Physical Memory Low-Please Help!

Pentium 4, 486 Ram, Windows XP Home....My 486 Physical Memory is being used up-causing system to run very slow. Gone through Malware Forum, followed all procedures & recommendations. No Malware found. Have very few items running in startup, but somehow memory being used up causing IE to run slow, as well as other oprograms. Need a :majorMajor :major Geek to look at system and advise....Thanks Ahead For "Your Time" you'll give up for my problem....Much Appreciated!

 

I've complete each of the steps in the 'Basic Computer Maintenance' routine
Some things was already using, such as CCCleaner, IObit, ETC.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=25835, Followed each step and his guide as to what to set each setting to.

I need some help disecting my Process Explorer, as I can't really see anything wrong, but 50-80% of ram is being used???

I'm wondering if I should upgrade my ram. I have 2 ram cards inside and there are 2 empty slots, I don't know if these are for ram memory cards too? If I replace one of the current 256 ram cards can I buy one from EBay that's 1GB to replace it with? If so, How do I determine which Ram Card to buy for my system as there are different ones I saw affordable listed here:http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=ram+memory&category0=
Here's a summary of my memory from "Everest Home Edition" program I use, with only a couple IE windows open and MSN mail? I do have numerous desktopn icons of programs, shortcuts, ETC, does this consume a great deal of memory?

"Everest Home Edition"
Field Value
Physical Memory
Total 486 MB
Used 348 MB
Free 137 MB
Utilization 72 %

Swap Space
Total 1160 MB
Used 484 MB
Free 675 MB
Utilization 42 %

Virtual Memory
Total 1646 MB
Used 833 MB
Free 812 MB
Utilization 51 %

Physical Address Extension (PAE)
Supported by Operating System Yes
Supported by CPU Yes
Active Yes

Problems & Suggestions
Suggestion Install more system memory to improve applications performance.

Thanks Again For Your Time!

 

Use Everest to find out what motherboard you have. The two spare slots *might* be available, but there are quite a few hybrid boards around that cater for SDR or DDR (one or the other, not both) and some modern ones that cater for DDR or DDR2 . There are plenty of better quality boards that do have 4 usable slots - for dual channel memory etc, but you need to know the exact motherboard first.

As already stated by Steve_East9 though, a well configured system should run quite smoothly, even on that amount of RAM, so you need to find out what's eating your RAM.

The strange total RAM you have, indicates on-board graphics 'borrowing' some RAM, and you'd get a slight boost by installing a separate graphics card to get your full 512 MB back. The real problem still lies with too much software running though

 

The Computer is an Intel Gateway 507GR, approx. 4 years old, and Everest says the motherboard ID is the following:
Field Value
Motherboard ID AG91510J.15A.0816.2005.0214.1818, but no name stated for Motherboard.
There are several options in Everest for information about the motherboard, and I'm definately not too geeky:confused, so if you'll help me to get whatever you need from my system to better help you find what's eating the memory, I'll follow. I did install a nVIDIA GeForce FX 5500 3D Accelerator Video Card already last Fall.

I did call gateway and they checked my Computer's Serial Number and determined the 2 extra slots would hold extra memory cards, and then tried to sell them for over $270 for 2 iGig cards. But they did confirm the slots were card ready. But if I can configure my system to run faster without the expense, it would help as disabled with adopted children and budget low.

 

Just ran the Scan and it suggested memory. I don't understand the differences in the ram listed below, and how it affects the price? Can you help me learn the differences; I'm assuming the more expensive help things run faster or last longer?

Scans Report:
Currently installed memory:
256MBDDR PC3200 256MBDDR PC3200 EMPTY EMPTY
Each memory slot can hold DDR PC3200,DDR PC4000 with a maximum of 512MB per slot.*
*Not to exceed manufacturer supported memory.

Memory Suggested:
1GB kit (512MBx2)
CT550256 DDR PC4000 • 2.5-4-4-8 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR500 • 2.8V • 64Meg x 64 = $139.99

1GB kit (512MBx2)
CT550274 DDR PC3200 • CL=3 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR400 • 2.6V • 64Meg x 64 = $65.99


So would 2 more 512 ram make things run much faster? Or would I need more? They stated not to exceed manufacturers limits, is this to prevent overloads?

 

Startup Programs from CCleaner:

HKCU:RUN - swg -C:\Program Files\GoogleToolbarNotifier\GoogleToolbarNotifier.exe

HKCU:RUN - AVG7_CC -C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVG7\avgcc.exe /STARTUP

HKCU:RUN - BOC-425 -C:\PROGRA~Comodo\CBOClean\BOC425.exe

HKCU:RUN - COMODO Firewall Pro -"C:\Program Files\Comodo\Firewall\cfp.exe" -s

HKCU:RUN - NvCplDaemon RUNDLL32.EXE C:\WINDOWS\system32\NvCpl.dll,NcStartup

HKCU:RUN -SmartRam-C:\Program Files\IObit\Advanced WindowsCare v2\MemCleaner.exe/m

Steve: I've already humbly acknowledged I'm not at a high level of computer knowledge, I'm a disabled single dad caring for 2 special needs adopted children and apologize for not carefully reading the replies, and appreciate your reminders that things have already been said. But Steve, Please understand...I don't understand how to get a "screen shot of my task manager showing ram usage when I'm running normal used programs". I've seen screen shot programs on the web, but don't think that's what you're referring to. So please be patient with a greenhorn geek, who'll most likely never reach the level of a Major :major Geek, and instruct me how to get a shot of my memory usage. Thanks for your patience Steve and again, apology for overlooking your previous post suggestions....Denny

 

Thank Steve! Knowledge is power and I just learned much!

Didn't know which screenshot from Task manager you needed to view, so did both that displayed memory usage.
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/7726/screenshot1nb7.th.jpg

"And"

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/887/screenshot2be9.th.jpg

 

One last thing to get clarification: The Scan Report:
Maximum Memory Capacity: 2048MB
Currently Installed Memory: 512MB
Available Memory Slots: 2
Number of Banks: 4
Dual Channel Support: No
CPU Manufacturer: GenuineIntel
CPU Family: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz Model 4, Stepping 1
CPU Speed: 3000 MHz
Installed in pairs of modules.

said I could use up to 2048 capacity, is that right Steve? If so, I think I read in the roprt somewhere that my system needed the memory cards in pairs to function propery-don't know why that is though. I'll try to find a cheap pair of 512 to increase it 1048. When I looked on ebuyer.com prices were listed in "L" London? prices, and don't know how that equates to us$ I also saw on ebuyer.com and ebay.com different numbers and letters at the end of the "DDR PC3200 512mb" listings, should I be concerned about those different numbers and letters at the end, to prevent compatibility with system?

 

Hi ppl,
i have scanned my system as you can see the report below..
my system is slow and i want to run it like a lightning..
Could you ppl please tell me what are the things i should be doing?
my major doubt is my current installed mem says it is DDR PC2100, can i use DDR PC2700 or more.. what is the difference between this? can i use one slot for pc2100 and another for pc2700..
Thanks
....
Your Crucial Scanner Results Standard VIA KM266 Specifications

Currently installed memory:
256MB
DDR PC2100
EMPTY

Each memory slot can hold DDR PC2700,DDR PC3200,DDR PC4000 with a maximum of 1GB per slot.*

*Not to exceed manufacturer supported memory.
Maximum Memory Capacity: 2048MB
Currently Installed Memory: 256MB
Available Memory Slots: 1
Number of Banks: 2
Dual Channel Support: No
CPU Manufacturer: AuthenticAMD
CPU Family: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2000+ Model 8, Stepping 1
CPU Speed: 1679 MHz
The name of this model may not exactly match the model description of your system, our system scanner could not identify a specific model name when evaluating your computer. However, it was able to identify the motherboard your system utilizes.