Help with memory

[camaro1185]

im looking to get memory for a 3 year old IBM R31 laptop. the memory is PC133 and currently has 128 megs. i would like to get a memorystick that will allow the computer to run the most memory. My problem is that i dont want to buy a stick of 512 memory if it can only handle 256 more memory. how do i deturmine what the motherboard can handle.



also another question for someone with more computer knowlege than i have. the computer also goes extreamly slow, now i realize that it isnt top of the line any more but i know for a fact that i shouldnt go as slow as it goes....for example it takes 6.5 minutes to go from a shutdown to completly fully restarted. a couple of things that i did to fix the problem with minimal sucess is that i run spyware/virus programs constantly to make sure that the computer isnt infected, i also typed "msconfig" in to the run thing on the start menu and took the checks off of alot of the programs that were running in the background, that didnt do much although there was a little more speed to the computer. I have also used the "hijack this" program. im at the point where the only other thing that im going to do to the computer is to format the hd and start from scratch.



any help to any of these questions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Grimulus]

1) call IBM.
2) look up the specs for your machine. google it!

 

[camaro1185]

well i found out the answer to my first question but if anyone has any information on how to make the computer go faster the help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Praetor]

Have a look at the RAM 101 for some ideas about what to look for with memory
http://www.computerforum.com/showthread.php?t=11096

 

[camaro1185]

~bump~

 

[Cromewell]

the max RAM supported by the R31 is 1GB so that would be 2x512MB sticks

 

[camaro1185]

Ya i figured that out by going to crucial.com.....if anyone knows how i could speed up the computer any that would be great.

 

[Greg J.]

Back up your data, and reformat (long) and re-install your operating system fresh. And really, truely, crank up the RAM size there! That really should speed it up. (If you use Windows XP, at least 512MB is worth it.....so maybe 2X256MB sticks, since you do not care for 512MB sticks. I believe that sounds reasonable for your laptop via technology level, usage, etc. AND AFTER you re-install the OS and drivers, defragment your hard drive. When you re-load your backed-up data, defrag after that too, running Windows update, etc. Fresh and contiguous means faster!

 

[camaro1185]

thats what i thought....but is there any other way to make the computer faster without cleaning off the hd.