RAM
 

Hi, i have 128mb SDRAM on my machine. Yesterday, i
intsalled another 256MB, which now gives a total of 384MB
RAM. The system has recognised this RAM.

Should there be a difference in the speed of computer,
especially when it loads up? because i cant see that
difference.

what is the swapfile? before i instaled RAM, the swapfile
was always around 20MB, now i aint seen it go abobe 5MB.

regards

1. More RAM will generally not help the computer to start any faster, since
Windows is loading from the hard drive at that point. The hard drive is the
limit here, not memory.

2. The swapfile is your virtual memory - what the computer uses in place of
real memory. Now that you've installed more memory the computer does not
need to use the swapfile, that's why it's smaller.

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Win9x]
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* for the benefit of all. Private mail is usually not replied to.
* My website, such as it is ... http://rgharper.mvps.org/
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wrote in message
...
Hi, i have 128mb SDRAM on my machine. Yesterday, i
intsalled another 256MB, which now gives a total of 384MB
RAM. The system has recognised this RAM.

Should there be a difference in the speed of computer,
especially when it loads up? because i cant see that
difference.

what is the swapfile? before i instaled RAM, the swapfile
was always around 20MB, now i aint seen it go abobe 5MB.

regards

wrote:

Hi, i have 128mb SDRAM on my machine. Yesterday, i
intsalled another 256MB, which now gives a total of 384MB
RAM. The system has recognised this RAM.

Should there be a difference in the speed of computer,
especially when it loads up? because i cant see that
difference.

what is the swapfile? before i instaled RAM, the swapfile
was always around 20MB, now i aint seen it go abobe 5MB.

regards

Adding more memory can noticeably improve performance only if the
added memory results in reduced usage of the virtual memory swap file.
Therefore if the swap file is not currently being used to any
significant extent then adding more memory will not provide a
significant improvement.

Before installing more RAM use the System Monitor utility that comes
with Windows and use Edit - Add to set it to track "Memory manager:
Swap file in use" for several days of normal to heavy usage. If "Swap
file in use" regularly shows as 20 mb or more then the swap file is
being used extensively and more memory would result in improved
performance.

This applies regardless of how much or how little RAM is currently
installed in the computer.

There is a configuration setting that needs to be entered if you are
going above 512 mb of RAM with Windows 95/98/Me and there are possible
hardware related problems that can occur with more than 1 gb of RAM
with these Windows versions.

Hope this explains the situation.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."