A little help with Vista

[baddabang]

We have a HP desktop as the "family" computer thats running Windows Vista. The problem is that it's saying that there is no physical memory left, and it is using 800MB out of the 893MB that it has. So everything suddenly is taking forever to load. There isn't anything running on it that I know of that could use all of the memory, so I'm pretty much dumbfounded because the PC is only 4 months old.

Do you guys know what may be the problem? Or how to fix it?

[IWantAnAudiRS6]

It has 893Mb memory? o_0

Buy some more, seriously.

[The_Canuck]

Happens sometimes on this computer, just restart perhaps?

[baddabang]

Originally Posted by IWantAnAudiRS6

It has 893Mb memory? o_0

Buy some more, seriously.

It wasn't a problem to start with.

It has 1024MB of RAM I dunno why it's saying 893.

[fisetdavid26]

Originally Posted by baddabang

It wasn't a problem to start with.

It has 1024MB of RAM I dunno why it's saying 893.

Über EDIT: Physical memory is your RAM. You have 1024MB of RAM, and I'm guessing you have on-board video, which shares its memory with your RAM, so it's taking 128MB of it because you have ~893MB usable.

My old computer kept telling me I was running out of Virtual memory when I saved too many pictures/videos/mp3s without restarting/logging off. Restart it and see what happens.

As for Physical memory, close any useless process, or check your computer for spywares/adwares running in background that may suck up your memory.

Last thing: if you are running Windows Aero, change the appearance back to Vista Basic asap. It sucks with on-board video, and it's probably sucking dry your RAM. At least it sucked mine to 0MB free with Windows Aero on with no programs running (I had 512MB of RAM at the time).

[pimento]

Vista wants at least 2GB of system RAM to run nicely, and that's with a dedicated video card. Even going out and buying a cheapo one will help greatly with system performance. One tip would be to go into the system properties page (windows key + break) and investigating the System Rating. See what's giving the lowest score and try and start there to do something about it. An overall rating of 4.0 is sufficient to aim for, that's what my laptop here has with it. It runs fine.

[IWantAnAudiRS6]

Pimento's got it. Integral video cards suck... to the max. RAM's not exactly expensive either, just find out what you need here. They've not told me wrong yet, and their prices are probably among the cheapest you'll find.

[whiteballz]

Originally Posted by baddabang

We have a..... computer thats running Windows Vista.

theres your problem right there.

[Rockefella]

Originally Posted by whiteballz

theres your problem right there.

Although I was a spokesman for Windows Vista when I had the beta build, I couldn't speak for the retail version.

Like other said, boosted ram is probably your best bet.

[tomek]

Your problem is virtual memory (swap)-it always needs to be 1GB on Vista...minimum.Vista is the worst OS i have ever worked on.It consumes to much system resources for what it does (even without Aero and all the bells and whistles)...

P.S.-if you can-downgrade to XP...it is much better option on today PC,and you will be much more productive.
P.S.-I'm on Linux for three years now and i'm not missing much.

[drakkie]

Originally Posted by baddabang

We have a computer thats running Windows. Do you guys know what may be the problem? Or how to fix it?

That's the problem. Open your browser and go to this page:
Software.openSUSE.org

[twinspark]

I'm not sure but I don't think it's normal for Vista to use that much memory. Depending on what antivirus and firewall are used of course. Maybe the computer is infected with virus or spyware, it won't hurt to check them.

I have Vista Business with Aero running on a laptop with 1024 MB of RAM and half-dedicated graphics card, and everything runs nicely. Less than half of that memory is used when I have no heavy programs open.

[NSXType-R]

Its possible that HP puts a lot of garbage running in the background. See if you can uninstall any useless stuff.

There are dedicated programs to get rid of the garbage for free online. You could search for them.

[Cotterik]

You'll want more than 1gb ram for vista these days. try and get an identical pair and put it up to 2gb. You'll notice alot of difference.

[baddabang]

It's all pretty much fixed thanks to Fiset. It can handle Vista but not when it's being used with Aero.