DO I HAVE A MEORY PROBLEM

eric-51 · 22 Apr 2009 at 15:30

Hi.
i am running vista 32bit with 1 gig memory, just recently ive felt the machine was running quite a bit slower, then i noticed my physical memory is running about 75% in task manager. now im not sure but i cant say ive noticed it that high.

if i have 3 or 4 progs running and then close them down after they have closed(usually quite quick) i can hear my hd still chattering away at least a couple of mins later.

the only thing i can think has happened lately is a few days ago i was copying data to external drive and got my first ever blue screen on vista, before it disappeared i saw a message which said something like ???? error dumping physical memory to hard disk, didn’t see the rest. when i re booted it took a long time to load up.

Do i have a problem or do i just need more memory
cheers eric

alex24 · 22 Apr 2009 at 15:33

MAYBE

Why don't you test the memory using memtest or similar and find out?

swinnie · 22 Apr 2009 at 15:48

Vista will use a lot of RAM, and 1GB isn't a lot for Vista, I wouldn't run it with less than 2GB.

As suggested, use memtest to test your RAM.

eric-51 · 22 Apr 2009 at 16:14

Sorry i should have said i did a memory test and it showed ok i also used mem cleaner and it does reduce it down by about 10% but before long it just rises back up to between 75 and 92 % even when no software is running
eric

BeeP · 22 Apr 2009 at 16:19

I have 4 gig in my system & vista takes about 1.2 of that. I wouldn't run Vista on less than 2gb m8, it is a bulky O/S.

eric-51 · 22 Apr 2009 at 16:35

Ok!!! took the plunge, ive ordered 4 gig ddr800, we will see what happens ive olso read on asus site my motherboard will only reconise 3 gig as im only using 32 bit vista (asus p5n-e sli ) even alyhough motherboard takes upto 8gb.
MESH NEVER TOLD ME THAT WHEN THEY INSTALLED 32 BIT VISTA.

BeeP · 22 Apr 2009 at 16:43

It will rec just over 3 gig, I don't know the exact number but something like 3.5, mind you that is total memory including gfx card.

FaceplantSi · 22 Apr 2009 at 17:07

You could also try using a free prog called "Process Explorer" - it's avail on the MS Tech Net and shows what processes are actually running and what resources they are using - if you check Task Mgr you'll see lots of instances of 'svchost.exe' but no info on what has called the service, and that's what Process Explorer will tell you - it can help no end to see what is doing what with your system resources!