Good idea to upgrade RAM? (shared memory)

[CorneliusM]

Hi all,

I know this has probably been asked countless times but, I also know computer specs differ on all machines!

I have a Compaq Presario CQ56-156SA,
64-Bit
AMD-V
Ati Radeon
2GB RAM (shared)
320GB HDD

I have noticed within two or so weeks that the performance has really gotten bad, so much so It seems I am running Windows 7 on a 1/2 GB RAM and things are no better when I switch to Basic or Classic theme!

My startup is limited to MSE and Realtek audio and I have already gone through services in order to disable/manual items as in the tutorial found on Sevenforums!

Checking with Crucial.com (UK Site) I can upgrade to 8GB RAM but I wouldn't go that far on just 320GB HDD! I was wondering if it is even worth upgrading RAM at all because the slowness of the laptop is unbearable considering my last machine was 3GB dual core AMD and no matter how slow that one had gotten, It was bearable!

So, if it is worth upgrading my RAM, should I go for an extra 2GB as planned or would I be better off with the maximum 8GB as HP-Compaq and Crucial suggest as maximum?

Thanks in advance people!

 

[LiquidSnak]

Would you post a snip of your resource monitor on the memory tab?

 

[CorneliusM]

Hi,

Cheers for the reply, I've attached the screenshot

Forgot to add that I was running on the standard Windows Basic theme all day before taking that screenshot!

Would you post a snip of your resource monitor on the memory tab?

 

[Sardonicus]

8 Gb will be overkill, if you're not going to use it.
The sweet spot for Windows Seven is 4 Gb.

 

[marsmimar]

Prices for memory have come way down recently so the question of whether to upgrade to 4GB vs 8GB is cost. If you're not doing memory intensive tasks you probably won't notice any appreciable difference between the two. But if money is no object ...

What exactly has changed about performance? Start up time? Noticeable lag in gaming? Fan(s) running at 100%? Something else? Have you done the usual housekeeping chores like checking for malware? Cleaning temp files? Defragging? Etc? You might find this tutorial helpful.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11728-optimize-windows-7-a.html

 

[CorneliusM]

Hey man,

that's what I was thinking, If my HDD was 500GB+ I'd consider 8GB, 3GB dual core I had no problem with!

8 Gb will be overkill, if you're not going to use it.
The sweet spot for Windows Seven is 4 Gb.

 

[CorneliusM]

Boot up has never been a problem, in fact it still boots up as quickly as it did when I bought it in April!
I do like playing games on laptops (who doesn't) but I've calmed down to playing PC games that are old like Bloodrayne 1/2, Total Overdose and American McGee's Alice which are like PS1 and PS2 graphics and don't have problems, I'm actually planning on one day building a Gaming PC not just for gaming but for work I can do with Adobe products!
I run malware scans daily and defrag/disk clean weekly! Fan is pretty quiet but I can't help noticing that the laptop seems to be slow for no apparent reason most of the time

Prices for memory have come way down recently so the question of whether to upgrade to 4GB vs 8GB is cost. If you're not doing memory intensive tasks you probably won't notice any appreciable difference between the two. But if money is no object ...

What exactly has changed about performance? Start up time? Noticeable lag in gaming? Fan(s) running at 100%? Something else? Have you done the usual housekeeping chores like checking for malware? Cleaning temp files? Defragging? Etc? You might find this tutorial helpful.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11728-optimize-windows-7-a.html

 

[marsmimar]

...but I can't help noticing that the laptop seems to be slow for no apparent reason most of the time

What exactly are you doing when you notice these slow downs? There are so many contributing factors it's hard to offer a specific fix without having a specific problem. For example, if you try to open multiple tabs on a browser is that slow? Are web pages slow to load? If you're typing a sentence do the characters hesitate or lag before appearing on screen? Here's one more article that speaks in generalities about slow computers. I apologize for not being able to offer a specific remedy, but without a without a specific problem all we can do is talk in generalities.

My computer is running slow what steps can I do to fix it?

 

[CorneliusM]

It could be something simple like having more than one IE tab open at once and although my internet speed is fast, web pages can become slow displaying completely, I always put that down to servers rather than my laptop.
When things become slow, I'm either opening an explorer window or opening a program itself.
I do make sure I've only got one thing (explorer or program) open at any one time, also I haven't installed SP1 nor any of the BIOS updates HP Advisor insisted on me installing for performance issues.

...but I can't help noticing that the laptop seems to be slow for no apparent reason most of the time

What exactly are you doing when you notice these slow downs? There are so many contributing factors it's hard to offer a specific fix without having a specific problem. For example, if you try to open multiple tabs on a browser is that slow? Are web pages slow to load? If you're typing a sentence do the characters hesitate or lag before appearing on screen? Here's one more article that speaks in generalities about slow computers. I apologize for not being able to offer a specific remedy, but without a without a specific problem all we can do is talk in generalities.

My computer is running slow what steps can I do to fix it?

 

[marsmimar]

When you notice things are slower than normal, you might want to see what processes are running in the background that could be hogging your CPU. You could use Task Manager for an overview but I prefer either Process Manager or Process Hacker. Both are free and give a better insight as to what might be happening. (Process Explorer doesn't have to be installed, you can run it from your browser.)

Process Explorer

Home - Process Hacker

Sometimes an unexpected slow down could be caused by automatic updates to an antivirus, a scheduled system scan, scheduled defrag, etc. Either utility should be able to tell you if something like that is happening. And there's another possibility called Perceived Slowdown.

What is Perceived Slowdown? & Why the PC itself may not be responsible for your speed frustration |

 

[CorneliusM]

When it happens I do check the Task Manager that doesn't show much running apart from usual, I have the Process Manager but I'm not that advanced to understand what is what in order to know what should/shouldn't be running.

My first experience in laptops was an old XP 1/2 GB Ram that pretty much conditioned me into having very few programs/windows/both open at once and I've still stuck to it, I always double check Task Manager to make sure a program has closed before using anything else.

When you notice things are slower than normal, you might want to see what processes are running in the background that could be hogging your CPU. You could use Task Manager for an overview but I prefer either Process Manager or Process Hacker. Both are free and give a better insight as to what might be happening. (Process Explorer doesn't have to be installed, you can run it from your browser.)

Process Explorer

Home - Process Hacker

Sometimes an unexpected slow down could be caused by automatic updates to an antivirus, a scheduled system scan, scheduled defrag, etc. Either utility should be able to tell you if something like that is happening. And there's another possibility called Perceived Slowdown.

What is Perceived Slowdown? & Why the PC itself may not be responsible for your speed frustration |

 

[LiquidSnak]

three or four GB wouldn't hurt you, but your shared memory is pretty low. It's really up to you if you don't notice any problems, but you will see an increase in performance in certain areas.

 

[CorneliusM]

I would prefer a paired RAM seeing as its insisted so I would go for 4GB, I did notice, however, that when I went through my ATI settings, setting all the video settings to ATI rather than application-controlled helped a little with loading times and so far things have been okay.
Although I do have a Seagate External HDD 500GB that is frequently plugged in and used, I used Device Manager policies to set to Better Performance and switched back because it seems to write cache in Windows slowing my machine. Setting it back to Default Quick Removal again has helped!

Though I will be at some point upgrading to an extra 2GB in the empty slot for better performance in Adobe products

three or four GB wouldn't hurt you, but your shared memory is pretty low. It's really up to you if you don't notice any problems, but you will see an increase in performance in certain areas.