Suggestions needed for running Windows 10 Home 64-bit on 4 GB RAM

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It’s as simple as that.  It’s very slow. An AMD processor. Lenovo IdeaPad S145.

Asking for a friend who didn’t seek my advice before buying.

Please.

Thanks.

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Any way to go to http://www.crucial.com and buy more ram?  Otherwise learn patience and use Brave browser as IMHO it tends to use less ram.

Oh and don’t install ANY third party security software that will suck more resources.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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WSJCitizen, doriel

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[bratkinson]

Just like Lenovo….many options for the same computer, so it’s impossible to know just what’s inside your friends’ computer.  I’ll take a wild guess and say it’s an AMD  A4-9125, dual core 2.3-2.6 ghz processor and a 500gb hard drive, although some sites claim it’s a 128gb SSD inside.  Thankfully, it’s not an “S” version of Windows 10, that restricts all installed software must come via the Microsoft store.

Obviously, putting an extra 4gb stick of RAM in it would noticeably speed things up.  The problem is that although just about any Laptop RAM that fits would work, ideally, the best way to go is to open it up and get an identical 4gb stick of RAM that’s already in there.  That way, it should be able to use enhanced RAM access methods for better performance.  I couldn’t find anywhere if it can handle 16gb of RAM, but if your friend wants it to fly, 16gb, 2 matched sticks of 8gb would work wonders.  I did that with my ASUS quad processor laptop and it is lightning fast.

If it doesn’t already have an SSD inside, that would be the next upgrade I would drop in.  For most home users, 128gb SSD is sufficient.  But many, like myself, have a ton of videos on it, so I opted for 256gb, to ensure I have at least 30-50gb available at all times for performance considerations.

If your friend has had the computer for a while, odds are there’s a number of useless ‘freebie’ software that came with it as well as programs that piggy back with good software that one downloads or updates, such as Adobe Flash Player.  If your friend doesn’t un-check a box, they’ll get a free copy of McAfee Anti-Virus or something like that installed.  If so, then there’s 2 or possibly 3 Anti-Virus/Internet Security packages running concurrently, all fighting each other.  Throw in the possibility of multiple cloud services such as One Drive, Adobe, and others.  Every cloud service spends considerable time at boot up to synchronize what’s in the cloud with the computer, and periodically repeats that check every so often.  If you don’t know how to reduce the unnecessary baggage on your friends computer, I recommend your find someone who does and can do some housekeeping, including some of the useless Windows 10 baggage that Microsoft insists on forcing our computers to run.

The reality these days is most computer buyers don’t have a clue what’s in the box.  They’re looking more at price than specs and end up buying a computer that once a couple of programs are added by the buyer, bogs down quickly.  The good news is that it can be upgraded to get good performance out of it.

And should you decide you may want to do the upgrade for your friend, if my ASUS laptop is any guide, there’s 14 different length screws in back to remove just to get the plastic bottom off.  6 more to remove the hard drive, and 1 more to access RAM.  Gone are the days of separate, one-screw-to-remove cover panels for the hard drive and RAM.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 1 month ago by bratkinson.

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WSJCitizen

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I assume it’s a new laptop?

More RAM and an SSD are the obvious solution, but if your friend is strapped for cash and  doesn’t need any Windows specific software then Lubuntu (a light linux version) will give you decent performance.

cheers, Paul

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doriel

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Obviously, putting an extra 4gb stick of RAM in it would noticeably speed things up.

Thats not for sure. It depends how many services and resident (on the background) programs you use. If many, change can be obvoius, but the true bottleneck of this system is surely its HDD.

If it doesn’t already have an SSD inside, that would be the next upgrade I would drop in.

If you want my opinion, this is the first think you should do. I Installed, repaired and recommended numerous computers and this is the most powerful weapon of these days. 128 GB is sufficient if you dont want your upgrade cost too much.

there’s a number of useless ‘freebie’ software that came with it as well as programs that piggy back with good software

And definatelly remove preinstalled SW that starts up with your PC – Lenovo registration, McAfee trial, …

You can check this out by running msconfig from the Win+R window (or taskmgr) and see which apps takes the most of your resources.

Dell Latitude 3420, Intel Core i7 @ 2.8 GHz, 16GB RAM, W10 22H2 Enterprise

HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

PRUSA i3 MK3S+

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I have a 2006 XP-era 32 bit Acer laptop with only 3GB of RAM and it has been able to run all versions of 32 bit W10 apart from 1809 (which could not be installed due to a CPU specific problem which Microsoft never fixed).

All have been sluggish so I’m sensitive to sluggishness where others with newer, faster PCs may not be. Different versions of W10 have been sluggish to different extents, with no overall trend either towards better or worse performance. On my PC W10 1803 was the most responsive version so far, but 1909 is OK.

So if your current version appears slow, the next version may appear less slow, or vice versa. As more than one version of W10 is supported at a time, you might be able to delay or bring forward when you install a feature update to pick the most responsive? (If you make a backup before the feature update, but find the new version slower, restore the backup to the previous version.)

Wrt Susan Bradley’s point about not using a 3rd party AV and sticking with Windows Defender, in my experience the lightweight Panda Free AV uses less RAM. According to CleanMem ~24% of the total 3GB RAM is in use when the PC is idle and settled down after start-up, compared to ~30% with Defender, with everything else the same in W10 1909. Panda does not spend the 1st few minutes after PC start-up doing whatever Defender does (disk activity settles down much sooner) and overall it gives a more responsive feel to this slow PC.

The potential downside using a 3rd party AV is that Microsoft will throw out an update which clashes with the AV, but this would/should be less likely with Defender (if the left hand at MS knows what the right hand is doing). There have been a few of these 3rd party AV issues (AFAIK none affecting Panda?). If that was to happen you could uninstall the 3rd party AV and Defender should still be there and switch on.

HTH. Garbo.

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WSJCitizen

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Wow! Thanks for all the wonderful suggestions!

I must admit that my post was posited on what I now see was a false assumption: that I couldn’t add memory to a (any) laptop. Obviously wrong.

I will relay these suggestions to the owner. I estimate roughly $175 in Canadian, which is better than laying out for a new machine in my estimation. I see that there are various YouTube videos to show me what to do if she wants to go ahead with the upgrades.

Thanks very much to all.

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Be sure the RAM is replaceable on the laptop. Some of the recent ones have it soldered to the motherboard. You can find the service manual with that information on the mfg’s website using the model# and maybe an identification code on the machine.

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You heavyweights….

I am running a Win 10 Home x64 machine with 2GB RAM and a 250GB SSD.

I use it to stream HD programs on the 50 inch telly using Firefox and Edge (which I hate but it works on sites that don’t like Firefox).

It all works but updates can be a real pain as they can take upwards of 2 hours.

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If I am reading the correct specs, then at least your friend’s laptop has a workable hard drive — 128GB SSD.

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/ideapad-100-series/Lenovo-IdeaPad-S145-15AST/p/88IPS101207

The computer is therefore usable, but it won’t be very fast because it is short on memory. Sometimes it will run ok, sometimes it won’t.

However, as Susan said above, if you can add more memory, it will be fine. You need a minimum of 8GB total, but 16GB total memory would be even better. Hopefully it is possible to add memory to this laptop.

I went to the Crucial website and did a search for your laptop. It appears that the memory currently in your laptop is not removable; but you can add one memory stick. A 4GB memory stick would cost around $20, which would bring the laptop up to 8GB.

https://www.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/lenovo/ideapad-s145-%2814-inch%29-intel

An 8GB stick would cost around $35, and it would bring the laptop up to 12GB. That is what I would recommend in your case.

You will need to go to the Crucial website and put in the exact specs for your computer. I looked at the memory for the laptop with an Intel CPU and a 14″ screen, so the prices may be different when you search it.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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WSJCitizen

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PKCano wrote:
Be sure the RAM is replaceable on the laptop. Some of the recent ones have it soldered to the motherboard.

Be sure the RAM is replaceable or otherwise expandable on the laptop.

PKCano is correct that sometimes RAM is soldered to MB, but you’re still ok as long as total RAM is expandable via expansion slot/connector.

Hope this helps.

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As a follow-up — since this post is mentioned in the most recent AskWoody Plus Newsletter —

For unexplained reasons, she decided to leave bad enough alone. She does not want to upgrade either memory or drive.

BUT she has said she is going to abandon this machine and will consult with me before she buys the next one. 

Probably later in the pandemic. 

Thank you all for your help and suggestions.

 

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Bluetrix

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A client brought me his laptop, saying it was slow and he asked if it had a virus.  No virus, so I considered upping the memory from 4GB to 8GB.  Oops!  To do so with this awful and cheaply made plastic Dell Inspiron 15 would have required me to pull the keyboard, remove the touchpad, then remove the motherboard to get at a memory slot.  Ditto, to replace the s-l-o-w 5400 RPM Seagate drive with an SSD.  I will not charge more than the computer is worth to do either of these upgrades, so when he returns from vacation I will tell him the laptop was born slow.

I tell a lot of people that these cheap specials from big box stores are often inexpensively made with substandard components, difficult to maintain or repair.  Unfortunately, people simply buy without understanding what it is they are getting, and neither the seller nor the manufacturer is much help, obfuscating useful information.  There are two classes of computers sold.  Retail stores sell mostly computers made inexpensively for consumers.  One has to shop elsewhere to get the well-made business-class computers.

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My sister bought a dell w/ a celeron cpu(groan ) and 4 gb ram from Walmart(groan) it is slower than my 30 yr old calculator. Dell JUNKwARE

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lenrdbik wrote:

she has said she is going to abandon this machine

Download a Linux Live USB and boot the machine from that. Try it out and see if she thinks it’s acceptable.

cheers, Paul

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WSJCitizen

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FWIW – I’ve got an 11 year old Acer laptop with 4 GB of RAM and a Celeron processor. It’s running Linux Mint 19.2 Cinnamon and just bops right along. It makes a perfectly acceptable daily driver and looks quite a bit like Windows 7 (and it’s much faster than Win 7). I probably wouldn’t want to do any deep learning with big data or quantum mechanical molecular structure determination calculations with it, but for everyday stuff it’s just fine. Factor in a purchase price of $400 when new and it’s been one heckuva machine.

I may be wrong, but I think you can also get Mint with the Mate and XFCE desktops, both of which are ‘lighter weight’ than Cinnamon and could speed things up a bit.

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