Which Memory Slot?

Hi All: Friend brought his computer over here, complaining it was running very slow. He has 3 teenage boys at home. After hours of cleaning, 9 viruses, 400 adwares, hijacked browser, etc.etc. and 2 hours of defragging, installed service pack 2, it is running somewhat faster.

He currently has only 128mb of ram. I am going to encourage him to buy at least another 256MB stick.

He is running Windows XP home on a Dell Dimension 2400 with 2.06Ghz Celeron. I think it takes DDR 2700. Tried to confirm with Dell, but they were too busy to talk to me.

Assuming I can convince him (he's not real well off and also ticked at his boys for all the junk), I would like to add it to the 128MB stick. I think that's alright, but I don't know if the larger stick should go in slot one or slot two. Some help on this please?

All replies are appreciated.

Martin

 

Dell Dimension 2400

 

Hi SSmith, thanks for the comeback. Don't know if he can spring for the $85. I would agree he should. Again, added to his 128? Which slot for which. Does it matter?

Martin

 

Doesnt matter.
If it had a Hyper Threading Processor then it would require a matched pair of sticks.
But in your case it doesnt matter. It's going to be slow any way.

 

Oh by the way. Im sure that machine has onboard video eating up atleast 32 meg of that 128!

Why Dell would even let them out the door with 128 blows my freakin mind.

 

That's so they can build them for $1.99 and sell them for $499. Yes, it has onboard video.

 

Hey SSmith, I have an old PCI video card, worked alright, he has a couple of PCI slots. Would it help??

Also, you don't happen to know how to get into the BIOS on that machine?? Delete key does not do it, unless maybe I am late with it. I'd ask Dell, but they are too busy to talk to me.

Martin

 

I believe it's F2.
PCI video is really really slow.
You can try it but my results even with a decent card was baaaaad.

 

I'll try it, the machine can't get slower, it would be at a stop.

Thanks for the comeback and info.


Martin

 

Hey Martin,

All the advice I've read on this subject says to put the larger stick in the first slot persumably so that there is less switching to the next Dimm.

Now how much difference that makes in the read world, I don't know.

Regards - Charles

 

Thanks Charles.

SSmith, you say it is still going to be slow? The Celeron is 2.20 Ghz, my first IBM Aptiva with 500Mhz was pretty fast in it's day, how slow could the Celeron be?

Martin

 

Man I know that I sounded harsh but I'm spoiled.
I build some of my customers PCs and if you set one along side of a Dell with the exact same specs it will run circles around it.

I have customers with Dell Optiplex Workstations with PIV 2.8 W/ 800 MHZ FSB, and 512 and they are dogs.
I cant explain it with concrete evidence but I have seen it time and time again.
Theres just a diffrence between good hardware and cheap hardware.

 

My friend decided to go with an additional 512MB which I will install next few days as soon as it gets here. Also, will be poking around in the boxes of parts in the garage for the PCI video card and it's driver CD. Hope I can find both.

After they are installed I'll let you know if it helped some, much, a great deal or not at all.

After talking him in to the card, which he can ill afford, it had better show some additional speed or my name will be mud.

Be well,

Martin

PS: F2 got me into the BIOS, thanks, but not much there to do anything with. These machines look so very good on TV ads. This 2400 does not even have an AGP slot.

 

Hi Martin,

I hope your friend appreciates the efforts you have made to clean up the system. That is time consuming work.

More RAM will not :
Make Windows boot faster (apart from you removing any unnecessary startup items).
Make programs or files open faster.
Run quicker with only one or two "small" programs running.

The benefit will be in being able to run more programs at once and running "large" programs without utilizing the pagefile (where Windows has to use the pagefile on the harddisk when it runs out of "physical" memory, ie RAM). Using the pagefile is slow compared to having the information/data available in RAM.

Check the harddisk activity light (does it have one?) when running programs before and after adding the extra RAM.

I would say there would be many benefits to adding the extra RAM, although it may also depend on how the machine is used...what size and how many programs are running. It will not go any "faster" than when it was first booted up after being purchased from Dell (if everything has been "optimized ").

Check what he wants to use the machine for. 128 + 256mb of RAM may be enough for what he needs. Compare the price of 512mb to 256mb, is it worth any mud ? 512mb compared to 256mb may run extra programs, but will it overcome the pagefile utilization? ...compare...compare. (He has lived with 128mb this long and it sounds like you are really getting it back to "show-room" condition. Do you throw somewhat expensive RAM at a so-so machine??).

Maybe forewarn him that the extra RAM will effect how programs are run, not the overall performance of the machine.

Matt

 

Thanks Mattman, that is really good information, In payment for the hours I spent cleaning up this machine, I am getting some valuable experience and knowledge.

The additional memory may not make the machine boot faster, but now, when the machine is busy, it can't even run the cursor properly. Like doing a virus or spyware scan, the cursor will move, but in jumps around the screen only. To me that is an indication of out of memory.

Also, the boys tell me that when they run a game it runs in fits and starts and they do get "out of memory" error messages. I just hope the additional memory and video card helps that symptom.

Also, it had about a bazillion programs loading on boot, mostly BHOs, spy and adware. I killed all those start ups except antivirus and spyware stoppers. It was taking 5 or 6 minutes to boot, got that down to about 2.5.

I know it won't be a barn burner, but I'm hoping it will run lots better than it did.

Thanks to everybody for their input.

Take care

Martin

 

It will do all of the above faster after it has time to adjust the page file. (About 10 min.)
XP with 128 of ram that is sharing with video will hardly even open IE.
It will be significantly faster.

I cant tell you how many Dimension 8100s I have added more Ram Bus and after about 10 min they were much faster.
That was going from 256 (128 x 2) and adding 512 (256 x 2)

 

I'll go along with Scott on this one. I don't run into many XP boxes with only 128MB but the one's I have encountered are (you guessed it) Dells. Even another 128 will make a considerable difference but with XP, a solid rule of thumb is 256 minimum. Your friend will notice a big speed and performance difference in all aspects if you add either 256 or 512. Why any manufacturer would ship something with anything less is beyond me.

 

Seems to be some difference of opinion here, so, I am now in a position, or will be, to settle this. As soon as I can, I'll post back results of the memory upgrade.

Take care,

Martin

 

Hehehe ..........

Question - what do Glider Pilots and Weathermen have in common?

Answer - They cover all bases quite well.