Weird lack of memory available?

Martynt74

Martynt74

Martynt74

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Hondon de las Nieves, Spain
I've recently just done a clean install of Windows 7 on an old HP laptop. It's got 4gb ram which should be ok for general stuff but it's just really slow.

This shows i have the 4gb but then shows only 700mb available and none "Free".

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Looking at what's using memory, it's pretty much just Chome, but even adding up everything in this list and a few small ones not show, i'm only at ~500mb. Surely Windows doesn't just use 3gb in the background does it?

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Depending on what you want to use it for have you considered popping Linux on it? It's much better for older hardware, especially if you get the right distro.

Have you tried booting into safe mode and checking the ram usage as soon as you log in?
 
Cheers guys, will take a look at those things.

As for usage, it's just going to be for general stuff. web browsing, downloading stuff, itunes etc. It's not the worst spec ever (i5 2410m, 4gb ram, 500gb HD), just for some reason it's really slow!
 
If it's a relatively fresh install I've seen really bad slowdowns due to updates being installed, apple software syncing and search indexing
 
'show processes from all users'

How does it look with chrome closed ?

Process Explorer is a good tool.

A move to SSD from HDD will reduce tea usage too as it will no longer Superfetch.
 
110 processes running ??? that's where all of your ram is going, what have you got running ? that would do my nut in, I got my Windows 7 installations down to about 45 processes by switching off start up items that I don't use regular and switching off services not needed.

WRU.exe for instance can be disabled, that 11mb of ram back straight away, and I know its not much, but it all adds up, that's for Intel WiFi reciver updater which you don't need running all the time, if you have the latest driver on there, then that's good enough.
HPSF.exe is another one, that's HP support assistant, do you really need that running all the time
Chrome is using a bucket load of your ram, personally, id change browsers.
 
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Yeah its a charade.

10 years ago you only needed 50mb of ram to have a few websites open. Nowadays chrome needs 1GB+ just to be open lmao.

Same stuff happens with apps they inflate the memory by thousands of percent even though the app still performs the same basic functions as 10 years ago. Software and hardware works together to milk everyones money, Instead of making things more efficient they just make them less efficient and slower so they can tell you youre running out of ram to sell you new hardware.
 
asim18 said:
Yeah its a charade.

10 years ago you only needed 50mb of ram to have a few websites open. Nowadays chrome needs 1GB+ just to be open lmao.

Same stuff happens with apps they inflate the memory by thousands of percent even though the app still performs the same basic functions as 10 years ago. Software and hardware works together to milk everyones money, Instead of making things more efficient they just make them less efficient and slower so they can tell you youre running out of ram to sell you new hardware.
Click to expand...

OP is already running a 10 year old operating system, so by your logic if he installs a 10 year old version of Chrome he should find all his memory problems solved.
 
asim18 said:
Yeah its a charade.

10 years ago you only needed 50mb of ram to have a few websites open. Nowadays chrome needs 1GB+ just to be open lmao.

Same stuff happens with apps they inflate the memory by thousands of percent even though the app still performs the same basic functions as 10 years ago. Software and hardware works together to milk everyones money, Instead of making things more efficient they just make them less efficient and slower so they can tell you youre running out of ram to sell you new hardware.
Click to expand...

Not everything is a conspiracy.
 
andshrew said:
OP is already running a 10 year old operating system, so by your logic if he installs a 10 year old version of Chrome he should find all his memory problems solved.
Click to expand...

Its not that simple, in 10 years websites have also become extremely bloated not just chrome. Look how many static websites now use wordpress etc.

And yes going back to 10 year old chrome would certainly use less ram but the problem is that chrome isn't the only variable. Its a collective effort.
 
Cheers, yeah i did that as per a few previous comments and installed Firefox. It's running much better so far.

I never realised Chrome used up so many resources.
 
Over 100 Processes, sweet mother of jesus.

I have never seen that many, with 5 chrome tabs open and programs running in background (MSI Afterburner, temp monitors, digiguide, mailwasher etc) I am only up to 76, this is a fresh in stall you say ?

Are you able to swap out that HDD for a 250SSD?

I know its only half the size but considering what you said it was going to be used for it will be a MASSIVE improvement.
 
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