[KLUG Members] New member intro

[Adam Williams]

>>>My question today is about why my PC locks up when I have multiple
>>>browsers running.  I am assuming that it is because I have only 64M RAM.
>>>If I upgrade to 256M do you think that I will have better luck with
>>>multiple browsers? Are there any other reasons why the screen would lock
>>>up with multiple browsers, such as large incoming files, javascript or
>>>java problems?
>>Define "locks up".  The whole computer or just X-windows?
>KDE stops reacting.  The window outlines are visible, but there is no action.
> This is only after pushing the system with a lot of browsers and a lot of
>files coming in from the www.

What does your hard drive light look like when this happens?  Is it
"nailed".

Assuming you have an IDE drive what does "hdparm /dev/hda" look like?

What version of the kernel does your box run? (uname -a)

>> How much swap space do you have?  (type "free" at a command prompt)
>133048 (blocks?)
>I will check again after opening a number of browsers, don't have time
>tonight.

Try adding a swap file and see if that helps at all.  Pre-2.4.11/12
kernels consume large amounts of swap space,  it is "sorta" a bug.

>>What window manager are you using?  Some of those are memory hogs too.
>KDE.  Even worse than opening a lot of browsers is starting up Star Office.
>That takes a few minutes to load itself up.  Very slow operation too, it
>can't keep up with my typing.

Is your hard drive chattering?  SO should be able to keep up with your
typing on a P1-133,  this is disturbing.

>I am able to do what I want to do with the current setup, but I would like to
>speed it up if I could.

More memory wouldn't hurt.  I'd bet another 64Mb would make a world of
diffrence.

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Ximian GNOME, Evolution, LTSP, and RedHat Linux + LVM & XFS
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