Inspiron 1501 - crap ? Need more ram ?

aussie-revhead · 21st May 2008, 11:58 PM

Hi guys , my boss bought one of these for work with the free upgrade to a Turion cpu and 2GB ram and 32bit Vista installed , problem is he hates it as its very slow. Today while it was idling I checked ram usage and it had 19xxMB total, 1500MB cached , 480MB in use and 5MB free , wtf 5MB free ? Can I assume this will be the cause of his problems ? Do these things take special rams ? (I know Dell can be weird that way) Can I buy any decent branded 2x2GB set of ddr2-667 and chuck them in ? Will this void his warranty ? I can put the old rams back in if claim is ever needed.

Any help would be great.

stupidme · 22nd May 2008, 12:09 AM

do just that.

upgrading ram doesn't void your warranty.

edit:
dell ram is just the standard so-dimm you find. nothing unique.

aussie-revhead · 22nd May 2008, 12:16 AM

Cool , thanks .

Scotty_DDR · 22nd May 2008, 12:47 AM

i'd just say its crap.

i have a dell 1525 with a core duo 1.73Ghz (merom based though) and only 1gb of ram and it runs nicely in apps, though just using vista it could improve with more ram.

i'd say its more likely the turion and chipset are the limiting factor, have you cleaned up (removed) the dell bloatware yet?

aussie-revhead · 22nd May 2008, 12:52 AM

Nah its the bosses baby he hardly lets me touch it , I just thought if there was a simple fix it might help and stop him whinging ...

It might also stop the other boss crapping on about how superior his mac is ...

Problem is also that they have a Dell desktop next to it with P4 3.0, 1GB ram and Visa but it never misses a beat and feels much faster.

DarkYendor · 22nd May 2008, 1:30 AM

I have a similar Dell laptop. It's very slow on start-up (supercache thrashes the HDD a bit when vista first loads), but once it's going it's fine. More RAM might help, but I'm only running 2GB.

There is a fair bit of bloatware straight from Dell. You can uninstall stuff like google toolbar (no point having it in Vista), and disable a heap of startup programs (roxio cd burner, and a bundle more I can't think of). Also, running a disk cleanup and defrag never hurts. (make sure you don't clean out the hibernate file though - it completely disables hibernating, and re-enabling it in vista seems to require the command line.)

Also, if you open up the laptop and you're not a Dell authorised rep, that will void your warranty.

Leca · 22nd May 2008, 1:42 AM

I wouldn't worry about it, Vista is a totally different beast to Windows XP when it comes to ram and memory management.

If he finds it slow now, he will find it slow with 4gb of ram. That or the placebo effect will make it "faster".

Guess it's your/there call at the end of the day if you want to spash out and get some more ram.

System I'm using right now is rather zippy and is reporting those figures right now....with simply firefox and msn open.

aussie-revhead · 22nd May 2008, 6:47 AM

Thanks guys .

21st May 2008, 11:58 PM	#1
aussie-revhead Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Western Sydney Posts: 7,476	Inspiron 1501 - crap ? Need more ram ? Hi guys , my boss bought one of these for work with the free upgrade to a Turion cpu and 2GB ram and 32bit Vista installed , problem is he hates it as its very slow. Today while it was idling I checked ram usage and it had 19xxMB total, 1500MB cached , 480MB in use and 5MB free , wtf 5MB free ? Can I assume this will be the cause of his problems ? Do these things take special rams ? (I know Dell can be weird that way) Can I buy any decent branded 2x2GB set of ddr2-667 and chuck them in ? Will this void his warranty ? I can put the old rams back in if claim is ever needed. Any help would be great. __________________ Cameras 400D 17-85 IS USM - S5600 - DSC-W5B Folding e2160 - EP35.DS3 - 9600gso (UNTIL GTX295 come down) NetBox EG45M E4300 64GB Falcon W7 sff Gamer CM-690 EP45-DS3R Q8200 8GB GTX275 Folding for team 24 SOLD my GSXR1100 - Busa is next !! $8000+ trades in last 12 months alone !!

22nd May 2008, 12:16 AM	#3
aussie-revhead Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Western Sydney Posts: 7,476	Cool , thanks . __________________ Cameras 400D 17-85 IS USM - S5600 - DSC-W5B Folding e2160 - EP35.DS3 - 9600gso (UNTIL GTX295 come down) NetBox EG45M E4300 64GB Falcon W7 sff Gamer CM-690 EP45-DS3R Q8200 8GB GTX275 Folding for team 24 SOLD my GSXR1100 - Busa is next !! $8000+ trades in last 12 months alone !!

22nd May 2008, 12:52 AM	#5
aussie-revhead Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Western Sydney Posts: 7,476	Nah its the bosses baby he hardly lets me touch it , I just thought if there was a simple fix it might help and stop him whinging ... It might also stop the other boss crapping on about how superior his mac is ... Problem is also that they have a Dell desktop next to it with P4 3.0, 1GB ram and Visa but it never misses a beat and feels much faster. __________________ Cameras 400D 17-85 IS USM - S5600 - DSC-W5B Folding e2160 - EP35.DS3 - 9600gso (UNTIL GTX295 come down) NetBox EG45M E4300 64GB Falcon W7 sff Gamer CM-690 EP45-DS3R Q8200 8GB GTX275 Folding for team 24 SOLD my GSXR1100 - Busa is next !! $8000+ trades in last 12 months alone !! Last edited by aussie-revhead; 22nd May 2008 at 12:54 AM.

22nd May 2008, 1:30 AM	#6
DarkYendor Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Perth Posts: 1,232	I have a similar Dell laptop. It's very slow on start-up (supercache thrashes the HDD a bit when vista first loads), but once it's going it's fine. More RAM might help, but I'm only running 2GB. There is a fair bit of bloatware straight from Dell. You can uninstall stuff like google toolbar (no point having it in Vista), and disable a heap of startup programs (roxio cd burner, and a bundle more I can't think of). Also, running a disk cleanup and defrag never hurts. (make sure you don't clean out the hibernate file though - it completely disables hibernating, and re-enabling it in vista seems to require the command line.) Also, if you open up the laptop and you're not a Dell authorised rep, that will void your warranty. __________________ \| Q6600@3.2 \| 8800GT \| Abit IP35-Pro \| 4GB DDR2-1066 \| 4.64TB \| \| Lian Li PC-A71B \| Corsair HX-620 \| Apogee GT \| MPC655-B \| MCR320 \| Successful trades: kevin84, Court Jester, davomaster, friedsweasel, evo800v, FatBoyNotSoSlim WTB:Samsung HD103UJ 1TB HDD, GPU >8600GT: PM ME! For Sale: 320GB WD Caviar

22nd May 2008, 1:42 AM	#7
Leca Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: Adelaide, SA Posts: 299	I wouldn't worry about it, Vista is a totally different beast to Windows XP when it comes to ram and memory management. If he finds it slow now, he will find it slow with 4gb of ram. That or the placebo effect will make it "faster". Guess it's your/there call at the end of the day if you want to spash out and get some more ram. System I'm using right now is rather zippy and is reporting those figures right now....with simply firefox and msn open. __________________ WebSite: ScaleGamer Friends: i4Memory Trades: $1000's worth, and $1000's more in the future. On April 5th 2009 at 2:00 am I will go back in time 1 hour

22nd May 2008, 12:09 AM	#2
stupidme Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 96	do just that. upgrading ram doesn't void your warranty. edit: dell ram is just the standard so-dimm you find. nothing unique.

22nd May 2008, 12:47 AM	#4
Scotty_DDR Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Brisvegas Posts: 783	i'd just say its crap. i have a dell 1525 with a core duo 1.73Ghz (merom based though) and only 1gb of ram and it runs nicely in apps, though just using vista it could improve with more ram. i'd say its more likely the turion and chipset are the limiting factor, have you cleaned up (removed) the dell bloatware yet?

22nd May 2008, 6:47 AM	#8
aussie-revhead Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Western Sydney Posts: 7,476	Thanks guys . __________________ Cameras 400D 17-85 IS USM - S5600 - DSC-W5B Folding e2160 - EP35.DS3 - 9600gso (UNTIL GTX295 come down) NetBox EG45M E4300 64GB Falcon W7 sff Gamer CM-690 EP45-DS3R Q8200 8GB GTX275 Folding for team 24 SOLD my GSXR1100 - Busa is next !! $8000+ trades in last 12 months alone !!