SZ Upgrading To 4GB.. Questions

Hi, my SZ came with 2GB of RAM (SZ5 - in line with the SZ6's in North America), and I was just wondering if anyone else with the same machine has considered upgrading to 4GB.

- I know 32-bit Windows has a 4GB memory limit which translates to around 3.5GB of usable memory. Will switching to 64-bit help?

- Will 4GB help alleviate some of the shared system graphics RAM my 8400 uses? I notice some windows 'blacking out' from time to time, could this be the fact that its max'ed out its 64MB Video RAM and is using the slower 2GB of RAM?

- In terms of Vista, it seems to want to garble up as much ram as possible at startup. Will upgrading to 4GB translate to a slower startup / more battery usage?

Thanks.

 

It's most likely a driver problem. Video memory really has nothing to do with windows 'blacking out'. Trying upgrading the driver (and make sure you're in speed mode)

Just the opposite. It will extend your battery life because you won't have to use the HDD that often. RAM doesn't use much power at all. Starting up won't be slower either. Launching applications will be faster though.

Thanks.[/QUOTE]

 

Cool, thanks for your fast reply.

I'm using the latest drivers as per Windows Update. Is there a better source with newer drivers?

Really? I notice in Vista when you first boot up it tries to read everything from the PREFETCH folder and the page file and caches stuff into RAM in the first 5 minutes after the windows desktop is loaded, trying to fill up all 2GB. If i had 2GB wouldnt it try to fill up all 4GB?

 

One of the features built in to Vista is what's known as "standard memory allocation". Essentially what it means is that as you use Vista under a user name, Vista as part of it's events logs keeps track of what kind of programs you have a tendency to use the most. When you load Vista, it trys to precache the information for these programs. Also, Vista, as part of its start up process, goes through your hard drive and catalogues the files to use the quick search function from the start menu. So, yes, it is natural for the computer to use more RAM initially and then slowly trail off as the processes complete. It is worth noting that if you choose to do something right after start up, Vista also has a rule to let the user be the main controller (as well it should be) so that the RAM will be reallocated immediately to the tasks that you indicate to the system. If it bothers you though, you can either upgrade the RAM (which you are already proposing that you want to do) to give you more overhead, or you can turn of the indexing feature in Vista. Just know that if you disable that feature, the quick search function in the start menu becomes pretty much useless in my opinion.

BBGus

 

About the battery usage - there is no clear answer to that.
The simple yes it will use more power is wrong, but so is no it wont.

It depends on your user profile.

If the 2GB you have are enough for the software you use it may - but let me write about my experience.

After one instal I was missing some battery life (about 30min) and went looking for it, what I found:
Bluetooth will add about 30min (maybe more) to a 80% charge
Starting the laptop on AC and setting it to sleep will add possibly as much as 10-20min to the overal time.

Reason:
The laptop will fill all remainign RAM with its cached files.

Now: once that is done it may very well use less power - at least for me its running very well.
But you need a lot of energy to load the full cache.

i.e. if you shut down your laptop a lot on battery it may reduce battery life, if you use the standbye function a lot it can very increase your battery life.
(I haven'T evaluated hibernation - standbye is more convenient for me)