Hi, they say i need to upgrade my RAM so i can play my games again.

Because first off, my computer used to be really fast. Now its SUPER SLOW

Well heres one point, in the past 1 year, i have never shut off my computer ever.
And by that i mean, i never shut it down at night. I just left it there overnight.

Ok, so now for the last 3 weeks its already really slow. Some of my IT friends say because of leaving the thing open and stuff, the Memory of the RAM gets taken up.

So my question is, Is upgrading/buying a new RAM thing is the only way out of this?

So i can play games SMOOTHly again?

By the way here are my computers statistics or some sort.

Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 @ 2.40 GHz
2.00 GB RAM
NVIDIA GEFORCE 8400

Well, 2Gb of RAM is not a lot these days, but your IT friends are wrong if they are suggesting your computer is running slower because you leave your computer running. I never turn off my computers either and they only get rebooted when an update requires it. Computers and Windows are designed to run 24/7/365.

While it is true that having programs running consumes RAM, that has nothing to do with the computer running for weeks on end - especially if the computer used to run find, and suddenly in the last couple weeks, started running super slow. That would suggest something has changed.

To make a point, reboot. If it still runs slow after that, then so much for the theory it is because you have been running for a year.

I suspect your computer is cluttered with crud, or perhaps malware - or both. Have you scanned for malware? Have you cleared the clutter with Disk Cleanup? Do you have lots of free disk space?

Having said that, once you are sure your system is free of malware, de-cluttered of 1000s of old temp files, and you have plenty of free disk space for Windows and the PF to operate unrestricted, then you might consider another 2Gb of RAM. It is certain you will see a nice performance bump. In the meantime, ensure you only have running at startup what you need, and that you exit, not just minimize, programs when done using them.

2Gb of RAM used to be more than enough, but sadly, thanks to badguys, consumers have to load our computers up with resource hogging security software before we can even think of productivity or entertainment software. My recommended minimums today for adequate performance is 3Gb for triple-channel motherboards and 4Gb for dual-channel.

Well, i just came from the Malware/Adware/Spyware part of this forum.

And its already 100% guaranteed that my computer is clean.

So now my only choice is to get 4GB ram?

By the way, heres another one.

The longer my computer stays on the slower the computer gets.

For example, if i play a flash game on the net, after 10-20 minutes, the game will eventually slow down.

Whats up with that? I need to shut down my computer for like 30min-1 hour then turn it on again just so that i can play video games smoothly for awhile.

Really getting frustrated.

If you have to leave your computer off for a period of time (instead of just rebooting), then that suggest you have a heat problem. Note that many computers, especially notebooks, toggle down in speed when hot to keep from burning up.

Do make sure your system if clean of heat trapping dust and dirt, that all fans are spinning, and that you have good front to back flow through the case.

How much free disk space do you have?

Note that more RAM does not just give Windows and your CPU more working space, but because Windows can keep more data in faster RAM, the slow page file on the hard disk will not be needed near as often. That's a good thing.

I just cleaned the fans on my computer last 2 weeks ago.

But still same thing, i play some games, it slows down after 30min-1 hour.

I heard in the internet, do you think this is a "memory leak" ? And i think its not the fans.

Load the following monitoring tools and report back any discovered TRENDS:

Memory Leak / CPU & Memory Utilization Graph (Vista/W7):
Windows Gadgets - All CPU Meter

Monitor your minimum/maximum TEMPERATURES over time:
CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting

I dont understand, i see the temperatures and stuff but what am i supposed to do with them sorry, im not sure.

Can you help me please? I really cant understand whats wrong with my computer, the temperatures seem normal to me though.

Originally Posted by Josef Royol

I dont understand, i see the temperatures and stuff but what am i supposed to do with them sorry, im not sure.

Are the temperature ranges reasonably stable over time (one minute benchmark) while everything seems to be working fine - that the min/max ranges do not change excessively with functional cooling? My current normal range is 2-8 degrees C with the current 'value' always closest/returning to near minimum. But it is 14 degrees here, today.

Also what is the RAM % change after a suitable passage of time with no new programs loaded? I have an E5400 that has a stable range of 41-50% depending on what I am doing (3GB RAM)