Windows 8 Super slow dell inspiron 1. Do I need more memory?

[woodyg]

I bought a bottom of the line Dell about 2 months ago. it is pretty slow. I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions. would more memory help? I am a NOOB. I think it has 4gm memory, 500g harddrive and a 2127u processor. I think it has 2 slots for memory. it has windows 8 all ideas are welcome.........go easy on me

 

[patcooke]

As you start off by saying, it is an entry level pc. The hard drive will have negligible effect on program execution times. 4gb RAM is quite respectable and more memory (if your pc is capable of using more) is not much more likely to have any effect. The two memory sslots are almost certainly in use anyway (manufacturers seem to take delight in unnecessarily consuming memslots - eg: by installing 2 x 2gb cards instead of 1 x 4gb). The component most likely for slow program run times is the processor and it is very unlikely that you can do anything about it. In short there is little which you could to make significant changes in hardware terms.

It would be worth looking at what programs and processes are running in the background and removing any which may be be consuming processor power and/or memory but investigating this route needs a fair bit of experience and care without which you could cause very serious problems and quite possibly cause your machine to become unbootable.

 

[woodyg]

Thanks for the reply. I was just about to post an update when I saw your post. This morning I pulled the cover off the laptop to check the slots. one slot was available and the other slot had a 4 GB cartridge. I went to Microcenter and purchased a crucial 8GB DDR3 memory stick. I installed it and it shoes 12 GB of memory now. It does appear to have picked up some pretty good speed. I only used it for a minute so far. This morning it would not even open up my iTunes in less then about a minute. Now it opened it right up with my browser open. it might have done the trick. I moistly use the laptop for surfing. Thanks for your input!

 

[patcooke]

I'm impressed - hope the improvements continue for you. Are you sure thet 12gb is actually being used - I suspect that model may have a limit of 8gb supported rem.

 

[woodyg]

Thanks, My next issue is that my internet explorer 10 crashes on occasion. Not sure what that is all about!

PS, My other post disappeared. I think I am being monitored as a NOOB

 

[woodyg]

I'm impressed - hope the improvements continue for you. Are you sure thet 12gb is actually being used - I suspect that model may have a limit of 8gb supported rem.

I chatted on line with Dell this morning. She used my service tag and told me that it would take up to 16gb, 2 8gb sticks. They also checked at microcenter and thought it would take 16GB also. it definitely is faster. I am not sure how to tell how much memory is being used. I went into settings-> pc info-> and could see that It is recognizing 12gb of ram? is that how you tell how much is being used?

 

[badrobot]

There is one more way to make it even more faster. Change the harddrive to SSD and keep the original one as backup. SSDs can have 100 times greater performance, almost instantaneous data accessand program load ups, quicker boot ups, faster file transfers, and an overall snappier computing experience than hard drives. HDDs can only access the data faster the closer it is from the read write heads, while all parts of the Link Removed can be accessed at once.. SSDs are cheaper these days. Get a Samsung Pro or Evo series.

http://www.diffen.com/difference/HDD_vs_SSD

 

[woodyg]

There is one more way to make it even more faster. Change the harddrive to SSD and keep the original one as backup. SSDs can have 100 times greater performance, almost instantaneous data accessand program load ups, quicker boot ups, faster file transfers, and an overall snappier computing experience than hard drives. HDDs can only access the data faster the closer it is from the read write heads, while all parts of the Link Removed can be accessed at once.. SSDs are cheaper these days. Get a Samsung Pro or Evo series.

http://www.diffen.com/difference/HDD_vs_SSD

Thanks for da info. I only paid $270 for the laptop from Microcenter. As of now it seems to be working fast enough for what I use it for. Please Keep the info coming. I am trying to build a knowledge base on this stuff. The SSD info looks interesting. I will take a better look at that link later on!. I probably could do the actual hard drive swap but I think I would struggle getting the new software back in it . I don't really understand how this stuff all goes together.

 

[patcooke]

I chatted on line with Dell this morning. She used my service tag and told me that it would take up to 16gb, 2 8gb sticks. They also checked at microcenter and thought it would take 16GB also. it definitely is faster. I am not sure how to tell how much memory is being used. I went into settings-> pc info-> and could see that It is recognizing 12gb of ram? is that how you tell how much is being used?

If it's telling you 12gb installed and (about) 12gb usable then it's recognising it and the main point is that it has had the desired effect.

 

[badrobot]

Thanks for da info. I only paid $270 for the laptop from Microcenter. As of now it seems to be working fast enough for what I use it for. Please Keep the info coming. I am trying to build a knowledge base on this stuff. The SSD info looks interesting. I will take a better look at that link later on!. I probably could do the actual hard drive swap but I think I would struggle getting the new software back in it . I don't really understand how this stuff all goes together.

Your OS and programs will be intact. You are just going to create a clone (an exact copy) of your original hard drive. That's why I mentioned that you will just keep the original as a backup so that if you run into problems, you can just clone it again. That's what I do. Cloning will be the easiest solution for you than complete reinstallation. Everyone here can help you with the cloning/migration process.

 

[woodyg]

thanks badrobot. I think I will stick with the HDD I have for now. That might be a little to much for me to bit off for now. maybe a few months down the road. I right clicked my taskbar and opened the task manager. it looks like I am using about 2.7 GB of memory out of my 12 GB when I have iTunes open and my browser. I am not sure why it is working better but it is.

 

[Jimbo22]

Thanks, My next issue is that my internet explorer 10 crashes on occasion. Not sure what that is all about!

PS, My other post disappeared. I think I am being monitored as a NOOB

I think that is my fault....I believe your post was in the mod que, I went to approve it then my cat jumped on my computer desk, which might have change the outcome of approving your post. I'm truly sorry for that if in fact that is what happened. I've asked an admin to look into and see what has happened but haven't heard back yet. Again, I'm truly sorry.
Jimbo

 

[woodyg]

I think that is my fault....I believe your post was in the mod que, I went to approve it then my cat jumped on my computer desk, which might have change the outcome of approving your post. I'm truly sorry for that if in fact that is what happened. I've asked an admin to look into and see what has happened but haven't heard back yet. Again, I'm truly sorry.
Jimbo

bassfisher, No problem. I wouldn't spend any time on it. I am just thrilled to have people helping me!!.

 

[patcooke]

Just had a further thought which is very easy to try out - as you have so much RAM you may be able to stop using a paging file. This is an area of hdd storage which can be used by the system when short of RAM. Some programs may use paging file by default unnecessarily and with so much RAM you may not need to have a paging file. I would try setting your paging file manually to 0 - at the very worst you may find some programs warn that you are low on memory in which case you can reset the paging file. I have only 6GB of RAM and have no pagefile. If you want to try it you need to go to control panel, system, advanced system settings, advanced tab, virtual memory. Click on the "change" button and select no paging file and set.

 

[woodyg]

Just had a further thought which is very easy to try out - as you have so much RAM you may be able to stop using a paging file. This is an area of hdd storage which can be used by the system when short of RAM. Some programs may use paging file by default unnecessarily and with so much RAM you may not need to have a paging file. I would try setting your paging file manually to 0 - at the very worst you may find some programs warn that you are low on memory in which case you can reset the paging file. I have only 6GB of RAM and have no pagefile. If you want to try it you need to go to control panel, system, advanced system settings, advanced tab, virtual memory. Click on the "change" button and select no paging file and set.

thanks. I went and changed it to "no Pagefile" it was set to automatic and 1800MB. I let you know if I notice any difference.

 

[Jimbo22]

If this hasn't been mentioned....defragging you HDD will help. I use Asulogics disk defrag but windows has one built it....I'd give that a shot to.

 

[ussnorway]

Just to add on to what badrobot has posted, Seagate makes what they call a sshd… basically a normal harddrive with a smaller ss (solid state) slice attached at the bottom.
A typical sshd would have 1t of normal speed drive and 6-8 g of superfast drive for about the same price as a standard hard drive from someone else. This allows the laptop to boot very fast and can also help with speeding up some other types of processes without breaking the bank.

p.s. Belarc Advisor is a deep scan program that can be downloaded for free from this link http://www.belarc.com/ba5.html?B
it is simple to learn and gives a very detailed report on exactly what hardware and software is running on the computer… even down to the serial * key for Windows, which I'm guessing you don't actually know yet.

Windows 8 and above, stores it's key inside your system now and it should be automatically detected if you ever need to reinstall the operating system. This is the main vindication that the old omc (msdm) key stickers don't come on the bottom of your laptops any more… call me cynical but I strongly recommend making a note for your own records.

* Don't ever post your key on a forum.

 

[badrobot]

SSHD (a hybrid hard drive) is good and cheaper than SSD but still doesn't match the performance of an SSD. Not a bad upgrade. But if I get myself a new laptop later on, I will go for a dual-drive upgrade.. it's a 2 physical drive (120GB SSD & 1TB HDD) hardrware in one 2.5" format.

Link Removed

 

[jcgriff2]

The 2127u processor has a low benchmark score - http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel Pentium 2127U @ 1.90GHz

I think 4 GB RAM is plenty for now & that we should take a look at what is running & what may run (installed apps) and what we can stop running (including start-up items).

Anti-virus app can be another huge factor.

I'd like to see a variety of system files.

Please run - http://www.sysnative.com/forums/bso...ctions-windows-8-1-8-7-and-windows-vista.html

Attach the output zip file(s) to your next post here.

Regards. . .

jcgriff2

 

[woodyg]

The 2127u processor has a low benchmark score - http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel Pentium 2127U @ 1.90GHz

I think 4 GB RAM is plenty for now & that we should take a look at what is running & what may run (installed apps) and what we can stop running (including start-up items).

Anti-virus app can be another huge factor.

I'd like to see a variety of system files.

Please run - http://www.sysnative.com/forums/bso...ctions-windows-8-1-8-7-and-windows-vista.html

Attach the output zip file(s) to your next post here.

Regards. . .

jcgriff2

Thanks for the ideas, This is awesome. I need to google and research just about every post here to learn what the terms, etc are. It takes me a while, so please bear with me. I will get to each post at some point. right now I went to "optimize" my HDD and I somehow ended up upgrading to windows 8.1. I hope this is a good thing? I am in the processes of defragmenting. Then I will move on to the other things. I had an idea and decided to change my plan a little. Since these things take time I thought I should see if I could get my old laptop working so I would have 2 to use at a time. the old one was working fine except when the smaller HD got full. Here are the specs. Lenovo Ideapad Y510, Intel core 2 Duo T5450 @ 1.66GHz, one key recovery, HDD(1) 30 GB, HDD(2) 188 GB, 2 GM DDR2, DVD RW, Windows Vista

I never could understand the 2 hd thing. I know it is really 1 HD that is partitioned into 2. The 30 GB HD is almost maxed out at 29 GB. The other HD is 188GB has 156 GB free. I have a lot of available HD storage but it does not work with the processor. I am not sure if I am making any sense. Anyways here is my idea. I wanted to start another thread for the Lenovo laptop and see If I could correct the duel HD issue and upgrade to maybe windows 7. I could not decide what would be the best forum to start that in or if it was possible to upgrade that to windows 8. Is windows 7 eventually going to go away or could that be around for a while? TIA