Question about memory/RAM

[iamrobertkrogh]

Ok, this is my first post here. I am not a computer guy at all, I just use the internet and MS Word for my schoolwork. I have an emachines T4510 computer, and have had it for about 3 years. I moved into another home about 8 months ago. In my previous home, I used my 56K dial up modem for the internet. Finally, as of yesterday, in my new home, I now have Verizon DSL. So there was a period in which I had no internet for almost 8 months.
My question, is that now that I have the internet, my computer seems to be running rediculously slow. The internet is fast. But when I try to open another browser (like I used to with dial-up), everything becomes slow and sluggish. I asked a friend, and he told me to defrag the computer, which I had never done. (he couldnt believe this, I'd had the PC for 3 years and never defraged it) So I did. Twice, actually. I also used the disk cleanup program twice as well. Nothing seems to be working. My hard drive has 100gb on it, and I have only used 45-50gb.
When I start to actually use my computer, it will run slow, and an error message pops up. This message says that I dont have enough virtual memory, and that it will create more. Less than a minute later, another error message pops up. This one says: Spysweeper: Out Of Memory. When this message shows up, I am unable to do anything else. I cant even turn off the computer, I have to unplug it. So can anyone help me? Do I need more memory? RAM? I have 512mbDDR that came stock. Im so confused! I got all excited to use the computer now that I have the internet again, and this happens!

Thanks,
Robert

[webecho]

Hi Robert
You need to right click on the MY COMPUTER icon on your desktop > choose PROPERTIES then the ADVANCED tab > click the SETTINGS button in the PERFORMANCE section > then the ADVANCED tab > click the CHANGE button in the VIRTUAL MEMORY section.

It is reccomended to use 2 - 3 times the amount of RAM as VIRTUAL MEMORY - you can set the amount manually, INITIAL SIZE to say 1000MB and MAXIMUM to 1500MB > then click the SET button.

Another thing to check on is making sure you don't have any unecessary programs running in the background i.e. things like Quicktime only need to be opened when they are used rather than using memory all the time.

The last option (but a very good idea) is to purchase more RAM, 512 will run XP but not very well, try installing another 512 or if you can afford to 1GB of extra RAM. This will make a huge difference to the way you computer performs.

HTH

[iamrobertkrogh]

Thank you for your help. I will try it and see if it works. I also talked with a coworker, who suggested (seems a bit extreme to me) that I back up the files I want to save immediately, then clean sweep my hard drive (forgot the term for it, its when I pretty much make it brand new by using the restore disks that came when I purchased the PC). Do you think this would help any either?

[webecho]

I think that's a bit over the top.
Try my suggestions in order - the RAm would really help if you have the funds to do it.

HTH

[jbennet]

a clean install is always handy though. xp eventually just gets colgged with crap so tends to need reinstalling every 6 months - 3 years