[Studio 2]

Lots of people have tried RAM cleaning programs, which obviously means buying, downloading and most of the time installing, but there is an easier way.

If you run Windows on a PC you’ll know that after a while your system will start running slowly, sometimes forcing you to reboot. Most people will restart their computer to remove any idle processes. But there is a simpler way.

Just follow these steps:

Right click on your desktop and select New - Shortcut.
Type %windir%\system32\rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks in the text field.

Click <Next>.

Give your shortcut a name like 'Clear RAM'.

Click <Finish>.

Now whenever your computer starts running slowly or after you close a major program or game, double click this shortcut to clear your RAM.

If anyone tries this and it doesn't work, let us know.

[Jaymie1989]

How would we know if it works or not?

[tomrca]

can we assume that you've tried it and it worked for you?

[Joshuashawharvey]

Easier still, restart your computer. RAM is volatile so it's data is lost when the computer is switched off. Restarting it is effectively turning it off then back on. My friend's computer used to restart itself after being on a heavy load application, which I thought was pretty cool, but does have major disadvantages.
Nifty little tool though

[Howard]

That`s a very good question Jaymie.

How does it actually work?

Ah, I`m a little clearer now, see THIS.

Maybe also do a Google search for:

%windir%\system32\rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks

Regards Howard

[Albert Lionheart]

Is this a spoof?
I ran this and it actually added to the number of running processes!
Woss your game?

[Studio 2]

Spoof? Why would I post a spoof?

Of course it adds a process - it's a running process!

Howard's right, if you don't understand, look it up on the search engines.

Originally Posted by Joshuashawharvey

Restarting it is effectively turning it off then back on.

That's not strictly true. Restarting, as in rebooting is not the same. The only way to be sure is turning the PC off, i.e. shutdown, leave for 5-10 seconds then switch it back on.

The process of clearing RAM is not difficult, but if you want to go looking for a small program that effectively fills your RAM then removes it, go ahead - the other option is that described above - turn off and restart.

[Joshuashawharvey]

Well yes that's true, but restarting it still clears your RAM and that's the point. Effectively doesn't mean it's exactly the same

[Albert Lionheart]

I should have been more specific - it added 4 processes for about 1 min and stopped 2 = two more than I had in the first place. OK so I started with 38 which is not many. I now have 40 so will reboot and take it back to 38. Good excuse to have a tweak and see what else I can get rid of!

[Studio 2]

Originally Posted by Joshuashawharvey

Well yes that's true, but restarting it still clears your RAM and that's the point. Effectively doesn't mean it's exactly the same

Actually, your RAM can still hold random redundant data if not powered down, that was my point.

@Albert Lionheart

38? That's a lot. About 20 should do. You really should think about getting rid of startup items. I assume you're using XP?

[Joshuashawharvey]

True, but it will still be clearer than it was previous, especially opposed to that tool which apparently adds processes instead of clearing according to Albert. Increasing the size of your Pagefile could be a better solution as it may be pagefile running low. Pagefile swaps data from your hard drive to your RAM, and you may not have enough allocated to keep your RAM happy, especially if you run heavy load applications.

[Studio 2]

rundll32.exe and advapi32.dll are the running processes, they control memory.

Obviously they'll be running, how else would the system do anything?

It clears redundant and idle data from your ram. Ram by nature is very nasty, volatile and likes to hold data until powered off, even if you use clearing methods.

[Albert Lionheart]

Yes - I know I could do better but I have the some things like a NAS drive management, Intel RAID, HP printer, etc. Still it seems to gallop along without me having to wait for it so it is good enough for me!

[Studio 2]

Originally Posted by Joshuashawharvey

True, but it will still be clearer than it was previous, especially opposed to that tool which apparently adds processes instead of clearing according to Albert. Increasing the size of your Pagefile could be a better solution as it may be pagefile running low. Pagefile swaps data from your hard drive to your RAM, and you may not have enough allocated to keep your RAM happy, especially if you run heavy load applications.

You have it back to front, RAM data is dumped to your swapfile when RAM runs out and the space is needed to be overwritten.

it is then 'swapped back' to RAM when needed, providing there is space.

Using a swap file can actually slow your machine down in some circumstances.

If you use the pagefile.sys, especially if it's quite large, don't forget to defragment the pagefile.sys space properly as the defrag manager in XP doesn't do it automatically.

One other way is to get a pagefile.sys emptying utility which clears it on shutdown, but this makes your shutdown time increas from 20 seconds or so up to 5 minutes in my experience.

[Joshuashawharvey]

Yes I meant RAM to hard drive. I make mistakes. I'm not a computer lol. Using a swapfile is slower because it's effectively using your hard drive a RAM store. And as it is, RAM is much much faster than a hard drive, and will therefore be slower, hence why we use RAM anyway. But not as slow as having none at all.

[Studio 2]

Originally Posted by Joshuashawharvey

I'm not a computer.

I am!...just kidding.

Originally Posted by Joshuashawharvey

And as it is, RAM is much much faster than a hard drive, and will therefore be slower, hence why we use RAM anyway. But not as slow as having none at all.

Your pc wouldn't work without RAM. And using a hard disk for data transfer vs RAM....

RAM transfer time >2Gb/s

HD transfer time 2-300Mb/s? No contest!

All in all, buy more RAM and better cpu if you have problems, most decent specced items are cheap enough these days.

[Joshuashawharvey]

Obviously it wouldn't work without RAM, because they are designed that way. But if hard drives became quick enough (but won't happen) RAM would become redundant as the hard drive could be used (If they allowed the design of RAM-less computers). RAM is a gateway from your CPU to your hard drive as the hard drive isn't quick enough, as you showed, to cope with all the data, so the RAM takes care of it.

Originally Posted by Studio 2

All in all, buy more RAM and better cpu if you have problems, most decent specced items are cheap enough these days.

Very true. People seem to get so engrossed in killing resources etc etc to speed up their computer they forget what really makes it quick.

A hard drive @ 300mb/s, I'd love to have one of them lol. Hard drives usually work at about 60mb/s, and two Raptor X's in RAID 0 would probably reach 100mb/s on a good day

[Studio 2]

Depending on the system you have, PC3200 400MHz 1Gb of RAM is less than £32 - bargain.

Ram is used an anything that uses a processor - it just a temp area to store data that needs processing.

[Joshuashawharvey]

Yup, exactly. So if the HDD was quick enough, that could store it.

Though a hard drive won't be reaching 300mb/s any time soon lol

My ram reads at about 7-8 Gb/s and yes depends on what you have

[Daveskater]

Originally Posted by Studio 2

38? That's a lot. About 20 should do.

If you think 38 is a lot, I currently have 61 processes running

My PC runs pretty smoothly, though, so I don't really mind.

Originally Posted by Joshuashawharvey

People seem to get so engrossed in killing resources etc etc to speed up their computer they forget what really makes it quick.

True. One of my friends thinks that by deleting files and programs he doesn't use will speed his PC up. What he doesn't realize is it's slow because he has a 500MHz AMD K6 CPU, 13GB HDD and not much RAM, all of this running Win XP. Plus he has things like Vundo and all sorts.