Question.....

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I_B_Bangin

habitual line stepper
Aug 6, 2000
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My sister in law's computer is a dinosaur. She didn't like the fact that it was taking so long to load up, so i told her I would look at it and see what could be done. Here is what I was faced with! :D LOL!

oldschool.jpg


Anyway, I ordered 128MB of RAM from crucial and put it in tonight. the improvement was amazing. It went from a 6 minute and 20 second start up time, to 3 minutes and 45 seconds. Various windows opened faster. Word for example went from 15 seconds to 9 seconds and multiple windows were able to be opened without too much slowdown.

Here is my question. I monitored the system recources throughout the process of bench marking load times and the percentage of available system recources actually was lower after adding the RAM.

(Before = 32MB RAM ; After = 160MB RAM)

System recources at startup:
Before - 77%
After - 64%

/w MS Word open:
Before - 74%
After - 61%

/w MS Word & IE open
Before - 68%
After - 57%

Now I totally expected the sytem recource percentage to increase on the "After" benchmark. Any theories as to why they would decrease?
 

ViperXL

Great Car
Dec 9, 1999
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the reason there is less of a percentage of ram might be (in other words, the only logical thing so it's probably wrong;)) that Windows sees that it has more RAM to deal with so it uses it instead of the Virtual RAM it was using before, and since your using Win98 (not very good at managing RAM) this sort of thing could probably be the case.

gl with helping her btw.
 
Feb 4, 2000
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Originally posted by I_B_Bangin

Anyway, I ordered 128MB of RAM from crucial and put it in tonight. the improvement was amazing. It went from a 6 minute and 20 second start up time, to 3 minutes and 45 seconds. Various windows opened faster. Word for example went from 15 seconds to 9 seconds and multiple windows were able to be opened without too much slowdown.

Here is my question. I monitored the system recources throughout the process of bench marking load times and the percentage of available system recources actually was lower after adding the RAM.

(Before = 32MB RAM ; After = 160MB RAM)

System recources at startup:
Before - 77%
After - 64%

/w MS Word open:
Before - 74%
After - 61%

/w MS Word & IE open
Before - 68%
After - 57%

Now I totally expected the sytem recource percentage to increase on the "After" benchmark. Any theories as to why they would decrease?

Tell me more, Baby. Don't stop ;)
 

hyrulian

Rainbow Brite
May 20, 2001
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hyru.ath.cx
System Resources have nothing to do with the amount of RAM in your computer.

Systems running Windows 3.1 and Windows 9x/ME have a limited amount of resources called User Resources (things like buttons) and GDI (Graphical Device Interface) Resources (things like pictures). The more programs you run, the more of these resources are used. Once these are all used up, whether or not there is more RAM available, you cannot start any more programs. Adding RAM will not remove this limitation.

Systems running Windows NT/2k/XP, however, don't have this system resource limitation.
 

I_B_Bangin

habitual line stepper
Aug 6, 2000
3,427
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I am confused again. Why is it that the same functions before and after adding RAM showed different percentages? If what you say is true, shouldn't the percentage numbers have stayed exactly the same, since I was performing the exact same functions in the exact same order?

Thanks
 

BillyBadAss

Strong Cock of The North
May 25, 1999
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Windows eats up RAM as it sees fit. By adding more RAM it will take more for itself. Think of windows as a fat little boy. You keeping adding candy to devide up amongst the children,(running apps) but the little fat **** keeps taking more of the candy.:p
 

[UM]theswarm

Spork of the Apocalypse!
Sep 30, 2001
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here's an idea: scrap the 350mhz processer.:p you might get some faster boots, etc with a 933.:rolleyes: i know a person that has a 200mhz p2, 56k AOL, Win98, god knows what other forms of suckiness.;) the guy's getting a new comp w/2ghz for crihstmas, so he might actually be able to use it.:D
 

I_B_Bangin

habitual line stepper
Aug 6, 2000
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Boston, MA
Well making a major upgrade isn't an option for her. I figured giving it some RAM would be the most cost effective way to improve performance on the system. The way it is running now, she will feel like it's a brand new computer. Of course I would lose my mind if I had to use it, because I am used to using a much better comp. LOL!