Where has all the memory gone?

Hello everyone.

I just installed Win 2000 on a homebuilt pc.
P4 / 3.0 GHz / 512MB PC2700 / 80 GB HD / ATI Radeon9200SE 128MB

Everything seems to work well, but I didn't have any utility
software to view the stats. I chose an application called TuneUp Utilities 2004.

To this point, I haven't really installed any application software, except ZoneAlarm and Norton Internet Security. TuneUp Utilities is showing a large amount of memory being used. The breakdown is this:
System - 38 MB (7%)
Cache - 12 MB (2%)
Other - 180 MB (35%)
---------------------
Available - 295 MB (55%)

These numbers are rounded off, but I can't account for this 180MB of memory being used while only using a web browser to make this post.
TuneUp Utilities doesn't specify what "other" is.

I have not used the utility to make any changes, only to view status.

I am at a loss. Could someone please pass me a clue? Thank You.

If you press Ctrl-Alt-Del simultaneously and select Task Manager, then select processes, it lists the programs that are running and the amount of memory used. My PC at work uses 235 Meg with no applications open. There are some IT background progs like anti-virus, software monitor, etc. Win2K just uses a lot of ram. You are better off with at least 512 Meg and preferably 1 Gig if you want to open a lot of applications or play the latest games.

If you don't like the results, run MemOptimizer in Tuneup Utilities (I have it... best 30 bucks I spent for my computer..) Do manual optimization or something like that and free up about 100-120 megs... that should be plenty. You can also configure MemOptimizer to automatically run and free up memory when your memory usage hits a certain point. This is a great feature.

Also.... Welcome To The Forums!!!!!!!

Thank you for the quick responses. Previously, my old PII notebook didn't run Symantec, not enuff horsepower! I expected that newer and better would require more RAM, but I never thought Norton would require more than than Windows itself. What an eye opener! Thank you both for the education

biomedtech said:

Everything seems to work well, but I didn't have any utility
software to view the stats.

Click to expand...

If system stats are being refered to, use CPU-Z.

TimBlake84 said:

Also.... Welcome To The Forums!!!!!!!

Click to expand...

OMFSIG!

Wanna shorten that to about, half?

JimmyG said:

Win2K just uses a lot of ram.

Click to expand...

If you believe like 64 MB is a lot of RAM.

Thank you Ascii2. This is just what I was hoping to find!

TimBlake84, a bit overkill on the sig buddy

biomedtech said:

Thank you Ascii2. This is just what I was hoping to find!

Click to expand...

No problem.

biomedtech said:

......ZoneAlarm and Norton ......
TuneUp Utilities is showing a large amount of memory being used.

Click to expand...

Yup. That right there is all you have to say. Both apps are notorious resource hogs. And if you add more ram, they'll just eat that too.