A friend has an old PC that's annoyingly slow. I had a look and think the main problem's its RAM - 800K.
Is there any way to interrogate it to see if it's got a second slot for additional RAM, or will I have to open it first? They're not too keen on me opening it to have a look, but seem quite happy for me to do so to add a card.
|
|
If it's running Windows, you could try www.sisoftware.net/ (SiSoft Sandra lite) if the PCs up to it. If it is, it will tell you.
Last edited by: Focus on Thu 5 Jan 12 at 20:51
|
800k of ram? thats a strange number, is that total ram? 800 is not a valid total, 768 or 1024 is.
Anyway, if it has 800k of ram, its very very old, 386 cpu possibly, fit only for landfill.
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 5 Jan 12 at 20:57
|
No doubt "fit only for landfill" is another of your colourful phrases, Z. :-))
Under WEEE it will be on its way to be dismantled in Asia, presumably, if discarded.
But certainly not worth spending anything on, I'd have thought. Get rid.
Last edited by: FocalPoint on Thu 5 Jan 12 at 21:11
|
We had a great phrase for old kit in the IT game,
Its a Boat Anchor
|
Crucial will tell you what the machine is capable of handling, download the tool and it'll tell you what's fitted in the machine:-
www.crucial.com/uk/
Their RAM prices are also pretty good in the unlikely event it's worth upgrading, memory for systems with older types of memory can get expensive.
|
>>800k of ram? thats a strange number, is that total ram? 800 is not a valid total, 768 or 1024 is>>
Perhaps its 1024MB with shared graphics so reports 800MB.
CPU-Z is a great utillity for repoting all aspects of a PC's spec.
www.cpuid.com
|
>> >>800k of ram? thats a strange number, is that total ram? 800 is not a
>> valid total, 768 or 1024 is>>
>>
>> Perhaps its 1024MB with shared graphics so reports 800MB.
Except 224 is also an invalid number for graphics memory.
|
Maybe it's 800MHz CPU, perhaps of 1998-1999 vintage or thereabouts.
In which case it will have a motherboard running 100-133MHz.
www.mrmemory.co.uk/StandardMemory/details.asp
That's perhaps the stuff he needs.
Prior to landfilling.
|
I chucked out some old PC100 and PC133 memory just before Christmas.
|
How old is this PC? If its post 2002 then a bi of RAM may help but usually with PCs this age there are other problems too like failing hard drives and leaking capacitors.
Make great door stoppers though.
|
Thanks everyone for the info.
The friends are over 100 miles away and I don't see them that often.
I'll pass on the recommendations and let them decide what action to take. I'll do what I can next time I'm there.
|
>> Crucial will tell you what the machine is capable of handling, download the tool and it'll tell you what's
>> fitted in the machine:-
>> www.crucial.com/uk/
I get these results:
Memory Type: DDR PC2700, DDR PC3200, DDR (non-ECC)
Maximum Memory: 2048MB
Currently Installed Memory: 768MB
Means very little to me, but £48.99 (the top result) is more than I'm prepared to spend. This one's probably got another couple of years left in it as it stands :)
|
|
768MB RAM is perfectly adequate for Windows XP assuming that's what it's running. I'd download Ccleaner www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download and Defraggler www.piriform.com/defraggler - both free. Uninstall any unused programmes plus the three antivirus to leave only one and six free toolbars running in Internet Explorer (possibly!!) then do a Ccleaner cleanup and then defragment the hard disk with Defraggler. This may be all that's needed to speed up the PC.
Last edited by: Victorbox on Sat 7 Jan 12 at 22:49
|
>>
>> Means very little to me, but £48.99 (the top result) is more than I'm prepared
>> to spend. This one's probably got another couple of years left in it as it
>> stands :)
>>
Same situation as Spamcan Junior's PC and my 'scrapheap challenge' one, they use DDR memory which is no longer easily & cheaply available, as it hasn't been used in mainstream PCs for 6 years or so. I wouldn't see 768M with XP as a problem for 'normal' use. DDR was superceded by DDR2, which in turn has been superceded by DDR3 over the last couple of years. 4GB of DDR3 will cost maybe 20 quid!
|
DDR1 RAM is currently about £8 for a 512MB module and about £17 for a 1GB module. If you know where to go it can be very cheap.
It is not always the best quality stuff, but if its just to make the PC last a year longer or so it doesn't matter.
768MB RAM is ok if the system is well tuned but would drive me mad. I have 16GB on my system.
|
Serious question Rattle... for general use do you notice the benefit of 16Gb over 8Gb for general use? I assume on this system it's Windows 7 64bit?
I know I could make use of 16Gb RAM in VMware on my laptop or my iMac. The max for both is sadly only 8Gb. But I can split VMs between the two.
|
It makes hardly any different really but I only have an I3 2100 and no SSD but I did notice a dramatic difference when I upgraded from 4 to 8GB. I use VMware a lot to play with Linux distros which was why I decided to stick another 8GB in it.
And yes its Windows 7 64-bit :).
|
Improving an old PC - Focusless
