Slower laptop after upgrading ram!

guinnessdrinker · 08-09-2008 11:32pm #1

I recently replaced the ram in my 2 and a half year old laptop from 2x512mb to 2x1gb. However, the laptop seems to respond a lot slower now with the extra memory than it used to. Anyone know what could have went wrong?

I'm thinking of taking the two 1gb sticks back out and putting the two 512mb sticks in again.

ytareh · 08-09-2008 11:36pm

Are they the same 'speed' ram (numbers like 3200/4300/5300/6700/8000 etc)?

guinnessdrinker · 08-09-2008 11:41pm

Yep, they are the same, both 2700. Can't figure out why the laptop seems more sluggish now though.

Zorba · 09-09-2008 12:19am

When u booted up the laptop after upgrading the ram did it recognise it straight away and tell u there's now 2 gb of ram in it ?

Also if u right click my computer and go into properties does the ram show up there ?

And finally is the ram the same speed as the one u took out as in was the old ram 2700 too ?

Another thing is are u sure your laptop can handle this much ram, it might only recognise say 1 gb of ram.

guinnessdrinker · 09-09-2008 4:22pm

Yep the ram shows up in my computer and it's the same speed as the old ram I took out. I upgraded two different laptops at the same time, the other one had a noticable improvement while my laptop had a noticable disprovement!

Maybe it is that the computer can't handle 2gb of ram, how do I find this out?

MunsterCycling · 09-09-2008 6:21pm

Model number and Make?

MC

guinnessdrinker · 09-09-2008 9:49pm

It's a HP Pavilion dv1501.

kippy · 09-09-2008 9:52pm

You may need to change the size of the swap file, as well as looking at what has already been suggested.
Right click my computer-properties-advanced-Under performance, hit advanced-advanced again-change virtual memory paging file to system managed-hit set. Apply-restart.
(That's obviously a very rough run through-exact instructions can be found in google "change page file size in xp")

xbox36016 · 09-09-2008 9:53pm

just get a new laptop

kippy · 09-09-2008 9:55pm

xbox36016 wrote: »

just get a new laptop

Yeah, when stuff doesnt work as it should, just buy a new one........that makes sense. No need for mechanics, IT support or even doctors anymore.....

axer · 09-09-2008 10:08pm

Maybe set some performance counters to see if it actual is slower or just perceived slower because of something else.

kippy · 12-09-2008 10:47pm

Any update on this, tis an interesting issue.
I had another thought today that it could be faulty RAM.
Kippy

bnt · 13-09-2008 8:46pm

I think it's related to swapfile: if you have the size set to be controlled by the system, it will have been enlarged after you installed the new RAM, and gotten fragmented. This is what I would do:
- turn the swapfile(s) off altogether, in System Properties / Advanced / Performance etc.
- restart the system
- check that the space has been freed up (you should see 2-3 GB more disk
space than before
- run Disk Cleanup (under Accessories / System) to free up more space
- open a command line, and check the disk fragmentation level: defrag c: /a
- if it looks bad, defragment the disk when you have time: defrag c: /v
- after that, try running without a swapfile for a while, and use Task Manager to see how much of the 2GB gets used. You might be surprised...

Slower laptop after upgrading ram!

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