Processor and memory question

[Grandphoenix]

My moms laptop moves really damn slow and its for either one or both of two reasons. A 128KB L2 Cache cpu or the 1/2GB of RAM. I figured more RAM would help but the cpu would bottleneck it making not that helpful wouldn't it?

 

[alanon]

1/2GB of RAM.

By this I would assume you mean 512MB. In which case, adding memory is probably your most efficient upgrade at this point. 2GB will probably get it screaming!

 

[Bajaratt]

What's the speed of the CPU?

512MB of RAM is really tiny now a days; moving up to 1GB would make it feel like a new computer. RAM's dirt cheap, I just bought 2GB of 667MHz notebook memory for $20, so that'd probably be your easiest and cheapest option too upgrade.

It could also just be a virus or something like that, check what's running.

 

[Grandphoenix]

The sticker near the mouse pad says 1.8GHz, 128 KB L2 Cache, and up to 1600 MHz bus

 

[Acks]

Not sure what chip that is, but you'll want to match memory sticks. So based on what speed memory, it might be better to just buy 2x1GB and replace that old 512. Can you tell us what company and model?

 

[Bajaratt]

The sticker near the mouse pad says 1.8GHz, 128 KB L2 Cache, and up to 1600 MHz bus

Is it a celeron or sempron processor?

 

[Taurothar]

Also, what OS? I'm assuming XP, but you never know...

 

[Bustaballs]

Are you sure could only be one of those issues? Are you running on a fresh OS install?

 

[Tagrineth]

Make sure you don't have crap like iTunes or even Office starting up with the computer, too. Those'll bog down the system like whadafux.

In pre-Vista systems, Start -> Run -> msconfig -> hit enter -> Startup tab.

In Vista, Start -> Type msconfig -> hit enter -> startup tab.