Help a novice with RAM

I've got an Acer Travelmate 4000wlmi with 512MB DDR and i have winmem cleaner installed on it. When i check this software it keeps telling me i have between 18 and 26% free system memory (in red), due to this i then optomize and or maxamize my RAM this then brings my system memory up to around 40% which to a novice sounds better?. but it actually slows my system down. What should i be doing?? also i have to go through this every time i start up, as whatever changes Win mem cleaner has made, have in my opinion changed back?. Can i change my RAM use another way and do i need to. If any one could take the time to answer any of my questions i would be gratefull.

 

Personally, I've always thought that memory management programs were a sham. Also, with the amount of memory that you have, you really shouldn't need this program in the first place.

I would recommend that you follow these instructions to tweak your system for performance. This will decrease the load on your RAM and CPU, and speed them up for the tasks that you do assign to them.

This covers just about every software tweak I can think of so if after following this you are still not satisfied, I would recommend that you consider a hardware upgrade (RAM and CPU prioritized), or at least following the instructions in the overclocking guide

 

Got to disagree with you, M-M.

I run FreeRam XP Pro v1.52 on startup, with my laptop, with 1 gig RAM.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1670

It always frees up more Ram that XP does, quicker than XP releases memory, sometimes a lot more, and definitely a lot quicker. Bazza

===

 

Thanks both for your help, I've taken on board what you've said and made some changes and its seems to have done the job. Thanks again

 

When I get the chance, I'll show you the benchmark scores. I'm willing to wager that memory management programs add more overhead than they help relieve. (Hence why *nix systems rock... they don't do ANYTHING you don't ask them to...depending on the distro) The proof will be in the numbers.

 

You're welcome, M_M.
I just loaded FreeRam XP Pro.
It takes up 2megs, according to Process Explorer.
Ran it and it instantly freed up 15 megs.
The proof will certainly be in the numbers. Bazza

===