HIgh RAM-----slow PC

Hi I looked for posts dealing with RAM and had trouble finding, I
thought everybody had problems with slow PCs.........

Now i need some advice please I have a Vista that is 1 1/2 years old
and it had become really slow. RAM is high even when all applications
are off and Firefox can use up to 1GB of memory and I have 2G/, I used
software like RAMboost and did the long OnceCare scan with MCS,
defragmented drives, increased the memory that can be used as RAM on the
hard drive. etc.....many things recommended. still same nothing is
changed after a short while.....

Is reformatting and bringing back to how it was when I bought my only
hope?
And should Firefox take a bloody 1 GB of RAM alone? I checked the
processes in task manager and it seems I need all of them
somehow..........and if that was the case if I reformat then wouldn't
the same thing happen again?

Software like that is junk that is far more likely to worsen the
problem than to solve it.

Page File? Doing that was unnecessary.

The two most likely things that would degrade your performance are
what malware infection, and what background programs start up
automatically.

Malware infection is most likely. What anti-virus and antispyware
programs do you run? Are they kept up to date?

Hi, antivirus....Avast/ use Spybot/ defender/ update always and scan....
and the One care from mcs site which took like 4 hours......myabe use
one or two malware stuff once.

But relying on those is *not* a good choice. I recommend downloading
and trying the freeware versions of MalwareBytes AntiMalware and
SuperAntiSpyware.

First STOP using RamBoost and other software like it! Vista has its
own way of dealing with memory and your pc is trying to do 2 different
things at once. When you installed FireFox IE was not uninstalled, it
is still there. Try using it and see if the pc is faster, if so leave
FireFox alone and use IE. Remember to upgrade IE to version 8 though!

Second exactly when is the pc slow? Is it slow only on the original
boot up and then fast after that? Is it slow all the time?

Third go back to the defaults on all settings that affect memory and
the harddrive. You are micromanaging from a point of slowness here and
you need to go back and start over. By increasing the amount of
harddrive space that is used as pretend ram, you have slowed down the
pc, how much I can't tell. Too much is definately overkill, too little
is not as bad. Which I am saying what I am saying, go back to the
defaults.

Vista is different than XP and does alot of things differently. You
seem to be tweaking using XP settings not Vista ones.

In addition to what f/fgeorge said, have you run your disk cleanup tool?
A load of temp files will definitely slow the computer down.

OK guys, thanks for the help. I removed Ramboost and ran all the malware
stuff that was recomended. I used a purge software that erased many temp
files etc...it helped for a few days but went back to the headacke. It
starts fine and a few hours later slows down painfully. I will try IE
but I have many addons in fox that I need like Zotero etc.....i do not
understand I cannot use fox on my computer while the whole world uses
it.
1G of ram for fox I mean is that normal anywhere? I have had
situations like this before and formatted the hard drive and things were
fine for a good while. I do not see anybody recomending that, is it
useless with this Vista mess? I will reset the things i remember I
changed but this is not right. I have scanned this pc like there is no
tomorrow, stopped many startup files. Is W7 much better than this crap?
thanks again..........before I throw this at the wall and rest......

Are you REALLY trying to run Vista in 1 gb of ram?!!!!!!!!! No wonder
that darn thing is soooo slow, Vista tries to micromanage your memory
and is swapping a ton of stuff to the hard drive! Vista is MUCH better
in 2 gig and LOVES 4 gig, even though it only really sees 3.25 to 3.5
gig of memory.