RAM DISAPPEARING

Question

I am using a Dell 4100 with 256 RAM.

Recently have been having memory problems.

On boot up Norton's Utilities are showing:
"Cache used" of 122+ MB
"Physical Memory free" of 10 MB or less.

Have tried to use System Configuration Utility to locate problem, however even after removing all check marks in the Genneral Tab it shows no change in RAM available.

System tests showed no problem with the RAM chips.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

fix-it · Answer

What you are seeing is normal. If you want 100% free memory, then leave your system off. BTW Norton utilities is junk anyways. Jerry

volcano11 · Answer

ATTICUS_PA,

While I disagree with jwiiljr's assesment that "Norton Utilities is junk", he is correct about the memory. Windows uses as much physical memory as possible to avoid having to use slower virtual memory (the hard disk). What would you rather have it do, save some free physical memory and run slower because it has to use the hard disk, or use all of the physical memory first, thus speeding up your programs? For more information on Windows memory management see the following:

http://www.aumha.org/a/memmgmtz.htm

Pay particular attention to the paragraph under "The Advantages of More RAM"

Steve

Thereal-dbk4297 · Answer

jwilljr wrote:
- ............................... BTW Norton
- utilities is junk anyways.
-
-

Hi,

Just wondering, what would be a better choice?

Mis Dos Centavos,
Darrell

Find the 'EXACT' memory for your Dell here.

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fix-it · Answer

I just use what Windows installs. However I do use AdAware to keep spyware off of my system. I have yet to have a problem with my ME machine. Jerry

woknap · Answer

Hi
I have a 4100 Dimension that had a physical hard drive crash last year...ever since the reinstall, I have memory leak on it
The system starts at 80% resources and by lunch time is down at 60% and hangs in the early afternoon
It has 64MB and is using 98 second edition 4.10.xxxx A
Is there something missing from the reinstall that keeps the cache
from not giving up ram or did my memory get damaged too?
It appears to be acting like a Win95 OS
Any help would be appreciated
Greg

volcano11 · Answer

What verison of Windows are you running? What programs are running (both in the foreground and the background)? Are you running any screen savers? My systems, running Windows 98 and ME consistently run at about 60% resouorces with no problem. If you are going to run programs, they are going to use resources. If you are not running any programs and the resources decrease, then it must be due to a program running in the background. If you haven't already done so, go to:

http://www2.whidbey.net/djdenham/

and see what programs you can eliminate from running at startup. Personally, I don't think you have a problem. This is the way Windows 98/ME work. You should have no problem with free resources until they drop to below 10%, then a reboot is in order.

Steve

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RAM DISAPPEARING

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