Should I add more RAM? If my Dell laptop has 256 MB RAM and the burner program I am using uses 321.0 MB.?

Question

I have a laptop Dell computer that has windows XP on it. I have an external cd/dvd burner of which I purchased from Dell last year. I am using Pinnacle studio 8 which I love to make and burn the slideshows. I have been to Best Buy and bought different things to assist me with a full complete burn without success. All I want to do is complete a full dvd burn of slideshow pictures which is usually about 10-20 minutes worth of dvd time but my computer shuts down in mid burn but will burn other shorter picts of 2-3 minutes. So is this a memory issue on the computer itself or should I add it just to the program? I am confused....PLEASE HELP WITH AN ECONIMICAL ANSWER....THANKS SO MUCH.

Thanks so much to all who have answered. Your answers are very helpful.

Answer 1

256 megs is pretty low amount of memory these days, but it shouldn't prevent you from burning cd's or DVD's. I don't know of any burner that takes 321.00 megs of memory, perhaps you are talking about all of the programs you are running at one time.
1. Reduce the number of programs you are running on the machine. Temp turn off your virus scanning software when you go to burn. Look at what other useless junk you have running in the background and eliminate them.
2. Add memory if you can. 256 is about the minimum for use with XP.
3. Don't use Pinnacle to burn, get Nero 7.0 Ultra
The cheapest way to probably solve your problem is #1 above. Won't cost you a dime. XP should only take up about 140 MB with standard stuff running (controllers etc) Find out what is using so much of your memory.

Answer 2

Well Windows XP I believe requires 64 or 128 megs just to run Windows itself. So adding more RAM couldn't hurt what I would do is Setup your slidehow burn and the hit Ctrl-Alt-Del and go to Processes tab and watch the processes if you find the application is using a lot or memory or proccess then you will know. Also is you hard drive Defragged and are there any other crazy applications running in the background? Both can cause issues. If your computer need Defragged then when the system goes to use the SWAP file it may have issues and shut down. The Same problem can happen if you have bad sectors on your hardrive, but this usually is not the case until hardrive starts going bad.

Answer 3

If the burner is working on short buners, but no long one, then it does sound like a resource issue. You appear to be running out of "memory" at some point. Whether it is the physical memory in the computer, or "virtual" memory (which is hard drive space) I do not know.

Clearing additional free space on your hard drive may help, as it will give Windows more room for "virtual" memory, swap files, etc. (And its free).

Adding additional physical (RAM) memory will also help, as it will reduce the amount of "virtual" memory you need. You can never have too much memory. But sure you check the documentation for what kind of memory you can use before you purchase anything. (You can also go to support.dell.com, enter the Service Tag number for your computer, and select "original configuration". It will tell you kind and speed of memory your computer came with when you brought it.)

Answer 4

The reason why Windows shuts down is that you have not just gone over the physical memory installed but also you must of used up the swap file and if Windows cannot cope it will shut down. I would consider to upgrade to 1024MB of memory due to that Windows Vista would require that and also you will not have this problem or install Pinnacle Studio 6 or something older versions commonly use less memory and resources.

Answer 5

Ram may be the purely element i'd improve in simple terms in case you going to do something else in certain different then information superhighway and e mail. you've already got 256mb Ram. If oyu purchase yet another 512mb try to be good to bypass for a lengthy time period. facet observe: Ram enhancements will enhance a workstation p.c. the most. So each and each and every time you improve Ram should be first.

Answer 6

Speaking of Virtual Memory, you may want to check out www.techspot.com/tweaks/memory-winxp/. They will walk you through on maximizing your VM to better help with some of the memory issues you are experiencing.

A memory upgrade is recommended as well (512mb minimum).

Another thing you will want to do, is check how much space you have left on your hard drive. If your hard drive gets too full, programs that you run may cause memory problems as well.

Answer 7

It could be a memory issue. I say any computer nowadays needs at least 1GB of RAM so it can have some staying power.

PS Try asking at http://forums.anandtech.com and buy from http://www.newegg.com next time ;) The prices are much better than anything Best Buy will ever have.

Answer 8

You should have also listed every spec on your laptop included processor and video and sound cards. You probably need at least a boost to 512MB but 1024MB would be better. You may need a faster processor as well. But you can purchase ram from some one other than dell. Go to cnet , pc world & smartcomputing.com and see what they say.

Answer 9

You may wanna increase to 500 mb of ram. I got 1gig of ram on my desktop and it still slows down a little when I'm burning dvds. So it looks like you figured out the problem you self.

Answer 10

Yes, you should add as much memory as you can afford and your computer will allow. Adding memory is one of the best upgrades that you can do, it'll drastically improve performance and it's money well spent.