by David Hakala
A memory card is essentially portable RAM, electronic memory that you can put in your pocket and plug into various devices to use as storage. A USB flash drive is a type of memory card. So are the wafer-thin cards you slide into digital cameras, game consoles, etc. There are different types of memory cards made for different purposes.
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by David Hakala
When you buy a new computer the sales person will undoubtedly try to upsell you a RAM upgrade. It may seem that a whole gigabyte or two or RAM is plenty, but you could be in for surprises. Modern software is complex and uses lots of RAM. Software developers pitch their wares’ minimum RAM requirements to make them look lean and efficient, but in truth the software often needs much more RAM to run optimally. Having plenty of RAM means that software is not swapped out to disk as often, saving wear and tear on your hard drives. More RAM is usually a good investment. But how much RAM do you really need, and what kind of RAM should you buy?
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by Tina Gasperson
Q: I’d like to upgrade my older laptop’s hard drive from 30GB to 160GB or 250GB. Several companies claim 100 percent compatibility but the specs don’t seem to be compatible. How can I make sure I’m buying the right hard drive? — Mary
The safest route to finding a compatible hard drive to upgrade your laptop is to go to the manufacturer. Turn your laptop upside down and look for the manufacturer name and the model number and write them down. Now, go directly to the official Web site and search for replacement parts for your laptop model. By purchasing your new hard drive from the manufacturer, you can be sure that your upgrade will go as smoothly as possible.
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by Stewart Vardaman
Disks get faster and better constantly, yet they are usually the slowest component in your notebook or PC. The simple truth is, memory speed might be measured in nanoseconds (billions), but disk speed is measured in milliseconds (thousands). That difference is like Bill Gates’s net worth to a working stiff like me.
Speeding up the slowest thing in the chain makes everything else faster. Adding a new disk to an old (or even new) laptop makes for a peppier machine. And you can do it yourself!
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by Tina Gasperson
Q: How can we recognize DDR1 and DDR2 RAM? — Alim
The two types of RAM modules are similar in their appearance, but don’t get them mixed up because they are most definitely not interchangeable. If you accidentally purchase the wrong kind of RAM, it won’t even fit into your computer – and you’ll be heading back to the store.
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by Tina Gasperson
RAM stands for Random Access Memory. Your computer uses this virtual memory to do computations and calculations while the computer is on. Nothing is ever permanently stored in this memory, yet it is a big factor in the performance quality of your system. Most computer come with at least 1GB of RAM and extra space so you can add more. On older computers with less than 1GB and/or no extra space, you can even take out the existing RAM and replace it with a higher-capacity “stick” of memory.
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by David Hakala
When you start a large program, such as Microsoft Office components including Word, Excel, or Outlook, you may experience very slow startup of the program, a thrashing sound from your hard drive; and the following message:
Your system is low on virtual memory. To ensure that Windows runs properly, increase the size of your virtual memory paging file. For more information, see Help.
After you click “OK”, you may see this further information:
Your system is low on virtual memory. Windows is increasing the size of your virtual memory paging file. During this process, memory requests for some applications may be denied. For more information, see Help.
We don’t want to see Help for more information; we want our program to load faster and our hard drive to stop tearing itself apart. So let’s quickly summarize what Help would tell us and get on with the fix.
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