how do you find out how much....

postingalwaysposting

it has who the windows licence is made out to (ie my name) and then at the bottom it says - physical memory avalible to windows - 195.056kb

albertross_2

that is low for an XP machine (and especially a 1.5 year old one), what model is it? Did the shop "borrow" a stick of your ram?

postingalwaysposting

lol no i am not gready lol, its just this thing is slow and cant do much than run one window at once...

postingalwaysposting

its a hp pavilion ze4800, it was an entry level laptop when purchased at it was purchased from comet, i had to have a new one two days later as the hard drive had crashed (whatever that meant) i was then given this one (it was purchased in august 2004)

albertross_2

If you have only 192MB of ram, my guess is that's why it is slow, if you could increase it to 512MB, XP would run a lot better..

If you have a spare memory slot, you could buy one 256MB ram stick, and that would give you 448MB, which would also make a massive difference (incidentally 192 is a funny amount, it might mean that you have a 64 + 128 stick in the PC)..

When you run out of ram, the hard disk (which is much much slower than ram) is used as a substitute.. This is why insufficient ram, slows down the PC, drastically.

You will notice a massive improvement with a bit more ram.

postingalwaysposting

how do you go about buying/installing new ram? can you just take it into say pc world and they will fit it? does it cost much? sorry i am not very good at these kinds of things

albertross_2

I don't know the model, but usually there is a flap with a screw, on the bottom of the laptop (sometimes under the keyboard).

If you can have a look, switch the laptop off, undo the screw, and see if there is a spare slot available under the cover.

The ram sticks are about 1.5cm by 5cm.

I'll see if I can find some prices for you..

I'm sure PC world would be only too happy to sell you some, but you can probably get it much cheaper elsewhere, and fit it yourself..

albertross_2

http://www.orcalogic.co.uk/asp/Compaq___Hewlett_Packard__HP__Pavilion_Notebook_ze4800_Memory-6976-m-1.htm

extra 256mb = £25

Even cheaper here:

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/listparts.asp?Mfr%2BProductline=HP+-+Compaq%2BPavilion+Notebooks&mfr=HP+-+Compaq&tabid=AM&model=Pavilion+ze4800+Series&submit=Go

There is a scanner tool here, which should confirm what memory you have already, and identify if your slots are full.

http://www.crucial.com/uk/systemscanner/

There is a step by step guide on how to do it here:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?man_lang=en&dlc=en&lc=en&product=430081&cc=us&docname=c00035793

One thing to be careful of.. the ram can be damaged by static electricity, so if you do it yourself, don't walk up and down the carpet with the ram in your hand, sit down at a table and do it. it really is as easy as changing a fuse in a plug, it just slots in.

postingalwaysposting

right, sorry it took so long to get back on, that shows how slow i am lol

it has two slots, one has a small chip in (the size you said) and the one below that is empty

if i brought one from the site above how do you install it?

albertross_2

See the step by step guide in my last post, for a fuller description..

Basically, you just slide it into the slots at a 45 degree angle, then push it down flat, and it will click in, screw up the flap, and switch on. It's worth a try if you've got £20 spare.., it may breath new life into your laptop.