Will this solve my problem?

[flair1239]

I have a Gateway M520, that I am four tabling on. It has 256K of RAM. I play over a dial up connection, that says I connect at around 49,333K.

When I play I have 3-6 site lobbies open, PAHUD, GT+, (2) instances of pokertracker (One to import hard drive hand histories and the other to download e-mailed ones), and my tables.

As the night progresses I experience more and more mini-freezes of about 3-12 seconds in duration. My cursor will start moving slow and things will happen in slow motion.

Last night I downloaded a program called "RAM Idle" from Tweaknow. It is supposed to free up RAM when it gets close to maxed out. It seems to help, but not enough. The freezes are less frequent, but still bothersome.

According to RAM Idle, when all my crap is up and running I have about 45MB of RAM remaining, once I am playing this number usually bounces from 14 (at which point RAM Idle commences recovery) to 60 (Immediately after RAM Idle recovers).

I spoke to Gateway customer support and described my problem. I ended up purchasing 500MB of RAM that will be here Wednesday. Am I throwing away money, or will this help?

Any other suggestions? (besides buying a new computer or High speed internet access, neither are a option right now).

[IHateKeithSmart]

A bit more RAM would be the first thing I'd suggest, especially if you are using at least Windows 2000. These mini-freezups would almost surely not be solved by a higher-speed connection.

[flair1239]

[ QUOTE ]
A bit more RAM would be the first thing I'd suggest, especially if you are using at least Windows 2000. These mini-freezups would almost surely not be solved by a higher-speed connection.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have Windows XP, the "Home version" I think.

[IHateKeithSmart]

Most likely the ram will do the trick. Post back w/ results.

[Guthrie]

More RAM is hardly ever throwing money away.

[kenberman]

I have Windows 2k with 1.5 GB of RAM, 2.2 GHz P4, and I get these slowdowns as well. for me, it's not a RAM issue, but a CPU maxed out issue. sigh.

[flair1239]

[ QUOTE ]
I have Windows 2k with 1.5 GB of RAM, 2.2 GHz P4, and I get these slowdowns as well. for me, it's not a RAM issue, but a CPU maxed out issue. sigh.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is what I am wondering if the RAM will really solve the problem, because that won't make my processor move any faster... will it?

Because my CPU usage occasionally taps 100%, however, many of the slowdowns occur when the CPU usage is less than say 60%.

[flair1239]

In other words can somebody give me a crash course in RAM?

[MyMindIsGoing]

It should help getting that extra ram. 256mb is not enough for what you wanna do, unless you have done alot of tweaks in the OS.

[MyMindIsGoing]

[ QUOTE ]
In other words can somebody give me a crash course in RAM?

[/ QUOTE ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_access_memory

[kenberman]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I have Windows 2k with 1.5 GB of RAM, 2.2 GHz P4, and I get these slowdowns as well. for me, it's not a RAM issue, but a CPU maxed out issue. sigh.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is what I am wondering if the RAM will really solve the problem, because that won't make my processor move any faster... will it?

Because my CPU usage occasionally taps 100%, however, many of the slowdowns occur when the CPU usage is less than say 60%.

[/ QUOTE ]

if you're running xp, you should get more than 256mb RAM, regardless of this poker slowdown issue. it maymay not help the poker issue, but it will certainly help your pc overall, and it's money well spent.

[Lefthander]

If you don't already, you sould try running pokertracker on "belownormal" priority. I'm only running on a 1.25 processor, and this allows me to 8-table w/ PT and PV and no slowdowns. The only thing that holds me up is the Party MTT software.

[kenberman]

[ QUOTE ]
If you don't already, you sould try running pokertracker on "belownormal" priority. I'm only running on a 1.25 processor, and this allows me to 8-table w/ PT and PV and no slowdowns. The only thing that holds me up is the Party MTT software.

[/ QUOTE ]

tx. how do I do this?

[Lefthander]

Go to the task manager. Click on the Processes tab. Right-click on Ptrack2.exe and go to Set Priority. Click on BelowNormal. This will make PT import a little slower, but it also stops it from hogging the CPU when something else needs it.

[flair1239]

Got my new 512MB memory card today. Had a minor problem installing it. But it seems to have solved the problems completely.

I four tabled all night, including running (2) tables of Absolute Poker, which previously would have instigated a major stall. Everything ran very smooth.

The only other adjustment I have been making is per a earlier posters suggestion, I run PAHUD, GT+, and PT on below normal priority. This does not seem to negatively effect those programs at all.

Thank you all for your advice.