What processor?

kony wrote:

It's got it's maximum RAM - 1GB.

Did you upgrade the CPU at some point? I ask because the
typical motherboard chipset from the 2.1GHz Athlon XP era
supported at least 1GB per memory slot even if the
manufacturer didn't provide support enough to relist that
later, though of course it may need a certain memory density
or lower to detect it all.

Via KT400 or later, nForce2, both definitely support 1GB per
slot or more, though I don't recall much about the SIS
chipsets of the era.

Its specs say:

Ram (installed) 512 MB (1X512MB)
Maximum allowed 1 GB (2 x 512MB)

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...product=435559

MB is an ASUS A7V8Z-LA. It uses Via KM400A chipset.

MB specs have the caveat:

"Support up to maximum 2 GB memory (PC manufacturer's maximum memory
may differ)"

Obviously with bad HDD sectors you need at a minimum a new
hard drive and possibly to reinstall some apps or even the
OS if files have been corrupted, but another thought is some
of your symptoms almost seem more like what you would see if
you had simply ran out of hard drive space... including if
you are close enough to that happening that when you launch
an app, what little free space remains is taken up by an
increase in pagefile size.

HDD is actually 80GB, and is about half empty.

Add up all the negatives and system age, and being sick of trying to fix
things, I figure a new computer is called for.

Maybe, but I'd still get a hard drive and do a fresh OS
install even if you move to a new box for primary uses.
While that system is slow by today's standards it is still
plenty fast enough for many common uses.

Perhaps. Just a matter of how much $$ I want to dump into that dog, and how
much time I wish to spend fixing it (or paying someone else to fix it.)

Thanks.

On Tue, 25 May 2010 12:08:48 -0700, UCLAN
wrote:


Its specs say:

Ram (installed) 512 MB (1X512MB)
Maximum allowed 1 GB (2 x 512MB)

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...product=435559

MB is an ASUS A7V8Z-LA. It uses Via KM400A chipset.

MB specs have the caveat:

"Support up to maximum 2 GB memory (PC manufacturer's maximum memory
may differ)"

It should support 1GB per slot, so yes 2GB total. However
you might find it more picky than some boards at what memory
it will accept, you'd want to get some from Crucial or
Kingston/etc who guarantee compatibility with that board
model _IF_ your bios doesn't have memory timing settings to
allow you to adjust that if needed... and you'd want to pick
CAS3 rated memory using standard voltage, not the
overclocker grade CAS2.5 1GB modules that need more
voltage... though if the bios has voltage setting for
memory, increasing that a notch or two might also help IF
you need to do anything. Asus usually builds pretty stable
boards so the odds are in your favor even though it uses the
KM400 chipset.

All the above assumes you are not overclocking the memory
bus, if you are you are likely to find a greatly decreased
o'c with 1GB modules.



Obviously with bad HDD sectors you need at a minimum a new
hard drive and possibly to reinstall some apps or even the
OS if files have been corrupted, but another thought is some
of your symptoms almost seem more like what you would see if
you had simply ran out of hard drive space... including if
you are close enough to that happening that when you launch
an app, what little free space remains is taken up by an
increase in pagefile size.

HDD is actually 80GB, and is about half empty.

.... still a bit old to be considered reliable, especially
considering the bad sectors.


Maybe, but I'd still get a hard drive and do a fresh OS
install even if you move to a new box for primary uses.
While that system is slow by today's standards it is still
plenty fast enough for many common uses.

Perhaps. Just a matter of how much $$ I want to dump into that dog, and how
much time I wish to spend fixing it (or paying someone else to fix it.)

Thanks.


If you are sticking with WinXP or 2K instead of Vista or
Win7, 1GB can be enough memory for lots of uses.

I don't recall if you were looking at buying a whole OEM
system or a DIY upgrade/build, but if the latter (or even
the former for more storage) you could get the new hard
drive and reuse it in a new system if it came to that,
although since a new system would mean a move to SATA HDDs,
you'd probably want to get an SATA and one of those $5
IDE-to-SATA adapter boards for use in the old system.
Cheapest place to get one of those is probably meritline.com
or dealextreme.com, though these two take a couple weeks or
more to ship from Hong Kong.

kony wrote:

Its specs say:

Ram (installed) 512 MB (1X512MB)
Maximum allowed 1 GB (2 x 512MB)

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...product=435559

MB is an ASUS A7V8Z-LA. It uses Via KM400A chipset.

MB specs have the caveat:

"Support up to maximum 2 GB memory (PC manufacturer's maximum memory
may differ)"

It should support 1GB per slot, so yes 2GB total.

So you would disregard HP's listed spec of:

Ram (installed) 512 MB (1X512MB)
Maximum allowed 1 GB (2 x 512MB)

and the MB caveat of:

Support up to maximum 2 GB memory (PC manufacturer's maximum memory
may differ)

??

On Tue, 25 May 2010 21:25:23 -0700, UCLAN
wrote:

kony wrote:

Its specs say:

Ram (installed) 512 MB (1X512MB)
Maximum allowed 1 GB (2 x 512MB)

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...product=435559

MB is an ASUS A7V8Z-LA. It uses Via KM400A chipset.

MB specs have the caveat:

"Support up to maximum 2 GB memory (PC manufacturer's maximum memory
may differ)"

It should support 1GB per slot, so yes 2GB total.

So you would disregard HP's listed spec of:

Ram (installed) 512 MB (1X512MB)
Maximum allowed 1 GB (2 x 512MB)

and the MB caveat of:

Support up to maximum 2 GB memory (PC manufacturer's maximum memory
may differ)

??


Disregard max 1GB and assume 1GB per slot = 2GB total, along
with the other timing and voltage issues I mentioned.

On 05/22/2010 02:05 PM, UCLAN wrote:
philo wrote:

My system is 6-years old. For normal home (non gaming) use, what is
today's preffered CPU? Intel's Core i3? i5? AMD's Athlon II? AMD Phenom?

3G RAM? 6G RAM?

If I go with a "ready made" box, HP? Dell?

Thanks.

For "normal" home use, if you have a 6 year old machine then you might as
well keep using it for a few more years.

What, specifically do you think a new machine will do that your
present one
does not.

If your present machine is doing the job then just keep it...

OTOH: If it's a bit on the slow side maybe all you need is a bit more RAM

It's got it's maximum RAM - 1GB. The HD is showing signs of age. Lots of
bad sectors, etc., and is small (60 GB), the CPU is old/slow (Athlon XP at
2.1GHz), I'm getting LOTS of intermittent problems in much of my software -
websites suddenly not opening properly (no graphics), Word giving me "not
enough memory" error message when I try to open, Adobe Reader failing to
open files (or even displaying the "OPEN" file selections), Thunderbird
refusing to add attachments to mail, and more. In all instances, just
closing
affected application and then re-opening solves problem.

Add up all the negatives and system age, and being sick of trying to fix
things, I figure a new computer is called for. I will be keeping my present
monitor, speakers, modem, keyboard, etc., so I figure a PC only in the
$600 or under range is possible.

Any clues to any of the above?

For what it's worth, my computer was about the same age as yours when I
started seeing problems somewhat similar to yours. Mine had an Athlon XP
1900+ processor on a Biostar motherboard. I had the maximum RAM, 2GB,
and an nVidia Geforce 6200 AGP video card. I presently dual-boot with
Mandriva Linux and Windows 2000.

First, my original 40Gb hard drive died. Mine went quickly; after seeing
boot errors for a couple of days it just wouldn't boot at all. I
replaced it with a 160Gb Maxtor from eBay. I had been wanting to put my
secondary 80Gb drive in a secondary back-up computer anyway, so at the
same time I bought a 250Gb drive to put in place of that one. The cost
for both drives was about $50 total, including shipping.

Then my usb started acting up, along with a couple of other things, and
I decided the ol' motherboard needed replacing, too. Again I went to
eBay, and bought a motherboard/processor combo from a recycler for $46
(also including shipping). It's an Asus K8V-MX/s motherboard with a
Sempron 3100+ (64-bit capable) processor. My old RAM was compatible, as
was the nVidia video card.

So the whole outfit cost me less than $100, and it runs Mandriva smooth
as silk. Seems to be the same with Windows, though I've only used it a
time or two. And now I even have enough drive space to try some other
Linux distros.

TJ
--
There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

kony wrote:

So you would disregard HP's listed spec of:

Ram (installed) 512 MB (1X512MB)
Maximum allowed 1 GB (2 x 512MB)

and the MB caveat of:

Support up to maximum 2 GB memory (PC manufacturer's maximum memory
may differ)

??


Disregard max 1GB and assume 1GB per slot = 2GB total, along
with the other timing and voltage issues I mentioned.

Hmmm...I wonder, then, why HP listed the max as 512MB x 2 ??

UCLAN wrote:
kony wrote:

So you would disregard HP's listed spec of:

Ram (installed) 512 MB (1X512MB)
Maximum allowed 1 GB (2 x 512MB)

and the MB caveat of:

Support up to maximum 2 GB memory (PC manufacturer's maximum memory
may differ)

??


Disregard max 1GB and assume 1GB per slot = 2GB total, along
with the other timing and voltage issues I mentioned.

Hmmm...I wonder, then, why HP listed the max as 512MB x 2 ??

If a company has not tested the motherboard with 1GB sticks,
then they may not have rated it as capable of such. That could
be the reason for the conflicting info.

Paul

On Wed, 26 May 2010 21:09:52 -0700, UCLAN
wrote:

kony wrote:

So you would disregard HP's listed spec of:

Ram (installed) 512 MB (1X512MB)
Maximum allowed 1 GB (2 x 512MB)

and the MB caveat of:

Support up to maximum 2 GB memory (PC manufacturer's maximum memory
may differ)

??


Disregard max 1GB and assume 1GB per slot = 2GB total, along
with the other timing and voltage issues I mentioned.

Hmmm...I wonder, then, why HP listed the max as 512MB x 2 ??

Because that is the initial spec Asus provided to them, but
Asus goes back and retests new memory while HP doesn't want
the support costs.

I didn't check Kingston's website, but I checked crucial.com
and they don't list your board, but a contemporary KM400A
board from Asus on their list shows these as compatible:

http://www.crucial.com/store/listpar...odel=A7V400-MX

Your board does not have support for dual channel memory so
you don't necessarily even need to buy 2 x 1GB modules,
could just buy one and have 1.5GB total, or of course, buy a
standard module from someplace with a good return policy
like Newegg.com then if it doesn't work you are out the
return shipping cost and "maybe" 15% restock fee (they often
waive that fee if you call and ask them to).

.... or, if you're going to get a new machine anyway you
might find the secondary role for this system wouldn't
require over 1GB total, it used to be that 1GB seemed like
plenty to run WinXP or older.