Ya know, I guess I should add that I've removed some programs that were installed also that I don't use... but... there are a couple of computer games that we installed from the actual discs, that have tons of mb, mg, whatever that is that it will NOT let me remove. What does that mean? I have anti-virus software and it didn't pick anything up... :o(

You're getting RAM confused with hard drive space. Ram is a physical memory card that you add to the inside of the pc, it plugs into the main board, unless you have a laptop there is a special area for that. To see how much ram you have now...Right click Mycomputer choose properties, look down the bottom and you will see the current amount of ram you have installed.

What does the computer say when you try to remove those games you don't want any more?

It doesn't say anything. It just blinks and does nothing. :o(

If you did as Zep suggested to determine how much RAM you have you should now go to the download site looking for 'system requirements' so you know how much more you need. That will be the minimum requirements too, usually more RAM than stated would be needed to enjoy the full benefits of the game.

Nicki, please provide some more information. How much ram do you have in the unit? Open up the control panel and select system, it will tell you on the bottom portion of the general tab.

With that open, also let us know what processor you have in the computer (shown above the amount of ram).

While you have the system properties box open, choose the advanced tab - settings (under performance) - The visual effects tab should show, select "adjust for best performance". This will make windows less pretty but it will function much better. While you have that open, select the advanced tab (next to visual effects on top) and make sure "Programs" is selected for both processor scheduling and programs. On the bottom of this advanced tab is "virtual memory", click change and make sure "system managed size" is selected.

Ok, you can close those tabs. You may have to restart the computer.

How big is your hard drive and how much space is left on it? Every computer is set to use the hard drive as a cache when the all the physical ram is in use. Do you notice the hard drive is always spinning? You MUST always have at least as much space on your hard drive as is listed in that virtual memory tab (instructions above) or the system will hang and possibly crash.

How many Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) programs are set on your computer. These are the programs that start up automatically when you start the computer. Many of the icons for these programs show up in the task bar adjacent to the time (bottom right). Do you have a lot of icons there?

Try this. Click the start button - run - Type "msconfig" without the quotes. A box will open. Select the last tab (startup). What is shown is a list of the TSR's. This should not be a list as big as war and peace. You will most likely need to un-check some of these boxes but if you are unsure, do nothing. Get back to us and I will provide more information.

Back to the physical ram. With WinXP, you should have at least a gigabyte of ram (really you should have 2). If you have less you will need to upgrade. So, in addition to working on the above, you may need to upgrade your ram. We can walk you through that as well.

I realize that my writing may be a bit disjointed, you may have to print this out to follow and by all means ask questions if you are unsure of what to do. There are a lot of knowledgeable computer users here waiting to help.

By the way, everyone reading this will benefit from what I have written above. There will be a noticeable difference in the speed of the computer if these settings are adjusted, regardless of the amount of ram in the system.

There are more tweaks but let's take it a step at a time.

Klaa2

My xp laptop max physical memory is 512mb and it shares that ram with the video card ... thats all the motherboard will handle.
Laptop is quite peppy on that 512mb. It's more than enough memory unless maybe I was doing Photoshop seriously all day long.

Mikie, I don't know the reason for your post but I feel a comment is necessary. No offense, but a laptop with 512MB of ram that shares with the video card is probably considered a legacy unit. It can't possibly be "peppy" and I doubt that Photoshop will even install. Not CS3 anyway. Perhaps you have an older version?

I'm not here to debate what anyone should have under the hood but I would be cautious about giving specs that barely meet or fall short of minimum requirements. I'm sure to you your laptop is sufficient, but to someone looking to buy a new one and use the most recent software applications it won't do.

My reason I posted above was You telling people they need 1 & 2gb to run windows xp is just flat out wrong!

I do ruh Photoshop and other, what you would call heavy programs, across the network via wifi that are installed on my desktop. Work just fine.

Most of us have older computers with 512Ram. That was considered good 5 yrs ago. My older computer has 512, has lots of programs installed, including Photoshop elements, Picture IT, Word, Excel, Quickbooks, MS One-Care, and a lot more. Hubby works for hours editing with various photo programs, music blasting, burning CD's (added that later), watching videos, and the computer doesn't skip a beat. It is quick, I think as fast as our newer 2 & 3gig machines.

I don't know about you, but I don't replace my computers every 3 yrs. We've added two more computers to the family and one is 2 Gig, the other 3Gig both Intel Duel Core. Frankly, I have no idea why we were convinced we needed that size. We don't need it. The 512 is the workhorse of them all. Machines are all XP's.

Jane

When you buy a pc or laptop the first and foremost thing to consider is "What am I going to use it for" 512mb is the minimum requirement for xp and it will run fine for e-mail, surfing, and word. I also run a laptop on 512mb for school I use for e-mail and taking notes. My desk top has 1gig I will never need any more ram for what I do it gives me the ability to do several operations at the same time, several open windows, listen to ITUNES, and download photos all at the same time and avg could be updating in the background and I will notice no slow down, so really adding more ram gives us the ability to do more at once without a performance drop, I think most of us here are not doing a lot of things at one time. Large amounts of ram and I think 2 gigs is a large amount, would be used for graphs applications, video rendering, and games I mean those big games. Vista is another story because of all the added features it needs a lot of ram if I have to purchase vista for some unlikely reason the first thing I would do is to shut down those unneeded features that consume ram--Vista really was not ready for market and has been a complete failure, you will not know this until you try to use it to it's full potential service pack 1 is due this spring and should improve vista, just as service pack 2 did for xp, I actually believe Vista should have been called service pack 3 for xp, which by the way will also be issued in the spring.

fwiw
I was just tracing a taskmanger ServiceHost ProcessID. Anyhow suprized me to see so many file versions tagged Vista rather than xpsp2, on an XP machine. Must be microsoft updates. Lots of the updates have been tagged SP3 for quite a while.

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Nicki,
512MB of Ram is sufficient for most installations
of WinXp and associated programs.
You would only want (need) more if you had more
than the average of additional programs.

Hope this helps...

Spammers like micsteria pollute the forums. Join me in reporting this trash and getting them removed so the forums can be of value. You can also complain to myspace too. And if you have free time on a phone, calling the joker to complain wouldn't hurt either! (Assuming it's an accurate phone # and not phony like the rest of his/her posts) Just don't do anything illegal or harassing (and there's a lot of things that COULD be done!). That's not legal nor is it right. But if each person offended voices a complaint to the right place, it should help.

I'm not going to enter the debate of whether 32k is enough RAM to run Vista or if you need a billion terrabytes of RAM to boot your system. Each person has different needs so there's no one optimal system specification for everyone However, I will share some recent experience: My notebook came with 256mb of RAM and WindowsXP. Yes it worked. But ironically, it had more problems with old programs rather than new ones. It'd give the subsystem error. Adding 512 to it helped for many things and adding another gig helped more, but not to the extent that the first boost did. Again, this was based on *my* needs and uses.

People get confused on RAM rather easily. RAM is Random Access Memory. It is temporary storage, unlike the hard drive. When the computer us shut off, the RAM is cleared.

Please understand that RAM does *not* "speed up" a computer. To put it basically, it gives you more "elbow room" for working. Consider the RAM like the top of your desk at work. The larger the top of your desk, the easier it is to work with multiple files and the like. But having a larger desk does not make you work faster, just more efficiently. It's an important point that people often misunderstand. Another way to think about the benefit of RAM is transferring water from one barrel to another. If you use a teacup, you'll move a smaller amount of data than using a 1 gallon pail. You'll move more yet using a 5 gallon pail. However, it will not speed you up moving it, only the transfer of the water (data) will be more efficient. The other important point to note is that if you only have a teacup full of water to move, the 5 gallon pail won't be a real advantage! Hopefully this clarifies the relationship a bit.

I suspect the problem mentioned is that there is a minimum amount of RAM recommended/required for the program you want to run and it's probably running a system check to see if you have it. From what I've seen, that is the thing to check. So I'd agree with the suggestions to check what you have and check the requirements.

Also, doing regular maintenance (cleaning) on your machines will go a long way to keeping things running smoothly

cynic, do you know what the paging file is? Reading your post, I doubt it.

Simply put, the only thing correct in your post is that RAM is volatile. That is, the information it holds is lost when the power is turned off.

You're relationship analogy is flawed and indicates a lack of understanding of the architecture involved.

Of course adding RAM makes the computer work faster! Any time you reduce or eliminate the caching of information to a hard disk you increase the speed at which the system can operate.

People, this is rudimentary level stuff.

I build computer systems. There are really only three ways to look at the needs of a certain system:

1. Bare minimum - This would be the absolute minimum system requirements which would allow the hardware and software to boot. With a system like this, you're probably better off with pencil and paper. I seriously doubt anyone here has a system at this level or you wouldn't be reading this without needing to reboot a few times, though some may be close..

2. Functioning - Here is where I see a majority of systems. These systems may be meeting the hardware and software minimum requirements or be slightly ahead of them (recommended minimum requirements). This system can function for many years providing the user does not upgrade applications without upgrading hardware. As time goes by, these systems will not be able to run the newer operating systems, more powerful applications or run the latest gaming software. Remember, you can still be using an original pentium with 128MB EDO ram if you use win95 and the original windows version of photoshop. You may even feel this is "peppy". It's all relative.

3. Current - A current system is one which includes the latest technology and can run, without much difficulty, the most demanding operating system and software. Production is much higher since the time it takes to perform the same tasks as a functioning system is extremely reduced. As long as there are no bugs from new hardware or software, these systems operate at peak efficiency and do not run into some of the frustrating problems a functioning computer has. Owners of these systems can either let it stay as is until it becomes, with age, a "functioning" system or they can stay on the curve by upgrading until the technology changes enough to require a new system.

The choice is yours. I do not recommend a "bare minimum" system and I strongly suggest that for production sake, you keep your "functioning" system as high above the "recommended minimum" as possible.

We let, or I let, this topic ge way off, I apologize for that.

You originally were asking about "clearing" Ram. If your system uses DRAM, then the memory controller in the operating system suffice. Considering the context of the original post, I do not think you meant this. What I think you need to do is upgrade.