At Flint IT we are constantly trying to help our customers get the most out of their IT systems. There are a lot of different problems which we encounter and fix to help our customers’ IT run better, but one we encounter commonly is a lack of memory.

The amount and speed of memory on your computer can have a dramatic effect on the performance of your PC overall. Unfortunately memory is one of those things which gets full up over time, meaning the more you use your PC the slower it will run.  The speed of memory is usually fixed by the type of processor and motherboard you have and, unless you plan on replacing both of these, unfortunately there isn’t much you can do to speed things up.

However you can manually increase the amount of memory you have by adding additional memory modules. If you have an old system with DDR RAM it will run equally well whether you have 1, 2, 3 or 4 modules so don’t be afraid of adding extra memory that way. Newer systems with DDR2 or DDR3 should have pairs of modules although rather oddly if your PC is new it is likely to have been shipped with just one module attached. This is to give you the option of upgrading, as if the PC came with both as standard you would have to replace all the original modules before you could upgrade.

If you run multiple applications at once such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook and other business applications such as SAGE or SAP then you will be eating up memory and your computer will probably be running fairly slowly. The reason for this is that normally your computer runs programs and applications using the RAM but if you are requiring more memory than your PC has it will use the Hard Drive for less used applications, making everything a lot slower. By increasing the amount of RAM as explained above you should be able to combat this problem and speed everything up.

 

Some tell-tale signs of RAM problems are:

-          When typing the PC takes a few seconds to display the characters on screen

-          When changing windows it takes a long time to redraw the screen

-          The disk light on your computer tower or laptop is constantly on

If you notice any of these you should check your RAM as a lack of memory space is most likely to be the cause. Run Task Manager and check the Performance tab.

 

This will show you how much RAM your computer has and how much you have left to use. If you are close to the limit you should definitely consider adding memory modules or, if you are using memory very rapidly, you might need to upgrade to a newer model of computer.

For more details or if you have any questions contact Flint IT at sales AT flint-it DOT com or call 0845 3309680

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We provide protection and disaster recovery for businesses in Westoning, , Totternhoe, Eaton Bray, Caddington, Welwyn Garden City, Sandy, Hitchin and Berkhamsted