slow functions on desk top computer

As the title suggest I'm having trouble with my home computer after uploading blurb book software.

Now the blurb worked fine to start with but after around 12 to 14 image uploads the mouse function became slow, as a result the editing function ie
copy, paste, crop and drag where slow

The above also affected image and page zoom

Do I need to get a bigger Ram (i am running 1GB) or and new video card

if this helps any one to my problem, my computer is a dell c521 with xp and AMD 64 Athlon x2 what ever that is ?

James
and thank you in advance

xp and 1GB of RAM are not the problem. The PC I use for this purpose also only has 1GB and it's fine.

Is there sufficient scratch disk space on your hard drive? If the hard drive is almost full that could explain the problem - both Windows and the Blurb soft ware will need space to run.

Have you deleted all unecessary programs and files? Disk cleanup? Disk defragmenter? All these things may help.

1GB is very small by current standards, you really should look at increasing it to at least 2GB if not 4GB.

I'll see what upgrade link I can find.

RAM might be the thing but does not need to be... I know I aint very helpful.
Does it help if you shut-down some programs like a virus scanner and your internet browser if that's on.

you may find this website helpful

http://www.tweak3d.net/tweak/xp15minutes/

I have followed their 15 minute tuneup on a number of aging XP based PCs and all of them have benefitted to some extent. Might as well get your machine running as well as it can in it's current configuration before you start spending money on upgrades.

Once you have the machine tuned up and running well, RAM is almost always the best "bang for buck" upgrade in a home PC. 2 or 3GB of RAM will make a noticable improvement in performance, but 4GB is a waste of time unless you have the 64bit version of Windows (if you're not sure, then you don't) as 32bit operating systems can only address approximately 3-3.5GB of main memory. The exact number varies from system to system, but that last GB of RAM wont end up pulling its weight.

The C521 will take up to 4x1GB memory cards.

Some people will claim that 1GB is enough but if you start looking at the various processes that you could be running that memory is soon taken up and the PC will be swapping from RAM to HDD which takes CPU and real time.

Firefox can for example use over 500MB, Explorer (not IE) 100MB, anti virus (which you should always leave running) 100MB, plus all of the small applications and core software that need to run. It soon adds up and if a program is not memory efficient or there is a small "memory leak" you will soon have problems.

An extra 2GB will cost you £42 from Crucial ...

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/listparts.aspx?model=Dimension%20C521

and if you use their memory selector to pick the right stick it's guaranteed to work and has lifetime warrenty. Crucial RAM is always a good choice.

With the link I posted, don't you think I used their selector.

well thank you all, I have 108 of memory and only used 40gb so i think i will tune up and then up grade my ram if needed

James and thank you for all the advice

The ideal would be the same RAM as already in the computer, since it's there own brand I don't think it would be the best, it will work as it should though.

Also it's dual channel so you should link the two crucial rams together and not link a crucial with the one already in it.

Could be anything in a Dell.

Crucial, Samsung, Kingston, unbranded ...

If it was me ... I would go for a full 4 GB of matched pairs - yes 0.5 GB may be "wasted" but performance wise, it would be fine.

it was never my intention to imply that you hadn't, I was agreeing with you!

Another thumbs up for Crucial.

I agree on the extra memory front. When I had XP I used a matched pair of 1GB sticks (2GB) and it ran very nicely.

Same here, I'm running on 2gb (4 x 512mb) and I feel the need to upgrade but it's still DRR and I also want to upgrade my CPU soon meaning it will be DDR2 or even DDR3.

James probably has the same dilemma, he might be better off with an AM3 motherboard with AMD Phenom II X4 955 and put 2 x 2gb DDR2 in it so that he can double that when needed.

It's quite a bigger upgrade then some memory but it will keep him going for 4 years or so.