Re: Slow Computer Response:

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Your motherboard only accepts matching pairs.

And according to your Everest report in another post, you currently have
two sticks of 128MB PC800 RDRAM. So, basically, your choices are to get
two more (if you can find them) for Slots 3 and 4 (for a total of 512
MB), get two sticks of 256MB PC800 RDRAM, or two sticks of 512MB PC800
RDRAM. Sure, you *could* remove your current two sticks and get *four*
sticks of the 512MB RAM, but it's probably overkill and the cost would
be more than a new PC! Actually, what I had found (see the link above)
would cost you more than a new PC!

Perhaps there are other RAM sticks available; you'll need to dig
deeper, or perhaps someone else here could post that information.

I still haven't heard back from Dell so I guess I will have to try and
see if I can find these sticks on my own.

Do I absolutely need to buy the sticks from Dell or can I get them
from anywhere? I believe Gerry stated I needed PC800 RDRAM sticks?

Gerry was correct. But you don't need to buy them from Dell. The link I
gave is to crucial.com. I had also looked at kingston.com but came up
empty-handed. However, you may want to look at memoryx.net:

http://www.memoryx.net/deldim82ser.html

I just turned them up in a Google search, so I know nothing about them.
Also, I wasn't sure how fast your FSB is, so I chose 400 MHz. A bit more
affordable than the other one!

I have no idea what FSB is or what your referring to.

Finally, you may want to communicate with other Dell owners:

http://www.dellcommunity.com/

I think from what you and Gerry have said the problem isn't buying the
matched pair but finding them for my computer.


I also noted in another post you are running something called ImageX.
Why don't you experiment and quit using it for a while and see if
your performance improves? You should be also be able to configure
it to not run at startup.

ImageX is part of my Dell Imaging software and I have quite a few jpg
file/folders on there but according to Gerry this shouldn't affect its
performance. As you both pointed out its my RAM that bottlenecking
everything. I still think it's kind of strange that this just started
happening.

Gerry said that the amount of *data* (including .jpg files) on your hard
drive won't slow you down. (But you should always have at least 20% of
your hard drive free, as a rule). However, if ImageX isn't essential,
you certainly don't need to use it. I'm not familiar with this program;
what do you do with it? Whatever it is, I imagine you might be happier
with Irfanview, which is free:

ImageX is Dell's Imaging software program and I'm very happy with it
and use it quite a bit to store my jpg files, and offers many features
to enhance the images. It's a program I would rather keep than loose.
However I am transferring all the jpg's to disc more as a backup
precaution than anything else, but I may just delete those files off
the hard drive once done and free up more space.

As far as disk space I have 127GB out of 148GB free so that isn't too
bad.

http://www.irfanview.com/

Once you're running as lean as possible, try Gerry's method again
(noting the Total, Limit, and Peak values for Commit Charge). If you
can get your Total and Peak numbers as low as 262,144 (not easy!),
you'll be golden.- Hide quoted text -

I would like to lean out my computer very much but I'm afraid of
getting rid of something and messing things up and making things even
worst than they presently are. It's alot like using CCleaner which I
understand is good but you sure can do some harm if you don't know
what your doing so I stay away from using it.

Ccleaner is good for deleting different types of temp files, and you
should certainly use it. However, you are wise to avoid the
"Issues"/registry cleaning function. But that's not what I was referring
to. I was talking about  configuring your PC not to automatically run
unneeded programs and processes, especially since you hardly have any
RAM. There shouldn't be any harm at all in disabling startup items (you
can always re-enable them). Then again, you should always be making
backups anyway *just in case*.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I have run Ccleaner once with only a few of the items checked but I
was so leary of it and the damage it may cause I've refrained from
using a second time but I may give it another try.

As far as making back-ups as opposed to System Restore points I was
planning on getting an external hard drive after I upgraded my
internal hard drive when all this happened. Being on a fixed and very
limited income doesn't help matters either. I suppose I could use my
DVD/RW drive for backups but that would only be data and not a true
System Image like Casper or Norton Ghost, correct?



Robert

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