Upgrading to maximum memory?

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I currently am using a HP HDX Notebook with 64-Bit Vista SP2, with 4G of memory.
The PC is bogging down primarily, I feel, due to lack of real memory. It averages 85% utilization of real memory. Free memory on the performance tab is usually in single digits.
It is a Core 2 Duo T9400 running @ 2.53Ghz

It appears that the motherboard will support 8G, by swapping out the 2 2G DIMMS for 2 4G DIMMs

I have done memory upgrades on XP and gotten a lot of bang for the buck.
Will this be true on Vista?

TIA

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8GB will give a boost, especially if some of the 4GB currently fitted is being siphoned off to feed onboard graphics. It should certainly do a lot more work before bogging down.

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Check msconfig to see what is running in the background which will unnecessarily take up memory.

You don’t really need anything under the Startup tab other than an AV program and check the box to Hide all MS services under the Services tab to easily view the rest.

When you install some programs they auto insert themselves into the Startup menu when they aren’t needed.

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Try setting your paging/swap file size to 8191 in both boxes for a large fixed swap file. The increased size may results in faster program loads (because the swap file does not need to grow dynamically) and better response times until ram usage rises to between 70% and 80%, at which time things may start to slow down.

Have multiple tabs open in Firefox from a previous session? In the Options: General select “Don’t load tabs until selected”. I have The general option set for “When Firefox starts” set to “Show my windows and tabs from last time”. When Firefox gets sluggish I exit and restart. It might take a moment to reload the page when you click on the tab. Otherwise having a lot of tabs open at once can consume memory and kill response time.

You can also force Firefox to free some memory. Type “About:memory” [without the quotes] into the address bar. In the center of the page there will be a box titled “Free memory”, click on the “Minimize memory usage” tab.

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I agree with Satrow. With the amount of used memory on your system, you should expect a noticeable performance improvement from upgrading. In terms of bang for the buck, there is nothing that can help you as much as increasing your RAM – well, if you discount the fact that SSDs are increasingly cheaper and that could also have a huge performance impact.

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If you haven’t done it yet, go to MSCONFIG.EXE and look at the startup page. stop every instance you don’t need to have running all the time. Almost all apps place themselves on the startup page when installed so they will start faster like word and excell. You don’t need it. It saves a second on startup but eats up ram.
Stop them. let them take 2 sec to startup. Clear out cookies often. some of them are running in the background tracking your moves. Use Superantispyware to kill the cookies. I get ~ 1000 per day and they slow the system down. when i need to I run a quick scan. It takes 3 min and speeds the system a lot.
I also use firefox private window mode to surf.

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In addition to the excellent recommendations you might want to consider upgrading to Windows 7
Vista reaches Microsoft’s End of Extended Support on April 11, 2017

HP EliteBook 8540w laptop Windows 10 Pro (x64)

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For you: Memory Max – Up to 8 GB DDR3

How do you know that without a model number?

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How do you know that without a model number?

Agreed, Crucial.com shows more than a couple dozen models of the HDX. Only problem I’ve ever had with Crucial RAM was with a Dell Dimension 2350 Desktop, turned out it was different from the Dell Dimension 2300 Series Desktops. Cross-shipping to get the correct modules worked fine.

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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