Will more memory help?

Hi group,

I have a new HP a1700n with 1GB of memory. Vista seems to run pretty slowly,
especially on boot-up. Guy at the megastore where I bought it says another
gig of memory will make it run like greased lightning. Is this true, or is
this guy just trying to sell me a memory stick?

Thanks,
Chet

Going from 1 to 2GB should help but I don't know about "greased lightening"
other than it might be a sales pitch.

"Chester GS" <> wrote in message
news:7E5DB74B-82D1-497D-8275-...
> Hi group,
>
> I have a new HP a1700n with 1GB of memory. Vista seems to run pretty
> slowly,
> especially on boot-up. Guy at the megastore where I bought it says another
> gig of memory will make it run like greased lightning. Is this true, or is
> this guy just trying to sell me a memory stick?
>
> Thanks,
> Chet

Chester GS wrote:
> Hi group,
>
> I have a new HP a1700n with 1GB of memory. Vista seems to run pretty slowly,
> especially on boot-up. Guy at the megastore where I bought it says another
> gig of memory will make it run like greased lightning. Is this true, or is
> this guy just trying to sell me a memory stick?
>
> Thanks,
> Chet

Another 1GB will help - but not as much as suggested ;-)

Speed also depends heavily on what is running on the PC; getting rid of
the 'bloatware' running in the background helps a lot.

MS Process Explorer
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sys...sexplorer.mspx

and Startup Control Panel http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

will help you control the bloatware...


AV software is another culprit; some are very heavy on the CPU, some
much less so.

Disk Defragging helps. As it's a new PC (?) I presume there is lots of
free hard drive space; less than 25% free starts to slow things down.

Finally, lots of the Vista 'eye candy' slows things down; turn it off if
you need speed.



Guy

"Chester GS" wrote:

> Hi group,
>
> I have a new HP a1700n with 1GB of memory. Vista seems to run pretty slowly,
> especially on boot-up. Guy at the megastore where I bought it says another
> gig of memory will make it run like greased lightning. Is this true, or is
> this guy just trying to sell me a memory stick?

Vista is slow on your new PC because HP, Sony, Vaio and DELL install a lot
of incompatible applications which slow down the system.
Format your hard drive and perform a clean Vista installation without
installing the horrible 3rd-party software included with your PC.
Windows Vista Home Premium (Aero enabled) runs great with my 5 year old PC
(768MB RAM, a Geforce 6200 256MB AGP, Hard Disk IDE 7200rpm)

Vista loves RAM, so the more you give it, the better it performs. You have
to always take into consideration Operating System + Applications.
--
Andre
Blog: http://adacosta.spaces.live.com
My Vista Quickstart Guide:
http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog...3DB!9709.entry
"BillD" <> wrote in message
news:C643FF4D-2A9F-42AE-94D8-...
>
>
> "Chester GS" wrote:
>
>> Hi group,
>>
>> I have a new HP a1700n with 1GB of memory. Vista seems to run pretty
>> slowly,
>> especially on boot-up. Guy at the megastore where I bought it says
>> another
>> gig of memory will make it run like greased lightning. Is this true, or
>> is
>> this guy just trying to sell me a memory stick?
>
> Vista is slow on your new PC because HP, Sony, Vaio and DELL install a lot
> of incompatible applications which slow down the system.
> Format your hard drive and perform a clean Vista installation without
> installing the horrible 3rd-party software included with your PC.
> Windows Vista Home Premium (Aero enabled) runs great with my 5 year old PC
> (768MB RAM, a Geforce 6200 256MB AGP, Hard Disk IDE 7200rpm)

"Chester GS" <> wrote in message
news:7E5DB74B-82D1-497D-8275-...
> Hi group,
>
> I have a new HP a1700n with 1GB of memory. Vista seems to run pretty
> slowly,
> especially on boot-up. Guy at the megastore where I bought it says another
> gig of memory will make it run like greased lightning. Is this true, or is
> this guy just trying to sell me a memory stick?
>
> Thanks,
> Chet

I have a motherboard that can handle DDR RAM or DDR2 RAM. I upgraded from
1gb of DDR to 2gb of DDR2 RAM in my desktop and Vista's own rating system
only changed its rating from 4.4 to 4.8.
Approx. 10% increase in rating for a 1gb increase in RAM isn't worth
pursuing. Maybe there is some other factor involved, such as the CPU or the
motherboard. Just don't expect too much by going from 1gb to 2 gb. Go bigger
if your motherboard cam handle it . I might add that it did not improve the
performance of my PC in any way that I could see.

Another gig of RAM will certainly help, but it will NOT run liked greased
lightening!

Uninstall anything that has to do with Symantec or McAfee. These are the two
biggest culprits that cause slow downs on a Vista computer (any Windows
computer actually). There are many FREE programs that will do much the same
as what the System Suites from the above two manufacturers will do, and use
far less resources in doing it.

--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)



"Chester GS" <> wrote in message
news:7E5DB74B-82D1-497D-8275-...
> Hi group,
>
> I have a new HP a1700n with 1GB of memory. Vista seems to run pretty
> slowly,
> especially on boot-up. Guy at the megastore where I bought it says another
> gig of memory will make it run like greased lightning. Is this true, or is
> this guy just trying to sell me a memory stick?
>
> Thanks,
> Chet

I have seen - repeatedly - that 2 gig of, even slower, RAM will out perform
one gig of faster RAM.

--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)



"Ranger2306" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> "Chester GS" <> wrote in message
> news:7E5DB74B-82D1-497D-8275-...
>> Hi group,
>>
>> I have a new HP a1700n with 1GB of memory. Vista seems to run pretty
>> slowly,
>> especially on boot-up. Guy at the megastore where I bought it says
>> another
>> gig of memory will make it run like greased lightning. Is this true, or
>> is
>> this guy just trying to sell me a memory stick?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Chet
>
> I have a motherboard that can handle DDR RAM or DDR2 RAM. I upgraded from
> 1gb of DDR to 2gb of DDR2 RAM in my desktop and Vista's own rating system
> only changed its rating from 4.4 to 4.8.
> Approx. 10% increase in rating for a 1gb increase in RAM isn't worth
> pursuing. Maybe there is some other factor involved, such as the CPU or
> the motherboard. Just don't expect too much by going from 1gb to 2 gb. Go
> bigger if your motherboard cam handle it . I might add that it did not
> improve the performance of my PC in any way that I could see.
>
>

On Wed, 21 Nov 2007 01:03:01 -0800, Chester GS
<> wrote:

> Hi group,
>
> I have a new HP a1700n with 1GB of memory. Vista seems to run pretty slowly,
> especially on boot-up. Guy at the megastore where I bought it says another
> gig of memory will make it run like greased lightning. Is this true, or is
> this guy just trying to sell me a memory stick?



Do not get your technical advice from guys at megastores. These people
are usually hired for their willingness to accept something close to
minimum wage, not for their technical skills.

How much RAM you need for good performance is *not* a
one-size-fits-all situation. You get good performance if the amount of
RAM you have keeps you from using the page file, and that depends on
what apps you run. However, note that 1GB is a minimum acceptable
amount for most people, and that 2GB often gives substantially better
performance.

"Greased lightning"? A clear overstatement. If you do upgrade the RAM,
you may see an improvement, but do not expect it to necessarily be
enormous.

You say it's especially slow at bootup. My personal view is that the
attention many people pay to how long it takes to boot is unwarranted.
Assuming that the computer's speed is otherwise satisfactory, it may
not be worth worrying about. Most people start their computers once a
day or even less frequently. In the overall scheme of things, even a
few minutes to start up isn't very important. Personally I power on my
computer when I get up in the morning, then go get my coffee. When I
come back, it's done booting. I don't know how long it took to boot
and I don't care.

However if you do want to address it, it may be because of what
programs start automatically, and you may want to stop some of them
from starting that way. On each program you don't want to start
automatically, check its Options to see if it has the choice not to
start (make sure you actually choose the option not to run it, not
just a "don't show icon" option). Many can easily and best be stopped
that way. If that doesn't work, run MSCONFIG from the Start | Run
line, and on the Startup tab, uncheck the programs you don't want to
start automatically.

However, if I were you, I wouldn't do this just for the purpose of
running the minimum number of programs. Despite what many people tell
you, you should be concerned, not with how *many* of these programs
you run, but *which*. Some of them can hurt performance severely, but
others have no effect on performance.

Don't just stop programs from running willy-nilly. What you should do
is determine what each program is, what its value is to you, and what
the cost in performance is of its running all the time. You can get
more information about these at
http://castlecops.com/StartupList.html. If you can't find it there,
try google searches and ask about specifics here.

Once you have that information, you can make an intelligent informed
decision about what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

Ken Blake, MVP wrote:
> On Wed, 21 Nov 2007 01:03:01 -0800, Chester GS
> <> wrote:
>
>> Hi group,
>>
>> I have a new HP a1700n with 1GB of memory. Vista seems to run pretty slowly,
>> especially on boot-up. Guy at the megastore where I bought it says another
>> gig of memory will make it run like greased lightning. Is this true, or is
>> this guy just trying to sell me a memory stick?
>
>
>
> Do not get your technical advice from guys at megastores. These people
> are usually hired for their willingness to accept something close to
> minimum wage, not for their technical skills.
>
> How much RAM you need for good performance is *not* a
> one-size-fits-all situation. You get good performance if the amount of
> RAM you have keeps you from using the page file, and that depends on
> what apps you run. However, note that 1GB is a minimum acceptable
> amount for most people, and that 2GB often gives substantially better
> performance.
>
> "Greased lightning"? A clear overstatement. If you do upgrade the RAM,
> you may see an improvement, but do not expect it to necessarily be
> enormous.
>
> You say it's especially slow at bootup. My personal view is that the
> attention many people pay to how long it takes to boot is unwarranted.
> Assuming that the computer's speed is otherwise satisfactory, it may
> not be worth worrying about. Most people start their computers once a
> day or even less frequently. In the overall scheme of things, even a
> few minutes to start up isn't very important. Personally I power on my
> computer when I get up in the morning, then go get my coffee. When I
> come back, it's done booting. I don't know how long it took to boot
> and I don't care.
>
> However if you do want to address it, it may be because of what
> programs start automatically, and you may want to stop some of them
> from starting that way. On each program you don't want to start
> automatically, check its Options to see if it has the choice not to
> start (make sure you actually choose the option not to run it, not
> just a "don't show icon" option). Many can easily and best be stopped
> that way. If that doesn't work, run MSCONFIG from the Start | Run
> line, and on the Startup tab, uncheck the programs you don't want to
> start automatically.
>
> However, if I were you, I wouldn't do this just for the purpose of
> running the minimum number of programs. Despite what many people tell
> you, you should be concerned, not with how *many* of these programs
> you run, but *which*. Some of them can hurt performance severely, but
> others have no effect on performance.
>
> Don't just stop programs from running willy-nilly. What you should do
> is determine what each program is, what its value is to you, and what
> the cost in performance is of its running all the time. You can get
> more information about these at
> http://castlecops.com/StartupList.html. If you can't find it there,
> try google searches and ask about specifics here.
>
> Once you have that information, you can make an intelligent informed
> decision about what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of.
>


If bootup is slow it may be the motherboard chipset drivers, just
because it is "New" and came with Vista installed does not necessarily
mean the best combination. Check the HP site for info and also their FAQ
and maybe the forums. this was true for a couple of MB I have and if the
basic IO is slow then everything is slow.

And yes, my experience agrees with yours, no lightning but an extra GB
(Make sure it is compatible and not slower than already fitted) may well
help.