Geek question

[Phil]

You have to read this lot first to get to the question(s) at the end.

1) Laptop
2) W7 Professional
3) Installed RAM 2GB (1.87GB usable)
4) 64-bit Operating system
5) Intel i3 CPU M350 @ 2.27GHz 2.26GHz
6) Disk 259GB used and 73GB free space
7) Run off the house WiFi connected via the router and fibre to the server room at the clubhouse

These are the applications running

These are the processes running and the amount of RAM being used

These are some of the services running

This is the performance, 7% CPU Usage and 1.21GB

Problem –
Outlook tends to hang
FF tends to hang
Windows explorer tends to hang
Windows media player works OK most of the time
The situation gets worse the more Exel and Word open and FF tabs
I know exactly when the Outlook synchronises with Gmail – nothing moves, not even the cursor
I did a defrag twice and still get a 17% error
I freed up a lot of disk space by moving stuff to external backups

Question time:-
1) What is chewing up the memory?
2) What services can I stop?
3) Why are some of the processes flagged *32?
4) What can I do to not necessarily speed up, but stop the hanging?
5) Would installing extra 2GB RAM help?

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[TrimTheKing]

RAM, yes, without a doubt.

Mark

 

[Rod]

The more RAM the better - can you fit 2 x 4's? Memory is a lot cheaper these days.
Your disc size seems a bit odd - adding the two together?
Can you fit a replacement SSD? - in the U.K. there's been a few bargains- I bought a 1TB for about £70 for my MacBook. Amazingly fast now.

Rod

 

[Tusses]

never looked at SSD's .. will they make an antique system useable ?

seen them advertised .. but never looked at them .

I have 2 old pcs .. maybe 15 yrs .. that I run the cnc and lasers on, in the workshop

I need a parallel port or the cnc .. the new ones dont have them . I could buy a pci card ..

but still interested to know about SSD

 

[TrimTheKing]

You have to read this lot first to get to the question(s) at the end.

1) Laptop
2) W7 Professional
3) Installed RAM 2GB (1.87GB usable)
4) 64-bit Operating system
5) Intel i3 CPU M350 @ 2.27GHz 2.26GHz
6) Disk 259GB used and 73GB free space
7) Run off the house WiFi connected via the router and fibre to the server room at the clubhouse

These are the applications running

These are the processes running and the amount of RAM being used

These are some of the services running

This is the performance, 7% CPU Usage and 1.21GB

Problem –
Outlook tends to hang
FF tends to hang
Windows explorer tends to hang
Windows media player works OK most of the time
The situation gets worse the more Exel and Word open and FF tabs
I know exactly when the Outlook synchronises with Gmail – nothing moves, not even the cursor
I did a defrag twice and still get a 17% error
I freed up a lot of disk space by moving stuff to external backups

Question time:-
1) What is chewing up the memory? - Difficult to tell from the screenshots, you need to look at the same stats when the issue is happening and see what's using RAM or CPU cycles at that point.
2) What services can I stop?
3) Why are some of the processes flagged *32? - 32bit applications. You might be better getting the 64b versions of the things running in 32b where available. To run 32b apps a 64b machine has to run them in a kind of emulator mode which it isn't optimised to do so that can add some latency.
4) What can I do to not necessarily speed up, but stop the hanging? - Difficult to say until we know what's causing it, but more RAM and potentially an SSID will help. Do they hang permanently and require restarting the app or rebooting or just hang for a bit then become responsive again?
5) Would installing extra 2GB RAM help? - RAM makes a massive difference, as Rod rightly says, find out how much your machine can take and put that much in, the fastest you can get/afford.

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[Robert]

My suggestions would be slightly different...

First check the drive health with some kind of utility program. the symptoms could be a failing drive.

Windows installations tend to get tired and a fresh install fixes an awful lot of things so as a no cost option I'd export your emails, contacts, firefox saved passwords (I use password exporter add on) and backup (copy to plug in drive) everything else you might want to put back. Then use the factory reset option if you have no media or wipe and fresh install if you do. then do all the updates.

If you can afford to get a solid state drive (SSD) it will transform performance. Again I wouldn't clone the old drive to the new given the problems but having the old drive does give you backup if you forgot to get something off.

As to RAM it might help adding some more but I've never seen it make the sort of difference people say it will so I wouldn't bother. A SSD will make a leap in performance.

 

[TrimTheKing]

I agree with your comments on the SSD Robert, my comments were made on the assumption that he didn't want to scrap his OS install and start again. If that's an option then I agree with you, but I stand by the RAM comments. Today's apps are so bloated and badly coded that they leak memory like nobody's business, so more RAM to cope with that is a must IMO, but in terms of real world performance, I agree and AAD will be most visible.

Cheers
Mark

 

[Robert]

It's a case of been there done it for me with RAM. I've never seen a decent improvement from adding more even though the numbers say it should help. That said my laptop has 6GB and desktop 16GB so 2 is a bit low. I upgraded a 'netbook' from 1Gb to 4 and that made no difference at all.

 

[Phil]

RAM, yes, without a doubt.
Mark

The more RAM the better - can you fit 2 x 4's? Memory is a lot cheaper these days.
Rod

Mark/Rod thanks.
I will look for a Geek shop in our area and see what they can supply.
Will also check with the manufacturer what they recommend.

Your disc size seems a bit odd - adding the two together?
Rod

Rod the drive is split.
C: is 332GB
D: is 124GB
The D: was created, when the laptop was set up, as the auto-backup disc, which kept on running out of space, so I stopped the auto-backup and used the disk to keep some of the larger folders that are not that often used

Can you fit a replacement SSD? - in the U.K. there's been a few bargains- I bought a 1TB for about £70 for my MacBook. Amazingly fast now.
Rod

I will look at an SSD but will again first consult manufacturer and see what can be installed.

Question time:-
1) What is chewing up the memory? - Difficult to tell from the screenshots, you need to look at the same stats when the issue is happening and see what's using RAM or CPU cycles at that point. Will give it go

3) Why are some of the processes flagged *32? - 32bit applications. You might be better getting the 64b versions of the things running in 32b where available. To run 32b apps a 64b machine has to run them in a kind of emulator mode which it isn't optimised to do so that can add some latency. Ok, will see what is available
4) What can I do to not necessarily speed up, but stop the hanging? - Difficult to say until we know what's causing it, but more RAM and potentially an SSID will help. Do they hang permanently and require restarting the app or rebooting or just hang for a bit then become responsive again?The hanging can be both. Ctrl-Alt-Del and then kill the app or go make some tea and wait.
5) Would installing extra 2GB RAM help? - RAM makes a massive difference, as Rod rightly says, find out how much your machine can take and put that much in, the fastest you can get/afford.Will check what is available and find a Geek shop

My suggestions would be slightly different...

First check the drive health with some kind of utility program. the symptoms could be a failing drive.

Windows installations tend to get tired and a fresh install fixes an awful lot of things so as a no cost option I'd export your emails, contacts, firefox saved passwords (I use password exporter add on) and backup (copy to plug in drive) everything else you might want to put back. Then use the factory reset option if you have no media or wipe and fresh install if you do. then do all the updates.

If you can afford to get a solid state drive (SSD) it will transform performance. Again I wouldn't clone the old drive to the new given the problems but having the old drive does give you backup if you forgot to get something off.

As to RAM it might help adding some more but I've never seen it make the sort of difference people say it will so I wouldn't bother. A SSD will make a leap in performance.

Robert, thanks.
Doing all that is far too technical for me. I will look around and see if I can find a tame Geek
If I had carried on working I might have bitten the bullet and bought a new laptop (Mac was high on the list)

 

[Commander]

Hi Phil, RAM RAM RAM. :lol:

Looking at Win 7 64-bit minimum requirements is 2Gb. This is the BARE minimum, upgrading to at least 4Gb will make a world of difference. 64 Bit is actually only useful from 4Gb and up as 32-bit is not able to address more than 3.8Gb (the explanation is complicated and not really relevant), but the fact remains that 64 bit is intended to utilize 4Gb or more.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/hel ... quirements

An SSD drive will also help, but those are rather pricey so RAM would be my first stop. Firefox likes to chew up resources so that will not help much, although Chrome isn't much better and IE really isn't great.

Your .PST file size (the file Outlook stores all its data in) could also be a factor here, if the file is very big that could significantly slow down your machine.

Regarding the split HDD, the only real benefit from that would be to do backups if you intend to reload your OS (format C drive), and in that case it usually makes more sense to have it a bit smaller than the D drive. If the HDD fails both partitions will be lost, so not really useful as a backup.

And finally, you have a geek rather close to you, so shout if you need help with your laptop!

 

[Phil]

Erich, thanks very much. :ugeek:

I will e-mail you.