I'm 99.99 percent sure it IS the reason.
Running Vista 64 bit with only 1 gig of ram is like trying to tow a car with a motorcycle.
Vista is a resource hog. It needs 1 gig to even operate smoothly. With no RAM left for your applications to use, it's not a mystery why those applications are at crawl speed.

I'll definitely do that, then. I'm done with this computer running unbelievably slowly.

You'll thank yourself when you do.
Later on, if you want to get even faster, you can put in another 2 gigs and have 4. Vista 64bit supports up to 8 gigs, but I don't think you'll really need that much. 2 should be just fine, but if you find yourself wanting even more speed increase, your motherboard should be able to support 4 gigs with no problem.

Thank you. ^_^

You're welcome.

So I had to lower my maximum RAM output from 4 GB to 3 GB in order to a play a PC game that I finished a few days ago. Now I want to change it back to the way it was so my computer doesn't run as slow when I try to play newer games, but I forgotten what to do. All I can remember was that I went to my Start menu and had to do a search for something. I run a Vista 64 bit computer if that's any help.

Do you have integrated graphics (onboard video) as opposed to a dedicated graphics card? A dedicated graphics card uses its own memory whereas integrated graphics uses a chunk of main memory to operate.

It sounds like you might have allocated a gig of RAM for integrated graphics. If you want to adjust the allocation, you should be able to do this through the settings for your video card. Depending on your setup, these settings should be accessible through your Control Panel, either in Display, nVidia or ATI settings.

And how much of your memory you devote to integrated graphics should depend on whether the games you play tend to be more memory or graphics intensive.

Um... what?
I wasn't aware that you could "lower your RAM output" without physically reducing the amount of RAM you have in your computer....

You sure you're explaining the situation correctly?
You sure you're not talking about your page file, aka virtual memory? That's the only thing you can switch around, numerically, and it's basically just a certain amount of space on your harddrive that's used for temporary memory. Your hardware RAM capacity won't change unless you physically add or subtract your memory sticks.

Can you perhaps explain your scenario a little better?

Problem solved, I found the walk through to get it back to the way I wanted it.

To get the game Vampire: The Masquerade- Bloodlines working I had to go into my system configuration and the advanced options of the boot menu. From there I was able to change the output level of my RAM around so the game would play on my computer. Or at least so I'm told, I'm pretty green when it comes to computer tech shit. That's why I keep an IT guy locked in my basement, however it appears as though my steady diet of fish heads and regular physical and mental abuse have taken it's toll on him.

Ok so, I don't actually have a problem with my computer because it died last night during a storm. I've decided I spent way too much money on that piece of crap so I'm gonna buy a new one. Seeing as how there are a few computer savvy people now around, I thought I'd ask if someone could recommend a configuration (I live in Croatia so none of that "Oh just get a Dell or somesuchshit) with components I could probably find here.

I only use the computer to surf, download films, books and music and play music. The only more demanding job I do with it is converting DVD9 films into DVD5s...

So, can anyone suggest something that would be good for that purpose? I'm thinking a big hard drive (fast and silent if possible), but how much and what kind of RAM? What about the processor? Obviously, I probably don't need the top of the line stuff.