Memory and 32-bit

kookooshortman55

kookooshortman55

New Member
I have Vista Home Premium 32-bit with 3 (installing the 4th one tomorrow) GB of of Memory. It's PC2-5300 at 5-5-5-15. Now I know Vista 32-bit can only read up to 3.25GB of RAM but could it be limiting the 3GB of RAM that I have in now? My computer is constantly using the page file and goes sooo slow.

This is also somewhat of a task manager question. Is the Cached physical memory and then free physical memory equal to the total memory available? My task manager says total 3069MB, but when I add up the cached and the free memory I only get 2375MB. There's 1.8GB in my page file. Vista shouldn't take up this much memory right? Could it be a defective RAM stick?
 
Could it be a defective RAM stick?
Click to expand...
Since all the RAM is being detected and you have no other problems like BSODs & whatnot (I assume?), I doubt it would be a defective stick.
My computer is constantly using the page file and goes sooo slow.
Click to expand...
Considering you already have 3GBs of RAM, you pagefile shouldn't be used at all under normal operation and light-mediumweight gaming. I reckon something that's not supposed to be there might be eating up your memory... have you scanned for viruses, malware, spyware, and ran clean-up programs like CCleaner and RegCleaner. Reboot, and see how much RAM is being used... AFAIK it shouldn't use more than 1GBs, 1.5GB at absolute max unless your installation is really bloated, you'll have to look into cutting down on the number of programs running in the background...
 
Hmm well I just booted up again.

Physical Memory (MB)
Total: 3069
Cached: 2338
Free: 0

System
Page File: 1106M/6355M

But when I go to the resource graph it says I'm only "using" 1.05MB. Well my package with the 8800GT just arrived 10 mins ago (^_^) and I got another GB of RAM with it so I'll see if the incresed video and system memory will help at all. I'll have to check msconfig for startup programs, but in terms of background programs in my toolbar I only have: Logitech Setpoint, FRAPS, Norton, and an HP Printer Monitor.

I scanned for Viruses and nothing came up, with both Noron Antivirus and Windows Defender. I have the Uniblue performance programs, and It has the registry editor. If CCleaner or RegCleaner are better programs I'll try those too.
 
Okay I installed the final 4th gigabyte of memory and things are just flying. I don't know why things have been so slow lately. I ended up uninstalling tons of programs trying to and make it faster and when I shut it down after, it took 15 mins to fully shut down. Installed the video card, added another GB of memory and disabled the page file and it's good now. I couldn't count to 10 before it shut down, and yes I can count to 10 haha. It still says there is a page file in my Task Manager even though I disabled it but that doesn't matter, the computer is fast again. Thanks for the help.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top