diagnostic programs

[bobby-jo]

could u give me some advice as to what program i could use to monitor system usage, like the amount of ram being used etc
thanx

[RJS2]

Task Manager

Right click the toolbar and its there.

[bobby-jo]

is the page file usage the ram usage, if not wot is it and how can i find the ram usage

[RJS2]

The commit charge is your pagefile, the limit is what you have it set for in your perfomance settings,your total and peak is how much has been used.

The physical memory you see is the hardware memory in your pc.

To change settings on pagefile, Right Click my computer > properties > advanced tab > under performance settings > advanced tab > virtual memory.

[bobby-jo]

so wot is commit charge then?

[doctorgonzo]

Commit charge is your paging file (or swap file), the virtual memory file Windows uses in addition to regular RAM. You can use much more memory than the amount of RAM physically installed in your computer due to the page file. Windows treats that file as extra memory, although it is far, far, far slower because it is on disk.

[bobby-jo]

aaahh things are begining to make sence, ive just upgraded my brothers pc to XP pro and its only got 128 Mb of ram and i wanted to know if it was usin it all cos i no it prefers more

[doctorgonzo]

You are definitely going to want more than 128 MB of RAM. 256 MB is the minimum I would recommend for Windows XP, with 512 good and anything more preferable.

[bobby-jo]

yea thats wot i thought, this is a very old pc ,from the stone-ages i think, it says on the fron that it has 128mb syncDRAM, thats SD RAM isnt it?
it also says that it has a max of 256, i guess that means if i get another stick of 256 and put that in as well it would not work then, i dont suppose u no do u?

[doctorgonzo]

Yes, that's SDRAM. If it says it can only have 256MB, then that's all it can have, although I can't be sure without knowing the brand and model of the motherboard.

[RJS2]

If thats all itll take then I would put another stick of 128mb in it, this will be be at 256 then and it will be at the minumum specs for xp and will run xp smoother.