RAM Card Question

[eardolino413]

Hi there,

I'm running a Dell Studio XPS Desktop with 64-bit Windows 7, 6GB of RAM, and an Intel Core i7 2.67GHz CPU. From the moment I got this computer, I've noticed that things run a little slower than I would like (not necessarily slow, but slower than I think it should run). The thing that kills me is that I use Process Explorer to manage my processes, and the CPU usage NEVER goes above 30%, so sometimes I'm completely baffled about why processes get hung up.

I was looking into upgrading my processor, but realized that since my CPU usage doesn't exceed 30% there really is no point in buying a faster one.

I did, however, also notice that the good people at Dell installed 6 1GB RAM cards instead of 3 2GB or 2 3GB cards. Could this be the reason for the slowness? I can't help but picture my CPU frantically looking through 6 different cards to find the data it is looking for.

Any advice on what may be causing the slowness/how to solve it is immensely appreciated!

 

[NeXuS1]

Firstly defrag your HD that helps a lot if you havent defragged it in a while.

 

[detox1]

I don't think the size or type of RAM is going to affect the CPU load.

 

[eardolino413]

I'm very anal about keeping my computer fixed up - I run CCleaner often, and have a Defrag scheduled to run once weekly, as well as Windows Updates.

Again, the baffling part is that according to the Task Manager and Process Explorer, my CPU is barely being used, yet it still takes forever to, say, open Firefox or Microsoft Word.

Any other suggestions?

 

[detox1]

has the CPU always done this?

if so, you could try resetting the bios to default.

 

[eardolino413]

It has, and I just updated the BIOS a few days ago. That's actually what got me thinking about all of this again.

 

[detox1]

there could be something wrong with the CPU itself. really hard to say. If it were me, I'd try popping the CPU out and back in again. double check all connections and go from there.

 

[eardolino413]

Funny that you should say that as I just popped it out yesterday to see how easy it would be in preparation for upgrading it (never even knew they COULD come out haha). Everything under the hood seems to be connected properly, but boy do I wish I could just plug something in and make it work better.