[dba-Tech] Laptop should run faster

Bobby Heid bheid at appdevgrp.com
Mon Jan 3 12:54:26 CST 2005


Also know that some programs will use more RAM if more is available.

Bobby

-----Original Message-----
From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of DJK(John)
Robinson
Sent: Monday, January 03, 2005 12:36 PM
To: 'Discussion of Hardware and Software issues'
Subject: RE: [dba-Tech] Laptop should run faster


Hi John

I'd be trying to find out what's using up so much of your RAM.  I'm running
very similar stuff here, and using less than 400MB.

I'm aware that some applications are more RAM-hungry than you might expect,
which you can demonstrate by observing task manager info when closing the
app, to see how much gets released.  

Is your Folding at Home 100MB work-unit all in RAM?  If so, that would account
for some.  To set against that, I'm running SETI, 3 x IE6, MSDE, 2 x Excel +
VB, Sophos AV, etc.

MS Map Point can consume most of 100MB, and of course photo editing is
hungry.

Try closing things down one at a time, and see what task manager says.  Same
on start-up.  You may just have one greedy app.

John


> -----Original Message-----
> From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of 
> John W. Colby
> Sent: 03 January 2005 14:12
> To: 'Discussion of Hardware and Software issues'
> Subject: RE: [dba-Tech] Laptop should run faster
> 
> 512 mb should indeed be enough.  Unfortunately it just isn't
> anymore.  I haven't figured out exactly why but WinXP just 
> sucks up memory.  As an example right now I have open WinXP, 
> Outlook and Firefox with a single tab. Of course I have 
> Norton AV and Sygate firewall as well (this is my laptop). 
> Oh, and Folding at Home is loaded and processing a large work 
> unit (100mb), Yahoo and Messenger (which I don't use much but 
> can't seem to get rid of).
> 
> I have 1.25 gb ram (a 256m dimm and a 1 g dimm).  Task
> manager shows 1.3 g total ram with 700g free.  That means 
> that 600g is being used.  For what? All of the applications I 
> mention only total about 300mb.  I can only assume that 
> Windows is really huge and lots of pieces of it are being pulled in.
> 
> I found my system was always swapping to disk, which of
> course  with the 4200 rpm disk is just horribly slow.  Just 
> expanding to a gig or more of ram pretty much stops the 
> swapping, but with the 4200 rpm disk load times were 
> interminably slow.  It would take 4 minutes to just load 
> everything.  Now with the 7200 rpm disk everything loads in 
> about 1 minute 30 seconds or so. The same difference applies 
> as I open access, open Visual Studio etc.
> 
> I spent a lot of money (to me) on a modern laptop with a
> powerful processor etc.  To not upgrade the hard disk and ram 
> jut didn't make sense.
> 
> John W. Colby
> www.ColbyConsulting.com
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of
> Erwin Craps - IT Helps
> Sent: Monday, January 03, 2005 3:26 AM
> To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
> Subject: RE: [dba-Tech] Laptop should run faster
> 
> Well I can guarantee you also that change to a 7200 speed
> thing nicely up. 512MB RAM should be sufficiant, but greatly 
> depends on the number of apps at the same time.
> 
> I notice that when I start photoediting some 8M pixel photos,
> I'm diskswapping alot.
> 
> Erwin
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of
> John W. Colby
> Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2005 10:48 PM
> To: 'Discussion of Hardware and Software issues'
> Subject: RE: [dba-Tech] Laptop should run faster
> 
> Lol.  You really must believe me, I've been there.  Replacing
> my hard disk made the whole thing feel faster.  Adding memory 
> minimized swapping.  Taken together they made a significant 
> and noticeable difference.
> 
> In a few years the 4200 rpm drives will not be used anymore.
> They were used to minimize operating current, but the new 
> 5400 and 7200 rpm drives don't use that much more current now.
> 
> As for the memory, 500mb is not really all that much,
> especially if the video is taking some.  And WinXP is a 
> memory hog too.  I was really unhappy with my laptop 
> performance (after the first few months ;~), and swapping 
> that hardware made it a real machine, every bit as fast as an 
> equivalent desktop machine.
> 
> John W. Colby
> www.ColbyConsulting.com
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of
> Rocky Smolin
> - Beach Access Software
> Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2005 2:15 PM
> To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
> Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Laptop should run faster
> 
> 
> Ack!  Hardware!  Maybe I'm not in as much of a hurry as I thought.  :)
> 
> But thanks for the lead.  I wonder if doubling the memory
> would be effective?
> 
> Rocky
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John W. Colby" <jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com>
> To: "'Discussion of Hardware and Software issues'"
> <dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com>
> Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2005 11:02 AM
> Subject: RE: [dba-Tech] Laptop should run faster
> 
> 
> > First thing to do is go get a 7200 rpm drive.  I am serious Rocky. 
> > Laptops come with 4200 rpm drives and they suck for access speeds.
> >
> > 
> http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-146-020&d
> > epa=0
> >
> > Get a usb port connected shell that holds the hard drive (the form
> > factor is
> > important here, laptop hds are smaller).  Then attach the 
> new drive to
> 
> > your
> > laptop.  Ghost the contents out to the new drive.  Swap the internal
> with
> > the new one.  It took me about 1 hour (plus the transfer time of the
> ghost
> > operation), dead simple to do.
> >
> > After that get a 1gb dim.  I bought this one for my EMachines:
> >
> > http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4158153
> >
> > My laptop now performs like it should.
> >
> > John W. Colby
> > www.ColbyConsulting.com
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> > [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Rocky
> > Smolin - Beach Access Software
> > Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2005 1:55 AM
> > To: dba-tech
> > Subject: [dba-Tech] Laptop should run faster
> >
> >
> > Dear tech:
> >
> > My laptop doesn't run as fast as I thin it should (who's does?).  I
> > recall vaguely some tips about things that can be turned of 
> in windows
> 
> > that tend to bog things down.  Some kind of logging, or
> indexing, or
> > audit trailing, or something.
> >
> > Anyway, if anyone has any hints I'll give them a try.  It's a 64bit
> > Athlon processor running with 512MB RAM and WXP Home.  Seems to be 
> > doing a lot of disk swapping when starting or terminating programs.
> > Also slow startup when changing user accounts.
> >
> > Any tips appreciated.
> >
> > Best,
> >
> > Rocky Smolin
> > Beach Access Software




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