Computer low on memory? how to fix?

buglawton

When I moved from Windows 7 to 10 on a laptop with 4GB ram, everything seemed fine except for Firefox where Windows would give a memory warning with only a few Firefox tabs open. The warning could be clicked away but was a nuisance. I did a few tweaks in the Windows memory settings as well as adjusting the performance/advanced settings, seemed to fix it. When I turn that laptop on again I'll try to find out what I did & post it.

NiftyDigits

My recommendation is a little more radical. But before you read on, there seems to me a discrepancy with your figures.

in use 1.4GB avail 429MB

Let's have a look at some screenshots from your Task Manager.

Something like this:



It might be that there is a setting restricting the use of RAM or you might have a faulty RAM module.

So the first thing that I would like you to try is to follow this guide Making sure that the figure there is at least 4096.

Radical solution:

Swap the HDD for an SSD and run a clean install to the SSD of either Windows 7, 8.1 or Windows 10. You have the choice of all without having to purchase a new licence.
For a cost of £30 to £35, you'll wonder why it wasn't done in the first instance. Your laptop will be a pleasure instead of a pain.
SSD installation will take you around fifteen minutes. Easily done by yourself. You will place your old HDD in a caddy costing £3 or so, which turns it into a portable hard drive, with all of your existing data intact.
If you decide to go ahead, I'll guide you through each stage.
This is my recommendation to fixing the issue once and for all...

This Toshiba 120GB Q300 2.5" 15nm SATA 6Gb/s SSD for £30.96 is a good starting point.

psychic_teabag

blackcloud wrote: »

It use to be so much faster.

That does suggest it's a software thing. (malware / too many programs autostarting / browser configured with too much cache / etc)

I find it staggering how much memory modern systems seem to need.

techno12

Indeed.

When I boot up my PC (Windows 10 x64) and open Chrome with my usual tabs re-enabled the system uses over 4GB.

I've had a few catastrophic crashes this past few weeks (both screens freeze and have to power the PC off at the wall) and have just realised that 16GB isn't enough for me.

Even though I'm typically using 8.5GB or so (coding/developing as well as all those Chrome tabs) the system is 'committing' over 16GB and the killer crash will shortly follow. My boot SSD has next to no free space so my pagefile is set to a minimal value, which I guess is what's causing the crash.

Just ordered another 16GB - 32 should be enough (till next time ;-)

Johnmcl7

psychic_teabag wrote: »

That does suggest it's a software thing. (malware / too many programs autostarting / browser configured with too much cache / etc)

I find it staggering how much memory modern systems seem to need.

I find the opposite, Windows 7 is better on memory than Vista was and Windows 8 is better again. My general systems run fine on 4GB ram and my main desktop is 'only' running on 8GB ram, even with all 12 threads on the CPU running full pelt with simultaneous video renders, image exports and a couple of browsers I've yet to see it run out of memory - I'd planned to initially upgrade it to 16GB and monitored the memory but found it doesn't need it. Even a little Win8 tablet manages fine on its 2GB memory something Vista struggled to do.

I'm not saying no-one needs more ram as there's certainly uses that do but in general, memory requirements are lower and if someone is running out of memory when they've a decent amount installed and there's nothing intensive they're using, it suggests something is wrong.

John

blackcloud

Thanks for the replies.

I really dont know anything about computers at all and even though I thank you for the suggestions it meant no sense to me at all due to my not knowing anything about computers? I dont even know what SSD or HDD means?

I really want to do something as more than 3 webpages the laptop just shuts down, I mean its almost a brand new and a modern Lap top. COst me around £400!

Its a

Acer TravelMate B113 Black - Core i3-3227U (1.9GHz/3MB) 4GB DDR3 320GB 11.6" HD LED Win8HP 64Bit NO-OD Intel UMA Graphics webcam BT 4.0 3xUSB 2.0 1YR
3 Year Total Warranty Extension for Laptops for SKU:

Notebook

NiftyDigits

blackcloud wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

I really dont know anything about computers at all and even though I thank you for the suggestions it meant no sense to me at all due to my not knowing anything about computers? I dont even know what SSD or HDD means?

I really want to do something as more than 3 webpages the laptop just shuts down, I mean its almost a brand new and a modern Lap top. COst me around £400!

Its a

Acer TravelMate B113 Black - Core i3-3227U (1.9GHz/3MB) 4GB DDR3 320GB 11.6" HD LED Win8HP 64Bit NO-OD Intel UMA Graphics webcam BT 4.0 3xUSB 2.0 1YR
3 Year Total Warranty Extension for Laptops for SKU:

Notebook

If you cannot follow simple instructions, how can you expect us to help you? As if by magic?
I've provided links in my post. Click through them and follow the instructions within.
Is it still under warranty?

buglawton

There are some good techies that do laptop repair from a town centre stall. So long as the problem can be quickly and clearly demonstrated, they'd be able to fix it. You mentioned a 3 year warranty but sending it away may result in it being returned no different.

Strider590

If your running iTunes, disable it at startup.

This POS on my GFs new laptop, took the startup time from under 30s, to over 2 minutes, it steals bandwidth and it's a huge resource hog.

I think Apples software people do it deliberately, because on a MAC it doesn't slow anything down at all.