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TykeClone

TykeClone

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Oct 18, 2006
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Cyclonesrule91

Cyclonesrule91

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TykeClone said:
Right click on the task bar and pull up the task manager. Go to the performance tab.

Look at the 2nd chart - the memory usage - and it will give you a total of the memory in use right now. Below that, there are 4 quadrants of numbers - the upper right quadrant will tell you how much RAM is in the machine that is available for use. If the chart usage is greater than the available for use number, then you've got too little RAM.

Anything less than 512MB now is typically too little - especially given how inexpensive RAM is now. 384MB is not bad - I've seen people running on 128MB and it is dog slow - but if you've got an integrated video controller where the video "card" is using system RAM - then not all of that 384MB is available for programs.
Click to expand...

Is that second chart the PF Usage? If so it is a constant 662MB. The upper right quadrant is labelled physical memory.
Total: 392204
Available: 49168
System Cache: 118612

this is with the Ad-Aware still scanning.
 
TykeClone

TykeClone

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Oct 18, 2006
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Cyclonesrule91 said:
Is that second chart the PF Usage? If so it is a constant 662MB. The upper right quadrant is labelled physical memory.
Total: 392204
Available: 49168
System Cache: 118612

this is with the Ad-Aware still scanning.
Click to expand...

Yes. Right now your using almost double the amount of memory than you have as physical RAM. Each time a program does anything, it will be swapping information to and from the hard drive - which is orders of magnitude slower than RAM.

Find more memory - you'll be glad you did!
 
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Cyclonesrule91

Cyclonesrule91

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CycloneErik said:
Is it working better now?
Click to expand...

I am defragging right now and then I will check it out. It seems weird that the PF usage is at 634 MB right now. I wonder if I need to run one of those cleanup programs. It hasn't been running slow until the last couple weeks and we added no other programs so I can't figure out why that has gone up so much.
 
TykeClone

TykeClone

Burgermeister!
Oct 18, 2006
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Cyclonesrule91 said:
I am defragging right now and then I will check it out. It seems weird that the PF usage is at 634 MB right now. I wonder if I need to run one of those cleanup programs. It hasn't been running slow until the last couple weeks and we added no other programs so I can't figure out why that has gone up so much.
Click to expand...

Go to the processes tab - click on the "mem usage" column to sort it and it will tell you which processes are your memory hogs.
 
Cyclonesrule91

Cyclonesrule91

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Sorry to post another question.....but is Avast and AVG the same freeware?

If not which one is better to install as freeware?
 
Benny34

Benny34

Active Member
Nov 29, 2007
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Skyh13 said:
Honestly, sometimes you get what you pay for, but there are plenty of very good, free applications that are completely legit and can help you do a lot to fix up your computer.

Here's a list of a few programs I would HIGHLY suggest:

CCleaner
- CCleaner is a great tool for generally cleaning up your system, getting rid of temporary files and other such things that are just taking up space on your computer. It can also scour through your registry and find entries that you can safely just get rid of, which can help with performance as well.
CCleaner - Home


Spybot S&D
- Spybot S&D is one of a number of good, free anti-spyware, anti-malware programs. It works well, and should take care of most problems you run into. Granted, if you were to buy software like SpySweeper, you can probably benefit from more resources dedicated to making software which finds and gets rid of more spyware and such, however there's no harm in at least trying this software first, considering it works great and is free.
The home of Spybot-S&D!

Windows Defender
- If you're running windows XP, it's worth your while to download Windows Defender, as it's free, and it's just more anti-spyware, anti-malware protection. Granted, it has scans automatically scheduled for FAR too often, but you can change that pretty easily. Doesn't hurt to have it.
Windows Defender: Home Page


One thing I must say, is that the free anti-virus programs are fine, and you can look up ratings for how each does, performance-wise and protection-wise. The important thing to remember is, though, don't have more than one anti-virus program running active protection at the same time. That can really cause some annoying problems, aside from bringing your computer to it's knees in terms of speed. For anti-spyware, though, it's more worthwhile to have multiple programs installed, as long as you don't have them actively running at the same time, since that'll hurt your computer performance as well. But individually running anti-spyware scans with different programs is very beneficial.

Anyways, sorry for the long post, but there's what I have to say about that!
Click to expand...

I was going to throw this out as the thing I tell people after they have defraged and ran the disk cleanup.
 
Cyberclone

Cyberclone

Active Member
Aug 6, 2006
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ketelmeister said:
My computer has gotten really slow, locks up constantly and in generally doggy. I have AVG free for a virus protection, but I think it's probably loaded with viruses and spyware. Any ideas or help? I'm clueless on what to do.
Thanks.
Click to expand...

A really good freeware program I use alot, to clean up problems.

Advanced System Care 3
Advanced SystemCare 3 3.0.1.586 Final

Do a google search for it, download it, and scan the computer, it will clean up alot of things.
 
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