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A few questions about RAM...

by SandraCee
7 replies
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Hello Warriors,
I hope someone can help me out. My ancient laptop is just not able to handle the video streaming from some of the courses that I'm taking.

I think its because (and yes I am embarrassed to admit this) but it only has 256 MB of RAM. I am planning on going to Frys tomorrow to buy some to install. I've read the manual and it sounds pretty straight forward to install myself. Has any one done this? Is it as easy as it seems?

Also can you confirm that increasing my RAM would help me when streaming video? Right now I can stream but it freezes up quite a bit. It also does this even when pulling up a PDF doc.

Thank you for your help!
Sandra
  • Profile picture of the author The Mysterious Marketer
    Umm... sure. I guess if you do increase your RAM, it will improve your PC's performance slightly. But that's not much. Judging by the amount of RAM you have, your PC is probably a Pentium 1 or 2 or equivalent, am I right? I think increasing your RAM wouldn't be enough, and it would be better to purchase a newer PC because if you are using an older processor, it will still be too slow...
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    • Profile picture of the author SandraCee
      Thank you for your help!

      This is what it says under my computer:

      Intel Celeron Processor 1.60 GHz 248 RAM

      Not sure if this is the same as the processor you mention??? Do you think it would be worth it to try the RAM? I can get 1GB for $20 and was thinking of buying 2GB if possible.

      Unfortunately getting a new laptop is not an option right now

      Thanks again,
      Sandra
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  • Profile picture of the author Thomas Wilkinson
    Sandra, find and install a small program called Belarc Advisor. Its free. Run it
    once and print out the results. Take the results with you to store.
    Find out if your computer can even take two gigs of ram. I'm guessing
    it won't. One of my old computers has a 1.8 Gig processor and one
    Gig of ram and I get streaming media on it with no problem. Also check
    how many programs fire up on boot. You might want to shut some of
    down so they don't boot when you startup.

    Tom

    Edit: Which OS are you using.? XP is a ram hog and Vista is worse.
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  • Profile picture of the author HarveyJ
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    • Profile picture of the author SandraCee
      Originally Posted by Thomas Wilkinson View Post

      Sandra, find and install a small program called Belarc Advisor. Its free. Run it
      once and print out the results. Take the results with you to store.
      Find out if your computer can even take two gigs of ram. I'm guessing
      it won't. One of my old computers has a 1.8 Gig processor and one
      Gig of ram and I get streaming media on it with no problem. Also check
      how many program fire up on boot. You might want to shut some of
      down so they don't boot when you startup.

      Tom

      Edit: Which OS are you using.? XP is a ram hog and Vista is worse.
      Thank you so much for this info. Will do this right now! And I'm using XP.

      Originally Posted by HarveyJ View Post

      Installing RAM in a PC isn't a problem, but you're doing a laptop.

      For a start, the case may be made in such a way that you can't open it without actually cracking it.
      Secondly, depending on the socket type in the motherboard, soldering or screws may be required. Both are likely to damage components behind if you're not incredibly careful.

      Unless you actually use your laptop in a portable fashion, I'd recommend getting a $500 desktop. It will be substantially more powerful, more reliable, and infinitely easier to upgrade later.

      P.S. If you're running a Celeron, do not "upgrade" to Vista, unless you like waiting 10 minutes on boot.
      The owners manual tell you how to do it and it looks fairly simple, which is why I want to try it out. If I can't do it I'll have to pay the $35 for Frys to do it.

      Thanks again for everyone's help! It is much appreciated!
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  • Profile picture of the author KimW
    RAM on a laptop is not that difficult. Usually its a matter of one,maybe two screws and then snapping the RAM in or out using a release lever.
    You can do what Tom said and run Belarc,or you should be able to look in your user manual and it should tell you the max RAM you can install.
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  • Profile picture of the author morwanneg
    Installing a RAM is really easy. But first you need to know how much RAM your laptop can handle. A few years back, when i was still using my old laptop, it crashed and crashed, BSOD appeared, because i installed a higher capacity of RAM my laptop couldn't handle.
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  • Profile picture of the author xga
    You probably already know this -- RAM have many different kind of specification/speed. You might want to check the manual to see which type your notebook is able to support before buying.
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