Clean Up or Buy New PC?

[tw]

Originally Posted by Juniper

Crucial.com says to put in two 1GB memory cards. Bingo.

Crucial confirms a 256 and and 512 combination is legal? Again, my experience with eMachine. Whereas more responsible computer manufacturers permitted using different size memories, sometimes the 'cost controlled' BIOSes and chipsets only permitted matched memories.

Sometimes is gets worse. Some 'lesser designed' machines would only permit Simms with eight chips on it - not the same size memory Simms that only used two chips.

Every memory has a serial port that describes its hardware to the BIOS. Whereas there may be five almost identical memory Simms of same bit size and configuration, some crappier machines will only permit using one or two of otherwise identical memories. A good memory scanner will know this.

Well, if those numbers are from the crucial scanner (or something equivalent), then it says the 512mb memory is being used as 512; not as 256; and not being completely ignored. It says the BIOS does permit unmatched memory combinations. Task Manager could confirm that Windows agrees.

Moving on - if I read your description correctly of how graphics were loading in IE and Firefox, then this computer has some other problem. Task Manger being a first place to look for that reason for slowness.

Also relevant are error messages in system (event) logs and from Device manager. I don't remember if you posted them before.

Also may be relevant are setting in the BIOS involving wait states and other hardware configuration issues. Best is to first record all relevant values. Then find an option to reset all values to a default settings. Then reboot.

Task Manager still contains some of the most important facts. What processes are consuming maximum CPU time or CPU percentage. As standard in Windows, click on that column to order it, then see what is consuming so much time. Repeat for Memory Delta. What process is consuming too much resources or have become a bottleneck?

Also helpful is to list each topmost processes by exact name. Again, exact names will typically mean nothing to you - and everything to me.