Re: Win10 low RAM

On Sat, 6 Nov 2021 06:08:15 -0500, philo <[email protected]> wrote:

>On 11/5/21 6:22 PM, Paul wrote:
>> On 11/5/2021 4:13 PM, philo wrote:
>>> I have a friend with an almost unusable laptop running Win10 64 bit. 
>>> The machine cannot accept more than 4 gigs of RAM.
>>>
>>>
>>>  From my experimenting  with other low end machines, I've found that 3 
>>> megs of RAM and Win10 32 bit gives much better performance than 
>>> Win10_64 and 4 gigs of RAM>
>>>
>>> I've been thinking of reloading the OS, but wonder if I'd be better 
>>> off just cloning to a SSD?
>>>
>>>
>>> Yes, they will get a new machine one of these days bit for now, their 
>>> smartphone is sufficient.
>>>
>> 
>> Reload the OS.
>> 
>> That's not normal.
>> 
>> It is Windows 11 that needs the RAM. And a ton of other things.
>> 
>> Windows 10, the kernel needs 256-350MB of RAM, as rough numbers.
>> When operated with 1GB of RAM, the "hard faults" should stop
>> happening in the performance monitor. There's no need to
>> do memory compression, when 1GB is installed.
>> 
>> There must be something else loaded, to upset it like that.
>> 
>> The next thing to check, is Windows Update. Like most modern Windows
>> OSes, the two Windows Update services are a pig, and can drive
>> RAM usage into the stratosphere. If the Windows Update is broken
>> and behind, the machine can be working up a big sweat for nothing.
>> 
>> That's why I suggest a reload, with whatever you want, 32 or 64.
>> Just be careful that you match the user apps properly. For example,
>> a renter of Adobe software needs 64-bit, because Adobe only
>> supports 64-bit. Someone running 16-bit games, might need the
>> 32-bit OS version for that.
>> 
>> And check the Crucial.com page for max RAM, and see what they
>> recommend.
>> 
>> Any time an OS and programs have a problem, if the thing is
>> running out of RAM, ordering more RAM won't fix it. Like,
>> for a "leak". If you put 256GB of RAM in it, that just
>> increases the time before it crashes on low memory.
>> 
>> If a machine is properly behaved, adding RAM allows more
>> programs to be open. And the amount of RAM you have,
>> should support quite a number of programs. Right now,
>> Firefox and Seamonkey are not well behaved, but an update
>> to Firefox may change that (the tab-unloader is back as
>> a concept, something they've been working on for two years).
>> 
>>     Paul
>
>
>
>The machine is used for Facebook, Gmail and backing up/viewing photos 
>taken on her phone.
>Nothing else really. For the most part it's simply that I need a project.


People have different ideas about software   "upgrades"  "updates"  
  < the reason you're running Win 10 >
I'm happily milking the final years from a  T500  <P8400> that
does all the usual stuff  with nary a hiccup.
  :  Win 8.1 Pro
  :  I added SSD and upped ram to  6mb
  :  good internet connection & good older router  
 I set  NO  to all auto-updates on all software ;  I decline all
update requests  pop-ups ;  I clear the browser cache  ~  daily 
 and if I've done some serious  shopping ; and before & after banking.
  In contrast - my wife's   Win 7  Dell Vostro  <2328M> became  
~ unusable   from  software bloat  and we replaced it last year.   

  I've learned to leave-well-enough-alone  for updating software  -
  ie  if it ain't broke  ..   My last update of Firefox seemed to get
me a poor version and I lost bookmarks = PITA !  but my last update of
Open Office   was a treat  !!   the newer version was faster and bug
free.  < both of these were a couple years ago >
   John T.