New Memory, No Difference!?!
 

I just added 2 extra gigs of RAM to the 1 gig I already have and I swear, my pc is running just as slow or slower. I see virtually no improvements whatsoever. My adobe applications should have a little spunk to them but they take forever to load as usual. I bought the extra memory because I do plenty of video editing. My friend installed 2 fresh sticks at a gig a piece and his system screams. I'm running 3 gigs! What could be the problem? Here is the stuff I bought.

Do you know that depending on your motherboard, you can only have a maxuimum, anything extra is ignored

Check out the specs for my mother board here. I have a gigabyte GA-8IPE1000 (Rev 4.x).

Memory specs:
1. Type: Dual Channel DDR 400 / 333 / 266 support
2. Max capacity: 4 GB (Please read FAQ for further information)
3. DIMM slots: 4

* Due to standard PC architecture, a certain amount of memory is reserved for system usage and therefore the actual memory size is less than the stated amount.

What is your CPU? If your CPU is a bottleneck Ram isn't going to help you much with video editing (I have that problem).

If you have a real good CPU then there is a possiblity you got bad RAM but if you aren't having programs crash randomly then I doubt thats it.

I assumed you checked your system in CP and it says you have 3 gigs right?

Back to my first ? what CPU do you have?

I have a pentium 4 3.20Ghz.

Yeah I have a P4 3.0 and an upgrade of RAM from 1 gig to 2 gigs seemed to do practicly nothing for me also..

Our P4's are getting obsolete. If you get a Pentium D or a Core2 Duo I bet you notice a difference ;)

When i upgraded to vista i bought 1gb to add to my 1gb ddr2 5300 = 2gb ddr2 5300 (in case maths aint ya strong point ;)) My machine literally flies now, I have a AMD AM2 3800 cpu..

Before the upgrade of ram and vista, to encode from 700mb DIVX to DVD using WinAVI it took about 45 minutes, now it takes about 25 - 30 mins :)

I am going to get another 2gb soon well, perhaps the end of the month lol
I will report if it makes any difference.

btw, my Adobe CS2 has always been slow to start up, but using the program is ok!!

I have a P D 805 sitting here waiting for me to get a p5wd2-e.. then I will be a bit happier.

You know, what you consider slow and what we consider slow could be seconds difference! But RAM is not the only thing that affects your speed.

You may wish to make your Page Swap file a good size, mine is 1 gig with 512 ram, you may want to make sure you got a good Anti Virus (Norton, is not.) but the problem with Anti Virus is most monitor everything you do, making things slower. I use NOD32, very good.. but i most of the time dont have it running because it monitors you :) Also your proccessor is a very big problem with speed, not sure about yours and i dont think it is the problem, but smaller processor, slower speed! Make sure you got the correct cooling aswell. You may wish to try reformatting also! If all of that does not work, paint your computer red and hopefully that will make a difference.

Red? i heard it was blue?

No, no, no! Red goes faster!

Anything greater than 2GB in Windows XP is more or less a waste. If you're using 2GB and your system is crawling, your problem lies elsewhere.

That being said, most people with a decent CPU generally wouldn't need more than 1GB.

Other things to check:

• Check your HDD for bad sectors.
• What's running in the background? Do you have any Antivirus, Spyware, Weather, etc. or other general nuisance applications stealing precious CPU cycles?
• Is Windows recognizing your CPU and RAM properly? Go to Control Panel > System. Make sure your correct CPU speed and RAM total is listed.

Also, are ONLY your Adobe applications running slow? Or is your PC sluggish in general? Are you using the latest builds of the software, or are you using much older, outdated versions?

With enough details, we can track things down with a little more certainty.

Actually thats a good point Magnus

Print this post!! Close all open windows including ya browser

Press CTRL, Alt and Delete and bring up the Task Manager
Click the CPU column at the top, perhaps ya might need to click twice, you are
wanting to get it to show all the items that are using the most CPU at the top

Viewing this will show you what is running and what is using the most of the CPU
resources. If you see any programs in there that you recognize such as Magnus
said, Weather modules, password programs, or anything else that is not installed
with windows as standard.

If you see anything in there that is using a lot of CPU other than System Idle Process
Task Manager, MSN, then you need to jot them down and post them here, we
can then go through them with you to see what is what and also what we can
talk you through to have them NOT startup with windows, Most programs can
be started as and when you need them and not startup with windows.

If you are comfortable with figuring out what s running and what you can disable
safely then follow this to have them not stat with windows.

Goto the start menu
Programs
Click Run...
Then type msconfig
A new box will open, click the Startup Tab
then choose the programs that you do not want to start with windows, once
you have done this, close it and restart your computer. When it boots, a popup
will show about using the something or other lol, put a tick in the box so it dont
show again,

Job done, any issues then post here :)

Solution. Delete your OS, esp if it's winblows.

No, that's not a solution. That's...well, unhelpful.

Anyway, while you're in the task manager doing what bashy said, an easy way to see what's using a lot of resources is to sort the process by CPU %. You'll be surprised at what can be eating your cycles alive. Firefox in particular is sadly notorious for being a resource hog, among other programs. Other than that, bashy gave you a good set of things to look at, especially your startup list in msconfig.

Also, if you're using Vista these days...1GB is the lower limit; I'm running a gig of RAM and actually ran OUT of memory last week for the first time since I was on Windows 98 with 128MB. I'm not sure if it's just poorly implemented right now or what; I'd really like to see a service pack soon to address some irritating things.

Better than mac, i really hate mac. You know, if mac were cheaper in the 1970's they would of out sold windows and mac would be good, but they didnt. I really cant stand mac! People say "ITS GOOD FOR DESIGN AND SUCH" but geez, who buys a whole new computer just to do a design when you can download the programs on your PC. You cant even run mac on a PC, you can run linux and windows on a PC, linux is great, only reason i dont use it is because it doesnt have such a great compatibility and i dont like WINE.

And if you are using vista, personally i would not recommend it till august when the first service pack is out. Many bad rumors about that, though im sure the people spreading them rumors didnt try ultimate and they are underspec if they did! :P

Download SpyBot search and destroy, it has a more advanced process list! Also it picks up proccesses that are commonly hidden from ctrl alt delete, your a total idiot if you make a virus and it shows in the process tab of task manager!

I don't hate Macs. I hate people who use Macs. (vulgar language, may not be safe for work)

Im rather confused, are they supporting mac or dissing it? Anyways, they are talking about mac being good for design when that website is just white text on black background, my 4 year old nephew can do that in Notepad on windows 95.

To each his own I guess, but have you ever owned a Mac? People who make nasty comments about Macs usually have never used one.

LOL. You haven't actually read the page. :)

You sir are the reason why Mac users don't like the "dark" side.

Good. :)

You know this question has already spawned one Mac/OS X/Apple vs. PC/Windows/Microsoft war on another site. Can we just skip it this time please? I'm sure the OP would appreciate that very much.

Eh, the last Mac I had was an iMac G3 with OS 8. I'm pretty neutral on it, it's an operating system, and it doesn't have PPC architecture going for it anymore. It's the fan club that pushed me away from getting a Macbook Pro (and the fact that they sear human flesh). If I hear another Mac fanatic say "winblows" or "microsuck" in a moment of false cleverness I'm going to explode. No, really. Like boom.

Not much to do in the meantime until the OP tries the various solutions provided to him and reports back.

We're just killin' time.

I understand....I've just had enough of this 'holy war' for one week already ;).