truthseeker

I have an Asus Notebook, 1GB RAM.

Instead of upgrading RAM to 2GB, would it be any benefit of getting a 1GB ReadyBoost USB Stick?

Will Vista use that as it would physical RAM?

Thanks

jamiemac2005

Okay, so i assume you understand the theory behind readyboost? (you mentioned physical RAM so i guess so)... Though you may be better off with a slightly bigger (2GB) memory stick because Readyboost does not necessarily use the whole memory stick and it takes up memory to work aswell).... P.s. make sure the device is USB 2.0 or readyboost wont use it (i think) but search for readyboost supported usbsticks and theres a tonne of them...

Cheers,
Jamey

truthseeker

Thanks Jamey for your reply. However, you did not once address my initial question and instead gave information that I did not request.

Does anyone else have an answer to my question? Thank you.

PaddyN

It would use it "as" physical ram, it has to be a compatible USB stick.. but it wont ADD physical ram, if you get my explanation.
It will see an additional amount of ram, but the write/read speed will be much much slower than actual ram i believe.

so it does work..and does add "physical" ram but doesnt have the same effect.

either way you have more RAM :P

*oh quick edit*
no need to be so with jamie^^
he gave you information, and even i would say a 2gb stick is better..as he said..uses some memory on the stick!
please try to be nice..

truthseeker

Ok I understand. So adding physical RAM has a faster read and write speed than a ReadyBoosy USB stick. However, the ReadyBoosy USB stick has a faster read and write speed than a HDD.

So physical RAM is fastest and best.

But ReadyBoost is faster than HDD.

So its better and faster to have Readyboost than just having the HDD be used for "swapping out". But not as fast and good as physical RAM.

Vista basically uses the USB Stick as "virtual memory" and reads off that rather than the HDD, making Vista read and write faster as the USB stick is faster than the HDD.

OK, got it :-) Cheers

Placehold

Can i just add that you can change the registry to accept any size of flash drive or Memory card

I have mine configured to allow me to use my 1gb and 4gb memory cards but also use my 720gb external hard drive

I might post the procedure actually lmao

Regards




Craig

truthseeker

What do you mean?

Placehold

Windows Vista doesn't really accept just any memory stick.
There's a certain requirement or specification that's predefined.
(The device must be able to do 3.5 MB/s for 4 KB random reads uniformly across the entire device and 2.5 MB/s for 512 KB random writes uniformly across the device.)

Which means all our normal 1GB or even 4GB memory sticks or cards are kind of useless in this case if it doesn't meet it's requirement.

However the following steps show you how to configure your computer to allow any size of memory stick or card to be used



1. Plug in your memory device (Memory Stick, Card, Thumb Drive) into you PC or Laptop.

2. Go to My Computer, Right click on your memory device and select Properties.

3. Under Ready Boost tab, select or check the box Stop Retesting This Device When I Plug In.

4. Click OK and unplug the memory device from your machine.

Ok now for the registry

5. Click Start and select run, type regedit

6. Navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows-NT/CurrentVersion/EMDgmt

7. Under EMDgmt is the list of USB device installed to your machine.
Simply locate your memory device and double click it.
Then you will see a list of Registry thats associate with your memory device.





To the right

8. Double click on Device Status and change the value to 2.

9. Double click on ReadSpeedKBs and change the value to 1000.

10. Double click on WriteSpeedKBs and change the value to 1000.

11. Close Registry Editor

12. Plug in your memory device (Memory Stick, Card, Thumb Drive) into you PC or Laptop.

13. Go to My Computer, right click on your memory device and select Properties.

14. Under Ready Boost tab, select or check the box Use this device.

15. Select Apply and OK and it should start working straight away

***Always create a backup before performing any registry alterations



Regards




Craig

truthseeker

THanks Craig for this info.

2 questions:

1. How can I tell when buying a USB stick that it actually does perform the minimum seek times, read times etc? I looked at some "readyboost usb sticks" in the store, but none of then list the seek times etc for them.

2. This registry edit etc to use a normal USB stick as a ReadyBoost stick, how will that improve my Vista performance? Do you mean that even though my current 1GB USB Stick is not a ReadyBoost stick, it will still be better and faster to use than just using the HDD for swapping?

truthseeker

These steps that you listed are flawed and faulty.

There is no: 3. Under Ready Boost tab, select or check the box Stop Retesting This Device When I Plug In.

When I right click on my USB stick, the tab "Readyboost" does not even appear.

I do not see a Readyboost Tab anywhere.

Can you repost these steps, but in accurate format please.

Placehold

Hey no problems

1. If the usb stick is labeled as Readyboost Enabled then it will meet the requirements i have listed

2. Yes! Because we are changing the limits for the usb stick

If you look in my picture that usb stick shows

ReadSpeedKBs 5463 kb/s
WriteSpeedKBs 2960 kb/s

Which means anything that cannot read that fast and write that fast will not be useable, this is standard in Vista but thru the above procedure were lowering the specifications to allow smaller devices to be used

ReadSpeedKBs 1000 kb/s
WriteSpeedKBs 1000 kb/s

As mentioned previously ReadyBoost caches (Like a virtual memory) information that is currently being used through process's so rather than eating up valuable resources from your main process memory it takes it from your readyBoost device

what type of device are you using?



mine is already configured for ready boost so the Stop Retesting This Device When I Plug In option isn't there on mine but this is what the tab should look like

I should also mention that in devices that aren't Readyboost enabled you can skip the first few steps and start from step 5


regards




Craig

truthseeker

I have a 1GB Transcend USB Stick in one of my USB ports.

My Tab for my 1GB USB stick looks exactly like yours, but mine is missing the ReadyBoost TAB.

So I cannot follow your instructions.

Any ideas why there doesn't show a ReadyBoost TAB on mine?

Placehold

Once you have followed the procedure you should see the tab as Vista will read it as an acceptable device for ReadyBoost

Regards




Craig

truthseeker

As I said before, I cannot follow your first steps as ReadyBoost doesn't even show up as a tab when I right click on my USB stick.

Does anyone else reading this know how to make ReadyBoost appear as a TAB?

UPDATE: I figured it out. I ran "services" from CMD and ReadyBoost was OFF, so I started the service, and now it shows as a tab.

I also noticed that I need to have Superfetch running for ReadyBoost to work.

But I have another problem. In registry there are 5 times my USB Stick appears. SO which one do I double click to edit?

jamiemac2005

Yep, read step five(as previously stated), modify the registry, re-insert the drive and ensure the readyboost service is enabled(in services.msc)... I've just read craig's instructions to try out using my 1GB memory stick (Thanks Craig )

Just look up and modify the registry as stated. It works fine =]
The readyboost tab didn't show up for me because the drive had previously been tested and i'd disabled it...

Cheers,
Jamey

truthseeker

I followed all your steps, but I do not see Under Ready Boost tab, select or check the box Use this device.

It still says that this device does not meet the requirements needed to be used for readyboost

What now?

Do you think these values are still too high for my USB stick?

8. Double click on Device Status and change the value to 2.

9. Double click on ReadSpeedKBs and change the value to 1000.

10. Double click on WriteSpeedKBs and change the value to 1000.

Should they be smaller than 1000 ?

Placehold

Hey truthseeker

The smallest i would advice going would be:

ReadSpeedKBs 463 kb/s
WriteSpeedKBs 960 kb/s

try this and if it still doesnt show, you may need to reformat the device

No probs Jamey

Regards




Craig

truthseeker

It ok I wont bother. Tomorrow I am going to buy a 1GB ReadyBoost USB Stick instead. They are only $12 now.