your memory - all it means is that you need
more memory to continue doing what you are doing... If you are not using
all of your memory - then using more memory is NOT going to speed things up.

 

[Daave]

I have about 2 Gig of RAM but seldom use more than 40%, despite the
use of all of my CPU capacity, in some instances. Is there an
adjustment that can be made so more RAM can be used to speed things
up?

There are certainly adjustments that can be made to speed things up.
However, as Shenan said, having more RAM available won't speed things up
for you. Now if you didn't have *enough* RAM, adding more would help.
But you believe you have more than enough.

Assuming that is the case, what specifically is wrong with your PC? If
you're interested in improving performance, the first thing to do is let
us know the specifics:

- make and model of your PC
- processor/speed
- malware status
- any error messages from Event Viewer
- is your PC slow always or just at startup?
- are you referring to overall speed or "online" speed?
- how did you arrive at the 40% figure?

 

[Gerry]

What is your CPU capacity?

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[VanguardLH]

in message

I have about 2 Gig of RAM but seldom use more than 40%, despite the
use of
all of my CPU capacity, in some instances. Is there an adjustment
that can
be made so more RAM can be used to speed things up?

So you want to shove in as much food as can fit in your mouth? Okay,
but the OS and apps don't do that with memory. In fact, regardless of
how much memory you install, the OS and apps will still use pagefile
space (if you set pagefile to zero size, you will SLOW your system
because apps can asks for hundreds of megabytes of reserve/pagefile
space what would very quickly eat up all your memory). Having too
little memory (so it gets nearly all consumed) can make your OS and
apps run slow because they need to shove more of their pages into the
pagefile instead of memory, but you can't make them use more memory
than they request (unless you have the code and recode them).

So what is your real problem? Do you have one?

 

[bretsharon]

The Community asked the following:


So what is your real problem? Do you have one? ----->>ANSWER. I likely do
not have a problem, so I'm in search for one; I demand to receive my fair
share of abuse. Outside that, you can't really fix stupid.



What is your CPU capacity? ----->>ANSWER. Big Fix says CPU: "Dual 1.60 GHz
Genuine Intel T2050 @" Speed Up my PC says this too, but adds 1596 MHz too.
Is capacity in there someplace?

- make and model of your PC----->>ANSWER. TOSHIBA Satellite A105 Laptop

- processor/speed ----->>ANSWER. Processor a Main Circuit Board b 1.60
gigahertz Intel Core Duo 64 kilobyte primary memory cache 2048 kilobyte
secondary memory cache

- malware status ----->>ANSWER. This is new to me. I use AVG Free and
BelArc says security updates are up to date. I usually do not have these
loaded, so the numbers are without these running, and their running does not
seem to affect speed.


- any error messages from Event Viewer ----->>ANSWER. None, that I see,
nothing recently

- is your PC slow always or just at startup? ----->>ANSWER. Slow is a
relative term. I suspect its running as good as possible with its settings.
I have disabled almost everything in the msconfig start panel, and it seems
to have had no effect.

- are you referring to overall speed or "online" speed? ----->>ANSWER.
Overall speed. The online speed appears to be ok, I'm on a DSL line

- how did you arrive at the 40% figure? ----->>ANSWER. from a graphic in
SpeedUp my PC, it looked as if the memory was using about that. In numbers
it says free mem 1.33 GB and used 675MB for total of 1.98 gig, but I am
really not running anything right now to use it. I have a MSWord document of
3,500 pages which I use from time to time, and when loaded the memory used
raises just a bit to the 40% number I guesstimated.

More info:
Windows XP Media Center Edition Service Pack 2 (build 2600)(I don't really
use the media center i
2038 Megabytes Installed Memory
No network drives
79.76 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
47.17 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
Intel(R) 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7-M Family) Serial ATA Storage Controller - 27C4
Primary IDE Channel [Controller]
Secondary IDE Channel [Controller]
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27C8
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27C9
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27CA
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27CB
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 27CC

 

[Bob I]

You are confused as to the relationship between RAM and CPU capacity.
Your processor is maxed out due to the tasks you have asked it to
perform, and there isn't a user requirement for the available RAM.
Either you have a very slow processor or you are doing a lot of 3d video
gaming with a poor video adapter, or the IDE drive system is running in
PIO, or you are actually reading the 99% System idle as meaning the CPU
is maxed out.

 

[Tim Slattery]

I have about 2 Gig of RAM but seldom use more than 40%, despite the use of
all of my CPU capacity, in some instances. Is there an adjustment that can
be made so more RAM can be used to speed things up?

Windows is using as much memory as it needs. To use more, run more
programs simultaneously, and/or run more memory-hungry programs.

In other words, this is not a program. You have more RAM on your
computer than you need to do the work you're doing.

 

[frodo]

Do not confuse "available" ram with "unused". It _IS_ being used, it's
just available for immeadiate reuse if required. Most of this "available
ram" is being used as a disk cache, and is not going unused. Don't worry
about it, it's working as designed...

Be thankful you're not running Vista...

 

[Gerry]

These type of utilities can cause more problems than the questionable
benefits they may bring. Dump it.
SpeedUp my PC
http://www.speedupyourpc.com/

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Community asked the following:


So what is your real problem? Do you have one? ----->>ANSWER. I
likely do not have a problem, so I'm in search for one; I demand to
receive my fair share of abuse. Outside that, you can't really fix
stupid.



What is your CPU capacity? ----->>ANSWER. Big Fix says CPU: "Dual
1.60 GHz Genuine Intel T2050 @" Speed Up my PC says this too, but
adds 1596 MHz too. Is capacity in there someplace?

- make and model of your PC----->>ANSWER. TOSHIBA Satellite A105
Laptop

- processor/speed ----->>ANSWER. Processor a Main Circuit Board b
1.60 gigahertz Intel Core Duo 64 kilobyte primary memory cache 2048
kilobyte secondary memory cache

- malware status ----->>ANSWER. This is new to me. I use AVG Free
and BelArc says security updates are up to date. I usually do not
have these loaded, so the numbers are without these running, and
their running does not seem to affect speed.


- any error messages from Event Viewer ----->>ANSWER. None, that I
see, nothing recently

- is your PC slow always or just at startup? ----->>ANSWER. Slow is a
relative term. I suspect its running as good as possible with its
settings. I have disabled almost everything in the msconfig start
panel, and it seems to have had no effect.

- are you referring to overall speed or "online" speed? ----->>ANSWER.
Overall speed. The online speed appears to be ok, I'm on a DSL line

- how did you arrive at the 40% figure? ----->>ANSWER. from a
graphic in SpeedUp my PC, it looked as if the memory was using about
that. In numbers it says free mem 1.33 GB and used 675MB for total
of 1.98 gig, but I am really not running anything right now to use
it. I have a MSWord document of 3,500 pages which I use from time to
time, and when loaded the memory used raises just a bit to the 40%
number I guesstimated.

More info:
Windows XP Media Center Edition Service Pack 2 (build 2600)(I don't
really use the media center i
2038 Megabytes Installed Memory
No network drives
79.76 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
47.17 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
Intel(R) 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7-M Family) Serial ATA Storage Controller -
27C4 Primary IDE Channel [Controller]
Secondary IDE Channel [Controller]
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27C8
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27C9
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27CA
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27CB
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 27CC

There are certainly adjustments that can be made to speed things up.
However, as Shenan said, having more RAM available won't speed
things up for you. Now if you didn't have *enough* RAM, adding more
would help. But you believe you have more than enough.

Assuming that is the case, what specifically is wrong with your PC?
If you're interested in improving performance, the first thing to do
is let us know the specifics:

- make and model of your PC
- processor/speed
- malware status
- any error messages from Event Viewer
- is your PC slow always or just at startup?
- are you referring to overall speed or "online" speed?
- how did you arrive at the 40% figure?

 

[Gerry]

These type of utilities can cause more problems than the questionable
benefits they may bring. Dump it.
SpeedUp my PC
http://www.speedupyourpc.com/

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Community asked the following:


So what is your real problem? Do you have one? ----->>ANSWER. I
likely do not have a problem, so I'm in search for one; I demand to
receive my fair share of abuse. Outside that, you can't really fix
stupid.



What is your CPU capacity? ----->>ANSWER. Big Fix says CPU: "Dual
1.60 GHz Genuine Intel T2050 @" Speed Up my PC says this too, but
adds 1596 MHz too. Is capacity in there someplace?

- make and model of your PC----->>ANSWER. TOSHIBA Satellite A105
Laptop

- processor/speed ----->>ANSWER. Processor a Main Circuit Board b
1.60 gigahertz Intel Core Duo 64 kilobyte primary memory cache 2048
kilobyte secondary memory cache

- malware status ----->>ANSWER. This is new to me. I use AVG Free
and BelArc says security updates are up to date. I usually do not
have these loaded, so the numbers are without these running, and
their running does not seem to affect speed.


- any error messages from Event Viewer ----->>ANSWER. None, that I
see, nothing recently

- is your PC slow always or just at startup? ----->>ANSWER. Slow is a
relative term. I suspect its running as good as possible with its
settings. I have disabled almost everything in the msconfig start
panel, and it seems to have had no effect.

- are you referring to overall speed or "online" speed? ----->>ANSWER.
Overall speed. The online speed appears to be ok, I'm on a DSL line

- how did you arrive at the 40% figure? ----->>ANSWER. from a
graphic in SpeedUp my PC, it looked as if the memory was using about
that. In numbers it says free mem 1.33 GB and used 675MB for total
of 1.98 gig, but I am really not running anything right now to use
it. I have a MSWord document of 3,500 pages which I use from time to
time, and when loaded the memory used raises just a bit to the 40%
number I guesstimated.

More info:
Windows XP Media Center Edition Service Pack 2 (build 2600)(I don't
really use the media center i
2038 Megabytes Installed Memory
No network drives
79.76 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
47.17 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
Intel(R) 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7-M Family) Serial ATA Storage Controller -
27C4 Primary IDE Channel [Controller]
Secondary IDE Channel [Controller]
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27C8
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27C9
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27CA
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27CB
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 27CC

There are certainly adjustments that can be made to speed things up.
However, as Shenan said, having more RAM available won't speed
things up for you. Now if you didn't have *enough* RAM, adding more
would help. But you believe you have more than enough.

Assuming that is the case, what specifically is wrong with your PC?
If you're interested in improving performance, the first thing to do
is let us know the specifics:

- make and model of your PC
- processor/speed
- malware status
- any error messages from Event Viewer
- is your PC slow always or just at startup?
- are you referring to overall speed or "online" speed?
- how did you arrive at the 40% figure?

 

[Tim Slattery]

In other words, this is not a program.

Ugh! That should have been "This is not a problem".

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have about 2 Gig of RAM but seldom use more than 40%, despite the use of
all of my CPU capacity, in some instances. Is there an adjustment that can
be made so more RAM can be used to speed things up?

No.

You have much more RAM than you need to run the apps that you run. The
rest is simply wasted.

Despite the number of people who repeat that the more RAM you have the
better, that is just not true. More RAM is better only up to the point
that it stops you from using the page file. You would have reached
that point if you had about .8GB of RAM. There's no way for you to use
the rest of it, except to simultaneously do more things with your
computer.

 

[Daave]

From the information you provided, I'd say you're running about as
efficiently as possible.

The Community asked the following:


So what is your real problem? Do you have one? ----->>ANSWER. I
likely do not have a problem, so I'm in search for one; I demand to
receive my fair share of abuse. Outside that, you can't really fix
stupid.



What is your CPU capacity? ----->>ANSWER. Big Fix says CPU: "Dual
1.60 GHz Genuine Intel T2050 @" Speed Up my PC says this too, but
adds 1596 MHz too. Is capacity in there someplace?

- make and model of your PC----->>ANSWER. TOSHIBA Satellite A105
Laptop

- processor/speed ----->>ANSWER. Processor a Main Circuit Board b
1.60 gigahertz Intel Core Duo 64 kilobyte primary memory cache 2048
kilobyte secondary memory cache

- malware status ----->>ANSWER. This is new to me. I use AVG Free
and BelArc says security updates are up to date. I usually do not
have these loaded, so the numbers are without these running, and
their running does not seem to affect speed.


- any error messages from Event Viewer ----->>ANSWER. None, that I
see, nothing recently

- is your PC slow always or just at startup? ----->>ANSWER. Slow is a
relative term. I suspect its running as good as possible with its
settings. I have disabled almost everything in the msconfig start
panel, and it seems to have had no effect.

- are you referring to overall speed or "online" speed? ----->>ANSWER.
Overall speed. The online speed appears to be ok, I'm on a DSL line

- how did you arrive at the 40% figure? ----->>ANSWER. from a
graphic in SpeedUp my PC, it looked as if the memory was using about
that. In numbers it says free mem 1.33 GB and used 675MB for total
of 1.98 gig, but I am really not running anything right now to use
it. I have a MSWord document of 3,500 pages which I use from time to
time, and when loaded the memory used raises just a bit to the 40%
number I guesstimated.

More info:
Windows XP Media Center Edition Service Pack 2 (build 2600)(I don't
really use the media center i
2038 Megabytes Installed Memory
No network drives
79.76 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
47.17 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
Intel(R) 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7-M Family) Serial ATA Storage Controller -
27C4 Primary IDE Channel [Controller]
Secondary IDE Channel [Controller]
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27C8
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27C9
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27CA
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27CB
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 27CC

There are certainly adjustments that can be made to speed things up.
However, as Shenan said, having more RAM available won't speed
things up for you. Now if you didn't have *enough* RAM, adding more
would help.
But you believe you have more than enough.

Assuming that is the case, what specifically is wrong with your PC?
If you're interested in improving performance, the first thing to do
is let us know the specifics:

- make and model of your PC
- processor/speed
- malware status
- any error messages from Event Viewer
- is your PC slow always or just at startup?
- are you referring to overall speed or "online" speed?
- how did you arrive at the 40% figure?

 

[Plato]

I have about 2 Gig of RAM but seldom use more than 40%, despite the use of
all of my CPU capacity, in some instances. Is there an adjustment that can
be made so more RAM can be used to speed things up?

Get a faster CPU.