Memory is my friend!

[girlyswot]

I've had the laptop for about 8 months now, running Vista with 1GB RAM. This was fine at first but recently it's been getting slower and slower and I have one programme that I couldn't use because it would just bluescreen immediately.

So today I bit the bullet and took it in to Circuit City, paid the money and came home with 3GB RAM installed. Honestly, the computer now works faster than my brain. It's scary! It feels like having a new computer again.

ETA: Why are things never that straightforward with computers?

About an hour in, I suddenly got a dark blue screen with the ominous words 'Hardware Malfunction'. I did what any normal person would do - ignored it. Turned the computer off and on again. It worked perfectly, at the lightning fast speed, for the rest of the afternoon. Put it on hibernate to come home, try turning it back on - nothing. Just the Vaio flash, then no Windows, nothing.

Took it back to Circuit City where another teenager looked at it and shook his head. Apparently my computer (or possibly my version of Vista) won't cope with 3GB. So he took out one of the newly installed cards, and voilá, it works again, though not quite so fast. We're not back to yesterday's level of slowness. I'd say it's now about the speed of my brain, so that's good. Plus I get to return the memory card I didn't need, so it's saved money too.

I think I'm happy. So long as it WORKS this time!

Comments

[tdu000.livejournal.com]

Does this mean you get to waste spend more time on LJ?

[grandma-kate.livejournal.com]

Glad you are on the fast track again.

Dear Oatmeal has built himself and others many puters from scratch. And even though he is a Mac convert since he married me, he still hangs out a lot at electronics places. I'd been complaining that Big Mama was running slow, so he brought home a 1G memory stick, flipped the old dear on her side, and plugged it in. She like a teen again. Instant improvement.

[dogstar101.livejournal.com]

Faster than Ros's brain? Blimey, that IS scary :-P

[amamama.livejournal.com]

Oh, I hate that phrase, 'Hardware Malfunction'. Ours has had a penchant for 'Kernel instack page error' which is completely Greek to me, but thankfully we've discovered that opening the cover and vacuuming the insides does the trick. I've heard a lot of different stuff about Vista, not all of it good. Hubby dear refused to get Vista installed when the laptop was fixed, he swears to XP until they get all their wrinkles ironed out. I'm holding my thumbs, hoping your DC keeps on working - at the speed of your brain. That should be fast enough for almost any computer.

[megan29.livejournal.com]

"I suddenly got a dark blue screen..."

Aah, the blue screen of death, as it is affectionately known on slashdot.

I would not put money on your computer working properly now - though of course I hope it does. Long and painful experience has taught me to mistrust, abhor and downright hate any piece of software (affectionately known as crap) made my Microsoft.

No, I'm not a Mac person. Sadly, my laptop runs XP, as I've given up Linux due to insufficient driver support. As such, my laptop needs rebooting about 3 times a day. Worse, at work I got pushed into being administrator for a server machine, which runs XP. That one is the biggest pain in my behind - I cannot scream loud enough to express it. The only consolation is that my office computer runs Linux - good, old reliable Linux.

Whatever possessed you to buy Vista?! I hear they still sell laptops with XP, and Dells even come with Ubuntu (saving you a ton of money, not to mention frustration). Well, I guess it's too late now, but keep it in mind for next time.

[alkari.livejournal.com]

I hear they still sell laptops with XP,
They sure do! Down Under, there was such an outcry from purchasers about Vista glitches after it was released, that retailers and suppliers were forced to offer customers the option of which OS they wanted installed on any new PCs or laptops. Naturally, they had tried to sell Vista-only machines, but people kept coming back and demanding that Vista be uninstalled, and there a lot of very angry customers. Many businesses are very wary of changing their systems over until it performs better, so I'd say it's been quite a PR disaster for Micrsoft.

[crumplehornedki.livejournal.com]

thanks for the tip, I'm looking at getting a laptop of my own at some stage this year and I've been looking at ones with 1GB RAM so I should obviously be looking for 2GB minimum which of course ramps the price up!

but then again we may buy a house instead - oh the dilemma laptop vs house :P