|
Welcome to the International Skeptics Forum, where we discuss skepticism, critical thinking, the paranormal and science in a friendly but lively way. You are currently viewing the forum as a guest, which means you are missing out on discussing matters that are of interest to you. Please consider registering so you can gain full use of the forum features and interact with other Members. Registration is simple, fast and free! Click here to register today. |
![]() |
#1 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Adirondacks, NY - with Magrat!
Posts: 8,590
|
Laptop RAM question
Hi guys,
Recently there as a major Windows 10 upgrade on my laptop- plus a new version of Edge. Also a Winzip addition that helpful guys here helped me to disable! Here's what my laptop says about itself: Lenovo V310-141SK Intel Core i3-6100U CPU 2.30 GHz 6.00 GB RAM (5.73 GB usable) Prior to the W10 upgrade I had been having occasional 'freezes', where the machine stops, and I have to reboot. Typically, for instance, when I have several large excel spreadsheets open at the same time. However, since the upgrade this is happening several times a day, so I'm assuming (a WAG, of course) that Billy Gates' stuff is taking up so much of the RAM that there's not really enough for me to play with. My question is - is it likely to be feasible to replace the 6 GB Ram with 8, for instance, or maybe add another 6? Thanking you in anticipation... |
__________________
![]() ![]() |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#2 |
Illuminator
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Dundee
Posts: 3,256
|
In general, yes, absolutely.
This page suggests that you can go up to a max of 12GB. Sometimes this is an easy task, sometimes less so. Never done a Lenovo so I'm not sure what their hardware setup is like. |
__________________
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent" Isaac Asimov Not all cults are bad - I've joined a cult of niceness ![]() |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#3 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Adirondacks, NY - with Magrat!
Posts: 8,590
|
|
__________________
![]() ![]() |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#4 |
Illuminator
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Dundee
Posts: 3,256
|
I would have thought 6GB should be plenty, but as hardware gets older, it can start to creak. It may be worth checking if you need driver updates as that can often make a difference.
|
__________________
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent" Isaac Asimov Not all cults are bad - I've joined a cult of niceness ![]() |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#5 |
Ewige Blumenkraft
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Ivory Tower
Posts: 19,107
|
I have four 2007 Lenovo computers, a desktop on which I'm writing right now and three Laptops. The Desktop has 6 GB of RAM, the Laptops have 4 and two-times 3 (all at maximum). The Desktop now uses 3.2 GB of RAM with a ton of browser tabs open and after more than six days uptime. The Laptops all run fine without problems. On Linux, of course.
|
__________________
If they want the pandemic to end, they just have to stop testing. Then people will die of the flu again, like they did before - Wolfgang Wodarg |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#6 |
Lackey
Administrator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: South East, UK
Posts: 97,914
|
|
__________________
I wish I knew how to quit you |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#7 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Hong Kong
Posts: 50,700
|
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#8 |
Master Poster
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 2,483
|
https://www.crucial.com/compatible-u...0-14isk#memory
Looks like you could replace it with a 16 GB stick and take it to 20. Sadly, it's not an easy upgrade, as the RAM does require opening it completely up, but, hey, gives you a chance to clean it out. There is only one replaceable slot, with 4GB built into it. I'm not totally sold on memory being your problem. I could be wrong, but full memory will cause disk thrashing as it moves everything to the pagefile. So, while it may hang, it will eventually resolve. |
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#9 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Port Townsend, Washington
Posts: 31,348
|
640k is enough for anyone!
|
__________________
Cum catapultae proscribeantur tum soli proscripti catapultas habeant. |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#11 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Port Townsend, Washington
Posts: 31,348
|
|
__________________
Cum catapultae proscribeantur tum soli proscripti catapultas habeant. |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#12 |
Begging for Scraps
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: UK, suburbia. 20 minutes in the future
Posts: 2,056
|
You can open Task Manager (R-Click on the task bar and select it from there), select the Performance tab and then Memory on the left hand column.
Keeping this open will give you a rough overview of how much Memory you are using so if you've seen notable stuttering in certain applications it should reflect in the usage there. If it doesn't you probably have enough RAM. |
__________________
“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.” - Charles Darwin ...like so many contemporary philosophers he especially enjoyed giving helpful advice to people who were happier than he was. - Tom Lehrer |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#13 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Adirondacks, NY - with Magrat!
Posts: 8,590
|
Thanks guys - a bunch of stuff to think about!
|
__________________
![]() ![]() |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#14 |
So far, so good...
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: On the outskirts of Nowhere; the middle was too crowded
Posts: 3,735
|
If you decide you want more memory, then before you get too far into the project – like before you turn it over to look at the bottom – search for YouTube videos for replacing memory ON THAT MODEL of computer.
Then review your decision. My new Lenovo Idea Pad laptop turns replacing the battery into major surgery. I the Acer that went defunct, and that the Lenovo replaced, it was not much worse than replacing the bulb in your living room lamp. |
__________________
Over we go.... |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#15 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Way way north of Diddy Wah Diddy
Posts: 28,344
|
I've been having intermittent update-related issues with my laptop and Win 10. It seems every update crams a bunch of junk into the thing, which then waits endlessly for things that aren't running to connect, and for me to update the settings on programs I don't even know I have.
I'd start by going to the Task Manager and disabling any startup items you obviously don't want. Check the services too (being careful not to disable needful stuff) and see if there's junk there. I never opened Skype in my life, but had nine instances of Skype service running at once. Some things, like Skype, can just be uninstalled. Others, including some Xbox junk, are baked in, and require more effort. There's more info on the web for disabling other stuff that can't be uninstalled normally, but every bit helps. Microsoft keeps putting Edge back in and defaulting all sorts of stuff to that. I needed at some point to set up a separate administrator account, and found that a bunch of junk was set up there, and Edge was waiting for me to do stuff. Windows would take minutes to finish loading correctly, and programs would report "not responding," because Edge was waiting for me to enter stuff. So if you have more than one account, make sure you look at them all. Every time I think I have it licked, it works great for a few days and then starts acting up again, and I find some new stupidity from Chairman Bill hiding somewhere gobbling up resources. I may seriously have to look into how Linux can run some of the Windows specific programs I have, and if it does, maybe it's time. e.t.a. in my case I don't think it's a RAM issue so much. Ram might help, but some of it is just Windows waiting for inputs that never happen. Eventually it gives up, and starts working again. |
__________________
I love this world, but not for its answers. (Mary Oliver) Quand il dit "cuic" le moineau croit tout dire. (When he's tweeted the sparrow thinks he's said it all. (Jules Renard) |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#16 |
Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Waiting for the pod bay door to open.
Posts: 43,093
|
You tube videos. Great value for working on laptops.
|
__________________
Continually pushing the boundaries of mediocrity. Everything is possible, but not everything is probable. “Perception is real, but the truth is not.” - Imelda Marcos |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#17 |
BOFH
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: People's Republic of South Yorkshire
Posts: 13,595
|
|
__________________
"Your deepest pools, like your deepest politicians and philosophers, often turn out more shallow than expected." Walter Scott. |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#18 |
Lackey
Administrator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: South East, UK
Posts: 97,914
|
|
__________________
I wish I knew how to quit you |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#19 |
BOFH
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: People's Republic of South Yorkshire
Posts: 13,595
|
|
__________________
"Your deepest pools, like your deepest politicians and philosophers, often turn out more shallow than expected." Walter Scott. |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#20 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: Gundungurra
Posts: 9,224
|
6GB should be plenty for a laptop with Win10. Intermittent crashing suggests possibly a RAM fault, if it is indeed RAM at all, or something weird about the system disk...
RAM may have intermittent faults that show up only when the blocks get used. So the system will start and run for a bit, but sooner or later memory usage expands and something hits the pothole and boom. Win10 uses more RAM, so it could hit the pothole sooner. There are usually extensive RAM tests in the BIOS and motherboard system management which are available at boot time. Try them. My usual disk check go-to is to defrag. If the disk is good then this will take about 5 mins for a spinning HDD or a couple of seconds for an SSD. It helps keep the disk in reasonable trim, and is also a bit of a shakedown on the disk because this very occasionally uncovers faulty blocks. If it does find some, take whatever corrective measures you think necessary. |
__________________
...our governments are just trying to protect us from terror. In the same way that someone banging a hornets’ nest with a stick is trying to protect us from hornets. Frankie Boyle, Guardian, July 2015 |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#21 |
Lackey
Administrator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: South East, UK
Posts: 97,914
|
Did you have the ones with socketed ram chips?
My business partner and I did a roaring trade in fixing the likes of Commodores (usually VIC chips burning out or a connection needing resoldering) and memory upgrades on a range of "home computers". We hated the STs for memory upgrades, I think it was the STFM that it was a toss up whether the additional memory bank would be socketed or not. If it was great - we just had to push in (if my recollection is correct) 16 RAM chips, otherwise we had to un-solder the holes for each RAM chip. ETA: Just went to look for details and found a video that brought it all back for me: ![]() |
__________________
I wish I knew how to quit you |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#22 |
BOFH
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: People's Republic of South Yorkshire
Posts: 13,595
|
As I recall I had to remove the ram chip, insert the expansion thing in the socket then the ram chip back into that. The expansion unit then had a cable off to more ram than I had to squeeze in somewhere.
|
__________________
"Your deepest pools, like your deepest politicians and philosophers, often turn out more shallow than expected." Walter Scott. |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#23 |
Lackey
Administrator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: South East, UK
Posts: 97,914
|
|
__________________
I wish I knew how to quit you |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#24 |
Self Employed
Remittance Man Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Florida
Posts: 31,715
|
The computer community loves little more than to go back and laugh at "X computer is all you are going to need" predictions, but if you notice they aren't wrong in the way people think they are wrong. What a "computer" does and is expected to do changes.
64k probably is enough if all you're doing is... like calculations. Like math. Like computers first started out being used for. 512k probably is enough if you're just doing productivity software like word processing and databases. Take "Multimedia" and "Gaming" out of the equation and some of those predictions get a lot less silly and if you mentally add on a "If we keep using computers as we are using them now for the tasks we are using them for now" onto a lot of these "X amounts of storage/memory/processor is all we will ever need!" statements they get a lot less worthy of being fed crow. |
__________________
Yahtzee: "You're doing that thing again where when asked a question you just discuss the philosophy of the question instead of answering the bloody question." Gabriel: "Well yeah, you see..." Yahtzee: "No. When you are asked a Yes or No question the first word out of your mouth needs to be Yes or No. Only after that have you earned the right to elaborate." |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#25 |
Lackey
Administrator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: South East, UK
Posts: 97,914
|
|
__________________
I wish I knew how to quit you |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#26 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 18,358
|
I bought a similar computer in 1985/86 for about $3,000, but mine had a wide printer, so figure maybe $600 less. Memory 512K 10 Meg HDD. The one thing that seems odd about that Amstrad is the 3.5-inch floppy drive; I don't remember those being common until several years later. Mine had the dual 5.25-inch floppy drives.
|
__________________
My new blog: Recent Reads. 1960s Comic Book Nostalgia Visit the Screw Loose Change blog. |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#27 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 18,358
|
|
__________________
My new blog: Recent Reads. 1960s Comic Book Nostalgia Visit the Screw Loose Change blog. |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#28 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Port Townsend, Washington
Posts: 31,348
|
That's why I wasn't too unhappy when MS stopped updating Win7 on this old computer, about which you can see more in my thread.
And espresso machines. About 20 months ago, shortly after moving into the new house, we bought a magnificent, er DeLonghi Magnifica, espresso machine. Almost automatic. Add water, add beans, empty the used grounds, that's it. Except once in a while you need to descale and vacuum out the interior. Ours was having a problem. The door would pop open when starting up or shutting down. Getting worse and worse. I cleaned the interior but it only helped a little. Finally Googled and watched a video. Oh, it's a little moving part ON the door! I hadn't looked there. No more problem after a quick removal of the buildup. The machine, BTW, cost us over US$500.00 and has saved at least five or six THOUSAND dollars compared to the previous two Starbucks a day. |
__________________
Cum catapultae proscribeantur tum soli proscripti catapultas habeant. |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#29 |
Begging for Scraps
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: UK, suburbia. 20 minutes in the future
Posts: 2,056
|
I think another one of the issues is that as technology and the 'normal' moves forward someone will always ask "What more can we do?".
I started gaming from 3.5" floppies and watched the amazing change when CD drives became cheap enough, now 50Gb installs are common. Same for all the underlying feature sets; 640x480 graphics, capricious hardware & primitive sound, now we have game engines that will happily play at 4k & better resolutions, 90% 'just plug it in' devices & 5.1 soundtracks. It's also led to stuff getting messy & bloated, as there's no requirement for keeping things compact & efficient. Why bother when people have a 3GHz octo-core processor, 4Gb of RAM & a 1080 display on their phone? |
__________________
“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.” - Charles Darwin ...like so many contemporary philosophers he especially enjoyed giving helpful advice to people who were happier than he was. - Tom Lehrer |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#30 |
Lackey
Administrator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: South East, UK
Posts: 97,914
|
|
__________________
I wish I knew how to quit you |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#31 |
Lackey
Administrator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: South East, UK
Posts: 97,914
|
What was that?
And because Sinclair and his clever mates were clever you could squeeze more than you might think into that 1k - such as a chess game |
__________________
I wish I knew how to quit you |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
#32 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Adirondacks, NY - with Magrat!
Posts: 8,590
|
Thanks Bruto!
I regularly clean out autostart stuff - just like you I noticed that stuff creeps back! So, I did it again. It's not looking like a RAM issue now. Yesterday, I was playing a couple of games from Steam: Kingdoms and Castles, recommended 4GB, and Knights and Merchants, recommended 1GB. So - I'm sure you guessed which one locked up twice? There's a computer place not far from us, so I might have a chat with them. Thanks again to all who contributed! |
__________________
![]() ![]() |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
Bookmarks |
Thread Tools | |
|
|