Upgrade to 8gb but no change

R

Robert Donithan

Member
I have a dell latitude e6410 and have changed out my two 2gb modules for two 4gb modules..I was told by YouTube that there would be a change in speed in boot up and how fast my cubasele8 would act..no change..ran diagnostic built in with the computer and everything checked out..so maybe it doesn't need another part replacement..so what do I do..did I leave out something? Any suggestions?..
 
Hi Robert,
Unfortunately you can't really flat-out say that more ram will be faster or better without knowing more.
If your system didn't tax memory capacity before, then additional memory isn't going to be used and no benefit is seen.

Alternatively, if some other component in your system was acting as a bottleneck (cpu or harddrive in most cases) then, again, additional memory isn't going to do much because the problem is elsewhere.

Ideally you'd want to monitor resource usage before an upgrade in order to determine what part needs the upgrade.

In most cases, where a memory upgrade is truly needed, the benefit isn't likely to be seen during boot or in opening applications;
It's more likely that you'd see a benefit on a system under heavy load.

The reason is that when all the memory is used up, operating systems start to use the hard disk as second best and, sadly, it's second by a long way!
2x2gb isn't a lot these days so there's a good chance your upgrade isn't a waste; You're just not likely to see improvements in boot times etc.
 
That system looks to be a bit long in the tooth, but if it's still got a 7200RPM internal drive, I'd say it's got to be about chock full by now. Has it been cleaned off and defragmented lately?

What's the other stuff connected? Probably the best thing you might do is make sure your projects are on an external drive and not trying to find space on the system drive.
 
Thanks..I was thinking about going to ssd but beings it's a refurbished computer that's maybe 8-10 years old I'll think about a new one(any suggestions for a laptop that goes good with daws and other music related things?)under $800-500gb ssd&8gb ram...
 
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I did all that..optimized-custom power settings..startup mods etc..I'm thinking that beings it's an old computer it slows down just like my android phones do when it's time for a new one..thinking about new laptop computer but which one is best for daw and other music applications? I sometimes use a midicontroller, audio interfaces for guitar and multi effects pedal...
 
Maybe you know the answer to this

Steenamaroo said:
Hi Robert,
Unfortunately you can't really flat-out say that more ram will be faster or better without knowing more.
If your system didn't tax memory capacity before, then additional memory isn't going to be used and no benefit is seen.

Alternatively, if some other component in your system was acting as a bottleneck (cpu or harddrive in most cases) then, again, additional memory isn't going to do much because the problem is elsewhere.

Ideally you'd want to monitor resource usage before an upgrade in order to determine what part needs the upgrade.

In most cases, where a memory upgrade is truly needed, the benefit isn't likely to be seen during boot or in opening applications;
It's more likely that you'd see a benefit on a system under heavy load.

The reason is that when all the memory is used up, operating systems start to use the hard disk as second best and, sadly, it's second by a long way!
2x2gb isn't a lot these days so there's a good chance your upgrade isn't a waste; You're just not likely to see improvements in boot times etc.
Click to expand...
I had the problem of cubasele8 freezing after half an hour or so..just none of the functions worked(pointer didn't do anything)..then sometimes cubasele8 would not close I had to restart the computer to get it to close.these were part of the reasons I tried the ram upgrade...could you take a guess as to what that could be..I asked on other forums, but no help..
 
So, what exactly is the problem you are trying to solve? Is Cubase not working on that system?

How big is the HDD, is it the original drive, and how much freespace? That's a small drive for a modern Windows system IMO.

I still say try a fast external drive. Get a 7200RPM drive and put your projects there. It's a good practice anyway, and moving my projects to an external drive solved problems for me on both my systems.

Can't help you with Windows laptops, but my feeling in general is that you should be buying a system with the future in mind, and I don't think you'll get a whole lot more than what you have, TBH.
 
Robert Donithan said:
I had the problem of cubasele8 freezing after half an hour or so..just none of the functions worked(pointer didn't do anything)..then sometimes cubasele8 would not close I had to restart the computer to get it to close.these were part of the reasons I tried the ram upgrade...could you take a guess as to what that could be..I asked on other forums, but no help..
Click to expand...

There's probably a lot of things you could look into or try, but if I had those symptoms on a laptop I'd rule out overheating first.
A system exceeding thermal limits should shutdown for safety but life's not always that simple.

I had a buddy recently whose laptop was locking up after a short period of use and the attached pic is why!

Maybe a red herring but easy to rule out, at least. :)

10354223_650628131682337_137990135093206302_n.jpg

2nd thing I'd test for is probably hard drive failure but.
Again, might be nothing in it but it's easy to rule out.
 
cubase..abelton lite9..traction7..they all run slow or freeze up..
It could be the amount of scanning folders the daw goes through..I have 256gb hdd and 100gb free space..original(I guess but it was refurbished)..
 
Steenamaroo said:
There's probably a lot of things you could look into or try, but if I had those symptoms on a laptop I'd rule out overheating first.
A system exceeding thermal limits should shutdown for safety but life's not always that simple.

I had a buddy recently whose laptop was locking up after a short period of use and the attached pic is why!

Maybe a red herring but easy to rule out, at least. :)

View attachment 102761
Click to expand...
So that's dust?
 
I do actually think you may have a dying hard drive. It's also very small for music recording. I tried using a 500GB on a laptop without external drive for music recording and it only took about 4-5 months to kill it. Wasn't close to full , just the constant back and forth of the drive reader wore it slap out. An inexpensive replacement 7200 RPM HDD can be easily cloned and installed and for a minimal outlay you could at least have a decent back up if you decide to upgrade to a new computer.
 
Crystal diskmark reads seq.- read 50.93-write 49.81
4kibq8t8-read-0.371-write0.587
4kibq32t1-read-0.400-write 0.580
There's no grade of the test..
 
Robert Donithan said:
Idle with 3-4 file windows and both test screens..
Click to expand...

Ok, again, might be a red herring but getting close to 70C under light load isn't really great.
I'd run your session and push the computer hard but keep that temperature monitor visible.

If you can provoke a crash with the temperature visible, that'd be ideal.
 
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