My 640M RAM feels like a 128M! What is up?

Sorry I forgot to include the specs:

HP Pavillion (bought new in 2000) Pentium3/933Mhz; 60G HDD (20G used as of today); stock 128M RAM, WinME. My system is fairly clean (I think) and even with just the 128M RAM it takes about 5 or 6 major apps before it even starts to complain a bit. I regularly defrag (HD & RAM), norton diagnose, spybot/adaware/spywareblaster, avg, etc...

Oh, and one more thing: From what I remember reading in the documentation, I think the RAM can only be upgraded up to 768M. So I can't use 2 512s. Or is that not a major issue? There's 3 slots available, by the way. Although, does it matter which ones I use and in what order?

Thanks,

Chris

You may be running into the problem with Win98/me and caching over 512meg memory. You should try this to see if it resolves the problem.

Click START/RUN type MSCONFIG and hit enter. Click on Advanced and set Limit memory to 512meg. See if that resolves the problem.

If you really want to use all the memory you have you should upgrade to Windows XP.

I tried limiting the memory to 512M like you said. But I don't know. At first it seems like it made a little difference but I really don't feel anything drastic.

Speaking of XP, this is just a thought. My wife's laptop has it but its backup media CD is the only copy I have of the OS. Do you think it's possible to use that and overwrite ME? I'm not quite sure how to proceed. I'm also a bit nervous about having to do hardware tweaks.

Thanks for the tip though.

Well this stuff is just way over my head. I think I'm alright though. I figured if the RAM's working and not giving me any major headaches then I guess I can live with it.

And yes, Norton does finish the test in about 2 seconds! I did wonder about that for a second. Oh well...

Thanks anyway.

I have a P3 450Mhz, 128 RAM and Win ME OS, and it works good for me, consider it fast also. My secret is limiting the startup programs through the MSCONFIG tool. You can try that one also.
txs

Hi Chris,

The Nortons Diagnostic was last in the old Nortons Systems Works 2001 and not included in the NSW 2002 that was released in 2001 nor in any other later versions of NSW. As Bob indicates, you will not get a correct reading on the RAM with it according to Symantec (Nortons).

You didn't indicate what model HP you had so I couldn't check to see about the max RAM. You may desire to key that info in to http://www.crucial.com to get a reading from them on the max RAM. I note many HP of the earlier models can only go up to about 340MB. One of my computers is a Pent III, 500MHz that came with 128MB and Crucial indicates that I can only go up to 192MB which I did do. Other articles I have read is that mother nature.....err..Microsoft has issued statements about going over 512MB of RAM will not be agreeable with some computers. See what they have to say about it in some cases:

http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=253912

Normally the larger RAM stick would go in the 1st slot. If I was you, I would take the advice of others here and only use the 512MB stick removing the other.

PS...your other Q about using your wife's laptop WinXP backup media CD will not work on upgrading your ME.

Thanks for the tip John. I realized that since my PC's over 4 years old there's a possibility that my RAM slots could only take a certain amount of memory. I'm not even sure if 512M sticks were in mass production back in '99 or even '00.I remember reading in the documentation that i can only upgrade to 768M. Now since I have 3 slots available, it only makes sense that they could accomodate 256M each max.

I had no idea about this! Thanks for the tip. Can you tell me how I can secure an OEM upgrade license from Microsoft?

Also, my daughter's old Dell has Windows2000 in it but it got trashed with virus and it's now pretty much useless. Now the problem is that the Resource CD was lost (my wife's to blame for this!!!! ) so I couldn't do a factory reinstall. There is a Win2000 certificate of authenticity sticker on top of the PC. Would that help at all?

I appreciate your time.

If you don't mind trying to get the best price, look on http://www.pricewatch.com under "software" and look for Operating Systems. You'll be able to find what you need at the cheapest prices (usually). Be SURE that you make note of what you're ordering because the cheapest thing on the page may NOT be what you're looking for. $55 seems like the cheapest price for a license ONLY (for some odd reason). If you know of any computer shows or stores around your town, you might be able to get it as cheap as $10 or $15.

As for the Win2K COA, you can't use that for Windows XP.

Also, you might consider getting another stick of RAM, since your diagnostic program found errors. I ordered some "comparable to Micron/Simiens/IBM" memory, but it was buggy. The BEST thing to do would be to go to http://www.crucial.com and search for your motherboard. If you don't know your motherboard specs, download SiSoftware's Sandra 2004 from http://www.sisoftware.co.uk. Also, RAM seems kind of high right now, so you might wanna wait if you can, or get a smaller size stick. Getting a 256MB stick will still be very beneficial.