Unexplained RAM use slowing computer

I have recently (I got it about 3 weeks ago now) recieved a new Dell Inspiron
1520 laptop with preinstalled Windows Business. However, performance has been
very for it's build. The setup is:

1.8GHz 2MB Cache Intel Core 2 Duo processor
2GB 667Mhz DDR2 RAM
Nvidia Geforce 8600 GT graphics
160GB 7400RPM hard drive

The computer has been acting, however, like my old 2.5ghz pent 4 256 mb ram
desktop computer - of the 2GB, almost 100% is constantly in use, and even
using tabbed web browsing is excruciatingly slow. I already posted one
question on this newsgroup, "Is windows Vista hogging my hard drive", and I
recieved feedback that windows vista ran certain background applications -
file indexing, for one - which could slow the computer. Ergo, I proceeded
disable these services. Performance improved slightly, but only minimally.

Perplexed, I started the computer in diagnostic mode using msconfig. Upon
checking task manager, I found that only 19% of the RAM was in use. In this
state, the computer ran wonderfully, programs like Word and Firefox opened in
a blink, and all was smooth. I proceeded to, one-by-one, re-enable services,
starting from security, networking, and then various ones like microsoft
framework, and so on and so forth, whilst keeping the number I activated down
to a minimum. To avoid trouble, I set most of the other services to manual,
so that I anything cropped up, at least I wasn't in too much trouble.

Now the situation is more interesting. Upon startup, the computer runs as,
and better than, I would expect. The antivirus is active, firewalls are up,
and all the necessary services are running. However, normally about 20
minutes after startup, the RAM use goes from about 25% background + programs
in use to about almost 100% background, and performance grinds to a halt. I
have checked the event viewer, but no recurring event appears to coincide
with this sudden memory spike.

In summary, my plea is twofold; if anyone has any idea as to what could be
degrading performance to this level, I would be extremely grateful for any
assistance. Furthermore, if anyone could advise a method (either through
windows or third-party programs) of accurately monitoring what
programs/services/processes are using the RAM and when, I would be able to
monitor spike with more accuracy and gather more information as to what is
going on.

Thank you in advance for your help,
Horus

Windows Vista is designed to use the maximum amount of RAM that's available
in the system. That's the reason for high RAM usage. But regarding slowing of
computer, I don't have any idea and I'm just clueless.. For that matter, I
too own a Dell, but a Inspiron 1420 with 7200 RPM hard drive, 2GB ram, vista
business etc., etc., It's not fast enough.. I tried removing startup
programs.. still it's pretty slow...
Waiting badly for Vista SP1...

May be my blog on Vista review could be of use to you...
http://mugunthkumar.blogspot.com/200...ows-vista.html

"Lord Horus" wrote:

> I have recently (I got it about 3 weeks ago now) recieved a new Dell Inspiron
> 1520 laptop with preinstalled Windows Business. However, performance has been
> very for it's build. The setup is:
>
> 1.8GHz 2MB Cache Intel Core 2 Duo processor
> 2GB 667Mhz DDR2 RAM
> Nvidia Geforce 8600 GT graphics
> 160GB 7400RPM hard drive
>
> The computer has been acting, however, like my old 2.5ghz pent 4 256 mb ram
> desktop computer - of the 2GB, almost 100% is constantly in use, and even
> using tabbed web browsing is excruciatingly slow. I already posted one
> question on this newsgroup, "Is windows Vista hogging my hard drive", and I
> recieved feedback that windows vista ran certain background applications -
> file indexing, for one - which could slow the computer. Ergo, I proceeded
> disable these services. Performance improved slightly, but only minimally.
>
> Perplexed, I started the computer in diagnostic mode using msconfig. Upon
> checking task manager, I found that only 19% of the RAM was in use. In this
> state, the computer ran wonderfully, programs like Word and Firefox opened in
> a blink, and all was smooth. I proceeded to, one-by-one, re-enable services,
> starting from security, networking, and then various ones like microsoft
> framework, and so on and so forth, whilst keeping the number I activated down
> to a minimum. To avoid trouble, I set most of the other services to manual,
> so that I anything cropped up, at least I wasn't in too much trouble.
>
> Now the situation is more interesting. Upon startup, the computer runs as,
> and better than, I would expect. The antivirus is active, firewalls are up,
> and all the necessary services are running. However, normally about 20
> minutes after startup, the RAM use goes from about 25% background + programs
> in use to about almost 100% background, and performance grinds to a halt. I
> have checked the event viewer, but no recurring event appears to coincide
> with this sudden memory spike.
>
> In summary, my plea is twofold; if anyone has any idea as to what could be
> degrading performance to this level, I would be extremely grateful for any
> assistance. Furthermore, if anyone could advise a method (either through
> windows or third-party programs) of accurately monitoring what
> programs/services/processes are using the RAM and when, I would be able to
> monitor spike with more accuracy and gather more information as to what is
> going on.
>
> Thank you in advance for your help,
> Horus

Lord Horus wrote:
> I have recently (I got it about 3 weeks ago now) recieved a new Dell Inspiron
> 1520 laptop with preinstalled Windows Business. However, performance has been
> very for it's build. The setup is:
>
<snip>

>
> In summary, my plea is twofold; if anyone has any idea as to what could be
> degrading performance to this level,

Try http://www.petri.co.il/vista_tips.htm


I would be extremely grateful for any
> assistance. Furthermore, if anyone could advise a method (either through
> windows or third-party programs) of accurately monitoring what
> programs/services/processes are using the RAM and when, I would be able to
> monitor spike with more accuracy and gather more information as to what is
> going on.

Use "process Explorer". It is an MS tool.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sys...sexplorer.mspx


>
> Thank you in advance for your help,
> Horus

I wouldn't expect any miracles from SP1. Unless, Microsoft has something
up their sleeve- most everything that will be included in SP1, will have
already been made available through Windows Update.

You might want to try decraptifying your computer of all the junk
Dell adds to it. If it came with any Norton/Symantec or McAfee
products, remove them and use another AV. Look in msconfig to
see what items are starting up. There are lot of programs that like to
add their crap there, unchecking them doesn't usually break the software,
it should still work ( I see you did this already).


-Michael

* Mugunth:
> Windows Vista is designed to use the maximum amount of RAM that's available
> in the system. That's the reason for high RAM usage. But regarding slowing of
> computer, I don't have any idea and I'm just clueless.. For that matter, I
> too own a Dell, but a Inspiron 1420 with 7200 RPM hard drive, 2GB ram, vista
> business etc., etc., It's not fast enough.. I tried removing startup
> programs.. still it's pretty slow...
> Waiting badly for Vista SP1...
>
> May be my blog on Vista review could be of use to you...
> http://mugunthkumar.blogspot.com/200...ows-vista.html
>
> "Lord Horus" wrote:
>
>> I have recently (I got it about 3 weeks ago now) recieved a new Dell Inspiron
>> 1520 laptop with preinstalled Windows Business. However, performance has been
>> very for it's build. The setup is:
>>
>> 1.8GHz 2MB Cache Intel Core 2 Duo processor
>> 2GB 667Mhz DDR2 RAM
>> Nvidia Geforce 8600 GT graphics
>> 160GB 7400RPM hard drive
>>
>> The computer has been acting, however, like my old 2.5ghz pent 4 256 mb ram
>> desktop computer - of the 2GB, almost 100% is constantly in use, and even
>> using tabbed web browsing is excruciatingly slow. I already posted one
>> question on this newsgroup, "Is windows Vista hogging my hard drive", and I
>> recieved feedback that windows vista ran certain background applications -
>> file indexing, for one - which could slow the computer. Ergo, I proceeded
>> disable these services. Performance improved slightly, but only minimally.
>>
>> Perplexed, I started the computer in diagnostic mode using msconfig. Upon
>> checking task manager, I found that only 19% of the RAM was in use. In this
>> state, the computer ran wonderfully, programs like Word and Firefox opened in
>> a blink, and all was smooth. I proceeded to, one-by-one, re-enable services,
>> starting from security, networking, and then various ones like microsoft
>> framework, and so on and so forth, whilst keeping the number I activated down
>> to a minimum. To avoid trouble, I set most of the other services to manual,
>> so that I anything cropped up, at least I wasn't in too much trouble.
>>
>> Now the situation is more interesting. Upon startup, the computer runs as,
>> and better than, I would expect. The antivirus is active, firewalls are up,
>> and all the necessary services are running. However, normally about 20
>> minutes after startup, the RAM use goes from about 25% background + programs
>> in use to about almost 100% background, and performance grinds to a halt. I
>> have checked the event viewer, but no recurring event appears to coincide
>> with this sudden memory spike.
>>
>> In summary, my plea is twofold; if anyone has any idea as to what could be
>> degrading performance to this level, I would be extremely grateful for any
>> assistance. Furthermore, if anyone could advise a method (either through
>> windows or third-party programs) of accurately monitoring what
>> programs/services/processes are using the RAM and when, I would be able to
>> monitor spike with more accuracy and gather more information as to what is
>> going on.
>>
>> Thank you in advance for your help,
>> Horus

Really Michael...
MacAfee and Norton slows down your system terribly...
I used to get a lot of messages like "Windows is running low on memory,
Please close the following applications..."
I'm now using AVG free.. and the error is gone...

I've heard that, MS is working on the slow file copy issue.. I hope that
will improve the hard disk performance which I think is the cause for slow
startup...

"MICHAEL" wrote:

> I wouldn't expect any miracles from SP1. Unless, Microsoft has something
> up their sleeve- most everything that will be included in SP1, will have
> already been made available through Windows Update.
>
> You might want to try decraptifying your computer of all the junk
> Dell adds to it. If it came with any Norton/Symantec or McAfee
> products, remove them and use another AV. Look in msconfig to
> see what items are starting up. There are lot of programs that like to
> add their crap there, unchecking them doesn't usually break the software,
> it should still work ( I see you did this already).
>
>
> -Michael
>
> * Mugunth:
> > Windows Vista is designed to use the maximum amount of RAM that's available
> > in the system. That's the reason for high RAM usage. But regarding slowing of
> > computer, I don't have any idea and I'm just clueless.. For that matter, I
> > too own a Dell, but a Inspiron 1420 with 7200 RPM hard drive, 2GB ram, vista
> > business etc., etc., It's not fast enough.. I tried removing startup
> > programs.. still it's pretty slow...
> > Waiting badly for Vista SP1...
> >
> > May be my blog on Vista review could be of use to you...
> > http://mugunthkumar.blogspot.com/200...ows-vista.html
> >
> > "Lord Horus" wrote:
> >
> >> I have recently (I got it about 3 weeks ago now) recieved a new Dell Inspiron
> >> 1520 laptop with preinstalled Windows Business. However, performance has been
> >> very for it's build. The setup is:
> >>
> >> 1.8GHz 2MB Cache Intel Core 2 Duo processor
> >> 2GB 667Mhz DDR2 RAM
> >> Nvidia Geforce 8600 GT graphics
> >> 160GB 7400RPM hard drive
> >>
> >> The computer has been acting, however, like my old 2.5ghz pent 4 256 mb ram
> >> desktop computer - of the 2GB, almost 100% is constantly in use, and even
> >> using tabbed web browsing is excruciatingly slow. I already posted one
> >> question on this newsgroup, "Is windows Vista hogging my hard drive", and I
> >> recieved feedback that windows vista ran certain background applications -
> >> file indexing, for one - which could slow the computer. Ergo, I proceeded
> >> disable these services. Performance improved slightly, but only minimally.
> >>
> >> Perplexed, I started the computer in diagnostic mode using msconfig. Upon
> >> checking task manager, I found that only 19% of the RAM was in use. In this
> >> state, the computer ran wonderfully, programs like Word and Firefox opened in
> >> a blink, and all was smooth. I proceeded to, one-by-one, re-enable services,
> >> starting from security, networking, and then various ones like microsoft
> >> framework, and so on and so forth, whilst keeping the number I activated down
> >> to a minimum. To avoid trouble, I set most of the other services to manual,
> >> so that I anything cropped up, at least I wasn't in too much trouble.
> >>
> >> Now the situation is more interesting. Upon startup, the computer runs as,
> >> and better than, I would expect. The antivirus is active, firewalls are up,
> >> and all the necessary services are running. However, normally about 20
> >> minutes after startup, the RAM use goes from about 25% background + programs
> >> in use to about almost 100% background, and performance grinds to a halt. I
> >> have checked the event viewer, but no recurring event appears to coincide
> >> with this sudden memory spike.
> >>
> >> In summary, my plea is twofold; if anyone has any idea as to what could be
> >> degrading performance to this level, I would be extremely grateful for any
> >> assistance. Furthermore, if anyone could advise a method (either through
> >> windows or third-party programs) of accurately monitoring what
> >> programs/services/processes are using the RAM and when, I would be able to
> >> monitor spike with more accuracy and gather more information as to what is
> >> going on.
> >>
> >> Thank you in advance for your help,
> >> Horus
>

Have you installed these two recent updates?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941600
Cumulative update rollup for USB core components in Windows Vista

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941649
An update is available that improves the compatibility, reliability, and stability of Windows Vista


-Michael

* Mugunth:
> Really Michael...
> MacAfee and Norton slows down your system terribly...
> I used to get a lot of messages like "Windows is running low on memory,
> Please close the following applications..."
> I'm now using AVG free.. and the error is gone...
>
> I've heard that, MS is working on the slow file copy issue.. I hope that
> will improve the hard disk performance which I think is the cause for slow
> startup...
>
> "MICHAEL" wrote:
>
>> I wouldn't expect any miracles from SP1. Unless, Microsoft has something
>> up their sleeve- most everything that will be included in SP1, will have
>> already been made available through Windows Update.
>>
>> You might want to try decraptifying your computer of all the junk
>> Dell adds to it. If it came with any Norton/Symantec or McAfee
>> products, remove them and use another AV. Look in msconfig to
>> see what items are starting up. There are lot of programs that like to
>> add their crap there, unchecking them doesn't usually break the software,
>> it should still work ( I see you did this already).
>>
>>
>> -Michael
>>
>> * Mugunth:
>>> Windows Vista is designed to use the maximum amount of RAM that's available
>>> in the system. That's the reason for high RAM usage. But regarding slowing of
>>> computer, I don't have any idea and I'm just clueless.. For that matter, I
>>> too own a Dell, but a Inspiron 1420 with 7200 RPM hard drive, 2GB ram, vista
>>> business etc., etc., It's not fast enough.. I tried removing startup
>>> programs.. still it's pretty slow...
>>> Waiting badly for Vista SP1...
>>>
>>> May be my blog on Vista review could be of use to you...
>>> http://mugunthkumar.blogspot.com/200...ows-vista.html
>>>
>>> "Lord Horus" wrote:
>>>
>>>> I have recently (I got it about 3 weeks ago now) recieved a new Dell Inspiron
>>>> 1520 laptop with preinstalled Windows Business. However, performance has been
>>>> very for it's build. The setup is:
>>>>
>>>> 1.8GHz 2MB Cache Intel Core 2 Duo processor
>>>> 2GB 667Mhz DDR2 RAM
>>>> Nvidia Geforce 8600 GT graphics
>>>> 160GB 7400RPM hard drive
>>>>
>>>> The computer has been acting, however, like my old 2.5ghz pent 4 256 mb ram
>>>> desktop computer - of the 2GB, almost 100% is constantly in use, and even
>>>> using tabbed web browsing is excruciatingly slow. I already posted one
>>>> question on this newsgroup, "Is windows Vista hogging my hard drive", and I
>>>> recieved feedback that windows vista ran certain background applications -
>>>> file indexing, for one - which could slow the computer. Ergo, I proceeded
>>>> disable these services. Performance improved slightly, but only minimally.
>>>>
>>>> Perplexed, I started the computer in diagnostic mode using msconfig. Upon
>>>> checking task manager, I found that only 19% of the RAM was in use. In this
>>>> state, the computer ran wonderfully, programs like Word and Firefox opened in
>>>> a blink, and all was smooth. I proceeded to, one-by-one, re-enable services,
>>>> starting from security, networking, and then various ones like microsoft
>>>> framework, and so on and so forth, whilst keeping the number I activated down
>>>> to a minimum. To avoid trouble, I set most of the other services to manual,
>>>> so that I anything cropped up, at least I wasn't in too much trouble.
>>>>
>>>> Now the situation is more interesting. Upon startup, the computer runs as,
>>>> and better than, I would expect. The antivirus is active, firewalls are up,
>>>> and all the necessary services are running. However, normally about 20
>>>> minutes after startup, the RAM use goes from about 25% background + programs
>>>> in use to about almost 100% background, and performance grinds to a halt. I
>>>> have checked the event viewer, but no recurring event appears to coincide
>>>> with this sudden memory spike.
>>>>
>>>> In summary, my plea is twofold; if anyone has any idea as to what could be
>>>> degrading performance to this level, I would be extremely grateful for any
>>>> assistance. Furthermore, if anyone could advise a method (either through
>>>> windows or third-party programs) of accurately monitoring what
>>>> programs/services/processes are using the RAM and when, I would be able to
>>>> monitor spike with more accuracy and gather more information as to what is
>>>> going on.
>>>>
>>>> Thank you in advance for your help,
>>>> Horus

Try looking at you hard drive properties and if the box marked "Index
this drive" is checked try it unchecked... that made a heck of a
difference here on 2 machines and I see no loss of speed where "Search"
is concerned, it never found anything anyway but now finds nothing
quicker - go figure.


Mugunth wrote:
> Really Michael...
> MacAfee and Norton slows down your system terribly...
> I used to get a lot of messages like "Windows is running low on memory,
> Please close the following applications..."
> I'm now using AVG free.. and the error is gone...
>
> I've heard that, MS is working on the slow file copy issue.. I hope that
> will improve the hard disk performance which I think is the cause for slow
> startup...
>
> "MICHAEL" wrote:
>
>> I wouldn't expect any miracles from SP1. Unless, Microsoft has something
>> up their sleeve- most everything that will be included in SP1, will have
>> already been made available through Windows Update.
>>
>> You might want to try decraptifying your computer of all the junk
>> Dell adds to it. If it came with any Norton/Symantec or McAfee
>> products, remove them and use another AV. Look in msconfig to
>> see what items are starting up. There are lot of programs that like to
>> add their crap there, unchecking them doesn't usually break the software,
>> it should still work ( I see you did this already).
>>
>>
>> -Michael
>>
>> * Mugunth:
>>> Windows Vista is designed to use the maximum amount of RAM that's available
>>> in the system. That's the reason for high RAM usage. But regarding slowing of
>>> computer, I don't have any idea and I'm just clueless.. For that matter, I
>>> too own a Dell, but a Inspiron 1420 with 7200 RPM hard drive, 2GB ram, vista
>>> business etc., etc., It's not fast enough.. I tried removing startup
>>> programs.. still it's pretty slow...
>>> Waiting badly for Vista SP1...
>>>
>>> May be my blog on Vista review could be of use to you...
>>> http://mugunthkumar.blogspot.com/200...ows-vista.html
>>>
>>> "Lord Horus" wrote:
>>>
>>>> I have recently (I got it about 3 weeks ago now) recieved a new Dell Inspiron
>>>> 1520 laptop with preinstalled Windows Business. However, performance has been
>>>> very for it's build. The setup is:
>>>>
>>>> 1.8GHz 2MB Cache Intel Core 2 Duo processor
>>>> 2GB 667Mhz DDR2 RAM
>>>> Nvidia Geforce 8600 GT graphics
>>>> 160GB 7400RPM hard drive
>>>>
>>>> The computer has been acting, however, like my old 2.5ghz pent 4 256 mb ram
>>>> desktop computer - of the 2GB, almost 100% is constantly in use, and even
>>>> using tabbed web browsing is excruciatingly slow. I already posted one
>>>> question on this newsgroup, "Is windows Vista hogging my hard drive", and I
>>>> recieved feedback that windows vista ran certain background applications -
>>>> file indexing, for one - which could slow the computer. Ergo, I proceeded
>>>> disable these services. Performance improved slightly, but only minimally.
>>>>
>>>> Perplexed, I started the computer in diagnostic mode using msconfig. Upon
>>>> checking task manager, I found that only 19% of the RAM was in use. In this
>>>> state, the computer ran wonderfully, programs like Word and Firefox opened in
>>>> a blink, and all was smooth. I proceeded to, one-by-one, re-enable services,
>>>> starting from security, networking, and then various ones like microsoft
>>>> framework, and so on and so forth, whilst keeping the number I activated down
>>>> to a minimum. To avoid trouble, I set most of the other services to manual,
>>>> so that I anything cropped up, at least I wasn't in too much trouble.
>>>>
>>>> Now the situation is more interesting. Upon startup, the computer runs as,
>>>> and better than, I would expect. The antivirus is active, firewalls are up,
>>>> and all the necessary services are running. However, normally about 20
>>>> minutes after startup, the RAM use goes from about 25% background + programs
>>>> in use to about almost 100% background, and performance grinds to a halt. I
>>>> have checked the event viewer, but no recurring event appears to coincide
>>>> with this sudden memory spike.
>>>>
>>>> In summary, my plea is twofold; if anyone has any idea as to what could be
>>>> degrading performance to this level, I would be extremely grateful for any
>>>> assistance. Furthermore, if anyone could advise a method (either through
>>>> windows or third-party programs) of accurately monitoring what
>>>> programs/services/processes are using the RAM and when, I would be able to
>>>> monitor spike with more accuracy and gather more information as to what is
>>>> going on.
>>>>
>>>> Thank you in advance for your help,
>>>> Horus

Your problem sounds like a service or a 3rd party application that is going
a bit insane. Monitor your tasks, and see if you can track down what is
consuming CPU and RAM usage, and then you can search the web for a way to
correct it.

I have seen this type of behavior with some Anti-virus software, and also
some 3rd party applications and drivers. (A Logitech mouse driver software
component was the most recent case I seen of this.)

Just so you know this is far from normal, and you will be able to track down
the problem. Vista should be rather smooth and peppy with your system
configuration, even surpassing XP on the same system.

Good luck to you...

"Lord Horus" <> wrote in message
news:FB49ABAE-EE75-410E-86D3-...
>I have recently (I got it about 3 weeks ago now) recieved a new Dell
>Inspiron
> 1520 laptop with preinstalled Windows Business. However, performance has
> been
> very for it's build. The setup is:
>
> 1.8GHz 2MB Cache Intel Core 2 Duo processor
> 2GB 667Mhz DDR2 RAM
> Nvidia Geforce 8600 GT graphics
> 160GB 7400RPM hard drive
>
> The computer has been acting, however, like my old 2.5ghz pent 4 256 mb
> ram
> desktop computer - of the 2GB, almost 100% is constantly in use, and even
> using tabbed web browsing is excruciatingly slow. I already posted one
> question on this newsgroup, "Is windows Vista hogging my hard drive", and
> I
> recieved feedback that windows vista ran certain background applications -
> file indexing, for one - which could slow the computer. Ergo, I proceeded
> disable these services. Performance improved slightly, but only minimally.
>
> Perplexed, I started the computer in diagnostic mode using msconfig. Upon
> checking task manager, I found that only 19% of the RAM was in use. In
> this
> state, the computer ran wonderfully, programs like Word and Firefox opened
> in
> a blink, and all was smooth. I proceeded to, one-by-one, re-enable
> services,
> starting from security, networking, and then various ones like microsoft
> framework, and so on and so forth, whilst keeping the number I activated
> down
> to a minimum. To avoid trouble, I set most of the other services to
> manual,
> so that I anything cropped up, at least I wasn't in too much trouble.
>
> Now the situation is more interesting. Upon startup, the computer runs as,
> and better than, I would expect. The antivirus is active, firewalls are
> up,
> and all the necessary services are running. However, normally about 20
> minutes after startup, the RAM use goes from about 25% background +
> programs
> in use to about almost 100% background, and performance grinds to a halt.
> I
> have checked the event viewer, but no recurring event appears to coincide
> with this sudden memory spike.
>
> In summary, my plea is twofold; if anyone has any idea as to what could be
> degrading performance to this level, I would be extremely grateful for any
> assistance. Furthermore, if anyone could advise a method (either through
> windows or third-party programs) of accurately monitoring what
> programs/services/processes are using the RAM and when, I would be able to
> monitor spike with more accuracy and gather more information as to what is
> going on.
>
> Thank you in advance for your help,
> Horus

From the task manager's processes tab, click Resource Monitor. This is truly
one of my favorite new tools in Vista.

Whatever graph is high, open that section and sort by relevant column. It'll
tell you exactly what is reading or writing to your drive, filling your
memory, tasking your cpu or clogging your network.

rtk

"Lord Horus" <> wrote in message
news:FB49ABAE-EE75-410E-86D3-...
> I have recently (I got it about 3 weeks ago now) recieved a new Dell
> Inspiron
> 1520 laptop with preinstalled Windows Business. However, performance has
> been
> very for it's build. The setup is:
>
> 1.8GHz 2MB Cache Intel Core 2 Duo processor
> 2GB 667Mhz DDR2 RAM
> Nvidia Geforce 8600 GT graphics
> 160GB 7400RPM hard drive
>
> The computer has been acting, however, like my old 2.5ghz pent 4 256 mb
> ram
> desktop computer - of the 2GB, almost 100% is constantly in use, and even
> using tabbed web browsing is excruciatingly slow. I already posted one
> question on this newsgroup, "Is windows Vista hogging my hard drive", and
> I
> recieved feedback that windows vista ran certain background applications -
> file indexing, for one - which could slow the computer. Ergo, I proceeded
> disable these services. Performance improved slightly, but only minimally.
>
> Perplexed, I started the computer in diagnostic mode using msconfig. Upon
> checking task manager, I found that only 19% of the RAM was in use. In
> this
> state, the computer ran wonderfully, programs like Word and Firefox opened
> in
> a blink, and all was smooth. I proceeded to, one-by-one, re-enable
> services,
> starting from security, networking, and then various ones like microsoft
> framework, and so on and so forth, whilst keeping the number I activated
> down
> to a minimum. To avoid trouble, I set most of the other services to
> manual,
> so that I anything cropped up, at least I wasn't in too much trouble.
>
> Now the situation is more interesting. Upon startup, the computer runs as,
> and better than, I would expect. The antivirus is active, firewalls are
> up,
> and all the necessary services are running. However, normally about 20
> minutes after startup, the RAM use goes from about 25% background +
> programs
> in use to about almost 100% background, and performance grinds to a halt.
> I
> have checked the event viewer, but no recurring event appears to coincide
> with this sudden memory spike.
>
> In summary, my plea is twofold; if anyone has any idea as to what could be
> degrading performance to this level, I would be extremely grateful for any
> assistance. Furthermore, if anyone could advise a method (either through
> windows or third-party programs) of accurately monitoring what
> programs/services/processes are using the RAM and when, I would be able to
> monitor spike with more accuracy and gather more information as to what is
> going on.
>
> Thank you in advance for your help,
> Horus

The issue as I see it is people that try and index their entire system
drive. If you have a separate drive with some type of media, it's fine to
index that drive.

Once the index is built, it takes literally split seconds to update the
index when a file operation occurs. When this is taken into account, it's
obvious why indexing cache folders is a bad idea.

I'm indexing four drives and don't feel it at all, once the initial index is
built there's no noticeable performance impact IMHO.

rtk

"Charlie Tame" <> wrote in message
news:##...
> Try looking at you hard drive properties and if the box marked "Index this
> drive" is checked try it unchecked... that made a heck of a difference
> here on 2 machines and I see no loss of speed where "Search" is concerned,
> it never found anything anyway but now finds nothing quicker - go figure.
>
>
> Mugunth wrote:
>> Really Michael...
>> MacAfee and Norton slows down your system terribly...
>> I used to get a lot of messages like "Windows is running low on memory,
>> Please close the following applications..."
>> I'm now using AVG free.. and the error is gone...
>>
>> I've heard that, MS is working on the slow file copy issue.. I hope that
>> will improve the hard disk performance which I think is the cause for
>> slow startup...
>>
>> "MICHAEL" wrote:
>>
>>> I wouldn't expect any miracles from SP1. Unless, Microsoft has
>>> something
>>> up their sleeve- most everything that will be included in SP1, will have
>>> already been made available through Windows Update.
>>>
>>> You might want to try decraptifying your computer of all the junk
>>> Dell adds to it. If it came with any Norton/Symantec or McAfee
>>> products, remove them and use another AV. Look in msconfig to
>>> see what items are starting up. There are lot of programs that like to
>>> add their crap there, unchecking them doesn't usually break the
>>> software,
>>> it should still work ( I see you did this already).
>>>
>>>
>>> -Michael
>>>
>>> * Mugunth:
>>>> Windows Vista is designed to use the maximum amount of RAM that's
>>>> available in the system. That's the reason for high RAM usage. But
>>>> regarding slowing of computer, I don't have any idea and I'm just
>>>> clueless.. For that matter, I too own a Dell, but a Inspiron 1420 with
>>>> 7200 RPM hard drive, 2GB ram, vista business etc., etc., It's not fast
>>>> enough.. I tried removing startup programs.. still it's pretty slow...
>>>>
>>>> Waiting badly for Vista SP1...
>>>>
>>>> May be my blog on Vista review could be of use to you...
>>>> http://mugunthkumar.blogspot.com/200...ows-vista.html
>>>>
>>>> "Lord Horus" wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I have recently (I got it about 3 weeks ago now) recieved a new Dell
>>>>> Inspiron 1520 laptop with preinstalled Windows Business. However,
>>>>> performance has been very for it's build. The setup is:
>>>>>
>>>>> 1.8GHz 2MB Cache Intel Core 2 Duo processor
>>>>> 2GB 667Mhz DDR2 RAM
>>>>> Nvidia Geforce 8600 GT graphics
>>>>> 160GB 7400RPM hard drive
>>>>>
>>>>> The computer has been acting, however, like my old 2.5ghz pent 4 256
>>>>> mb ram desktop computer - of the 2GB, almost 100% is constantly in
>>>>> use, and even using tabbed web browsing is excruciatingly slow. I
>>>>> already posted one question on this newsgroup, "Is windows Vista
>>>>> hogging my hard drive", and I recieved feedback that windows vista ran
>>>>> certain background applications - file indexing, for one - which could
>>>>> slow the computer. Ergo, I proceeded disable these services.
>>>>> Performance improved slightly, but only minimally.
>>>>>
>>>>> Perplexed, I started the computer in diagnostic mode using msconfig.
>>>>> Upon checking task manager, I found that only 19% of the RAM was in
>>>>> use. In this state, the computer ran wonderfully, programs like Word
>>>>> and Firefox opened in a blink, and all was smooth. I proceeded to,
>>>>> one-by-one, re-enable services, starting from security, networking,
>>>>> and then various ones like microsoft framework, and so on and so
>>>>> forth, whilst keeping the number I activated down to a minimum. To
>>>>> avoid trouble, I set most of the other services to manual, so that I
>>>>> anything cropped up, at least I wasn't in too much trouble.
>>>>>
>>>>> Now the situation is more interesting. Upon startup, the computer runs
>>>>> as, and better than, I would expect. The antivirus is active,
>>>>> firewalls are up, and all the necessary services are running. However,
>>>>> normally about 20 minutes after startup, the RAM use goes from about
>>>>> 25% background + programs in use to about almost 100% background, and
>>>>> performance grinds to a halt. I have checked the event viewer, but no
>>>>> recurring event appears to coincide with this sudden memory spike.
>>>>>
>>>>> In summary, my plea is twofold; if anyone has any idea as to what
>>>>> could be degrading performance to this level, I would be extremely
>>>>> grateful for any assistance. Furthermore, if anyone could advise a
>>>>> method (either through windows or third-party programs) of accurately
>>>>> monitoring what programs/services/processes are using the RAM and
>>>>> when, I would be able to monitor spike with more accuracy and gather
>>>>> more information as to what is going on.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thank you in advance for your help,
>>>>> Horus