Karaoke Forums

I have been using my laptop at home for everything including karaoke.

I would now like to use it for karaoke only, because i am getting the message saying low on memory. So instead of buying moe memory i would like to take everything of the laptop i don't need and put it on an external hard drive.

Could you tell me the easiest way to do this please, simply so a dummie can understand. Thank you.

Your request brings up several questions..

Computer Type?
OS?
Installed Programs?
Amount of HD Space?
Amount Memory?

Get back to us..

Well let's start by getting your terminology straight. Are you getting messages that you're low on memory or low on hard disk space. They are two very different things with very different remedies.

If you're low on memory, that means you've got too many programs running at the same time. Look for anything applications that run at startup (for instance Instant Messaging, Weather bug applications, things like that). Got into each application and set their settings to not start at system startup. Or if you don't need those applications anymore, use Add/Remove Programs under the control panel to remove applications you no longer need.

If you're low on disk space, this is where an external hard drive would help. You could also look at simply removing applications you no longer use anymore. Locate any non-program files (like WAV, MP3, JPG, GIF, BMP, DOC, PDF, etc) and move those to locations on the external drive by dragging and dropping using the right mouse button instead of the left and selecting the "Move" option when the menu pops-up.

More information will help us to help you further.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

Or does it say virtual memory?

Thank you for your time. I have a Packard Bell 80GB laptop and i'm running xp.
The message i'm getting up is i'm short of virtual memory.

I have seen smewhere about going into the system to delete stuff that might be running at start up, but how am i supposed to know what i don't need.

Anyway i think i will just get some more memory, as deleting stuff that i've not a clue about is a little scary. Thank you all.

More memory always helps..

Interesting factoid: Packard Bell is part of the Acer group of companies,

(Acer, Gateway, E-Machine, Packard Bell)
and normally sold in Europe (ie Spain) and such.

Packard Bell was originally from the US, but now owned by Acer..

The Wiki link is : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packard_Bell

How much RAM does it have? You can increase the amount of virtual memory on your hard drive, but it will slow down your computer. Like someone already said....check for spyware running on your computer....or any other programs such as anti-virus programs deciding to update, or scan. Once again, how much RAM do you have? Also how many gigs of storage are left on your HD?

JD is right. More memory is far better.
Virtual memory is using your hard drive as memory. Slow.
Just set it to be two or three times the size.

Assuming you are using classic view.
Click Start, Settings, Control panel, System, Advanced, Performance Settings, Advanced, Virtual memory Change.

Will take less than a minute.

Hi once again. My total size of my hard drive is 38.7 my free space is 10.8.

I only had half a gb, of memory and went to the shop and he told me he could ony put another half a gb on it as it was an old machine, so now i have 960mb of ram, but it still seems slow.

Jerry, set it to two or three times of what, i don't understand, and is this going to make it even slower.thank you.

Set it 2 or 3 times the size of what it is now.
It will tell you.
It won't make your machine any slower than it is now.
Have you done any house keeping on your computer?
Emptying cache, registry clean, defrag?

What karaoke program are you running? Some need 2g of ram to run right.....still make sure no other application is running in the background.......ps....not much hard drive storage left either....

This laptop is never gonna set the world on fire. There are some things you can try though.

First, delete the programs you don't need to free some disk space.

Second, get rid of your prefetches. That's stuff that windows loads when it boots, just in case you need it. In 99% of cases, it's just taking memory and space. Go to c:\windows\prefetch and delete the lot - don't worry, you can't break anything.

Next, clean the registry. Over the years it will have got full of garbage. Download Free Registry Cleaner from www.eusing.com and run it to clean your registry.

Make sure you have no malware on your system by downloading and running Malwarebytes Anti-Malware from www.malwarebytes.com

Always let windows manage it's own virtual memory.

Tim?

(Are you getting the memory message at any time
or just when one particular program is running?)

Along with all that, if you are only gonna use this for home karaoke, put your music on a hard drive, external to the laptop. You can buy an 80 gb external hard drvie on ebay for $40. Buy two so you can back it up.

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]