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    I have too much memory !

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by skilelui, May 5, 2008.

  1. skilelui

    skilelui Newbie

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    I have Dell D420 with processor: Core Solo 1.06GHz.
    It came with 512MB of RAM.

    I recently upgraded the memory by adding 2GB. My laptop is now very slow and has difficulty running multiple programs in parallel . I feel as if there is too much memory and the processor can't catch up. Is this crazy or does it really happen? I am pretty sure I don't have any spyware so it's definitely hardware related. Any insight on this would be appreciated.

    -Cheers
     
    skilelui, May 5, 2008
    #1
  2. powerpack

    powerpack Notebook Prophet

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    Yes. It is crazy! Why you bought a core solo? It baffles me?
     
    powerpack, May 5, 2008
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  3. dtwn

    dtwn C'thulhu fhtagn

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    Battery life dude + the D420 didn't support C2D.

    If I remember correctly, the D420 has 512MB RAM soldered on board and can support up till 2GB of RAM according to Dell. This is impossible as there aren't any 1.5GB RAM sticks. This means effective max RAM you can have inside is 1.5GB.

    As to why it's slowing down, I have no clue. How much RAM does your machine display?
     
    dtwn, May 5, 2008
    #3
  4. flipfire

    flipfire Moderately Boss

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    have you tried swapping the old ram back and seeing if it was the 2gb causing the slowdown?

    Also do a memtest
     
    flipfire, May 5, 2008
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  5. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

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    The Core Solo is excellent for not wasting power but, unfortunately, 1.06GHz is on the slow side. I certainly wouldn't want to go slower than the 1.33GHz in my Sony G11.

    Anyway, we need more info to try to diagnose what is going on here. Adding 2GB to my Sony G11 substantially improved its performance. Vista is able to use the extra RAM to cache the most frequently used programs so they load much quicker.

    However, I would presume that the D420 is running XP. I suggest some tests:

    1. Run CPU-Z and report the contents of the CPU, Mainboard, Memory, SPD pages (should be one for each module). Then we can see if the memory speed / quantity are being reported OK. Based on my G11 I would expect to see 266MHz 4-4-4-12.

    2. Download and run SiSoftware Sandra. Run the memory benchmark and report the speed. Based on my G11, I would expect a memory bandwidth of around 2100 to 2200MB/s. Note that because the GPU shares the system RAM then the GPU behaviour can hit the system performance.

    If we see that the hardware is running OK then the next step will be to see how it is being used. The Performance page of Task Manager shows the physical memory usage. What does that say?

    John
     
    John Ratsey, May 5, 2008
    #5
  6. sirmetman

    sirmetman Notebook Virtuoso

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    Could be some sort of funky timing conflict that is messing up yout memory performance. You can't really get problems from having too much RAM, but you can from having mismatched or wrong RAM.
     
    sirmetman, May 5, 2008
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  7. NAS Ghost

    NAS Ghost Notebook Deity

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    Im thinking he has compatibility issues with his ram.
     
    NAS Ghost, May 5, 2008
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  8. Nirvana

    Nirvana Notebook Prophet

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    my little sony has same spec as yours lol
     
    Nirvana, May 5, 2008
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  9. Greg

    Greg Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    I have a D430 with 2GB of RAM, and while it is slow sometimes I never get the impression that something is wrong. 1.2GHz though, but I usually force it down to 800MHz.
     
    Greg, May 5, 2008
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  10. b534202

    b534202 Notebook Consultant

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    Post your 2gb's spec, its timing probably is too slow for the machine.
     
    b534202, May 5, 2008
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  11. Bog

    Bog Losing it...

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    That laptop won't be capable of seamless multi-tasking regardless of how much RAM you use, considering the CPU's architecture.
     
    Bog, May 5, 2008
    #11