posted on February 18, 2001 05:40:01 AM new
when I open AOL, AW and adobe photoshop, my "resources" drop dramatically and I'm ususally running in the red on system resources. Can anybody tell me what I need (besides dropping AOL)? I have an HP 6530 Pavillion. I see where Comp USA has free (after rebate) 64MB sync DRAM Memory and Office Max has 32MB-4X64 Memory by Kingston for $19.99 after rebate. Would either of these help? Thanks in advance.
posted on February 18, 2001 05:44:14 AM new
Absolutely, ram is where it is at. AOL and AW are both memory suckers. They will drain your physical memory to nothing. I would go with at least a 64mb upgrade. If you have the cash go with 128, you will see a major difference. It makes multitasking so much faster.
posted on February 18, 2001 06:35:37 AM new
If you're upgrading go with a MINIMUM of 128 Megs additional RAM. RAM is CHEAP now... Don't even think about a 64 Meg module. You'll be much better off, trust me.
Edited to add:
Check out these folks. I buy all of my RAM from them (and no, I don't work for them):
posted on February 18, 2001 07:29:59 AM new
Hi glasslrg:
The RAM upgrade would be a good idea, especially if you run Photoshop a lot, but it's not going to help you any with a low resource problem.
You need to look around your computer to see what other programs are currently running and stealing resources. Most often, there are programs running from the tray (lower right corner of your screen) that you don't need or even want. New computers these days tend to come with a lot of preinstalled gunk in the tray, and HP is especially bad about this.
posted on February 18, 2001 08:38:18 AM new
Adding RAM won't help with low resources. You need to find out what all is loading on Startup, and stop the unecessary items.
Take a look at your system resources after a fresh boot up. If it is less than about 88%, you have too much stuff running. Screensavers, reminder programs, those types of programs. If your Virus scanner is running all the time in the background, that can drain resources as well. One tip, when doing photo editing, if you are copying images to the clipboard, when you are finished, copy something small such as some text to replace the large image that may be remaining on the clipboard. Keeping your system free of temp files, and defragged helps too.
If you are running Win98, it is very easy to control what is starting. Go to Start/Run, and type in MSCONFIG. This will bring up a window with a number of tabs. Go to the Startup Tab and take a look at all the programs with Checkmarks in front of them. Look for the Reminder programs, scanner programs, anything that you don't need to automatically start on it's own. Remove the checkmarks, then click Apply. The next time you restart, those changes will take effect. Check your resources and see how big a difference it makes.
If you do decide to add RAM, make sure it is the correct type for your system. Your HP system could very well need special RAM as HP likes to use Proprietary parts. If you add RAM that is incorrect, you can really mess up your system.
Dropping AOL would perhaps help, I'm not sure about that since we don't use them.
posted on February 18, 2001 08:44:06 AM new
ALSO, if your computer is still on warranty you may want to take it to your dealer to have the mem added. I added 64 to mine and had the folks at Best Buy (where I purchased it) do the install and they only charged me $20. I have a receipt to show they did the install in the store and my warranty is not negated.
posted on February 18, 2001 10:30:31 AM new
>>LOSE AOL AND YOU WILL SEE A DIFFERENCE
I KNEW that one was coming. Actually I want cable modem but I am trying to figure out which one is best $$
