I seem to be running out of memory - why?

[farmercal]

Here is my situation: I have Win XP Pro and 256 MB of generic PC2100 RAM at the time. I had PC2100, 256 MB of Corsair but had to RMA my stick and am waiting for replacement. My CPU is 1800+ and I am using a Shuttle motherboard. The problem I am having (am perhaps it is normal) but when I log on and have nothing running except Windows, Black Ice, and Ontrack I only have about 90-95 MB of available memory out of the 256 MB installed (according to the Windows Task Manager). Right now as I am posting this question I only have 69 MB available. Is this normal? I am not one to look at the WTM continually but when I started having sluggish responses a while back I noticed I was running with not much RAM available. Anyone else have this problem or is there something not tweaked that should be tweaked on my system? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cal

 

[BmXStuD]

umm u already know 256 is the problem. Also set windows xp to classic instead of the big gloggy lolok. So it looks like windows 2000 or wind 98se

 

[farmercal]

256 MB is too little RAM? So the only way to solve my problem is to bump up the memory eh? I thought 256 was plenty of memory and has been fine until recently. I'm going to upgrade in a month to one of the nforce boards and will start with 512 this time. Thanks for the response.

Cal

 

[Moxton]

Get more ram dude i use to have 256 and now i have over a gig and i tell you what it is fasssstttt.

 

[BmXStuD]

yep 256 is ok for windows 98 hehhe. But for all theses new os i say min is 512mb If you just check mail and surf web maybe dl music 256mb should be ok.