You have gone out and bought a great desktop computer, with all the bells and whistles, including an awesome graphics card, a super fast solid state hard drive and a tonne of DDR memory, only to start playing that latest game or an application and you find out your computer is not running as fast as it could.

The problem could be, your computer and operating system are not using all it resources correctly, specifically the RAM (Random Access Memory).

This can be a real head ache as there are a number of factors which go into your computer not being able to use all its resources correctly. This post will help to diagnose and repair RAM utilisation problems.

What is RAM (Memory)

Ram is a physical component in the computer which stored working memory.

There is lots of data on the hard drive of your computer. But you are not always accessing it and using it. When you do, or you access a particular program or application, it is loaded into the RAM and becomes workable to use.

RAM is much faster than your hard drive, but once the data is loaded from your hard drive and into the memory, it can be accessed almost instantly.

The more things you are doing on your computer at the same time, the more RAM you will need otherwise your computer will become very slows as its trying to load and rearrange data into the RAM if you do not have enough of it.

Also some games and applications will need lots of RAM. Not having enough will make those applications and your computer as a whole run very slow, sometimes to the point you can not do anything.

An example is when you have a bunch of viruses on your computer. If there are too many and they are doing too much and you don’t have enough RAM, your computer will be overloaded and unable to be used.

In cases where you are running lots of different things simultaneously, more RAM will mean a faster computer.

Compatibility

If you have built your own system or someone else has, you might have RAM which is not compatible with your motherboard and system.

Just because you have the right type of RAM doesn’t mean the specific manufacturers RAM will run stable on your system.

It pays to do a little research first and find out what other people are using on the same board as you and find a compatibility list which specifically mentions your equipment.

A word of warning, sometimes even parts on the same comparability list do not work together. In this case it could be something else like a graphics card, hard drive or even PSU (Power Supply Unit).

Is Your RAM Faulty

It’s not uncommon for memory to be faulty straight off the assembly line. Also, RAM is very sensitive and can be damaged in transport, sudden movement, static etc.

There are many applications which can test your RAM but I have never had a whole lot of success with them.

If you have more than 8GB or 16GB of memory, you probably have more than one RAM module installed into your motherboard.

A good way to test if one of them is faulty is to remove one, turn your computer on and see if it makes any difference in your game, operating system or application. Then take it out and test the other.

This is a good way to test through the process of elimination and we do this a lot in case one of the RAM modules are faulty.

Also, another thing you can try and I don’t know why this happens, is to rearrange your RAM modules to different slots. I cant tell you how many time the simply act of moving them has increased performance in a computer.

Change Your BIO Settings

Your BIOS (Basic Input Output System) is what you access on your motherboard to give your computer basic instructions on what to do.

If your BIOS settings are not correct, it can interfere with the smooth running of your entire system, including how your memory is allocated and how it is used.

Be careful when you enter your BIOS.

Making changes can cause your computer not be able to start at all. Only do this if you are experienced with BIO settings for your particular motherboard.

Recommended Settings:

• Virtualization – ON.
• iGPU – OFF.
• Render Stability – Enabled
• iGPU memory – Auto

Update Your BIOS

Updating your bios might also help your computer utilise your RAM better also.

When your motherboard is released, they sometimes later on find problems with it and issue updates. If a memory problem is identified after the release of your motherboard, they will issue an update which can be downloaded and installed over the internet.

There are less problems with BIOS updates now than there was before.  However, I still worry about an update causing a computer to not start properly.

Make sure before you do any BIO tweaks or updates your completely back up your system and files in case it results in loss.

Are You Using the Correct Version of Windows

If it is a new system you are most likely using the Microsoft Windows 10 operating system.

This operating system comes in two versions, a 32-BIT and 64-Bit.

The 32-Bit version only allows for 4GB of memory to be used in the system. You might have more installed but this version of Windows will only see 4GB.

Check to make sure you are running the 64-Bit version. If you are not, you will need to upgrade to it on order to get the performance of memory you have bought and need out of it.

To check what version of Windows you are running, search on your computer for the SYSTEM page and it will say it at the top.

Virus Related

Software can control hardware. And computer viruses are software, computer code which can do many different things such as make your computer behave badly, stop it from running, advertise to you, infect your operating system, spy on you and make hardware behave incorrectly.

Technically virus can not infect RAM, but viruses can infect your operating system such as Windows which allocates how the RAM is used and what is stored in the memory. And even if there was a virus which infected your RAM, it would be cleared the second your computer restarted as is the nature of memory and how it works.

Operating System Related

Your operating system, Windows, OSX or Linux is a very complicated and sensitive bit of software. It is the environment in which you operate. I like to think of the operating system as the world and the programs are the cities and towns.

Your operating system is always changing with every write, read, update, upgrade and installation.

This same operating system is responsible for how data and applications use the RAN. Changes in your operating system can serious effected its usage.

As discussed earlier, virus can damage your operating system but there are other scenarios which can do the same.

A badly written program can make changes to your operating system for the worse and so can a bad update and upgrade to the actual operating system itself.

If the operating system is damaged to bad you might need to do a total reset and refresh. (Back up your data because there is serious risk of loosing it all).

If its not that bad you can always go back to an earlier restore point, or you can run a chkdsk to see if there are any problems in the operating system which can be self repaired.

Townsville Nerds Can Help

If you think you are not getting the full potential from your operating system or physical components, give Ross at Townsville Nerds a call today.

We offer a 100% free diagnosis and quote. We will find out whats wrong with your computer totally free of charge and quote you.

You are under no obligation to accept my quote. If you don’t, the diagnosis is still free.