More Ram?

[gadusmorhua]

My wife's laptop, a Dell Inspiron 6400, running vista home basic has become noticeably slower over the past two years.I have run the c-cleaner I found here, done a disk defrag and cleanup but it isn't much better.It has an Intel celeron m cpu 520 @1.6 GHZ, with only I GB Ram. Is it worth buying more memory for it ? Although she doesn't play games, or run lots of applications it is much slower than my laptop, enough to annoy me when I use it!
Thanks,
Gads

 

[smarteyeball]

Tough call. Extra Ram would make a difference, but it most likely wouldn't be a stellar improvement.

In addition to what you have done, have you tried disabling any un-necessary apps from Starting Up when Windows loads?

How many running process does task manager show?

Does it have an active anti-virus (resident scanner) running?


(But the cheapest and quickest way to solve the speed issue would be to stop using her laptop )

 

[z3r010]

Honestly, I consider 2GB of ram to be minimum to run Vista properly.

 

[ronrontiu]

At least 1 GB of additional RAM should help a lot

 

[whs]

2GB of RAM can only help, even for Vista Basic. But there are probably other causes for fthe slowdown. Too much stuff installed, unnecessary startups (disable all for a test - none are really needed), lots of temporary files, etc.. You can go for a good cleanup or a reinstall which would be my choice. Here is a link to a Dell site that explains it ( Dell - Support ).

 

[gadusmorhua]

Thanks for the help everyone.I've ordered a 1GB Memory module as they were surprisingly cheap, and it can only help. You might have gathered I don't really know much about computers, but I've found task manager and it shows there are 64 processes (I only counted 27 on the list though! ?), and the physical memory is 720 MB, which I suppose means there isn't much left to play with ? How do I find which applications start up when windows loads? I've been there before but I just can't remember! There were loads of temporary files which I've deleted, and my wife seems to think it is a little faster, though it's hard to know with small differences.
Apologies again for my inadequacies,
Gads

 

[whs]

There are many ways to control the startups. I found this program to be the easiest to work with ( BillP Studios - WinPatrol 2010 ). You can disable all programs for testing and then reenable the ones you really want (e.g. sidebar).
Some of you RAM is apparently used by the graphics driver. That's why you dont have the full GiG.
Click on "show processes for all users" in task manager. Then you see all.

 

[archie123]

please before you order any ram make sure they didnt make the current 1 gig of ram up with 2 x 512 sticks , you only have 2 slots in that laptop if you already have both slots full you'll have to take one stick out before you can add your new stick , leaving you with only 1.5 gig

I made that mistake with the wifes lappy i had to order another gig stick

 

[whs]

Safest way is to scan your system here: ( RAM Memory Upgrade: Dell, Mac, Apple, HP, Compaq. USB drives, flash cards, SSD at Crucial.com ) Then you know what your options are.

 

[gadusmorhua]

please before you order any ram make sure they didnt make the current 1 gig of ram up with 2 x 512 sticks , you only have 2 slots in that laptop if you already have both slots full you'll have to take one stick out before you can add your new stick , leaving you with only 1.5 gig

I made that mistake with the wifes lappy i had to order another gig stick

Looks like I just made that mistake too! I tried to download the system scanner but it wouldn't run, so I went ahead and ordered.I just opened the memory bay to find 2x 512 MB sticks.Will it run with a 1GB and a 500 MB, or do they need to match? Seems a shame to only be getting half a gig extra if I do it that way, or I need to spend another twenty quid.Decisions, decisions.....
Didn't someone say the cheapest way was not to use my wife's laptop?

 

[whs]

Before you order more stuff, I suggest you try with the 1.5GB. It will not be ideal because the sticks are probably not matching, but it will be some improvement for sure.

 

[kent318]

I don't know for sure but I would think so also I reinstall vista quite often like every 3-4 months it keeps my pc fast most times.

 

[smarteyeball]

Will it run with a 1GB and a 500 MB, or do they need to match?

You can use a 512mb and 1GB module providing the specs match, otherwise you will face instability issues.

You need to look for:PC25300 NONECC UNBUFFERED 200PIN DDR2 SODIMM

But you will need to ensure the CAS timings match your existing module.

Download CPU-Z:CPUID

and under the SPD tab, have a look at the CAS# Latency Timings. These are the specs you need to match.

Example outlined in red:

Didn't someone say the cheapest way was not to use my wife's laptop?

Sounds familiar

 

[archie123]

it'll run fine with 1.5 gig mate , its just hat 2 is better as already mentioned 2 is really the minimum for vista

 

[gadusmorhua]

I've installed the 1 GB stick and it has made a noticeable difference- now there is 800+ MB memory available.I checked with Crucial and they told me I wouldn't suffer any instability (touchwood!) issues as my processor wasn't dual channel.
Thanks for everyones help,
Gads

 

[whs]

Practical experience beats all theories. I am glad it worked out for you and your wife. However, I would still make a major cleanup of the startup programs (you can use msconfig or this program which has a nicer GUI: BillP Studios - WinPatrol 2010 ) and clean up the temporary files with CCleaner ( Download CCleaner 2.25.1025 - FileHippo.com ) - but don't touch the registry. That is counterproductive.
PS: if you are not sure which startups to disable, post a snip of your startup programs and we'll be glad to help. But basically you can disable all - nothing negative is going to happen.

 

[kent318]

Awsome.We had to do that to my ol'lady's (don't tell her I said old)laptop and it had xp but it only had 500 mb ram.Glad it worked so well for you.

 

[crop_circlemaker]

some motherboards don't like the mismatch, I would recommend the same size ram.