Too /low/ RAM usage and programs randomly turning themself on and off?

First, I recently replaced one of my 512mb RAM drives with 2gb giving me 2.5. However, I've never seen it go above 1.5. I know Vista should be hogging it - and I'm wondering why the remaining 1gb is never used...Seems like a waste.

Second, some programs like Aero or Switcher (expose thing for Windows) randomly turn themselves on and off. Like sometimes I will have a nice glassy/Aero display and I take a shower, come back and it looks like Vista Basic.

It's like as if though some program is turning them off for the sake of saving RAM when I have plenty to begin with...plus Superfetch often crashes too.

 

Rofl.........

Your choice of words needs to be fixed. If you took out a 512MB and put in 2GB, you're only supposed to have 2GB max.

It's like this: Bob has 1 apple. Bob gives me the apple and I give him 2 oranges. Bob does not have 2 oranges + 1 apple, he has only 2 oranges. I for one, am chewing on the apple.

And where have you "seen" it not go above 1.5GB?

 

Alright guys, lets be serious here.

What kind of laptop do you have? What are its specs?

edit: this is an old thread, why was it revived???

 

If bob has 2 apples(2x512MB), and changes one of them apples to a big friggin apple(2GB) then bob has 1 big frigging apple and a normal apple(2GB+512MB).

If i can read his post clearly. He said he changed "one of my 512MB RAM drives" like he would have atleast 2x512MB and not one

 

Yeah, I know what you mean it was just confusing to read X_X.

 

I can certainly agree on that, hehe

 

I am not sure the OP is still even around, but Aero is more based on your GPU rather than your RAM.

 

Before you ridicule someone else, you might want to rethink doing word problems in public. He said he replaced "ONE of my 512mb" thereby implying there was more than one such module. Last time I checked by calculator, one 512mb stick plus one 2 gb stick equals... wait for it... 2.5 gb, just like the original poster said.

Gary

 

Yep, agree with you here...i don't understand why the unnecessary thread resuscitation plus ridicule is necessary.

 

Ok, Vista should be using all the ram but it will not show it on the flashy graph in Task Manager. In task manager look under performance, below the graphs is a "Physical Memory" box with 3 lines. The last line shows how much of your ram is not being used. As I write this I have 70MB free of my 4GB but the graph above only shows 2.5GB in use.

As for Aero etc switching off, some programs will switch it off if they cannot work with it. The big offender on my laptop is PowerDVD 7.