Memory Upgrade Query

Aeneas

1. When I bought my Dell Dimension 4600 four years ago it came with 256 RAM (ie 2 x 128 memory cards). I recently upgraged it to 1024 RAM by inserting two 512 cards. Since the 4600 can take four cards I wonder if I can use the old 128 cards in the two vacant slots. Would this improve the memory even further; or would the discrepancy between the 128s and the 512s actually reduce the efficency of the system?
2. My second question is that I know there is some way with Windows XP that I can view how much memory is being used at any time - a little black screen with green bars showing the actual memory usage. Could someone advise me how to access this.

Anti

To answer your first question. You should be able to use the ram, but if its a slower ram it will mean that your 512mb sticks will run at thw slower speed. But even if it is the same speed an extra 256mb wont make a noticeable difference. Best bet would be to upgrade to a 2gb kit.

And for yoru second question. There are a few ways to access this. The two easiest are this:

right click the bar at the bottom of your screen and click on " task manager " Another way is to hold Ctrl + Alt + Delete, a dialog box will pop open and just click " task manager " again.

Hope that answeres it for you.

Aeneas

Thanks Anti.
1. I found the Task Manager. That was what I was looking for.
2. RE RAM on the basis of what you say it appears that my system would actually run more slowly if I put the two 128 cards back in. So I will leave things as they are. I upgraded to 1G (2x 512) because it was taking ages to do anything- even booting up with Norton. Cost was the factor that prevented me going higher. Ultimately I could upgrade to 4G but that may be a waste of memory. 1G seems fine for my purposes at the moment.
3. What is "Page File"

yoyo

Aeneas wrote: »

Thanks Anti.
1. I found the Task Manager. That was what I was looking for.
2. RE RAM on the basis of what you say it appears that my system would actually run more slowly if I put the two 128 cards back in. So I will leave things as they are. I upgraded to 1G (2x 512) because it was taking ages to do anything- even booting up with Norton. Cost was the factor that prevented me going higher. Ultimately I could upgrade to 4G but that may be a waste of memory. 1G seems fine for my purposes at the moment.
3. What is "Page File"

Uninstall Norton if you want to improve your bootup/shutdown and general pc speed, its junk, look for AVG Anti Virus freeware instead... Also if your pc is older so it probably wouldn't support 4 gig, google motherboard spec to see how much ram it wil take, XP will fly on a gig of ram anyway, just get rid of norton

Nick

Aeneas

yoyo wrote: »

Uninstall Norton if you want to improve your bootup/shutdown and general pc speed, its junk, look for AVG Anti Virus freeware instead... Also if your pc is older so it probably wouldn't support 4 gig, google motherboard spec to see how much ram it wil take, XP will fly on a gig of ram anyway, just get rid of norton

Nick

Thanks. Dell have told me that the Dimension 4600 can be upgraded to 4G with 4 x 1024 boards. But I probably don't need that amount of memory.

yoyo

2 Gigs would be a nice ammount (4 gig would be overkill imo considering windows 32 bit will only use 3.25gig if it which I persume your using currently), but if you really want to gain performance remove the norton junk and install AVG,, Norton totally bogs down any system and is useless!

Nick

Aeneas

yoyo wrote: »

2 Gigs would be a nice ammount (4 gig would be overkill imo considering windows 32 bit will only use 3.25gig if it which I persume your using currently), but if you really want to gain performance remove the norton junk and install AVG,, Norton totally bogs down any system and is useless!

Nick

Yeah. System is running reasonably smoothly at moment. If things slow down again I can install two more 512s which will give me a total of 2 gigs. I think the Dimension 4600 prefers memory to be installed in pairs. One final question what does "PF Usage" mean in Task Master?