Running Windows XP with 256 MB of RAM is a blast...

EpsiIon

Platinum Member
Nov 26, 2000
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Half of my RAM died a few hours ago (of course I didn't realize it was my RAM until I got BSOD while performing a recovery of what seemed like a corrupt XP installation -- lesson learned).

So I spent an hour running memtest to verify that the other stick I have is still good. Then, after finishing the recovery and booting, I had maybe 40 MB free, 10 of which was quickly eaten by IE. Let's just say that Windows XP is ridiculously slow if you don't have enough RAM to keep it happy. I think I'm nearing the hour mark on this SP2 install... which I just noticed froze up on me. Joy.
 

Albis

Platinum Member
May 29, 2004
2,722
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wow that sucks. i was using a laptop with 256mb of ram and windows xp pro. it was not a fun sight
 

Shawn

Lifer
Apr 20, 2003
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You just suck at winxp. I'm running WinXP on a P2 266MHz laptop with 160MB of ram and it runs just fine. Got wireless internet on it too. I disabled most of the worthless services I'll never use and I have plenty of free ram to run IE on it just fine. My parents use it every day.
 

neutralizer

Lifer
Oct 4, 2001
11,552
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Originally posted by: Albis
wow that sucks. i was using a laptop with 256mb of ram and windows xp pro. it was not a fun sight

Guess what I'm running right now... yea, it sucks... so slow. Accesses the page file so often.
 

Conky

Lifer
May 9, 2001
10,709
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256MB is what I consider a decent minimal amount of RAM required to run XP although I always recommend at least 512
 

amol

Lifer
Jul 8, 2001
11,679
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Originally posted by: aplefka
You're nuts. I couldn't imagine running anything past 98 on 256 megs of ram.

same here, i would upgrade our other computer to XP, but it's only 192 megs of ram and i dont want to have to upgrade that too
 

xcript

Diamond Member
Apr 3, 2003
8,258
2
81
XP ran fine with 256 megs of RAM on my laptop (recently added a stick of 512 for gaming).

Hell, I ran XP on a P200/160MB box for a while and it wasn't that bad.
 

Smaug

Senior member
Jul 16, 2002
276
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Just turn off all the flashy graphics, now running 256MB on OS X, thats hard.
 

Shawn

Lifer
Apr 20, 2003
32,236
53
91
Originally posted by: Smaug
Just turn off all the flashy graphics, now running 256MB on OS X, thats hard.

We have macs at school with 128MB running OS X. *shudder*
 

Conky

Lifer
May 9, 2001
10,709
0
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Originally posted by: Amol
Originally posted by: aplefka
You're nuts. I couldn't imagine running anything past 98 on 256 megs of ram.

same here, i would upgrade our other computer to XP, but it's only 192 megs of ram and i dont want to have to upgrade that too

XP should work fine with that amount if they aren't power users. My gf's Dell came with 128mb and XP from the factory and she loved it.

 

EpsiIon

Platinum Member
Nov 26, 2000
2,351
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I ordered a 512 MB stick from Newegg a few hours ago. I'm in southern California, so I might receive it by Thursday or Friday, if I'm lucky. Until then, I guess I'm pretty much restricted to surfing the intarweb and "chatting online with babes... all day."
 

kalster

Diamond Member
Jul 23, 2002
7,355
6
81
my windows media center pc has 256mb, seems to be ok, i am waiting for DDR2 prices to come down before getting another 256mb stick for it though
 

EpsiIon

Platinum Member
Nov 26, 2000
2,351
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Originally posted by: Crazyfool
Originally posted by: Amol
Originally posted by: aplefka
You're nuts. I couldn't imagine running anything past 98 on 256 megs of ram.

same here, i would upgrade our other computer to XP, but it's only 192 megs of ram and i dont want to have to upgrade that too

XP should work fine with that amount if they aren't power users. My gf's Dell came with 128mb and XP from the factory and she loved it.

Winnar! It works fine for doing what my parents might do. As soon as I try things like accessing large files or gaming... it tanks.

Also, a correction. I'm running IE, Trillian, Zone Alarm, Norton AV, and Windows says that I have 55 MB of physical memory free. Maybe I'll play Starcraft...
 

loic2003

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2003
3,844
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What you talking about n00b??? XP runs great with 128Mb of ram and a 300MHz Processor. At least, that's what microsoft tells us...



seriously though, 256 is fine for IE/OE and office.... but that's about it.