Microsoft Online Crash Analysis is a website put up by Microsoft to aid users in investigating crashes, bluescreens and stop errors. Part of the service is the Windows Memory Diagnostic software which is a standalone tool that can scan the computer memory and report on errors it found.
Windows Memory Diagnostic (link, via Vishal) is a [...]
Windows Memory Diagnostic
Safe Computer Memory Upgrade
Do you know the type and amount of computer memory that your computer motherboard supports out of your head? There are ways to look those information up, for example in the manual that came with the computer motherboard but what if you bought the computer fully assembled? You could open it and find out about [...]
Is faster RAM really worth the extra cash ?
When you build computers and purchase the peripherals by yourself you have to make several decisions. Will it be an Intel or AMD cpu for example, which hard drive will you choose from the hundreds available, which video card and which RAM. The newest hardware is normally the fastest but most expensive one and it [...]
Virtual Memory too low
Windows loves to use virtual memory. Even if you set the value of virtual memory to zero it is still being used. It’s basic use is to provide additional memory if most of the RAM of the computer is already occupied. This virtual memory is taken from the hard drive from so called paging files. Most optimization articles suggest to use between one and three times of the amount of RAM as virtual memory.
Why 2 is better than 1
In case you are wondering; I’m talking about computer RAM. I noticed a few days ago that one of the 512 Megabyte bars of RAM that I had installed on my computer was faulty and decided to order two 1 Gigabyte bars to replace both old bars. I had the hopes that the increase would also speed up some resource intensive applications.
How to test your RAM for errors
It you purchase new ram, a new or used computer or experience crashes and bluescreens you should definitely test the memory installed on your computer to make sure that it is running without errors. Faulty memory is one of the main reasons for instability. The first task should be to make sure that the memory is correctly inserted into the memory banks. Make sure you count the number of bars and check if you are running dual channel mode or not.
Increasing the performance of Windows Vista
My first impression of Windows Vista was that it was a very shiny operating system with lots of useless stuff (for me) that wasted lots of valuable ram on my system. Things like the sidebar which may be useful for some are absolutely useless to me. Besides that they use ram. I have decided to remove everything that I would not need to increase performance on the system.
