Ram problem

I have a problem with a friends Dell laptop.
He is running vista 32bit with 1gb ram and up until a couple of days ago it was fine but now it seems that the ram is constantly at 80%.
I have updated everything on the machine, video drivers, win updates and done full virus and malware scans so the machine is clean and should be running nicely.
I am now at a loss as to what or why its munching all the ram and slowing the machine considerably.

Any suggestions other than a complete reformat, which is my next move btw.

Thx

have you checked the task manager and the processes which are running?

Yes i have checked the processess. I just cannot pinpoint what is causing it. I am starting to think it may be page swap file size that could be causing it as he has 95 processess running at idle!!

If you're talking about what I think you're talking about, then it's just the way Vista runs.

Unlike XP (and other OS's) it takes most of your physical memory and puts it in cache so it's always kind of passively working (it takes ram and puts it into programs from the page file preemtively so they open faster). Right now I have 2 gigs total ram, 1.4 gigs in cache, and a very small amount is actually "free".



If you still think that's the problem you could try deleting the page file, but with only 1 gig of ram (especially if it's not high-speed) I wouldn't do it. Maybe with 2 gigs, but I wouldn't actually recommend it without 3 or 4.

Is adding another gig of ram an option (e.g. do you have a free ram slot there)?

1GB is just too little for Vista.

It's not too unusual that a computer running windows will just grow up in needs of both CPU and RAM over time...does it have Acrobat Reader? If yes, then there'll be a Adobe Updater process for sure idling and taking up memory all the time. Does it have a firewall? Anti-virus? A media player? Well, I think you get my point there.

1GB is about enough for XP to run well enough. I have it that way here and my RAM usage is about 60-70% with just the resident apps and a browser.

you can always try to close you're explorer if you just want to play some games

Hold on. Youre running vista right? Are you running the sidebar by any chance?

This is not my laptop it belongs to a friend.
He insists that he has to have all these processes running even though i have told him its not necessary (fool).
1gb ram on Vista is not enough I know but it is just recently (in the last week) that the idle RAM usage has jumped from 45% idle to 80%. Sidebar was an issue but after I had closed down most of his running processes (to 45 running) the best I could get was 75%. I am thinking page swap file size or OS issue as installing software has become impossible.

Thx for the feedback chaps, if you have any other ideas then im listening as this one has me baffled for the time being.

Oh, does he have that Msn Messenger Gadget by any chance? Cause even when the sidebar is shut down. That seemed to cause alot of trouble for alot of people. You should check Windows Defender, see what kind of services hes running and just turn the ones off hes not using.

Have you tried right clicking on My computer then click properties then 'advanced ...'
and then changing prestation to 'Best prestations'.
Windows always has best looks by default.

We have decided the best course of action is to upgrade RAM.

He has 2x 512mb 667Mhz DDR2 SDRAM currently installed so can I put in 2x 1GB 200-pin SODIMM DDR2 PC2-5300 ? These are non ECC modules, does that make much of a difference as I cannot find any ECC ones.

linky