I'm seriously thinking about doing the same thing myself (for my computer, not hers!)

Dusty

 

Lol...Plus on top of that a 1GB of DDR2 RAM these days is like $40.00-$50.00 (NewEgg.Com)!! So I may even get her 2GB since she has two extra DIMM's available...

 

If you are having issues with Vista running slow, it could very well be the video card, not the actual memory. Most video cards on laptops arent exactly up to snuff to run Vista appropriately. Unfortunately, there isnt much in the way of being able to upgrade these....

Adding more memory may help, but it may not do much at all....

 

Well, I went ahead and purchased two additional 1GB sticks of RAM, and I also upgraded her crappy onboard graphics to a ATI X1550. So far the difference is amazing with the extra RAM and the "better" graphics.

 

Dont count on them fixing anything. McCrappy doesnt give a damn about its customers. I got McCrappy Internet Security Suite 6 when it came out (finally got broad band so I needed somethng more than just a AV). Worked fine for 2 weeks then the dreaded update screwed everyone up. Took 10-15 MINUTES before it would let you "in". 6 months later still no fix. They like to use customers as beta testers.

 

RAM definitely helps with Vista, purchased a laptop for my dad with 512mb of ram and vista ultimate then ordered 2gb of ram from NewEgg (so much cheaper than getting it in the laptop from the start). Well the laptop came in first and that thing ran pretty slow till we put the 2gigs of ram in. I'd also consider buying a USB thumb drive to use just for readyboost. I got him a 2gig one off NewEgg for like 20 bucks (best to have it match your system RAM size if you can) and it actually does make a noticeable difference.

 

I just upgraded to Vista, looks nice but it took forever (1 1/2 days) to get it working properly..

 

Yeah it looks sexy, but learning the quirks is a pain. I HAVE noticed that an automatic update from Microsoft fixed some of the startup issues I was having. But I'm dumping the McAfee in a few days when it expires, the everyday spam updates are too annoying and I already have Ad-Aware and Norton virus protection ready to install.

Anybody want to buy a printer? Vista doesn't support the one I already have and there are no drivers available to download......[:@]

Dusty

 

dude I totally agree about mcCrappy.

my brand new comps specs I posted in another thread.
NZXT Apollo gaming case
Amd athlon 64 x2 5600
4 gigs of ram Corsair XMS2 extreme with heat spreader
600 watt Nvidia SLI certified PSU
Asus M2N 570 SLI mobo
eVGA Nvidia 8800 GTS 320 mb video card
Thermaltake Max orb processor cooling ( it was gonna be liquid cooled but they sent it with this instead and it's actually an upgrade over liquid so hey hey freebie)
320 gb hard drive
Windows Vista ultimate 64-bit

I have always used mcafee because my ISP offers free mcafee virus, firewall, spyware, privacy protection with subscription to their broadbandconnection. so I get my new comp and go to download the mcafee stuff. do the downlad and as it goes to install it tells me sorry OS not supported read system reqs. I do and it says it supports vista but not which version 32 or 64. so I call my ISP they say mcafee told us they do support 64 get ahold of them through this. which actually isn't a mcafee person it's a person my ISP trained to deal with mcafee products. the guy tells me no mcafee products don't work with 64 bit. but it's only the ones that are offered to you through your ISP that don't support. subscribe to their other stuff and it will work. which was BS because the prodcuts offered are the same as what they offer to everyone else. also searched internet and mcafee forums fiding out that none of their stuff supports vista 64 bit and they don't bother to say "32 bit only in thier system reqs. how long would it take to modify that??? ten secs mebbe. i could cal mcafee direct but then I gotta pay for support because they are cool like that.
so I contacted symanatec/Norton and talked to a few people got confirmation all was compatable and downloaded.

Norton works great on vista. are you running 32 bit or 64 bit? 64 bit is what I have and it is much harder to find compatable programs due to it being the new thing on the block. Mcafee doesn't even have a program that can run on vista 64 bit. and guess what if you have issues with mcafee products to get help you have to do online chat which is 4 dollars a min or 44 dollars an incident or phone which is the same pay method. once I saw that I said f u guys. I went to norton who has free online chat. found out that their 07 products support vista 64 bit downloaded it and love it. works great for my system.

Office should work since it's allmicrosoft and is usually backwards compatable so I'd think the office package would work on the new computer.

and so far with vista my only problems are making sure getting all compatable to vista 64 bit. it runs fast as allmighty hell. I play Age of empires III and I get hardly any dips in framerate throughout the game unless ive got a couple hundred units on the screen and doing a whole bunch of other stuff as well. i'm already considering getting a second eVGA card and activating SLI just to see what happens.