[Closed] PC help / advice

More memory will help
go to Crucial & see what RAM is suitable - http://www.crucial.com/uk/

A total format & re-install will work wonders too - do you still have the recovery discs?

I'd run it through Kingston's memory checker first to see what RAM combos are supported http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/configurator_new/lines.asp?root=uk&LinkBack=http://www.kingston.com/ukroot&Manufacturer=del&search_type=
512MB is pretty low though so additional memory may help however if it's gradually slowed down then a rebuild to remove all the crap will probably work to.

More memory will help for sure, but you need to install matched pairs of memory so you'll probably need 2 x 1Gb...

If it's slow browsing the web and you don't have the time or inclination to wipe the PC and rebuild it, try installing a different browser... My gf had a similar problem on her laptop, there was some hard to remove spyware that seemed to affect Internet Explorer. We installed Google Chrome (which is faster anyway) and it ran like a dream...

hth

If you let me know the model of Dell I can tell you what the officially supported ram options are. I suspect, as above, that you need pairs.

Crucial will be cheaper and quicker than Dell on delivery 🙂

I looked at a couple of the on-line memory shops which analyse your PC - both said that memory doesn't need to be fitted in pairs, so I could leave the 512 in one slot and add a 1GB in the other. Is this wrong then?

It is a Dimension 4550, I think

failedengineer - Member

I looked at a couple of the on-line memory shops which analyse your PC - both said that memory doesn't need to be fitted in pairs, so I could leave the 512 in one slot and add a 1GB in the other. Is this wrong then?

Your machine may not require match pairs to be installed but some do! Also, you may only have two memory slots in which case you will have to remove the 512Mb module if you wanted to go up to 2GB.

i'd also think about installing and using 'spybot search and destroy', and look at what AV program you use. in particular some antivirus programs seem to have a real step-change affect on the performance of the pc after an update IME.

Firstly check to see precisely what max RAM your model will support. Just because you could fit more does not meen your machine will support it. Failing that, rather than a lot of hassle and some outlay have a think about Netbooks - pretty cheap if you don't need the latest and greatest

If its a Dimension 4550 then your limited to, according to the specifications, 1Gb in total spread across the two memory slots as per:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/SYSTEMS/dim4550/specs.htm#1103227

That link will also give you the specifications of the RAM.

There are also instructions on replacing the ram here:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/SYSTEMS/dim4550/replace.htm#1101964

To be honest, if the 1Gb limit is accurate (and the internal training documents match the external ones) then it might not be worth the hassle - sorry 🙁

That's odd - I thought I'd seen somewhere that 2GB was the max. Uplink - When you say recovery discs, do you mean the Windows disc that came with the machine? Would I lose everything else (I think my MS Office was a pirated copy!)

Uplink - When you say recovery discs, do you mean the Windows disc that came with the machine?

Yeah - sort of, Dells usually have a bespoke recovery disc

Office would need to be re-pirated

When was the last time that you defragmented your hard drive?

When was the last time that you checked what applications were automatically running on startup?

Defrag your hard drive then install CCleaner [url= http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download ]download linky[/url] and clean the registry and stop any unwanted programs from starting up.

Then buy extra memory.