Most Windows 7 PCs max out memory.

[Barman58]

One other thing to check with a laptop/netbook is the power plan - advanced settings, these are often set-up to throttle back the actual processor whilst on battery power. This can seriously hamper multimedia performance.

Also check for any manufacturer supplied utilities that adjust performance settings when on battery

 

[madtownidiot]

But here the problem is mechanical. When the bus hits a bump, the heads of the disk retract to avoid a head crash. Maybe putting the laptop on a pillow may help (if that does not impede the cooling too much - e.g. if the vents are towards the side). But the flash drive option is a good alternative - even a large SD card (that does not stick out on the side and cannot break).

Exactly. The good thing about it is a mechanical HDD also can function as a gyroscope that can detect even the slightest motion. What I would like to see is an adjustable read/write buffer that increases when the HDD senses the laptop is in motion. It only takes a few seconds for it to read 500 MB, for example, and transfer that to memory. So how could I get windows to use some of the 4 GB of idle RAM (on average) as a secondary read/write cache?

 

[whs]

As I said, use a 4GB SD card - problem solved.

 

[macgyver2]

I have a laptop and watch movies on it all the time and the laptop sits between me and my wife on the bed, I pick it up at least 10 times during the movie and have NO skips or delays at all. Sounds very strange that your laptop has this issue to me. Just last night the dog jumped on the bed and seriously hit the laptop to the point I was worried about a head crash and the laptop seems fine today and the movie didn't pause or skip even for .5 sec.

Could it be the HDD and not the system at all?

granted I could be destroying my HDD but I am constantly using my laptop like a media desktop converting VHS movies into DVD and taking my DVD's into digital format for my WD media TV.

 

[whs]

I have a laptop and watch movies on it all the time and the laptop sits between me and my wife on the bed, I pick it up at least 10 times during the movie and have NO skips or delays at all. Sounds very strange that your laptop has this issue to me. Just last night the dog jumped on the bed and seriously hit the laptop to the point I was worried about a head crash and the laptop seems fine today and the movie didn't pause or skip even for .5 sec.

Could it be the HDD and not the system at all?

granted I could be destroying my HDD but I am constantly using my laptop like a media desktop converting VHS movies into DVD and taking my DVD's into digital format for my WD media TV.

There are HDDs with and without retractable heads. My guess would be that your heads do not retract.

 

[macgyver2]

will look it up, I have 2 of these drives and one is in a USB case from HP

 

[dmex]

Getting a bit OT here

You laptop might have jitter-correction controls in your BIOS or with software for controlling that problem, I know Sony laptops come with some form of it

 

[macgyver2]

well can't find the info and will post it in my specs if anyone's interrested. As for the RAM part I did have something to say about that.

I use computer status to monitor most aspects of my laptop and it tells me 2.6GB is used out of 4 or is that telling me that's what I have avail? cause resource monitor says I am using 1.7

 

[whs]

resource monitor says I am using 1.7

I would only go by what resource monitor says. But 1.7 of 4.0 is a lot. I usually run around 1.0 (for everything except the blue part).

 

[macgyver2]

I have 4 sidebar apps running, NIS, firefox, yahoo IM, core temp my mouse software and I have areo on and those are the apps I can see.

 

[whs]

I have 4 sidebar apps running, NIS, firefox, yahoo IM, core temp my mouse software and I have areo on and those are the apps I can see.

Very similar to mine - I even have a couple more apps running. Maybe you have a lot of startups.

 

[Win7User512]

I run x64 with 4GB RAM and have no issues unless I'm doing development, image editing, video editing, etc. Most of the time, I have a lot of blue (no concrete numbers as I'm not at my laptop).

What are these folks running?

 

[foadywm]

lets just call it the hoax that it is and close the thread.

 

[EvilOzzmess]

I totally know what they are talking about with this… if my notebook only had 2GB of RAM it would most definitely be maxed out right now, in fact. For reasons I can’t explain or pinpoint, my system cruses at a semi-high 1.7GB – JUST idling! That figure shoots up to 2.5GB when I’m browsing in Firefox, and further ramps up to 3GB when playing Sims 2, and as much as 3.5GB when I’m playing Sims 3.

My system memory is SDRAM DDR2 667. So perhaps this is part of the issue and also the variance of the issue. 7 might just not like notebook/laptop RAM or else DDR2 itself.

But yeah, this is definitely weird because my old Dell Dimension 3000 running XP-32bit with only 512MB RAM idles at a cool 256MB – going up slightly when playing Sims 2 and that’s it - impressive considering this PC has NO GPU or VRAM and it NEVER maxes out! So by this reasoning Sims 2 on this brand new 7-64 with 4GB RAM and 512MB VRAM shouldn’t be ramping the usage up as high as it is presently.

So anyway, from my experience so far… 7 definitely has some RAM mismanagement going on but I haven’t yet managed to get it to max out to the full 4GB. I’m sure that will change over the years when programs demand even more resources, but for now its fine. Hopefully they will figure what this is out and fix it before I start running into problems with this in the future, though.

 

[whs]

These figures are kind of high. From where did you get the nums - task manager?

 

[EvilOzzmess]

These figures are kind of high. From where did you get the nums - task manager?

Yesuree, Taskmanager is ALWAYS opened on my systems so I can see what's going on.

 

[macgyver2]

I am sorry 1.2 I read that wrong, and with my video card I have 3.8GB avail as my card uses the rest. I can't set the amount but I have seen it go as high as 512 when playing UT. Its currently set to 258mb which seems like an odd number.

 

[stormy13]

Wonder how many of these supposed "running out of memory" computers have a Programs and Features list like this,

with the startup list to match.

 

[whs]

That's a lot of junk. I would disable everything from the startups and only leave the security program running.

Taskmanager is ALWAYS opened on my systems so I can see what's going on.

Put a CPU meter into the sidebar - does the same thing.

 

[dgwin7]

Here is my task manager pix below.

Running Win 7 64bit Ultimate (4GB) with processes around 30-36 with firefox, simple apps.

Running 25-27 processes while play games so smooth no problem.

Task Manager is my number one priority, always check with task manager to close some apps down then begin then game for better performance and smooth also responsiveness.

BTW *never never let any apps or anti-virus apps running in background while you are play games, any games don't need anti-virus app at all also avoid bloated.

Just my 2 cents.

dg