Adding additional memory to a desktop PC

angela6834

I have opened the machine up to clean inside it and found the existing memory. I am trying to shop around to get some at a reasonable price. The existing memory has the following on

Samsung Korea PC3200 U-30331-A-M368 l 3223 ETM CCC
256 MB DDR PC 3200 CL3

Is the DDR PC 3200 CL3 the memory that I would look for to be compatible with my machine?

espresso

angela6834 wrote: »

I have a Fujitsu Siemens desktop pc and it is about 4 years old. It is now running quite slow and I have completed all the usual checks, ie, antivirus, spyware, defragment disk, disk clean up etc.

I am looking to add in extra memory. Can anyone explain how this could be done to a novice please.

Below are details of my pc

Fujitsu Siemens Scaleo 600
Pentium (R) 4 CPU 3.40 GHz
3.39GHz, 512 MB of RAM

Hard disk 152 GB
139GB Free space
12.7 GB used

Is the machine okay otherwise spec wise?

Many thanks in advance

Angela

I would be more concerned why it is "running quite slow" as a 3Ghz CPU running 512Mb Ram should not really be running quite slow (assuming XP) unless you are using several memory intensive programs. What are you running when it is quite slow?

Adding more memory may well help but not if the slowness is a symptom of another problem.

angela6834

espresso wrote: »

I would be more concerned why it is "running quite slow" as a 3Ghz CPU running 512Mb Ram should not really be running quite slow (assuming XP) unless you are using several memory intensive programs. What are you running when it is quite slow?

Adding more memory may well help but not if the slowness is a symptom of another problem.

I wish I knew.....the only thing its used for is Ares ( music downloads ) I tunes and browsing the internet.....

I have AVG, spybot, Ad Aware and CCleaner installed....It has been slow for a long time...had it back to Fijitsu and they found no problems.....That was about 18 months ago. Am thinking of re formatting it, have just cleaned the inside of the CPU out and have to say it was full of dust.

Kids have downloaded all sorts over the time we've had it so though if I re formatted it at least it would be a fresh start...I also thought upping the memory help.....

Any other suggestions?

angela6834

PS Did have Norton Anti Virus on and thought I had removed it completley but can still see files....so that was another reason for re formatting

espresso

angela6834 wrote: »

I wish I knew.....the only thing its used for is Ares ( music downloads ) I tunes and browsing the internet.....

I have AVG, spybot, Ad Aware and CCleaner installed....It has been slow for a long time...had it back to Fijitsu and they found no problems.....That was about 18 months ago. Am thinking of re formatting it, have just cleaned the inside of the CPU out and have to say it was full of dust.

Kids have downloaded all sorts over the time we've had it so though if I re formatted it at least it would be a fresh start...I also thought upping the memory help.....

Any other suggestions?

It may be worth going though posts 1 - 4 in the Malware/Spyware removal guide here and if you have any problems start a new thread with possibly a HJT post to verify that your machine is clean.

espresso

angela6834 wrote: »

PS Did have Norton Anti Virus on and thought I had removed it completley but can still see files....so that was another reason for re formatting

That could be causing problems if Norton has not been completely removed. Their removal tool is available here.

angela6834

espresso wrote: »

That could be causing problems if Norton has not been completely removed. Their removal tool is available here.

I have ran that but as I say there are still files on my machine.

Think I will re format and then see how quick its running.....I have already posted HJT on here a while ago and there was nothing wrong......will try re formatting first unless you have anything you would do?

Wig

I'm not a techy person, but when my machine ran slow, I also cleaned all the dust off the cpu heatsink and all the dust inside the case. I reformatted C:\ & then reloaded Windows on C:\ drive, moving any important files from C: over to the other drives first. I then try to keep C: as uncluttered as possible - My C:\ drive is only 1.5 Gb and it rapidly fills up, I used to have as little as 100 Mb remaining on my C: drive. When ever you install a program, install it to one of the other drives. Sometimes you are not given the option, in which case lookout for an option saying "advanced user install" where it usually gives you the option to install elsewhere. Even today I am now back to only 500Mb remaining on my C: drive and that's with me being very careful about my C: drive, I recently installed MS Office and it did not give me any option, just plonked itself straight onto the C: drive I also had no option which office components to install ( I only wanted word and excel) it gave me the lot.

How much free space do you have on your C: drive?

espresso

Is it only slow when using the net? Do you have a slow internet connection?

angela6834

Wig wrote: »

I'm not a techy person, but when my machine ran slow, I also cleaned all the dust off the cpu heatsink and all the dust inside the case. I reformatted C:\ & then reloaded Windows on C:\ drive, moving any important files from C: over to the other drives first. I then try to keep C: as uncluttered as possible - My C:\ drive is only 1.5 Gb and it rapidly fills up, I used to have as little as 100 Mb remaining on my C: drive. When ever you install a program, install it to one of the other drives. Sometimes you are not given the option, in which case lookout for an option saying "advanced user install" where it usually gives you the option to install elsewhere. Even today I am now back to only 500Mb remaining on my C: drive and that's with me being very careful about my C: drive, I recently installed MS Office and it did not give me any option, just plonked itself straight onto the C: drive I also had no option which office components to install ( I only wanted word and excel) it gave me the lot.

How much free space do you have on your C: drive?

I dont have my drives partitioned. I have 152GB altogether and only 12.7 GB is used. I have 91% free space.