Grace in NY

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Dear Grace,

Thank you for the wonderful compliment!

You did not tell me what version of Windows you are using, but most computers that are only a couple of years old are running Vista, so I will give you directions for Vista first.

1. Click on the “Start” orb

2. Right click on “Computer” in the start menu.

3. Click on “Properties” in the context menu that appears.

4. In the window that opens, look in the “System” section and find the line that says, Memory (RAM):

5. The amount of RAM on your system will be listed there.

If you are using Windows XP, the directions are similar.

1. Click on the “Start” button

2. Right click on “My Computer” in the start menu.

3. Click on “Properties” in the context menu that appears.

4. In the System Properties window that opens, find the section that says “Computer”.

5. The amount of RAM will be listed in the Computer section.

Once you know how much RAM you have, you will need to find out how much RAM your laptop supports.

You can either find out by contacting the laptop manufacturer, in your case a quick phone call to Dell would work, or you can try an online RAM upgrade website.

The online sites will ask you a few questions about your computer, and then tell you how much RAM it originally came with, how much RAM it will be able to use, and give you some good prices on RAM that you can order directly from them.

One online site that I like to use is Crucial at:

Elizabeth

Thank you and have a nice day. Roberta in CA

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Dear Roberta,

More memory would indeed be a great Christmas present for your mom!

I can’t tell you exactly what to buy for memory. Different computers take different types of RAM, they have different numbers of slots, and the maximum amount of RAM that a computer will be able to use varies from one model to the other.

I can, however, point you in the direction of a great website that will help you figure out exactly what you need for RAM and give you an excellent price for the upgrade.

4 All Memory at: http://tinyurl.com/4allmemory

All you need to know is the manufacturer and model number of your moms computer, and you will be able to look it up on their site.

Have a great Christmas! Elizabeth

Works in Windows 9x, 2000, XP, Vista

http://hcidesign.com/memtest/

MemTest is a RAM reliability tester that runs under Windows. It evaluates the ability of your computer’s memory to store and retrieve data accurately.  A correctly functioning computer should be able to do both these tasks with 100% accuracy day in and day out. A computer that fails these tests, perhaps because of old hardware, damaged hardware, or poorly configured hardware, will be less stable and crash more often. Even worse, it will become even less stable over time as corrupted data is written to your hard disk.

By running MemTest you can ensure that your computer’s RAM is correctly functioning. It is wise to test this when you buy a new computer, install new RAM, or change the configuration of your machine (for instance, to overclock it).  Are you the sort of user who likes to push the performance of your machine to the edge? Relying upon whether your machine will boot after your new BIOS tweaks is a poor way to determine the safety of your new settings. Use MemTest as a true test of stability.

Elizabeth  

Before my question, I must say when my brother sent me your newsletter many years ago he did me one of the greatest services a big brother can!

May I ask how I can check the amount of RAM on my Dell laptop? It is only a couple years old, but things seem to run much slower and from your past newsletters I know it must have to do with the RAM.
Thanks so much for your answer. A Happy and Blessed New Year to you and those you love, Grace in NY

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Dear Grace,

Thank you for the wonderful compliment!

You did not tell me what version of Windows you are using, but most computers that are only a couple of years old are running Vista, so I will give you directions for Vista first.

1. Click on the “Start” orb

2. Right click on “Computer” in the start menu.

3. Click on “Properties” in the context menu that appears.

4. In the window that opens, look in the “System” section and find the line that says, Memory (RAM):

5. The amount of RAM on your system will be listed there.

If you are using Windows XP, the directions are similar.

1. Click on the “Start” button

2. Right click on “My Computer” in the start menu.

3. Click on “Properties” in the context menu that appears.

4. In the System Properties window that opens, find the section that says “Computer”.

5. The amount of RAM will be listed in the Computer section.

Once you know how much RAM you have, you will need to find out how much RAM your laptop supports. You can either find out by contacting the laptop manufacturer, in your case a quick phone call to Dell would work, or you can try an online RAM upgrade website.

The online sites will ask you a few questions about your computer, and then tell you how much RAM it originally came with, how much RAM it will be able to use, and give you some good prices on RAM that you can order directly from them.

One online site that I like to use is 4 All Memory at:
http://tinyurl.com/4allmemory

Elizabeth

I have a fairly new computer and its running very slow.  There is plenty of room on the hard drive so I just don’t understand. One of my daughters friends said that the memory may be full.
What’s the difference between the memory and the hard drive?

Also can I clean out the memory?

Thanks so much for your help in advance, I have learned a lot from your newsletters…. keep it up! Pam

Dear Pam,

There are two different kinds of memory in your computer.

One, is memory that is used for storage, usually that is your hard drive. When your hard drive gets too full, your computer will slow down, however, with the large hard drives in systems these days, that is not usually an issue.

The other type of memory is working memory, usually referred to as RAM memory. RAM cannot hold onto information when the power is off, so it gets cleared out and re-loaded each time you restart your computer. That is why re-booting your computer often fixes problems.

There are two ways you can speed up your computer if the RAM is too full. One is to purchase more RAM, and the other is to stop some of the programs that are loading when the computer boots.

If you are running Windows 98 or ME, you might want to consider adding memory if you have less than 128MB of RAM. If you are using Windows XP, you should have more than 128MB. If you are working with photos, music or video, 512MB of RAM is good.

If you have plenty of RAM, but your computer is running slower and slower, you have too many programs loading when your computer starts. Take a look at the icons in your system tray, located in the lower right of your screen. Are there more than 5 or 6 icons there? They all represent programs that are loaded in memory and running the whole time you use your computer. There can also be other programs running that didn’t put an icon in the system tray.

To see all the items that are loading when your computer starts, click on “Start” then “Run” and type MSCONFIG in the Run dialog box. Click the “OK” button, or just hit the enter key to display the “System Configuration Utility” window.

Click on the “Startup” tab, and you will see a long list of items. Every item with a check mark in front of it is running. To stop items from running the next time you start your computer, just remove the check mark and click “OK” when you are done. You will be prompted to restart your computer.

You can turn off any items you wish, but some you will want to keep running, especially, things like your antivirus.

Elizabeth