Computer is slowing down

Charlie Luna charlieluna1974 at gmail.com
Wed Dec 4 14:53:59 UTC 2013


If the ram is being shared with the video chipset if it's not a stand alone
card with its own ram, that's going to make a computer run slower than one
with a dedicated video chipset with its own ram. However, if the operating
has gotten bigger with more code, it will fill the ram more therefore
placing more burden on the system as the programs have to find a place to
put the data. When that happens, when the ram gets full, the system turns
to the hard drive for space, thus taking more time to load. Outside of
reinstalling your OS to clean it up, adding more ram and/or adding a stand
alone video card will eliminate a majority of that bottleneck. Depending on
whether you're using a 32 or 64 bit pentium 4, that will dictate the
highest amount of ram it can use. I think if my memory serves correctly, a
32 bit system has a max ram size of 4 GB where a 64 bit is 8 or 16 GB. But
my first suggestion would be to reinstall everything to see if that helps.
If not, add a video card. And then more system ram. But i highly suggest a
stand alone video card.
On Dec 4, 2013 3:55 AM, "John R. Sowden" <jsowden at americansentry.net> wrote:

> I have been using the same computer (Pentium 4 3.0GHz 1GB RAM (shared 875
> MB for non-video use) 1.5GB swap, 13.10 xubuntu/xfce desktop) for several
> years, and its been working fine.  Click on an icon, the program executes
> right away, etc.
>
> In the last year, the system seems to have been slowing down.  It takes
> 2-3 seconds from a click on an icon until the program starts to execute
> (not up and running).  I am wondering if xubuntu is getting  bigger and
> bigger, taking more ram (I assume that is the issue) without letting us
> know that requirements are changing.  I also am wondering if more
> non-essential programs are being added to the install that are running in
> ram, that are not necessarily needed.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> John
>
>
>
> --
> ubuntu-users mailing list
> ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/
> mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/attachments/20131204/2a9638cc/attachment.html>


More information about the ubuntu-users mailing list