Acer Aspire 5250 laptop slow after adding 4GB RAM

[mctates]

Got a new computer from TigerDirect.com- an Acer Aspire 5250-BZ853 with 2GB RAM stock.
The website offered to add 4GB of RAM to the laptop for about 50 bucks so we went ahead and did that. However, when I got the laptop, it definitely doesn't run as fast as a laptop with 6GB Ram. I have run multiple tests and have confirmed that the RAM is installed properly, as system scans show that I have 5-6 GB of usable RAM available at any given time.

Running Windows 7 with the following system specs-
AMD Dual Core Processor E-350
AMD Radeon HD 6310 (graphics card?)
2 GB DDR3 Memory
320 GB HDD

Is the problem with the memory? Maybe I installed the wrong type? Not sure. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[raybay]

Windows 7 32 bit, or 64 bit? Does all the memory show up?

 

[mctates]

I am running 64 bit Windows 7, and all of my RAM shows up in the multiple tests I've done. Each one says I have anywhere from 5-6 GB available, and I installed 6 total. Even with this I can't understand why my computer would be so slow.

 

[raybay]

Any chance you have a LOT of images, photos, computations, or similar documents in folders on your computer?

We service a LOT of Acer laptops, and don't see the problem you describe. But there is no doubt that some Acer's are unpredictably weird... as are some other Win 7 laptops.

The obvious, which you have already noted, is that something happened when you changed the configuration. Were it mine, I would first remove as much memory as possible, then run tests with a variety of memory configurations... You may have just one defective module that isn't bad enough to be detected as dead.

Make a lot of different tests with a variety of setups... remove and reinstall any photo or imaging software, or huge files, or recent files from the time period where things changed.

But you do show 2 GB of memory in one description, and 4 or 6 at another. Are you certain the added memory is equal to the initial memory setup?

I know you have likely considered all of these ideas, but sometimes it is helpful to go back to basics, and test with a variety of changed... both hardware and software. Sometimes an issue can be discovered by removing and reinstalling key software.

It could be as simple as a defective hard drive that is a co-incidental problem... just started going bad about the same time. We have seen hard drives exceeding 160 GB become defective and unreliable... from Western Digital, Seagate, Hitachi, Samsung, and Fujitsu over the past three years. Any chance you can borrow a hard drive from an associate so you can run some comparative tests? Alternately, have you considered using the hard drive evaluation software that most manufacturers have on their websites? The tests are fairly quick, and can be useful.

Good luck. Don't give up on figgering it out, and please let us know what you learn.

 

[mctates]

I have tried some basic things like removing programs I didn't need, mostly the Acer Management programs like the Backup program. I suppose that it could be a HDD issue, I have a 320 GB HDD in this computer, so I figured with that and the RAM it should be a pretty fast computer. I will run some more tests and let you know what I find. I do appreciate the help.