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Archive for the 'memory' Tag

Can my computer handle more memory?

September 22nd, 2009, 5:05 pm by

Stump the PC Club is a free tech-advice column written by members of the North Orange County Computer Club, which has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. And don’t forget to stop by the Gadgetress’ home for the PC Club, at ocregister.com/link/pcclub, to find out how to ask a question and read past answers.

QUESTION: Is there a reputable website or way to find out if I can add any memory to this newer computer? It is running a bit slow. (I have Norton 360 on it currently.)

PC CLUB: This is not always the answer to a slow PC. If you have at least 1 gigabyte (GB) of memory on an XP PC I’d look elsewhere for the solution. Vista can get by with 1 GB but 2 GBs are better.

Sites like Crucial.com analyze how much memory your PC can handle.The best way to see if your system can have memory added is to go to a web site such as www.crucial.com or www.4allmemory.com and let them interrogate your PC. They will actually recommend what you should purchase. The image on right is from Crucial.com. It shows how many memory slots are available in a Gateway FX 530 desktop computer.

Another possibility is that Norton 360 is slowing you down. You may want to do a little research and switch to an anti-virus program that is less obtrusive than Norton 360. There are a number of good free programs in this category. Just remember to uninstall your current anti-virus program prior to installing a new one.

A previous article from Stump the PC Club addressed slow PC’s at “Speed up a slow computer in 4 steps” (link: http://bit.ly/N8thE). ~Ed Schwartz, NOCCC member. View his blog at www.edwardns.com/blog.

Visit the Gadgetress’ PC Club page at ocregister.com/link/pcclub. To get this answer delivered to your computer automatically, sign up for the e-mail update HERE. Recent PC Club answers:

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Speed up a slow computer in 4 steps

April 28th, 2009, 10:37 pm by

Stump the PC Club is a free tech-advice column written by members of the North Orange County Computer Club, which has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. And don’t forget to stop by the Gadgetress’ home for the PC Club, at ocregister.com/link/pcclub, to find out how to ask a question and read past answers.

QUESTION: I have a Dell Inspiron 6400 it has been running slow. Are there things I can do to clean it up? I am not smart when it comes to this and need easy directions. ~ Tami

PC CLUB: A slow computer is no fun and it’s one of the most frequent complaints that I run into. I sympathize with your need to keep it simple but this is one of those problems that does not lend itself to an easy fix. In spite of all of the programs advertised on the Internet to speed up your PC, there is no 1-click solution, so don’t succumb to any marketing hype. There are several things that you can do however. Here are the most likely causes for slow performance and possible solutions: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Computers • Stump the PC Club • • • • • • | 2 Comments »

When cameraphones and O.C. tech mix, expect prizes

March 10th, 2009, 6:00 pm by

If you like taking funny photos or entertaining videos with your cameraphone, submit them for a chance to win everything but a cell phone in a new wireless contest sponsored by Fountain Valley’s Kingston Technology Co. and friends.

The memory company plans to give away a bunch of memory cards and flash drives, while neighbor D-Link Systems has a 10-inch digital photo frame and wireless routers up for grabs. Western Digital, in Lake Forest, is tossing in one of those nifty WD TV HD Media players, and Plantronics has a few 925 Bluetooth headsets.

The contest categories are: dance/pose, fun pet tricks, travel/vacation and sports. There will be 32 prizes awarded.

All entries must be received by March 31. Photo submissions can be made at www.kingston.com/mobile while video submissions are accepted at www.youtube.com/kingstoncontest.

Prizes are listed below: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Cell phones • • • • • • • • | 1 Comment »

Add RAM, drive to speed up that old PC

April 28th, 2008, 9:55 pm by

The North Orange County Computer Club is helping The Gadgetress tackle the multitude of readers cries for help. NOCCC group has experts in all sorts of computer topics. The club, which meets monthly on various topics, has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org.

Question: My rather dated PC is slowing down. We have tons of pics and would hate to lose our files. Here is the situation. Windows XP version 2002 service pack 2; Pentium 4 CPU 1.8 GHz 256 MB ram. C drive: 32.6 GB used, 3.38 GB free. Box not checked for ‘Compress disk to save disk space.’ Should we do “Disk Cleanup” or “disk Defragmenter”? Does the order matter? Should we have someone backup the whole hard drive before doing his or can they be run without problems?

NOCC: When I service a computer like yours, the first priority is to back up the whole hard drive. This serves a lot of purposes. First and foremost, it makes a safe copy of those “tons of pics,” and your other stuff. If you are like a lot of people, it is easy and cheap to take a lot of digital pictures and put your ONE and ONLY copy of them on the computer.

The reliability, capacity and cost of hard drives has improved tremendously. The first hard drive that IBM offered for the PC cost around $2,000 dollars for a 10 megabyte disk. Today, you can buy a drive that is far more reliable, holds one hundred thousand times as much data, and is one tenth the cost. However, a decades old quote is still true. “It is not a question of IF your hard disk will fail. It is a question of WHEN your hard disk fails.”

Read the rest of this entry »

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The Memory Guide: A cheap way to speed up a PC

April 7th, 2008, 3:00 am by

Alt+Save Guides powered by The GadgetressA 1-GB stick of memory cost $68 a year ago. Now, it’s $14, according to Nam Hyung Kim, an analyst with researcher iSuppli Corp. That’s nearly 80 percent off!

Time to go shopping, eh? At home, my Gateway desktop needs more memory. I checked out Crucial.com‘s memory-finder tool and it’s best deal is 4 GB of memory for $97. Why didn’t I upgrade sooner? A similar check with Fountain Valley’s Kingston Technology’s memory shop offers the same for $146 — so I advise checking around.

Kingston Technology is world’s largest seller of memory modulesI explore the business angle a bit more in a story HERE.

I’ve put together this quick Memory Guide to offer tips on what the typical consumer needs to know.

Why upgrade? Computer memory, or RAM (Random Access Memory) can speed up your computer dramatically. This will save time so you’re not waiting and waiting for computer tasks to complete. Mark Leathem, director of marketing with memory giant Kingston Technology, recommends increasing memory by 2x to see a significant difference in performance.

Different types of memory. Typical computer memory is called DDR2, and it’s available in two frequencies: 667 megahertz and 800 MHz. The higher the frequency, the faster the performance. The next generation of DDR is available, called DDR3 and offering speeds up to 1333 MHz and targeting enthusiasts and gamers. But for typical computer users, you’ll want DDR2.Find the memory you need

Figure out what memory your PC needs. Use an online memory configurator, available at sites such as Kingston.com, Crucial.com or virtually any other memory seller. These determine the best memory for you based on your computer brand and model. My favorite is Crucial’s, which offers a downloadable scanner. It scans your PC and tells you what memory already exists on your PC and what type you need to buy.

Buying memory. Check dealram.com, which pulls up prices by seller so it’s easy to spot the cheapest. If you want a brand name, visit the brands themselves, such as the aforementioned Kingston and Crucial. Most memory sellers also have a configurator. You can also check online stores, such as Other World Computing (for Macs) and NewEgg.com.

Installing memory. This to the scary part for some, but not that hard once you’ve tried it. Lots of helpful video and photo tutorials available online. Check out TigerDirect’s video on YouTube with how-to for desktops and laptops. Other sites include LifeHacker and eHow. For Macs, Apple has specific pages for MacBooks, MacBook Pros, etc.

Tip: Windows computers (including XP and Vista) may not use all the memory you install on it. Unless you have 64-bit Windows Vista, going above 4GB of memory could be a waste. Read Microsoft’s explanation HERE.

Other useful sties:

Posted in: Computers • • • • • • • | 1 Comment »

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