Do I need to concern myself with latency when buying RAM for old laptop?

[Relztrah]

I have an old Gateway SOLO 5150 that I'm going to give to my mother-in-law so that she can check e-mail from upstairs without having to navigate stairs down to the basement where her PC is located. (You would not ask the obvious question, "Why don't you just move her desktop machine upstairs?" if you saw her house.)

Anyway, I cobbled together a wireless network for her and stuck a wireless network adapter into the SOLO so that she can use this old laptop running Windows ME, but one thing I would like to do is add some RAM so that it's not so painfully slow. It currently has 2 sticks of 64MB.

It takes the 144 pin SODIMM RAM modules and people are selling them cheap on eBay since this RAM is obsolete. I'm thinking that 2 sticks of 128MB will help considerably; any more than that is a waste and might not even run in this old jalopy.

Some sellers list the latency as CL2 or CL3. I'm not even sure what that means, but do I need to be aware of latency? There's nothing about it on the Gateway website where it shows the different types of RAM that go into this laptop.

[Whyzman]

Have you also looked at trimming down the bloat of WinMe?? You can dump System Restore and shut down all non essentials in Startup. Set the temporary internet files to dump on reboot etc...

Have you run the model through Corsair product finder?? Great for determing what viable options are available... http://www.corsair.com/#

[Relztrah]

Have you also looked at trimming down the bloat of WinMe?? You can dump System Restore and shut down all non essentials in Startup. Set the temporary internet files to dump on reboot etc...]

How do I do this? I assume by running msconfig, right? But I don't see those options there.

Also, thanks for the tip about Corsair, but I'm afraid the site was created after this laptop. I don't see any reference to the SOLO under Gateway laptops.

[Whyzman]

Disable System Restore

1. Click Start, Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2. Double-click the System icon. The System Properties dialog box appears.

NOTE: If the System icon is not visible, click "View all Control Panel options" to display it.

3. Click the Performance tab, and then click File System.
4. Click the Troubleshooting tab, and then check Disable System Restore.
5. Click OK. Click Yes, when you are prompted to restart Windows.

I know the main Regcleaner by Jouni Vuorio is now a pay for product, but the version I cherish is apparently still available for free. It has a Startup tab where you can delete entries without having to reboot as you do with MSConfig... http://www.majorgeeks.com/download460.html

Under Internet Properties>advanced there's a tick to add for emptying temporary internet files when the browser is closed.

If you've access to the computer on a regular basis...I'd suggest putting CCleaner on there somewhere and run it when you can...or, if you trust her to do so, show her how to run just the basic cleanup.

Sorry about the Corsair not going back that far... :(

[Sylvander]

1. Move all the data files off the Windows partition [C:] to make it lean, mean, and fast to find Windows/Programs things.

2. Make dedicated partition for the paging file so the paging file is fast and unfragmented, and doesn't fragment the Windows partition.

3. Install a defrag program that runs in the background to keep all the storage locations constantly free of fragmentation.
This will make programs fast to open and close.
I use Ashampoo Magical Defrag (http://www.ashampoo.com/frontend/products/php/product.php?idstring=0044&session_langid=2) which isn't free, but I believe there is one out there.
e.g. Background Optimizer v1.23 (http://www.bluechillies.com/count/download/44193/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.b-optimizer.com%2Ffiles%2Fbo-setup.exe/) got HERE (http://www.bluechillies.com/screenshot/44193.html). [Never used it myself]

4. Install Startup Control Panel (http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml) to control which programs are included in the Startup list.

[Relztrah]

This is all very helpful, but I'm still wondering about the question of latency for the RAM. Regardless, I put a stick of 128MB sodimm RAM in there and the machine recognized it so I'm up to 192MB (Windows registers only 160MB for whatever reason) and I may just "leave well enough alone" as the saying goes.

Thanks for your suggestions.
Relztrah

[mjc]

No, unless you are trying to eek out the last drop of performance from the machine, don't worry about the latencies.

As to the 32 MB difference...probably now that there is enough RAM installed, the onboard graphics is using the maximum that it can. Onboard graphics usually share RAM in steps like this...2MB, 4MB, 8MB, 16MB, 32...most stop at 32 or 64 MB.