What is it?

 

When you are working on a document in the Microsoft Word software, composing an email in the Microsoft Outlook® or Outlook Express programs, or playing Solitaire, you are working in RAM. RAM, short for Random Access Memory, is generally referred to as memory. RAM is kind of like a holding place for active programs.

 

Once you click on Save in a Word document for example, the operating system takes the information that is in RAM and writes it to a file on the hard drive. If you continue to work on the document, you are still working in RAM. Clicking Save again will dump the information from RAM again to the hard drive, this time overwriting the document that was there previously. If you pulled the power cable on your computer before clicking on Save a second time, when you start up the computer and reopen the document, you would see that everything is there from the first time you clicked Save, but you would have lost all new changes. This is because the RAM was not instructed to save out the new changes to the hard drive.

 

NOTE: Microsoft has learned that people sometimes forget to save documents as they go, so newer versions of the Microsoft Word software will now automatically save a backup copy of the document periodically. If the power went out, the next time you opened the Word software, it would likely help you bring back the most current version of the file it saved. This feature from Microsoft is called AutoRecover and is NOT a replacement for saving a document.

 

So why doesn’t the operating system just write everything to the hard drive as we go and forget this whole RAM thing? Well, remember that RAM is much faster than a hard drive because RAM is not mechanical like a hard drive. RAM is electronic. If we didn’t have computer memory (RAM) in place, your computer would be so slow it would be almost unusable.

 

So, can I run out of RAM? In a manner of speaking, yes. Every program that you open uses RAM to accomplish whatever the programmer wanted it to do. In the case of the Microsoft Word software, the document you see on the screen is using a chunk of RAM. The operating system (such as Windows) uses quite a bit of RAM just for its regular tasks. RAM is finite too, meaning that you only have so much. If you have 256 MB of RAM – maybe the operating system is using 100 MB, the Word application might be using 50 MB, and other programs running in the background might be using, let’s say 156 MB. So that’s all of the 256 MB of RAM in use – what would happen if I now decided to open up the Internet Explorer® web browser?

 

Remember when I mentioned that if we didn’t have RAM, your computer would be extremely slow? Well, that’s what would happen in a case like this. The operating system, by default, puts aside a section of the hard drive aside for use by what’s called the page file or swap file. The page file is there to act as memory if need be. So in our example, when the Internet Explorer browser would open, it would need memory in order to present the browser to you on the screen. The operating system would then let it use the page file as if it was RAM. So now every time you’re trying to do anything in the Internet Explorer browser, a page request would be done. Information that would normally be accessed in the extremely fast RAM is now being written, read from, and deleted from the hard drive. Suddenly everything slows to a crawl.

 

Fortunately, when you close programs, they (if they’re programmed correctly) will release the RAM they were using, so other programs can use it. Unfortunately, the programs you see open in the taskbar along the bottom are not even close to all the programs running on your computer. There are likely to be another thirty, forty, or even more processes running in the background that you don’t even know about or see. Keep in mind that spyware and viruses all run in RAM as well.

 

Maybe at one time you downloaded and installed a player for movie clips. Unbeknownst to you, the movie player’s programmers may have decided that it would make more sense to have some of the player’s components stay resident in memory (even when the main program isn’t open). This way when you opened up the player, it would launch much quicker. Arguably, that may make sense. However, when you have a good dozen or more applications doing this, you lose a great deal of RAM before the actual programs are even open.

 

How much do I need?

 

It should now make more sense as to why having enough RAM in a computer is vital to its operation. In most environments, a computer running the Windows XP operating system will need somewhere between 512 MB and 1 GB to operate smoothly. Under the new operating system, Windows Vista, the Microsoft requirements are a minimum of 512 MB to be Windows Vista Capable or 1 GB of RAM to be Windows Vista Premium Capable (to take advantage of new features such as the Windows Aero user interface). In my field, you learn quickly that these requirements are to let you know that this is the requirement only if you planned to leave your computer sit and not do a thing on it… no software, no emailing, nothing.

 

A good rule of thumb has always been to ensure you at least double the requirements of Microsoft. In this case, that would mean you would want at least 1 to 2 GB of RAM in order to be able to run most programs without problems. However If you’re a power user and like to have a dozen things going on the computer at once or plan to do some intense video editing, you will probably be better off with more RAM.

 

Keep in mind that you can always add more RAM to a computer later. If you haven’t done it before, you would be very surprised at just how easy it is to add memory to a computer. You basically just pull the computer cover off and put the RAM stick into one of the open slots designed for it. When you start the computer, it will likely tell you it sees more memory in the computer and will ask you if that’s OK. That’s all there is to it.

 

The thing to keep in mind when purchasing a new computer is the number of slots the computer has built into it. For example, when looking at the computer’s description, you may see that it has two memory slots in it and allows a maximum of 2 GB. Maybe it comes with 512 MB of RAM already in it. Therefore, you know that that 512 MB is already occupying at least one of those two memory slots. I say at least one because it’s possible that instead of having one 512 MB RAM stick there are two 256 MB RAM sticks. In that case, both slots would be filled.

 

So in this example, if I want to have 2 GB of RAM in my computer, I then need to think about this. Let’s say I find out that the 512 MB of RAM the computer came with is occupying one slot. That means I still need 1.5 GB (or 1,536 MB) more RAM (2 GB is the same as 2048 MB – review the table in “Chapter 1 – Buying a New Computer” for more information). Well, RAM doesn’t come in 1.5 GB sticks. I could get a 1 GB stick, but with the other stick that’s in there, that would only give me 1.5 GB, not the 2 GB I want. Chances are, what I would need to do is get two 1 GB sticks and remove the 512 MB stick that’s already in there. The two 1 GB sticks of RAM would then give me the 2 GB that I wanted.

 

As a side note, you might think why don’t you get a 2 GB stick of RAM to use with the 512 MB stick that’s already in there? That would give you 2.5 GB. Well, it would, but at the beginning of the example, I mentioned that the computer had a maximum of 2 GB. Because of this, that would most likely not work because the computer can only recognize a maximum of 2 GB, which would probably be 1 GB in each slot. Nothing too complicated, but you just want to be aware of things like this when buying a new computer or adding more memory to your computer.

 

How much am I using?

 

One important question that you may be wondering is how much RAM you are using. To find this out in the Windows Vista operating system, you will want to do the following:

 

·        Right-click on an open area of the taskbar along the bottom and select “Task Manager.”

 

 

·        When the “Task Manager” comes up, go to the “Performance” tab.

 

·        Here’s a better idea of some of the important numbers you’ll find here:

1.      Physical Memory (MB) – Total – This number tells you how much RAM is actually installed on your computer. In the case of the screenshot shown next, you’ll see this computer has 1023 MB installed, which is approximately 1 GB. Remember that there are 1,024 MB in 1 GB. So 1,023 MB / 1,024 = 0.9990234375 GB.

2.      Physical Memory (MB) – Cached – This refers to the amount of memory that the system has recently used for system resources. Windows Vista has a new feature called “Windows SuperFetch™” memory management. It runs in the background to determine which applications you use most and puts them into most of the unused RAM to help speed those applications up for you. That is what the cached memory is that you see here.

3.      Physical Memory (MB) – Free – This is the amount of memory that is unused at this point in time. In this case, this computer has about 10 MB free.

4.      Page File – This is an important couple of numbers. They are there to tell you about the page file (also known as virtual memory). When the computer runs out of physical installed RAM to use, it writes to and reads the information to the hard drive on a file called the page file. Unfortunately, using the mechanical hard drive is much slower than using   electronic RAM. The first number shows the amount of installed RAM and virtual memory (the page file) that is in use at this point in time. The second number is the total amount of installed RAM combined with the size of the virtual memory available.

 

 

 

 

So, what does this tell you? The first number in the page file information is probably the most important. In this example, I am using a total of 980 MB. We already determined that I have 1,023 MB of installed RAM. The key is that if the 980 MB of memory in use were to increase to above 1,023, it means the Windows Vista OS has started to use the page file because it has no more installed RAM left. And that also means you’re computer will likely slow to a crawl because of how slow page file access is.

 

In this example, there are really no major applications open right now. About half the RAM is being used by the Windows Vista OS as well as applications running in the background. If I start opening a few software programs, such as the Microsoft Outlook email client, the Internet Explorer browser, and the Quicken software, suddenly the first number for the “Page File” jumps up to 1,081 MB.

 

 

 

1,081 MB is more than the 1,023 MB of installed RAM and has drastically slowed down the computer. This is a sign that this computer needs more physical RAM. If you usually keep a few software applications open at the same time, you will probably run into this same problem.

 

I generally would recommend that you have no less than 1 GB (1,024 MB) of physical RAM installed on a computer running Windows Vista. If possible, however, I would suggest beefing this up to 2 GB (2,048 MB). Trust me – you’ll thank me later! RAM is one of the least expensive, but most effective performance boosters you can give your computer.