A few weeks ago my computer died whilst playing online poker. Got the BSOD followed by computer refusing to boot at all. In the end I got it to boot up from the cd drive to run memtest86 and windows memory diagnostic to check my 2gb RAM. Sure enough both of these scans found errors and so today I opened the machine up! Took out 1gb or stick of RAM, and left the other 1gb in the machine. I then ran both memory tests again and this time no errors were found!
So in my mind I had removed the faulty RAM and maybe vista would start for the first time in weeks! It did start to my relief and it seemed to be running ok. Then all of a sudden while browsing the net, the computer just froze. Now it keeps freezing often and randomly, sometimes even just by moving the mouse!
One bit of good news is that it is JUST freezing and no longer giving me various BSODs.
Does it keep freezing because 1gb of ram is not enough?
Another interesting thing is that when the system died on me 2 weeks back I was playing online poker and was always wondering if this caused the problem. Then today I ran a virus scan and it was scanning fine until it came to scanning one file which froze the scan and computer. The file was the following - c:\Program files\full tilt poker\graphics\...\widget.Tournamentinfo.PNG
Obviously this file is from the same site I was playing poker on. Does that mean anything or am I reading too much into it?
Main thing. Is 1gb of RAM enough to run Vista without freezing randomly all the time? I would have thought it was, but I'm not that clued up!
Is 1GB of RAM enough to run Vista without it freezing all the time?
- 17 Mar 2010 #1My System Specs
Is 1GB of RAM enough to run Vista without it freezing all the time?
- 17 Mar 2010 #2My System Specs
Re: Is 1GB of RAM enough to run Vista without it freezing all the time?
The answer is yes. 1 gig is enough to run Vista smoothly, as long as your not doing gaming, or other high speed stuff. I would suspect some sort of virus. Those poker rooms are notorious for malware.
Regards,
Gil777t
- 17 Mar 2010 #3
I'd rather be fishin
Join Date : Apr 2009 Evansville, Wisconsin,U.S. Posts : 1,130 Vista Home Premium 32bit Local Time: 02:31 PM
My System SpecsRe: Is 1GB of RAM enough to run Vista without it freezing all the time?
Just fyi, my system ram fine with 1gig. It's an old system too, and it performed just fine, although I upgraded to 2gig just cuz i got a good deal on ram.
- 17 Mar 2010 #4
Senior Member
My System SpecsRe: Is 1GB of RAM enough to run Vista without it freezing all the time?
1GB is enough to run Vista. It may not be a barnstormer, but it will run. As was said before, you probably got some malware from the poker site. For starters I would delete the file you have identified. You could also try to set back to a restore point from before you ventured to the poker site.
- 17 Mar 2010 #5
Brummy My System SpecsRe: Is 1GB of RAM enough to run Vista without it freezing all the time?
It will work with the minimum requirement of 1GB but actually for a smooth function of Vista you need 2GB.
- 18 Mar 2010 #6
Eye know, eye know My System SpecsRe: Is 1GB of RAM enough to run Vista without it freezing all the time?
When you say freezing - is it a temporary freeze and then the PC continues to work?
Originally Posted by bright1064 
OR
A system freeze, which requires a hard reset? (ie the PC is completely unresponsive, you need to physically reset/restart the PC)
If it's the former, then it's just 'Vista doing it's thing'.
However, if it's the latter, that would indicate there is definitely something else wrong.
This could still point towards a bad device driver, faulty memory issue, failing motherboard, virus/malware etc
A complete system freeze is just as bad as a BSOD.
When you ran memtest on the remaining module, how many passes did you do?
- 18 Mar 2010 #7My System Specs
Re: Is 1GB of RAM enough to run Vista without it freezing all the time?
When I say freeze i mean the PC is completely unresponsive and I need to physically reset/restart the PC.
It does it randomly but everytime within 30 mins of startup. So for example the other day it allowed me to surf the net for about 30 mins for the first time and then it just froze.
But sometimes it can just be loading up when I move the mouse an inch and it freezes up. Sometimes I can get 5-10 mins use out of it before it happens etc etc.
I ran memtest for about 4 passes (I think) on the remaining 1GB of RAM and it showed no errors.
I'm not sure what else to try? Has anyone got any suggestions? I don't seem to have enough system uptime to run a full Virus/Spyware scan and the last time I ran an anti virus scan it froze on that Full tilt poker.PNG file that I wrote in my original post.
- 18 Mar 2010 #8
Eye know, eye know My System SpecsRe: Is 1GB of RAM enough to run Vista without it freezing all the time?
When you say don't enough system uptime, do you mean it freezes before a scan completes - or you can't afford the time to let a full scan run?
If your A/V has a right-click 'scan folder/installation' context option, you can try individually scanning that file/folder that contains 'widget.Tournamentinfo.PNG'
Although a .png file is just an image file. (If it actually is an image file)
I'd be more inclined to be suspicious of the entire app.
However, in my experience a complete system freeze has almost invariably pointed to an underlying hardware issue, like failing memory or the dimm slots on the mobo itself etc
The fact that you've already had errors and have replaced a BSOD for a system freeze would back up a h/ware problem theory.
As for memtest, unfortunately 4 passes aren't really sufficient.
A minimum of 8 passes is recommended, as errors can appear at any given time. However, memtest is just a tool, not a guarantee that all is fine.
As much of time consuming PITA it can be, have you tried removing that 1GB stick and then tried running it in the other dimm slot?
If you instantly encounter errors in memtest or the machine fails to POST (PC not starting/booting Windows etc) then I'd suspect that the dimm slots/mobo is faulty.
Alternatively, have you tried swapping the 'working' module with the module that you removed to see if it throws up any errors?
The randomness of your freezing would still tend to suggest hardware over software. (ie virus/malware) and you could end up end up running around in circles chasing a phantom virus.
- 19 Mar 2010 #9My System Specs
Re: Is 1GB of RAM enough to run Vista without it freezing all the time?
I tried a system restore last night in safe mode, and for the first time it let me restore it to a point before all this happened.
Managed to not let it freeze and did a performance check in Vista, which suggested things were fine. I also set it up to scan my hard disk for errors and did a restart. The results came back clear.
It hasn't frozen on me yet after the restore. But then I didn't use it for all that long.
- 19 Mar 2010 #10My System Specs
Re: Is 1GB of RAM enough to run Vista without it freezing all the time?
I would suggest if your going to continue to run with only 1GB of ram you look into your start-up eateries and disable any unneeded entries, this way it will leave you with plenty of free ram space leaving your computer to run faster and smother with more labour intensive program's
I resonantly did this with a friends P4 1.33GHz pc with only 1GB ram and improverd the startup time from 5mins down to just 2mins and 35 seconds, general performance also increased
i did also give the system a good clean up too
i will list the things i did and installed.......
1: installed Tweak UAC and enabled quiet mode Disable annoying Vista UAC popups with TweakUAC (FREE) (stops constant security pop-ups)
2: removed any bloat-ware and unused programs (You may want to scour your C:// drive for leftover files and folders from any un-installed software)
3: installed Spybot search and destroy The home of Spybot-S&D! = (no Scanning done yet) 1st right clicked and changed properties set to run as Admin, then from inside set to "advanced mode", under tools bottom right i selected Start-up entries (i use this as it will give a brief description of what each entry is and if its needed) now i remove any unnecessary startup items I.E Quick time and MSN (windows Live) "BE SURE NOT TO REMOVE YOUR ANTI_VIRUS"
4: install Adaware Ad-Aware by Lavasoft - Antivirus software, free spyware removal, firewall (just my preference)
5: install Ccleaner CCleaner - Home Use this to clear any temporary files then run the registry clean-up facility (Make a backup when prompted) "fix all", now run the registry clean up again (there will most likely be more to fix)
6: run the above Spybot (don't forget to immunise) and then run Adaware
7: download and install Auslogics Disk Defrag Disk Defrag - Fast and Safe Defragmenter for Your Disks (i find this faster and more intense than windows defrag
All being well your system should run a lot faster and smoother
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