How to Deal with Low System Resources
When you hear people talk about System Resources you may wonder what the term means. Is it Techno-speak that only Computer experts understand? No. When you come right down to it, System Resources is Memory or RAM. When your Computer is using System Resources, it is basically Windows using memory for Graphics, fonts, icons, open windows and open programs. As you run programs they all use resources, some more than others. Microsoft Office, for example, will claim a whole load of memory, if it needs it or not, as soon as you open the program. If your computer doesn’t have enough resources to run all these programs and all your other daily tasks, it can stop working.
Before things get to this stage, Windows will probably issue some warnings to notify you that your Memory is low. The other thing you will notice is your Computer will be running slow. When you try to open a program it will be slow to appear or may not respond at all. Your Computer uses Random Access Memory (RAM) and Virtual Memory for its resources. Windows uses Virtual Memory to supplement RAM if there isn’t enough available. Problems occur when your Computer runs out of RAM and virtual memory is low. Virtual memory settings can be changed manually. Read my article – Low Virtual Memory – find it in the right hand column.
Try running fewer programs at the same time to help low memory issues. Even consider disabling some background programs or at least prevent then from automatically running when you start Windows. You will still be able to access these through your ‘Start’ button menu. Recently I had a computer in for slow performance, I soon discovered the reason. A very good and popular Media program was using 95% of the system resources, and it wasn’t even in use. It was running in the background. I simply removed this program from the start menu, the difference was amazing. This Guys computer is now as fast as…
In Windows XP you can display resources in use via the Task Manager, to access this press: Ctrl+Alt+Delete together. Click the ‘Applications’ tab this will show if any programs are running and how much CPU usage they are using. If a program is running and you don’t want it to run, providing it isn’t your Anti-Virus program, you can click to highlight the program and then click on ‘End Process’. If everything is ok here, click on the Process tab, if you have no open programs the CPU column should show 00 on every line except the very last one – System Idle Process. It is normal for this to show 99, anything else showing a high value other than your Anti-Virus program which may be running a scan in the background, may mean a memory leak and can be stopped by again highlighting the process and then clicking ‘End Process’. If this action causes any adverse side-effects, simply re-start your computer.
All programs use resources, so it’s a good idea to uninstall programs you no longer use. Go to Control Panel – Add/Remove. Look for any programs you no longer intend to use and uninstall them. However, if your PC came with some programs, including games, pre-installed, even if you don’t use them and never intend to use them, do not uninstall these. They may share files with other programs you do use. So only uninstall programs you have installed.
The number one ‘Fix’ for low resources is of course: Install more RAM to your computer. To see how much RAM you have simply open ‘Control Panel’ and double-click ‘System’. The first page you see should have your CPU and RAM information. Check the documents that came with your PC or contact the computer manufacturer for details of what type of Memory and how much extra memory you’re Motherboard will take. Some on-line memory companies, such as Crucial, can scan your Computer for you to determine this information.
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