Andrew, with low ram your system is "paging."
The microsoft virtual memory scheme in Windows (of all recent flavours) likes to work with real RAM at about 4Gb or more. Anything much less than this and it will automatically page out (what it thinks are) lightly used applications to a hard disk buffer.
The advantage of this architecture is that windows can never run out of memory, just slow down enormously as more and more stuff is copied out to and back from hard disk.
Added to this is the constant attempt to upgrade windows and other apps via the internet. This is also fully automatic and can especially be troublesome after a new OS install or upgrade. There are always bug fixes and upgrades to any version of windows.
This process is fully automatic though "tweakers" can fiddle with the parameters if they want to.
My recommendations for new PC builds are as follows:
1) 4Gb RAM minimum
2) Use pairs of matched DIMS if possible to allow for interleaving (= a bit faster)
3) After installing Windows, leave it alone for as long as possible with an Internet connection. 24 hours is ideal.
4) 8Gb is desired for a 64bit OS (32 bit will only address 3.5Gb) and will cope with all reasonable situations with paging.
I use 16Gb and NEVER see HD access paging, but can provoke it by opening up a couple of very large JPEG photos in Photoshop and editing them. Photoshop has to keep running copies of all edits so they can be "undone". If this involves HD paging the PC, no matter how fast, runs in treacle.
A very worthwhile upgrade is using a SSD for the OS. A 64Gb SSD used exclusively as Drive C:, the OS drive is now reasonably priced.
All system operations will then run at near RAM speed. Leave the mechanical HDs for the data.
I still use Windows7 professional. I skipped W8x as I could not see the point.
Likewise I will not upgrade to W10 until I am force to.
The microsoft virtual memory scheme in Windows (of all recent flavours) likes to work with real RAM at about 4Gb or more. Anything much less than this and it will automatically page out (what it thinks are) lightly used applications to a hard disk buffer.
The advantage of this architecture is that windows can never run out of memory, just slow down enormously as more and more stuff is copied out to and back from hard disk.
Added to this is the constant attempt to upgrade windows and other apps via the internet. This is also fully automatic and can especially be troublesome after a new OS install or upgrade. There are always bug fixes and upgrades to any version of windows.
This process is fully automatic though "tweakers" can fiddle with the parameters if they want to.
My recommendations for new PC builds are as follows:
1) 4Gb RAM minimum
2) Use pairs of matched DIMS if possible to allow for interleaving (= a bit faster)
3) After installing Windows, leave it alone for as long as possible with an Internet connection. 24 hours is ideal.
4) 8Gb is desired for a 64bit OS (32 bit will only address 3.5Gb) and will cope with all reasonable situations with paging.
I use 16Gb and NEVER see HD access paging, but can provoke it by opening up a couple of very large JPEG photos in Photoshop and editing them. Photoshop has to keep running copies of all edits so they can be "undone". If this involves HD paging the PC, no matter how fast, runs in treacle.
A very worthwhile upgrade is using a SSD for the OS. A 64Gb SSD used exclusively as Drive C:, the OS drive is now reasonably priced.
All system operations will then run at near RAM speed. Leave the mechanical HDs for the data.
I still use Windows7 professional. I skipped W8x as I could not see the point.
Likewise I will not upgrade to W10 until I am force to.
What motherboard are you using? http://m.wikihow.com/Find-Out-the-Maximum-RAM-Capacity-for-Your-Computer
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Andrew,
From the summary you provided, this is your board:
ECS > G41T-M7 (V1.0)
At the lower portion of the page there are tabs with technical information. The one named "Specification" says:
2 x 240-pin DDR3 DIMM socket support up to 8 GB
The one named "Memory" lists several modules, none large than 4GB. Even though the use of memory modules in pairs is not a DDRx architecture limitation, it is a cost-saving design decision adopted by some manufacturers. You need to exchange the memory you bought, if possible, for a pair of 4GB modules with the correct CAS Latency values. If you need assistance deciding, every major manufacturer has a memory configuration feature on its web site.
Keep in mind that, to make use of the 8GB of RAM, you must use a 64bit version of the OS.
From the summary you provided, this is your board:
ECS > G41T-M7 (V1.0)
At the lower portion of the page there are tabs with technical information. The one named "Specification" says:
2 x 240-pin DDR3 DIMM socket support up to 8 GB
The one named "Memory" lists several modules, none large than 4GB. Even though the use of memory modules in pairs is not a DDRx architecture limitation, it is a cost-saving design decision adopted by some manufacturers. You need to exchange the memory you bought, if possible, for a pair of 4GB modules with the correct CAS Latency values. If you need assistance deciding, every major manufacturer has a memory configuration feature on its web site.
Keep in mind that, to make use of the 8GB of RAM, you must use a 64bit version of the OS.
Thanks for that info.
I have the new motherboard that will suit the two 8GB memory cards.
I was hoping to sort this older PC with the extra memory. But that will wait a little longer.
I'll get the new motherboard and the big memory built up in the next few days.
and install win7 from the dvd and update with the MS website.
I have the new motherboard that will suit the two 8GB memory cards.
I was hoping to sort this older PC with the extra memory. But that will wait a little longer.
I'll get the new motherboard and the big memory built up in the next few days.
and install win7 from the dvd and update with the MS website.
Andrew, % of memory usage is not a useful indicator to guage wheather memory is sufficient. The hard page fault rate indicator is the correct one. In my view, 4GB should be suciffient for normal use. You can monitor the page fault rate from the Resource Monitor.
Also, It could be your hard disk is badly fragmented hence incurring excessive disk access, although frequently defrag your hard disk will help, but if you were to add a 256GB SSD (solid state harddisk) to replace your C: drive, your system will fly.
ref https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc958290.aspx
Also, It could be your hard disk is badly fragmented hence incurring excessive disk access, although frequently defrag your hard disk will help, but if you were to add a 256GB SSD (solid state harddisk) to replace your C: drive, your system will fly.
ref https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc958290.aspx
my HDD is usually defragged by AVG.
Yesterday it was defragged with Mydefrag.
Yet today I have seen a few occasions of continuous HDD light on and one "not responding" and a couple of very slow periods.
Defrag is not the problem.
I'll have a look at hard page info. If need be I'll post it in my previous Thread on slow PC.
Yesterday it was defragged with Mydefrag.
Yet today I have seen a few occasions of continuous HDD light on and one "not responding" and a couple of very slow periods.
Defrag is not the problem.
I'll have a look at hard page info. If need be I'll post it in my previous Thread on slow PC.
If you are planning to keep Windows 7 for a while, make sure to prevent the update identified as KB 3035583, the Windows 10 upgrade notification. Uncheck the box, right-click on that line and select "Hide update".
Any time you see the HD light on solid, that's very likely to mean it's "paging" or what the unix/linux types call, "thrashing". When it gets to paging stuff out that it really needs, and can't quite get enough back in to do anything.. . That's when more RAM really helps, and you need a 64-bit OS in order to handle more than 4 gigs.
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