Access & RAM

[Jay]

I'm experiencing problems at work with my PC constantly 'Not Responding'
when in Access, working with & querying large data sets. The PC is new, a
3.00 Ghz Pentium 4 HT, but with only 512MB of RAM.

I'm experiencing similar problems in Excel, when working with large data
sets. I'm making every effort to ensure the databases, queries & Excel
files are designed as efficiently as possible, so can only think it's a RAM
issue.

My IT department obviously don't work with Access or Excel so are unaware of
the in-built inefficiencies.

So I need to put forward a business case for buying me more RAM. Can anyone
recommend any good reference sites/sources that detail these inefficiencies
or how RAM can be an issue when working with large data-sets in Access &
Excel.

IF anyone could help I'd really apprciate it.

Many thanks,

Jason

 

[Albert D. Kallal]

if you have a clean start-up, and don't 50,000 things into your system tray,
then 512 megs of ram is PLENTY of ram.

If you load msn chat, yahoo chat, your web cam software, and 50,000 other
things at start-up, then you effect trash a good machine.

However, your specs 3 Ghz, and 512 mb of ram is a rather generous amount of
computing resources. With that amount of ram, it is UN-LIKELY that stability
problems are due to ram. In fact, you can test this, by ONLY RUNNING ONE
program at a time during the day. If all of your stability problems go away,
then perhaps it might be ram related. I think you are chasing a wild goose.

For stability in ms-access you need to do the following:

install the service packs (updates) to jet
install the service packs (updates) to office.

I mean, MS spends huge big bucks fixing all the bugs, and offers a free
update. And, you don't install these?

All of the "crash test" analyses is incorporated into the sp updates. It is
amazing how stable, and in fact rock sold I find office 2003 right now.
Likely the BEST stability I every seen on a computer.

Anyway, you can try limiting, or running ONLY one program at a time during
the day. I really doubt that this will fix your stability problems, but it
is worth a problem. In other words, try managing your ram usage by your
"mark eyeball computer" (that is the computer between your ears!!!), and see
if this helps.

512 mb of ram is REALLY LOTS of ram if you don't have a messed up machine,
and don't abuse it with running 50,000 things all at once.

I would first check the installs,, and ensure that the MANY MANY bug fixes,
and stability enhancements have been installed on your machine.

 

[Arvin Meyer [MVP]]

Microsoft products really love RAM. That said, they also use it well and 512
MB is sufficient, if not optimal. We have some machines running with 256 MB
of RAM, so I don't think that is your problem.

I use 1 to 2 GB of RAM on my development machines because I don't have time
to wait around for results. I believe that the few dollars that the extra
RAM costs, is insignificant when compared with my productivity gains.

Some of the reasons that you'll get "Not Responding" messages:

1. Corruption - make sure that you regularly compact and repair your
databases.

2. Use of images, particularly GIFs on your forms.

3. Flakey network card that drops packets.

4. Using too many resources by having many programs open.

5. Poor quality hardware.
--
Arvin Meyer, MCP, MVP
Free MS-Access downloads:
http://www.datastrat.com
http://www.mvps.org/access
http://www.accessmvp.com

 

[Dave F]

Believe it or not I run large Access dbs and Excel workbooks on a Windows
2000 machine with 128mb of RAM.

I'd agree with the other posters, however, RAM is relatively cheap, so one
possible business case is a simple cost-benefit analysis: if more RAM allows
you to get more work done in a given period of time, then the expense may
well be worth it.

Dave

 

[Brendan Reynolds]

In addition to the good advice you have received from others, Task Manager
will often report that Access is 'Not Responding' when Access is executing a
complex query against a large number of records. This doesn't necessarily
mean that Access has hung. Sometimes, it just means that you have to give it
more time to finish processing the query, after which it will start
responding again.

 

[Jerry Whittle]

"Not Responding" and 100% CPU usage can happen when Access and the computer
in general are busy. I doubt that RAM is the problem so more RAM isn't the
solution. 512 is usually more than enough. That Excel also has problems leads
me to look elsewhere.

Temporarily for testing purposes, turn off your virus checker. If that
speeds things up you should be able set the virus checker to not scan .md*
and .xl* files.

Speaking of virus checkers, make sure that it's updated with the latest
signature files and run it. You never no. Also install a spyware tool and
run it. You might be surprised.

As other's have said, see what else is running on the computer and turn off
unnecessary programs.

Also make sure that your tables are indexed to support the Where clauses /
criteria of your queries.

 

[Bill Mosca, MS Access MVP]

If the query eventually finishes, you really don't have a problem. Access
will show the Not Responding notice as the query runs. Since Access tends to
run in the foreground making it impossible to do other things within the
database while a query is running, you will get that Not Responding notice.

To test what I wrote, start up a complext query that takes 30 to 60 seconds
to run. Once you start it, click on the Access window a couple of times. You
will get that notice in the Access title bar.

 

[Jason B]

I too would agree that RAM isn't the issue. If you would like to increase the
speed of your PC slightly without purchasing additional ram, increase the
size of the virtual memory ( a part of your HD that is used as RAM )