Hi I'm new to this forum ad have only limited computer knowledge. Basically my Toshiba Laptop is going really slow and I'm wondering if its a RAM problem. I have noticed if I go to "task manager" and on the memory section it shows that half my RAM ie 1gb of 2gb is constantly being used even when nothing is running. Is this normal?? Any ideas if this sounds like a hardware or software prob?? I know thats very vague but any ideas??
Sounds like a software problem, specificly Windows Vista's massive memory waisting problem. Saddly, this is normal for vista.
That memory usage is about normal for Vista, not the fastest OS at best. When Vista is idle it uses memory for indexing and defragging, as well as other background stuff. You can go to the start\search box and type indexing, select indexing options, modify,show all locations, and uncheck anything you do not want indexing if you do not use the search option much, but better of doing some basic stuff first. Here is some straight forward things to do to help speed up, Ensure hard drive space is not approaching limit. Run Virus\spyware scan. Run disc clean up. Uninstall any unused programs. Run defrag when above is done. Some virus\firewall\spyware programs (Norton\Zone alarm) slow a computer down more than others also, suppose it depends on how much depth of protection you want. I personaly just use AVG free, Spybot, and windows firewall. End of the day common sense is the most important defence.
Also go through the scheduled tasks, a lot of them are just bloatware. Plus, you can probably dissable about half of the windows services. Of course, uninstall any programs that you do not need (especialy IE bars like yahoo & google & aol).
