10-19-2009, 09:57 PM
kap wrote: Anything else I need to do?
You mean other than increasing RAM to AT LEAST 512 MB? 768 MB is better and I recommend 1 GB if there is any way to do it. The problem is that just the shipping costs on new RAM would likely be more than that PC is worth (if you can still find a retailer with stock old enough to work in that boat anchor).
I would go with 384 MB + 512 MB for size of the swap file. I think a big part of the problem (I mean other than running out of RAM as soon as you start those four programs) might be that the swap file is fragmented. It will be slow no matter what you do short of: backup, wipe, restore; one or more passes with a third party defrag utility; or cloning it to a new hard drive.
My laptop passed 4 years old a few months ago and I increased it to 2 GB as soon as the price took a decent drop about 6 months after I bought it. My Startup contains AVG, iTunes, Adobe Reader, Real Player and a couple of other things. My PF Usage is 320 MB from a cold boot. I have CF memory cards almost as big as that hard drive.