[smurfyboy88]

i have a 2 year old Dell Inspiron 6400 with 1GB RAM + 60GB hardrive.

When on idle running no programmes i still have a PF usage of around 450MB....this raises to 550MB even when only using Firefox.

Is it time i upgraded to 2GB or RAM?
Thanx

[smurfyboy88]

oops and i run Windows XP sp3

[Jones]

Well, you don't 'need' it. XP runs just fine on 1gb of memory. But 2gb will run it better.

Go to Crucial's website and use their system scanner to see exactly what kind of memory you need for your system:

http://crucial.com/

RAM is pretty cheap now, so you should be able to pick up a 2gb kit for around $30 - $40, depending on what you need. Cheers!

[BG-0]

It's time to clean all the crap in your startup items. Start->Run... Type msconfig, choose startup tab, take a screenshot or three to show the items, or type them all here.

[Gulo Luseus]

I agree witg BG, a good clean would probably give as mch of a boost as anything else. Personally, I had a lappie that got slower and slower, and a reinstall gave it a new lease of life. If you can afford to save what you need and do a clean install- assuming you have disks- it may be productive.
as for memory, not too sure. If you had DDR1, I would say no, mainly as the cost is high, and the xhance of reuse is low. For DDR2, given the price its at these days, then yes, it would probably give you a noticablr boost, as long as you dont expect too much

[matthew0155]

always a good thing

[dustyjay]

I would also add that seeing a really noticeable difference between 1Gb and 2Gb ram under XP would also be dependant on the programs run. Some apps, not so much, Other resource hungry apps such as Video Rendering, and such very likely.

[flavallee]

smurfyboy88:

Click Start - Run, type in MSCONFIG and then click OK - "Startup" tab.

How many entries are checked?

Click Start - Run, type in SERVICES.MSC and then click OK.

How many entries are set to Automatic?

If you make use of these sites

http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.p...t=100&offset=0

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

to reduce the number of startup entries and services that automatically load and run in the background, it'll make a noticable difference in the overall performance and startup time.

--------------------------------------------------------------

1024 MB(1 GB) of RAM is usually sufficient for XP, but adding another GB comes in handy when running multiple memory-hungry programs.

I'm using 2048 MB(2 GB) in my 6-1/2 year old Gateway desktop.

--------------------------------------------------------------

[BG-0]

Yes, adding RAM is good for some apps, but if you check his original post, his pagefile usage is high even on idle so there's definitely some crap, let it be installed by him, or viruses, so... Just noting.

[Gulo Luseus]

Yup, totally agree BG. It was more a note that more RAM would probably be useful, especially with costs low, thats why I went for the cleanup option first

[TheOutcaste]

Originally Posted by smurfyboy88

When on idle running no programmes i still have a PF usage of around 450MB....this raises to 550MB even when only using Firefox.

Are you looking at the Page File usage as reported by Task Manager on thePprocesses tab?
That's actually the Commit Charge, not the Page File usage.

To get an accurate idea of your Page File usage, run the following script before shutting down. It will show the current and peak Page File usage for the session.
It will create a log file in My Documents showing the peak Page File usage during each session so you can easily track it for a few days.

Copy and paste into Notepad, then save it as PageFileUsage.vbs (or whatevery you want, just needs the .vbs extension).

' WinXP-2K_PageFile.vbs - Checks the current and peak usage, and allocated
' size of the Windows Windows XP or Windows 2000 pagefile and optionally
' log and/or show the results in a popup.
' © Bill James - wgjames@mvps.org - Created 4 Nov 2002 - Revised 10 Nov 2002
' Please see the ReadMe.txt file for additional information.

' You can run this script manually during a Windows session, or if you have
' Windows XP/2000 Pro I recommend adding it as a logoff script to log results
' at the end of each Windows session.  To implement running the script at
' logoff (also shutdown and restart) for Windows XP Pro or Windows 2000 Pro:
' Click Start, Run, gpedit.msc.  Select User Configuration, Windows Settings,
' Scripts.  In the right pane, select Logoff, Properties.  Click Add, Browse.
' Browse to the location of this script and select it.  IMPORTANT: In the
' "Script Parameters" box add "log" (no quotes) so the script will not show a
' popup which would stall your shutdown sequence.  OK, Apply, OK.  (You may
' want to first copy this script to the logoff folder and select it there)

' If logging is enabled (default), the results are saved in My Documents folder
' as PageFileLog.txt.

'**********************************************************
' Three optional settings are configurable below:
'  WriteToFile - If set to True the information will be added to a log file in
'    your 'My Documents' folder.  Of course, you want this if you are running
'    at logoff, but you might not want it for manually checks.  Changing this
'    to False disables logging.
'   ShowPopup - If set to True then after the script runs a message box is
'     presented with the results.  This might not be desirable when
'     automatically running the script at logoff.  False disables popup.
'   DisplaySeconds - The number of seconds that the results popup will
'     display.  Setting this to 0 (zero) will cause the popup to remain until
'     acknowledged.

WriteToFile = True    'Options: True, False
ShowPopup = True      'Options: True, False
DisplaySeconds = 0    '0 (zero) to force OK
'**********************************************************

'**********************************************************
' You can also set the options using arguments:
' Syntax:  [path]scriptname [log] [rpt] [t:sec]
'   log - add results to the logfile
'   rpt - show results in popup
'   t:seconds - controls how long the popup message will display

' Example: "WinXP-2K_PageFile.vbs rpt t:5" - show popup for 5 seconds, no log.
' Example: "WinXP-2K_PageFile.vbs log" - log the results, no popup.
' Example: "WinXP-2K_PageFile.vbs log rpt t:10" - log and 10 second popup.

' NOTE: If ANY arguments are used, all hardcoded variables are set to
' false or 0, so you must specifically set which options you want.

' To use these options, create a shortcut to the script and add the arguments
' there, or the arguments can be used running the script from command line.
'**********************************************************

' Do not edit below this line
If WScript.Arguments.Count > 0 Then
  WriteToFile = False
  ShowPopup = False
  DisplaySeconds = 0
  For Each arg in WScript.Arguments
    If LCase(arg) = "log" Then
      WriteToFile = True
    End If
    If LCase(arg) = "rpt" Then
      ShowPopup = True
    End If
    If Left(LCase(arg), 2) = "t:" Then
      If IsNumeric(Mid(arg, 3)) Then
        DisplaySeconds = Mid(arg, 3)
      End If
    End If
  Next
End If

For Each obj in GetObject("winmgmts:\\.\root\cimv2").ExecQuery(_
    "Select Name, CurrentUsage, PeakUsage, " & _
    "AllocatedBaseSize from Win32_PageFileUsage",,48)
  s = s & vbcrlf & "Pagefile Physical Location: " & vbtab & obj.Name
  s = s & vbcrlf & "Current Pagefile Usage: " & vbtab & obj.CurrentUsage & " MB"
  s = s & vbcrlf & "Session Peak Usage: " & vbtab & obj.PeakUsage & " MB"
  s = s & vbcrlf & "Current Pagefile Size: " & vbtab & obj.AllocatedBaseSize & " MB"
Next

If WriteToFile Then
  Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
  logfile = CreateObject("WScript.Shell"). _
    SpecialFolders("MyDocuments") & "\PagefileLog.txt"
  If NOT fso.OpenTextFile(logfile, 1, True).AtEndOfStream Then
    With fso.OpenTextFile(logfile, 1)
      s2 = .ReadAll : .Close
    End With
  End If
  With fso.OpenTextFile(logfile, 2)
    .Write Now() & vbcrlf & s & vbcrlf & vbcrlf & s2 : .Close
  End With
End If

If ShowPopup Then
  WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell").Popup _
    s, DisplaySeconds, "WinXP Pagefile Usage Monitor by Bill James", 4096
End If

' Revison History
' 9 Nov 2002 - Various prerelease changes
' 10 Nov 2002 - Tweaked to show stats where multiple drives have a pagefile

HTH

Jerry

[smurfyboy88]

I am not sure it is a problem with viruses as i have run extensive scans and found nothing :/

however it may be due to too many processes running and such.... aside from essential stuff, i only run mcafee and windows live messenger on startup :S

even when i have no programs like firefox running it still says i have 54ish processes running...this sounds like a bit much.
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