Ive upped my RAM..

[ian turner]

With a 160gb harddrive I'm betting it's XP.
Right clicking computer and selecting properties in Vista still gets you the system screen listing the same data as XP including processor so no need for any extra software.
Plus installing a 64 bit OS and having to source suitable drivers for all the hardware is probably a bit heavy going for this user and if the max this PC can take is 4GB then of limited use.
Just stick with the extra GB being of limited use and thats enough.
Aside from which we have no proof that they are currently making full use of the 3GB (firefox memory leaks aside) which might also make the extra 1 GB irrelevant (don't mention furture proofing, the only sure fire future proofing is taking into account depreciation of the value of the PC and putting that money in a savings account so you can replace it when its a piece of junk)

 

[HJ]

It's both. You need 64 bit hardware in order to run a 64 bit OS that will be able to allocate to the memory. But you might be unlucky enough to be running a 32 bit OS on 64 bit hardware - if for example you downloaded the wrong Linux ISO for your processor.

Most modern processor (i.e. produced within the last 5 years) are 64 bit, Intel might have sneered at AMD with they first started doing it, but Intel quickly and quietly started to do the same. Macs might be more problematic...

 

[yenrod]

Here:

 

[Carwash]

Macs might be more problematic...

On the contrary, they are dead easy.

 

[ian turner]

Its a Notebook ?!!!
You bought an extra 2GB ram to replace the original 1GB !!
Its worse than I thought.
As it says on the crucial page for that pc the max amount of RAM with a 32 bit OS could be between 3 and 3.5 gb unless you use a 64 bit OS. Except that the max for that machine is 4Gb anyway so 3, 3.5 if very lucky but more likely 3.2
Is that with the 4gb of ram in or just 3gb ?

 

[hackbike 666]

This computer has 4GB RAM of which it is showing 3.37GB in Windows.

Bought off of creative.

Funny my machine name is Zen but im thinking of renaming it scrapheap challenge as it has problems and tends to freeze.

I think the drives are too hot.

http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/SpeedFan-Download-4103.html

This program Speed Fan is free and it tells you info and also how hot your drives are as well as their health.

Im going to stop using racks except for a hot swap as these get too hot and cause problems.

 

[twowheelsgood]

Depends mainly on how much your graphics card memory takes out of the 4GB limit. Even a modest card is 512mb these days.

I personally don't notice much difference over 1.5gb in XP and 3gb in Vista.

It's usually only specialized applications or rather a extreme uses of things like photoshop that use get near to 4gb.

I usually configure a ramdisk if I have a load of memory. It's actually pretty much essential for a netbook with a slow SSD

 

[dan_bo]

Really? Jeezuz.

 

[hackbike 666]

http://www.hddstatus.com/hdrepanalysis.php

Im trying to do something about the Hard Drive racks in my system and I found this interesting analysis from Speedfan which tells me about my boot drive.

 

[yenrod]

Depends mainly on how much your graphics card memory takes out of the 4GB limit. Even a modest card is 512mb these days.

I personally don't notice much difference over 1.5gb in XP and 3gb in Vista.

It's usually only specialized applications or rather a extreme uses of things like photoshop that use get near to 4gb.

I usually configure a ramdisk if I have a load of memory. It's actually pretty much essential for a netbook with a slow SSD

I'd go with that ! Adobe's massive on system usage...hate it !

 

[hackbike 666]

Actually I think i've found the problem.That disk is in a bad shape.

Probably explains why the system freezes occasionally.

This is what speedfan does.I also have another prog that tells me basically the same.

 

[willhub]

What app is used to check the HDD like that?

 

[peanut]

yeah givus a linky

 

[HJ]

On the contrary, they are dead easy.

Somehow I knew you would come up with something like that...

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Yep ian is right, I have 4gigs of ram with a 32 bit system, typically it uses 2.8-9 gigs, its still very quick at that though, at some point I am going to put 64 bit on it. It was just silly me brought a new computer and chucked in the ubuntu disk I had in my disc bag without checking it and shortly after installation realising what I had done.

I now have Ubuntu running on all 64 cylinders, upgraded last night, not much difference, just a bit quicker, its now using 3.7 gigs instead of 2.8 gigs. The only problem I had was the loss of the other two users, it kept my account, data and settings, but not the others, I had to create new accounts and restore from backups.