[leaanna]

Dear Geeks 2 Go,

I need help freeing up memory on this computer. It is my mother's laptop that me and my sister are currently using but it is starting to run poorly and a low memory warning keeps popping-up. I know that it has only 1% memory available and I can't even run the Disk Defragmenter due to this. What I do not know is what programs I need and what I do not so I am afraid to remove anything as I do not want to mess anything up on here for me or my sister. I know my sister has downloaded some music, but has stopped due to the low memory. I am hoping you can give me some suggestions on what I can remove and how I can get it running properly for the both of us since it runs Very slowly and just generally poorly right now. I am not sure what programs to run or reports to give you, so I just ran HJT and here are the results:








Please help us! We are willing to do whatever it takes and will await instructions on what to do/reports to run next.

Thanks you,

Lea and Anna V

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I assume, you're talking about hard drive space, not memory (RAM).
I'm surprised, with 1% of a free space, the computer is even running.
Start with moving personal data files (music, pictures, movies, etc.) to some other location (external HD, CDs, DVDs).
Windows needs at least 15-20% of a free space to operate correctly.

Please, post some computer info:
- processor type, amount of RAM (hold Windows logo key, hit Pause/Break key)
- hard drive size/free space (open "My Computer", right click on hard drive letter, click "Properties")
- security programs in use (antivirus, firewall)

[Broni]

I assume, you're talking about hard drive space, not memory (RAM).
I'm surprised, with 1% of a free space, the computer is even running.
Start with moving personal data files (music, pictures, movies, etc.) to some other location (external HD, CDs, DVDs).
Windows needs at least 15-20% of a free space to operate correctly.

Please, post some computer info:
- processor type, amount of RAM (hold Windows logo key, hit Pause/Break key)
- hard drive size/free space (open "My Computer", right click on hard drive letter, click "Properties")
- security programs in use (antivirus, firewall)

[leaanna]

Thank you for the swift response. Sorry if I used the wrong vocabulary. I will make every effort not to continue to do so or mislead you in your efforts to help us. I do not want or intend to impede your efforts or waste your time I guess we aren't even aware of what our exact issues are, lol. I look forward to learning as much from you as I can while solving our problem. Just to forewarn you that though I will answer and follow directions as quickly as possible, we may be a little slow in deleting and moving the personal data, reason being I personally have nothing saved, it is all my sisters. She is 14, so if you can imagine and recall how a 14 year old acts you know that perhaps more challenging than my lack of computer knowledge is dealing with an argumentative and fickle adolescent, lol. She constantly complains about and asks for help fixing the computer, but will need persuasion and urging to complete her part in this, as it is all on her private profile and I have no access to it. So I will instruct her on what she needs to do and try to work along side her. In the meantime I will give you the info you have asked for as we await her to complete the removal/movement of the personal data as you have instructed. BTW thank you for telling me exactly how to find the information since i would have been googling and searching for possibly hours, lol! So here goes:



-System:

Microsoft Windows XP, Home Edition, Version 2002, Service Pack 2

-Processor type, Amount of RAM:

Dell Inspiron I2200, Intel® Celeron® M processor 1.40GHz 1.40 GHz, 248 MB of RAM, Physical Address Extension

- Hard Drive Size/Free Space:


Capacity: 36,314,607,616 bytes 33.8 GB
Used space: 480,219,944 bytes 457 MB
Free space: 35,834,396,672 bytes 33.3 GB

-Security Programs in Use:
[i]
This I'm not so sure of how to find out. The icon on the bottom says Norton Protection Center and has a litttle red bubble with a red exclamation point, so I assume it is either not on, not up to date, or does not have all recommended options turned on. I hope this helps and if it is not helpful I am open to whatever you suggest to give you more helpful/accurate information.


I hope this is what you need and I will have my sister begin to work on her personal data tonight as soon as her homework is finished, but if you need anything else before she finishes that please tell me and I will get right to it.


Continued Gratitude,

Lea and Anna V

[Broni]

Really, no apology needed. I may know little bit more about computers, but you know more about some other things. We're totally even

Now, according to your report, your hard drive space is perfectly fine. 33.3GB out of 33.8GB is free. No worries here, and your little sister can keep all her private files wherever they're now
It looks like your computer is complaining about little amount of RAM (you're right in your first post).
248 MB of RAM, which is 256MB "minus" 8MB taken by video RAM, makes 248MB.
Windows XP would like to have at least 512MB of RAM, 1GB preferable.
If you buy more RAM, your computer will be perfectly fine.

[leaanna]

Oops, my bad. It should have been:

Free space: 480,219,944 bytes 457 MB
Used space: 35,834,396,672 bytes 33.3 GB

I guess I was more scatter-brained than I realized cause I was trying to rush and give you the info before I gave my sis the computer to finish her homework. So sorry for the confusion and waste of you time, and now you see why I apologized in advance, lol. As you can see that is more consistant with what I originally said about the 1% of free space. My apologies again and I'll try to not to rush the info next time.




Lea and Anna V

[Broni]

Well, in this case, you'll have to work on both issues: freeing HD space, by moving some data to external HD/DVDs/CDs, and getting more RAM.
You better act fast, because I saw cases, where computer with such low HD space simply refuses to boot, and you're stuck.

[Abydos]

Hi

Thought I would throw in my 2cents as well.

Diskcleanup will be faster than removing personal data to begin with.
After diskcleanup, you can move those data needed to be removed.

Diskcleanup: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312

When done, you should take a look on how much space windows
use on restore points. By default, it will use 12% of available HD space.
Which is a lot on a small HD. Follow the path below to find where to
change it.

Start or "My Computer"
Control-panel, then system entry
System restore tab

Move the slider "Disk space usage" to a preferred level. 3-4% should be adequate.
A single restore point takes about 50-100MB of space, depending on complexity
of the system.

Regards

[leaanna]

Well, in this case, you'll have to work on both issues: freeing HD space, by moving some data to external HD/DVDs/CDs, and getting more RAM.
You better act fast, because I saw cases, where computer with such low HD space simply refuses to boot, and you're stuck.

You were so right! My apologies for just disapearing on you, but the computer would not boot and I only got the blue-screen-of-death. I had to web access until we recently took it into the "shop" and it had to be completely wiped out and redone. So far it seems like new except not the CD drive does not work at all, go figure, if it ain't one thing it's another. For now I am just happy to have a seemingly smooth running computer, but I had to come here to thank you for your help and let you know I did not just disapear and ignore u or forget that u took ur time out to help me. Hopefully I won't b needing any assistance on any issues for a long time to come!lol Thanks again and u r truly appreciated!

Thanks so much,

Lea and Anna V

[rshaffer61]

What do you mean by this:

So far it seems like new except not the CD drive does not work at all,

Is the cd drive seen in My Computer?
Have you looked in the Device Manager for any yellow exclamation marks or red X's?

Please Go to
1: STARTand the click on RUN
2: Type in devmgmt.msc
3: Click Enter
4. Expand the entry with the DVD\cdrw drive in it and then take a screen shot of it

To do a screenshot please have click on your Print Screen on your keyboard. It is normally the key above your number pad between the F12 key and the Scroll Lock key
Now go to Start and then to All Programs
Scroll to Accessories and then click on Paint
In the Empty White Area click and hold the CTRL key and then click the V
Go to the File option at the top and click on Save as
Save as file type JPEG and save it to your Desktop


Attach it to your next reply

[123Runner]

Good catch rshaffer61...

leaanna we are going to continue this till we are happy and when you can show us you do not have any issues.
This is what we do here.
We also will help you manage the computer by showing you how to clean up the temp files, defrag the unit, and keep it running smooth.

Did the shop you took it to install any virus scanners or any malware scanners?

123runner