New computer advice

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perhaps the easiest way is to go to the websites of a company that sells RAM. crucial and kingston both do this. crucial has a scanner which you can download and run, and it will suggest updates for your system. kingston might have a similar scanner, but i can't see if on their front page.

4GB is a bit on the low side these days and generally more will help.

lots of windows xp machines were sold with inadequate amount of ram. i once was asked to see if i could resolve sluggishness in one that been bought with only 250MB of RAM and the temporary addition of a larger chunk from my laptop turned it from a struggling three-legged dog into a greyhound.
Thanks, I'll try that first.
 
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You've given me food for thought, I could go to Peckham and upgrade my RAM.
TBH though, every time I change my laptop, I just hurriedly transfer everything over, so there's probably that much junk on it. So am tempted to buy new and transfer more methodically.
 
You've given me food for thought, I could go to Peckham and upgrade my RAM.
TBH though, every time I change my laptop, I just hurriedly transfer everything over, so there's probably that much junk on it. So am tempted to buy new and transfer more methodically.

you could indeed. the handy thing with the scanner, though, is that it knows all the specs for your ram and computer and would suggest appropriately specced additions. i do sometimes use a bit of free software called speccy from piriform to tell me about my hardware (if you download it, make sure it installs nothing else). speccy doesn't seem to mention free slots and i thought it did. perhaps i used some other software to tell me that.

always handy to make sure photos and other valuable files are backed up somewhere safe.
 
Oh Ok! I:1980_boogie_down:t doesn't mention RAM then even though it is 4GB.

mine did the same, though it did tell me what i had. then again, i think mine has ddr3 ram and they probably only sell ddr5 these days.

perhaps your computer's manual mentions possibly additional ram.
 
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For web browsing, emails, docs and sheets, I'd go for a Chromebook any day of the week. It's been a while since I've owned a PC now (Apple fan boy these days), but when I had them, I always thought HP had better build quality than Dell.

If considering a Chromebook, don't be fooled by what look to be lower specs. It runs a totally different OS to PCs, which is nowhere near as hungry as Windows and the majority of documents are stored on Google Drive, so you don't need massive local storage - which of course can be a problem if you need to work offline often.
 
You've got me thinking now about increasing the RAM, as it is a relatively new machine.
Looking at the performance of this computer, it's only 4 GB, but with just browsing I am using 3.8 GB. Is that the reason it struggles with multi tasking?
How can you tell how many spare slots it has?
TBH, I rushed into buying this computer, and have just never got on with it. It's got a really annoying touch pad for numbers in front of the keyboard, which if you catch y55ou get9999999999999 in the middle of a sentence. This computer, Windows 11 and Microsoft Edge were all new to me at the same time, so I have no idea which bits belong to which and which I like, and never seem to find the time to explore.
I’m no computer expert, but, I believe to find out how many spare slots you have , you’ll have to remove the cover. For this I’d recommend a claw hammer and an old fashioned tin opener.
Once inside there are three simple steps to speed up your computer.
1. Jiggy your zigabytes
2. Download an upload and power down
C. Importantly, Oil your motherboard
You could also process your bandwidth spam port
It’s all basic quantum mechanical computing.
Hope this helps, oh! and always clear your history.
 
I’m no computer expert, but, I believe to find out how many spare slots you have , you’ll have to remove the cover. For this I’d recommend a claw hammer and an old fashioned tin opener.
Once inside there are three simple steps to speed up your computer.
1. Jiggy your zigabytes
2. Download an upload and power down
C. Importantly, Oil your motherboard
You could also process your bandwidth spam port
It’s all basic quantum mechanical computing.
Hope this helps, oh! and always clear your history.

Don't forget to replace the flux capacitor whilst you're in there, just for good measure.
 
Whatever version of Windows you are running be sure to keep them clean and smear free by using hot water and a mild detergent applied with a proper chamois leather. Finally buff up with a dry cotton cloth. Also engine oil can be removed from your hard drive with patio cleaner and a stiff yard brush. Hope this helps.
Better than a stiff Basil Brush. :emoticon-0105-wink::emoticon-0105-wink:
 
Anybody use a Macbook? I’m thinking of switching from a dated Asus laptop.

Main usage will be for photo & video editing.
Macs are good, but really weird to get used to after using Windows!
I suppose though it’s how you take to new things after using something for years.
I have an iPhone, but give me an android phone & I’m confused easily!