If you know anything about laptops;

My FM 12 runs poorly, my RAM is only 1GB.

I've found a USB Stick, 4GB, If I stuck this into the laptop would it run FM more smoothly?

Time for a new machine, methinks. 1GB is fairly ancient - so I imagine all your other components are lacking too.

Anymore details of this laptop?

The USB stick is 4GB of drive space, not RAM. It won't make a difference.

I dont really know anything about computers, this is all I can dig up.

HP Compaq 6910p

Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 2.00GHz

RAM 1024 MB HDD 80 GB

Really old, just for FM and a little browsing.

I think a new lap top is what you should look at, that thing will be quite old, and i think your looking at the wrong kinda memory stick.

Alls I want is to be able to play FM and browse without it being slow.

Would inserting a USB flash whenever im on my laptop not help that?

I've no idea, any help much appreciated.

No. The USB drive would have no effect, it'll have nothing to do with the RAM.

Alls I want is to be able to play FM and browse without it being slow.

Would inserting a USB flash whenever im on my laptop not help that?

I've no idea, any help much appreciated.

Best help i can offer is to look for a new laptop, you will be able to pick up something that can play FM for about £300 if you look hard enough, but i dont think your going to draw much more performance out of that thing you have currently. You could add RAM but the processor is not great, not when you can get an I3 or I5 for a few hundred in a new laptop.

My FM 12 runs poorly, my RAM is only 1GB.

I've found a USB Stick, 4GB, If I stuck this into the laptop would it run FM more smoothly?

As Ackter has said. the USB stick is just an external storage device and has nothing to do with the computers working memory and so will have no effect on the computer's ability to process

If it's a Core 2 Duo, it probably supports more than 1 GB of RAM (my Core Duo supports 2 GB). I'd go ahead and find the model name and hence maximum RAM limit, and fill it up to the maximum (RAM, especially for older laptops like yours, is a quick-and-dirty way of boosting performance).

[edit] Crucial UK suggests this is the fastest RAM available for your system, and it supports 4 GB. If you have around £50 lying around, I'd replace your 1 GB module with two of these.

Alternatives

[edit 2] I also disagree that you aren't going to be able to boost that much more performance... 1 GB to 4 GB is a huge boost and you will definitely feel it. The laptop is 4 years old so it's not that old. A Core 2 Duo is certainly not that bad nowadays.

Agree with the above.

If all you need is a speed boost when playing FM, then you really don't need to buy a whole new laptop. Going up from 1GB to 4GB will be very noticeable. This forum is seemingly full of either rich kids or people who have never had bills to pay

It's actually very easy to install RAM. The important thing will be making sure you purchase the correct type of RAM, which you can figure out by reading the specs of your current laptop model. Then buy the maximum speed and size that is compatible with your machine. Make sure you buy the right type...laptop RAM sticks are smaller than regular PC ones!!

They only fit into one space inside your laptop (well, two spaces if you have two slots for RAM...), and the RAM only fits one way in the slot. They're sensitive to static electricity, so touch something metal before handling them, or at the very least don't slide around the carpet wearing socks before opening up the package!

Good luck, and i'm sure you'll get plenty of help from here if you need it.

Jeez - if you can afford 350 - 500 quid then go for it and buy a new computer.

If you want something superduper for a computer consider spending upwards of 600 quid.

Let us know your budget.

Other than that drop it into a laptop store and ask them to boost the RAM to 4gb.

But a new laptop would be best.

Thanks everyone.

Whats a rough estimate of cost to have it took toa shop and upgraded to aa 4gb?

Thanks!

RAM is only about €60

If you can install yourself or know a buddy then get them to do it.

You could end up spending €150 if you go to a shop - for the cost of labour included.

If I am not mistaken Crucial let you download a little program and that will tell you what type of ram to get and the amount you can have?

Upgrade your ram and it should be fine. I have AMD Athlon Dual core 2.2 with 4GB ram and it runs fine. I only upgraded the RAM to play FM12.

It's probably DDR2 SDRAM.

With laptops, it may not be "very easy" to install RAM. Some laptops will force you to "dig out" most of the hardware inside, just in order to find the old RAM. It depends. For a person with no experience with the insides of computers, it may be wiser to let someone with experience do the job.

Other laptops are fairly easy and straighforward, even granny could do it.

The USB stick is 4GB of drive space, not RAM. It won't make a difference.

As Ackter has said. the USB stick is just an external storage device and has nothing to do with the computers working

memory and so will have no effect on the computer's ability to process

Wow neither of you guys have heard of ReadyBoost? I'm shocked.

Anyway to those suggesting this chap needs a new machine to run FM, get a clue. He doesn't have enough RAM, that's the bottleneck in this system. Upgrading from 1GB to 4GB would do wonders for this guy and at not much cost.

OP, take the advice of those who know what they are talking about and upgrade your RAM, job done.

Agree with the above.

If all you need is a speed boost when playing FM, then you really don't need to buy a whole new laptop. Going up from 1GB to 4GB will be very noticeable. This forum is seemingly full of either rich kids or people who have never had bills to pay

It's actually very easy to install RAM. The important thing will be making sure you purchase the correct type of RAM, which you can figure out by reading the specs of your current laptop model. Then buy the maximum speed and size that is compatible with your machine. Make sure you buy the right type...laptop RAM sticks are smaller than regular PC ones!!

They only fit into one space inside your laptop (well, two spaces if you have two slots for RAM...), and the RAM only fits one way in the slot. They're sensitive to static electricity, so touch something metal before handling them, or at the very least don't slide around the carpet wearing socks before opening up the package!

Good luck, and i'm sure you'll get plenty of help from here if you need it.

am reading this thread as recently lost my laptop and need to buy a replacement. AND i'm on a strict budget of around £300.

i ve seen an ultra-portable 11.6" with 4gb RAM and an E450 AMD fusion processor 1.65ghz which can, i believe, be boosted.

would it do? can't really find anything with 2nd gen.i3 sandy bridge for £300 so am looking at inferior processors

Most people have said to upgrade the RAM and it should be more playable than it is now.

But a new computer would be good too - the computer they have is very old.

Wow neither of you guys have heard of ReadyBoost? I'm shocked.

The guy isn't exactly tech-savvy, how on earth is that going to help him?

The guy isn't exactly tech-savvy, how on earth is that going to help him?

Sorry how tech-savvy do you have to be to insert a USB stick and click on the "yes I'd like to use this drive to speed up my system" option?

The guy asked if he could make his system run faster using a 4GB USB stick - you told him no that won't help. You were wrong because the answer is yes, actually that can help.

am reading this thread as recently lost my laptop and need to buy a replacement. AND i'm on a strict budget of around £300.

i ve seen an ultra-portable 11.6" with 4gb RAM and an E450 AMD fusion processor 1.65ghz which can, i believe, be boosted.

would it do? can't really find anything with 2nd gen.i3 sandy bridge for £300 so am looking at inferior processors

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?sort=pricelow&store=5&cat=10&filterca35=Intel+Core+i3&limit=10&page=1

You can - but it's not a good idea. Flash memory is different to RAM - and the computer reads and writes RAM data a lot faster than it can to USB/flash drives.

Where your answer is technically correct - it probably won't be noticeable difference with the bottlenecking of data at the usb.

All the readyboost thing will do is make programs load faster on boot-up. After that it's not intended to used flash drives as permanent or semi-permanent or long use as RAM. It's just not recommended and it's not really going to help. More RAM is the better option.

You can - but it's not a good idea. Flash memory is different to RAM - and the computer reads and writes RAM data a lot faster than it can to USB/flash drives.

Where your answer is technically correct - it probably won't be noticeable difference with the bottlenecking of data at the usb.

LOL writing to USB stick under ReadyBoost is about 100 times faster than writing to the HD (that's what the OS uses when it's out of RAM).

Read my posts, I also recommend more RAM as the solution. But to say that you can't improve a system's performance by using a USB stick is plain wrong, because you can.

... it's not intended to used flash drives as permanent or semi-permanent or long use as RAM...

That is irrelevant.

LOL writing to USB stick under ReadyBoost is about 100 times faster than writing to the HD (that's what the OS uses when it's out of RAM).

Read my posts, I also recommend more RAM as the solution. But to say that you can't improve a system's performance by using a USB stick is plain wrong, because you can.

You are right - you can use the Flash Drive as an external source of RAM. But it's better to get RAM .

That is irrelevant.

How is it?

Thanks for the help, going have to get my RAM maxed out I guess.

Should I go for the 6400 or 5300? I know 6400 is faster, but is it actually noticable for the price difference? Cheers

How is it?

Because of the exact reason you just typed:

You are right - you can use the Flash Drive as an external source of RAM. But it's better to get RAM?

It's irrelevant that flash drives are not intended to be used in that way, because they can be used that way and they work just fine. Look, no one is claiming that upgrading the RAM is not the best option (well, except those "omg buy a new laptop" guys), but getting back to the OP, he asked if he coud use his 4GB flash drive to speed up his computer and was told categorically no, which was wrong and I just wanted to point that out, for the benefit of the OP.