Do I need more memory?

[zamacman1]

I built my system about 2 months ago. It has the asus prp800 MB p4 2.4c cpu maxtor 160gb radeon 9500 pro and one stick of kingston 512mb pc 2100. It makes lots of griniding noisies lots of the time when I am like trying to winzip something and at the beginning it starts taking longer where it is the black screen with the bar going acrosss. It used to take like 4 times now it takes like 12. Do i need to get another stick of it?

 

[Schadenfroh]

no
btw, your hard drive sounds like its dieing

 

[ethebubbeth]

^
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what he said. you definitely have enough ram

 

[afzan]

why did you get a dual channel mb, a p4c, and only a single stick of ram?

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: afzan
why did you get a dual channel mb, a p4c, and only a single stick of ram?

future upgradeability?

 

[Bonesdad]

Originally posted by: afzan
why did you get a dual channel mb, a p4c, and only a single stick of ram?

I would do the same thing...512 now in 1 stick means 1GB memory as a future upgrade. Dual Channel seems overrated to me...esp to sacrifice upgradeability.

 

[afzan]

the p4p800 has 4 slots..

it seems like a waste to get a new 800mhz FSB cpu, and then use a single stick of pc2100! not even pc3200

 

[batmang]

maybe hes broke, cant afford another stick? as for the sounds your getting, its your harddrive croaking.... stay away from maxtor dude. go with hitachi or western digital. maxtor is crap.

 

[StraightPipe]

Originally posted by: afzan
why did you get a dual channel mb, a p4c, and only a single stick of ram?

dual channel doesnt do much for performance if you have a video card. but it will be nice to only have one card in a year or 2 when you might need to go to a gig. then you have dual channel, and it will be cheap.

Unless your video editing, or plaing games like battle field 1942, XP should do fine with 512.

 

[JSSheridan]

Long UT2003 sessions can eat up your memory.

Task Manager Capture

 

[charlie21]

I'd run some hard drive diagnostics stat.

 

[zamacman1]

Originally posted by: charlie21
I'd run some hard drive diagnostics stat.

How do I do that? I also thought my hard drive was doing bad also..

For the pc3200 I will probably buy a stick of that when it gets cheaper

 

[Corporate Thug]

you need faster ram, not more of it

 

[charlie21]

Powermax is the name of Maxtor's diagnostic utility. Run that to see if you're hard drive is about to give up the ghost. Also, check under Task Manager to see how much physical memory you have available. That's the best way to tell if you need more.

 

[zamacman1]

Originally posted by: charlie21
Powermax is the name of Maxtor's diagnostic utility. Run that to see if you're hard drive is about to give up the ghost. Also, check under Task Manager to see how much physical memory you have available. That's the best way to tell if you need more.

when I restart with the powermax disk in it does not do anything different

 

[charlie21]

Did you set the BIOS to boot from the A drive?

 

[zamacman1]

yea and it says "Cannont load DOS! Press any key to retry"

 

[zamacman1]

I ran the test and it said I passed. So I started running another test last night that said its supposed to find any errors and someone cancled it so I dont know how it turned out. It said it was supposed to take 30 mins and I know it took longer than 2 hours. So does it still sound bad or good?

Also I checked up on my memory and its kingston pc2700 not pc2100

 

[zamacman1]

right now I am uninstalling a game and I am getting lots of grinding nosies and it is taking for ever. The game is tony hawk's pro skater 4. My CPU usage is going from 41.-100 percent

 

[afzan]

sounds like bad sectors.. did you do a surface scan from within powermax?

 

[zamacman1]

Originally posted by: afzan
sounds like bad sectors.. did you do a surface scan from within powermax?

I do not see anywhere to do a surface scan with powermax.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: StraightPipe

Originally posted by: afzan
why did you get a dual channel mb, a p4c, and only a single stick of ram?

dual channel doesnt do much for performance if you have a video card. but it will be nice to only have one card in a year or 2 when you might need to go to a gig. then you have dual channel, and it will be cheap.

Unless your video editing, or plaing games like battle field 1942, XP should do fine with 512.

Eh? He's using a P4 based system, not nForce 2, so there's a bandwidth shortage as long as he's not running PC3200 in dual-channel mode.

 

[zamacman1]

Originally posted by: ViRGE

Originally posted by: StraightPipe

Originally posted by: afzan
why did you get a dual channel mb, a p4c, and only a single stick of ram?

dual channel doesnt do much for performance if you have a video card. but it will be nice to only have one card in a year or 2 when you might need to go to a gig. then you have dual channel, and it will be cheap.

Unless your video editing, or plaing games like battle field 1942, XP should do fine with 512.

Eh? He's using a P4 based system, not nForce 2, so there's a bandwidth shortage as long as he's not running PC3200 in dual-channel mode.

Would it be better for me to buy 2X256 pc3200 or another stick of 512 pc 2700?

 

[afzan]

Originally posted by: zamacman1

Originally posted by: afzan
sounds like bad sectors.. did you do a surface scan from within powermax?

I do not see anywhere to do a surface scan with powermax.

Ok, it's been a while since I last ran powermax, I believe there were a few options, a basic test and a thorough test? try the thorough test if you didn't do that one already..

I had bad sectors on a maxtor a while back and it found them and gave an error code..

 

[zamacman1]

Originally posted by: afzan

Originally posted by: zamacman1

Originally posted by: afzan
sounds like bad sectors.. did you do a surface scan from within powermax?

I do not see anywhere to do a surface scan with powermax.

Ok, it's been a while since I last ran powermax, I believe there were a few options, a basic test and a thorough test? try the thorough test if you didn't do that one already..

I had bad sectors on a maxtor a while back and it found them and gave an error code..

I ran that and it said passed, but I do not think its doing good. COuld a hard drive cause programs to not resopond?