High R.A.M consumption

[Guest Jake]

hi

im using a laptop with a processor (2GHz) and (2Gb) of RAM

system: Windows Xp pro SP2, 2002 edition, updated to SP3

>>> MY PROBLEM is:

I need to work on many programs that need memory, such as MS-Office Word (

with a document over 40 pages with pictures), Autocad-2009,

MATLAB-R2007a(mathematical program), ANSYS11 (for finite elements analysis

for engineering).

 

those programs eat the RAM, and sometimes i need to work on more than 3

programs at once. BUT AFTER I FINISH AND CLOSE THEM ALL i find that the RAM

consumption is still SUPER-high :-( over 1.4Gb although all hungry-programs

are shut down. i find that by using task manneger.

 

Also, Windows explorer (NOT Internet explorer) starts to take a portion of

200Mb (usually it takes not more than 80Mb).

 

The only solution i can do now is to log off then on or to restart cos then

the pc is soo slow and responds in ages :-( pain in the back.

>>> My QUESTION is:

 

WHY the hell is that happening :-( and whats the best thing to do to prevent

it? OR if this cant be prevented, what can i do to gain the low RAM

consumption back without a restart or a log-off/on

thankx x

 

:-) xxx

[Guest HeyBub]

Re: High R.A.M consumption

 

Jake wrote:

> hi

> im using a laptop with a processor (2GHz) and (2Gb) of RAM

> system: Windows Xp pro SP2, 2002 edition, updated to SP3

>

>>>> MY PROBLEM is:

> I need to work on many programs that need memory, such as MS-Office

> Word ( with a document over 40 pages with pictures), Autocad-2009,

> MATLAB-R2007a(mathematical program), ANSYS11 (for finite elements

> analysis for engineering).

>

> those programs eat the RAM, and sometimes i need to work on more than

> 3 programs at once. BUT AFTER I FINISH AND CLOSE THEM ALL i find that

> the RAM consumption is still SUPER-high :-( over 1.4Gb although all

> hungry-programs are shut down. i find that by using task manneger.

>

> Also, Windows explorer (NOT Internet explorer) starts to take a

> portion of 200Mb (usually it takes not more than 80Mb).

>

> The only solution i can do now is to log off then on or to restart

> cos then the pc is soo slow and responds in ages :-( pain in the

> back.

>

>>>> My QUESTION is:

>

> WHY the hell is that happening :-( and whats the best thing to do to

> prevent it? OR if this cant be prevented, what can i do to gain the

> low RAM consumption back without a restart or a log-off/on

> thankx x

>

 

Note RAM usage at boot time. Start one of your applications. Close the

application. Note RAM.

 

I bet you'll find one (or more) applications are not releasing memory upon

exit like a well-behaved program should.

 

Once you find the culprit, get on the 'phone to the company and fuss like

the third monkey on Noah's gangplank. You'll probably have no more luck than

the monkey, but you'll feel better.

[Guest Daave]

Re: High R.A.M consumption

 

"Jake" <Jake@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:B46165BB-87DA-4F6F-8B9C-6D4D9AD14372@microsoft.com...

> hi

> im using a laptop with a processor (2GHz) and (2Gb) of RAM

> system: Windows Xp pro SP2, 2002 edition, updated to SP3

>

>>>> MY PROBLEM is:

> I need to work on many programs that need memory, such as MS-Office

> Word (

> with a document over 40 pages with pictures), Autocad-2009,

> MATLAB-R2007a(mathematical program), ANSYS11 (for finite elements

> analysis

> for engineering).

>

> those programs eat the RAM, and sometimes i need to work on more than

> 3

> programs at once. BUT AFTER I FINISH AND CLOSE THEM ALL i find that

> the RAM

> consumption is still SUPER-high :-( over 1.4Gb although all

> hungry-programs

> are shut down. i find that by using task manneger.

>

> Also, Windows explorer (NOT Internet explorer) starts to take a

> portion of

> 200Mb (usually it takes not more than 80Mb).

>

> The only solution i can do now is to log off then on or to restart cos

> then

> the pc is soo slow and responds in ages :-( pain in the back.

>

>>>> My QUESTION is:

>

> WHY the hell is that happening :-( and whats the best thing to do to

> prevent

> it? OR if this cant be prevented, what can i do to gain the low RAM

> consumption back without a restart or a log-off/on

 

I don't see any problem at all. 1.4 GB of RAM usage is *good* because

the amount of RAM you have installed is greater than this figure. As

long as you don't rely on the pagefile for your memory needs, you're

doing just fine.

 

A quick way to determine if this is happening is to open Task Manager

(Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Performance tab. Then note the three values

under Commit Charge (K): in the lower left-hand corner: Total, Limit,

and Peak.

 

The Total figure represents the amount of memory you are using at that

very moment. The Peak figure represents the highest amount of memory you

used since last bootup. If both these figures are below the value of

Physical Memory (K) Total, then you probably have plenty of RAM.

 

If you'd like to further explore your memory usage, run Page File

Monitor for Windows XP:

 

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

 

Remember: "unused RAM is wasted RAM." :-)

[Guest Jake]

Re: High R.A.M consumption

 

dear Daave thanks for reply.

 

in fact: (total+peak) commit memory < total Physical memory

 

so according to you, yes i have a plenty of RAM.

 

but the problem is after i shut down all RAM-eating programs, while the RAM

consumption is still high. my laptop behaves in a funny way.

 

process of Rendering newly opened application becomes sloooooooow. even if i

wanted to open "my document" file it takes ages to open it properly, and the

window of the file passes through a "blank frozen window" phase, thats how i

know something wrong is going on ...

 

and thats why i need to return the RAM consumption to its initial state

(like the one after restarting) by logging off

[Guest Bob I]

Re: High R.A.M consumption

 

 

 

Jake wrote:

> dear Daave thanks for reply.

>

> in fact: (total+peak) commit memory < total Physical memory

>

> so according to you, yes i have a plenty of RAM.

>

> but the problem is after i shut down all RAM-eating programs, while the RAM

> consumption is still high. my laptop behaves in a funny way.

>

> process of Rendering newly opened application becomes sloooooooow. even if i

> wanted to open "my document" file it takes ages to open it properly, and the

> window of the file passes through a "blank frozen window" phase, thats how i

> know something wrong is going on ...

>

> and thats why i need to return the RAM consumption to its initial state

> (like the one after restarting) by logging off

 

As was pointed out by HeyBub, check to see which application is actually

causing the "non-release" issue first.

[Guest Daave]

Re: High R.A.M consumption

 

Jake wrote:

> dear Daave thanks for reply.

>

> in fact: (total+peak) commit memory < total Physical memory

>

> so according to you, yes i have a plenty of RAM.

>

> but the problem is after i shut down all RAM-eating programs, while

> the RAM consumption is still high. my laptop behaves in a funny way.

>

> process of Rendering newly opened application becomes sloooooooow.

> even if i wanted to open "my document" file it takes ages to open it

> properly, and the window of the file passes through a "blank frozen

> window" phase, thats how i know something wrong is going on ...

 

It's important to know which program is hogging CPU cycles. The best way

to determine this is to use Process Explorer:

 

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

 

Hopefully, there is a newer version of the offending program.

[Guest Patty]

Re: High R.A.M consumption

 

On Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:59:04 -0700, Jake wrote:

> hi

> im using a laptop with a processor (2GHz) and (2Gb) of RAM

> system: Windows Xp pro SP2, 2002 edition, updated to SP3

>

>>>> MY PROBLEM is:

> I need to work on many programs that need memory, such as MS-Office Word (

> with a document over 40 pages with pictures), Autocad-2009,

> MATLAB-R2007a(mathematical program), ANSYS11 (for finite elements analysis

> for engineering).

>

> those programs eat the RAM, and sometimes i need to work on more than 3

> programs at once. BUT AFTER I FINISH AND CLOSE THEM ALL i find that the RAM

> consumption is still SUPER-high :-( over 1.4Gb although all hungry-programs

> are shut down. i find that by using task manneger.

>

> Also, Windows explorer (NOT Internet explorer) starts to take a portion of

> 200Mb (usually it takes not more than 80Mb).

>

> The only solution i can do now is to log off then on or to restart cos then

> the pc is soo slow and responds in ages :-( pain in the back.

>

>>>> My QUESTION is:

>

> WHY the hell is that happening :-( and whats the best thing to do to prevent

> it? OR if this cant be prevented, what can i do to gain the low RAM

> consumption back without a restart or a log-off/on

> thankx x

>

> :-) xxx

 

One thing you could try is to look at Processes in Task Manager and see if

any of the programs that you closed is still listed as using memory. I've

seen this happen on occasion. You can right click on the process to end it

and that should free up the RAM that program was using.

 

Patty

[Guest Twayne]

Re: High R.A.M consumption

 

> dear Daave thanks for reply.

>

> in fact: (total+peak) commit memory < total Physical memory

>

> so according to you, yes i have a plenty of RAM.

>

> but the problem is after i shut down all RAM-eating programs, while

> the RAM consumption is still high. my laptop behaves in a funny way.

>

> process of Rendering newly opened application becomes sloooooooow.

> even if i wanted to open "my document" file it takes ages to open it

> properly, and the window of the file passes through a "blank frozen

> window" phase, thats how i know something wrong is going on ...

>

> and thats why i need to return the RAM consumption to its initial

> state (like the one after restarting) by logging off

 

Somehow, somewhere, you have corruption happening. But it does sound

like you have enough RAM. The monitor suggested is good and I've used

it myself several times.

 

It doesn't bother me that you see a lot of RAM used, depending on what

that RAM is. RAM, the physical memory sticks, always has a lot in it,

and retains it after closing programs, in case you want to use it again,

and especially if your have a habit the system has noted of going back

and re-using them.

It's normal for a lot of RAM to contain data.

 

What isn't normal is that your laptop should go "funny".

First, run the RAM monitor and set it always on top so you can watch it

working. If the pagefile gets too big, and stays large more than a few

seconds after the programs close, someone isn't managing their RAM

usages very well. Try to figure out which of your applications is

causing that.

 

Also, I've noticed that, sometimes, the ORDER/sequence the applications

are started in can make a difference in pagefile and even system RAM

usages. Try starting the apps in a different order and see if it makes

a difference.

 

If you've had crashes of any of those apps, and had to power your way

out to close them (kill task, hit the power button, whatever), they have

left an immense amount of trash on the disk that could eventually be

discovered and tries to get used. Do a good Disk Cleanup in System

Tools, and see if that helps.

Also, with RAM (which description often includes the pagefile, since

that's what it's being used for) hungry apps, disk fragmentation can

really go astray. So, the program starts OK and probably initially runs

OK because t hose parts aren't fragmented, but before long the apps

start asking for pieces of code onthe disk that are fragmented, often

many megabytes at a time, and that's going to slow things down.

With RAM hungry and disk intensive apps (Office, rendering, etc.)

defrag is something that needs to be done OFTEN. I'm a video editor and

the first thing I do after rendering video is a defrag because of the

fragmentation it causes. And if the program should crash and I have to

power my way out of it, there's a lot MORE crap to remove.

 

So, whatever you mean by "rendering" and depending on the apps you're

running, that could very well be an issue.

 

Get that monitor and see what your pagefile is doing.

Oh! And if it's NOT set for Sytstem Manages the size of the pagefile,

you're making a BIG mistake! Let the system decide how big the pagefile

needs to be. There are seldom any good reasons for speccing a max size;

it'll often also rob system RAM of some of its contents.

IF you can put the pagefile on a different, PHYSICAL hard drive, not

just another partition, it will help speed things up, too. But let

Windows manage the size of the pagefile! Be sure to make the original

pagefile small, in say the 100 top 300 Meg range so it'll use the other

disk more often.

 

HTH some at least,

 

Twayne

[Guest Jake]

RE: High R.A.M consumption

 

As a matter of fact, if the task mannager tab called (processes) shows any

"still running programs" my problem would have been solved for ages.

 

However i did this experiment a day ago and i got shocked!

 

i took a screen shot of task mannager (Processes tab) after closing some

RAM-eating programs (namely MS-Office-word 2007, AutoCAD2009). and compared

it with a screen shot after restarting my laptop and Guess What!

 

the same programs where running in the back ground, and each is consuming

almost the same memory (Memory Usage) with slight differences. except for

explorer.exe which was at ~200Mb and went down to ~40Mb.

 

After summing up the memory usage at bothe cases (from processes tab) i

discovered that both numbers were almost the same (~700 Mb before restarting,

~500Mb after restarting)

 

BUT on performance tab the pf usage showed 1.4Gb before restarting and

~500Mb after restarting!!!!!!!!!!

 

now something hidden is consuming 700Mb of memory and i dont know what is it

 

:-(

[Guest Jake]

Re: High R.A.M consumption

 

Will try that for sure and be back at you ;-) thaaaaaaaaaaaanx for your time

to reply

 

 

 

"Twayne" wrote:

> > dear Daave thanks for reply.

> >

> > in fact: (total+peak) commit memory < total Physical memory

> >

> > so according to you, yes i have a plenty of RAM.

> >

> > but the problem is after i shut down all RAM-eating programs, while

> > the RAM consumption is still high. my laptop behaves in a funny way.

> >

> > process of Rendering newly opened application becomes sloooooooow.

> > even if i wanted to open "my document" file it takes ages to open it

> > properly, and the window of the file passes through a "blank frozen

> > window" phase, thats how i know something wrong is going on ...

> >

> > and thats why i need to return the RAM consumption to its initial

> > state (like the one after restarting) by logging off

>

> Somehow, somewhere, you have corruption happening. But it does sound

> like you have enough RAM. The monitor suggested is good and I've used

> it myself several times.

>

> It doesn't bother me that you see a lot of RAM used, depending on what

> that RAM is. RAM, the physical memory sticks, always has a lot in it,

> and retains it after closing programs, in case you want to use it again,

> and especially if your have a habit the system has noted of going back

> and re-using them.

> It's normal for a lot of RAM to contain data.

>

> What isn't normal is that your laptop should go "funny".

> First, run the RAM monitor and set it always on top so you can watch it

> working. If the pagefile gets too big, and stays large more than a few

> seconds after the programs close, someone isn't managing their RAM

> usages very well. Try to figure out which of your applications is

> causing that.

>

> Also, I've noticed that, sometimes, the ORDER/sequence the applications

> are started in can make a difference in pagefile and even system RAM

> usages. Try starting the apps in a different order and see if it makes

> a difference.

>

> If you've had crashes of any of those apps, and had to power your way

> out to close them (kill task, hit the power button, whatever), they have

> left an immense amount of trash on the disk that could eventually be

> discovered and tries to get used. Do a good Disk Cleanup in System

> Tools, and see if that helps.

> Also, with RAM (which description often includes the pagefile, since

> that's what it's being used for) hungry apps, disk fragmentation can

> really go astray. So, the program starts OK and probably initially runs

> OK because t hose parts aren't fragmented, but before long the apps

> start asking for pieces of code onthe disk that are fragmented, often

> many megabytes at a time, and that's going to slow things down.

> With RAM hungry and disk intensive apps (Office, rendering, etc.)

> defrag is something that needs to be done OFTEN. I'm a video editor and

> the first thing I do after rendering video is a defrag because of the

> fragmentation it causes. And if the program should crash and I have to

> power my way out of it, there's a lot MORE crap to remove.

>

> So, whatever you mean by "rendering" and depending on the apps you're

> running, that could very well be an issue.

>

> Get that monitor and see what your pagefile is doing.

> Oh! And if it's NOT set for Sytstem Manages the size of the pagefile,

> you're making a BIG mistake! Let the system decide how big the pagefile

> needs to be. There are seldom any good reasons for speccing a max size;

> it'll often also rob system RAM of some of its contents.

> IF you can put the pagefile on a different, PHYSICAL hard drive, not

> just another partition, it will help speed things up, too. But let

> Windows manage the size of the pagefile! Be sure to make the original

> pagefile small, in say the 100 top 300 Meg range so it'll use the other

> disk more often.

>

> HTH some at least,

>

> Twayne

>

>

>

[Guest Twayne]

Re: High R.A.M consumption

 

> Will try that for sure and be back at you ;-) thaaaaaaaaaaaanx for

> your time to reply

 

Hope you let us know whether it helped or not.

>

>

>

> "Twayne" wrote:

>

>>> dear Daave thanks for reply.

>>>

>>> in fact: (total+peak) commit memory < total Physical memory

>>>

>>> so according to you, yes i have a plenty of RAM.

>>>

>>> but the problem is after i shut down all RAM-eating programs, while

>>> the RAM consumption is still high. my laptop behaves in a funny way.

>>>

>>> process of Rendering newly opened application becomes sloooooooow.

>>> even if i wanted to open "my document" file it takes ages to open it

>>> properly, and the window of the file passes through a "blank frozen

>>> window" phase, thats how i know something wrong is going on ...

>>>

>>> and thats why i need to return the RAM consumption to its initial

>>> state (like the one after restarting) by logging off

>>

>> Somehow, somewhere, you have corruption happening. But it does sound

>> like you have enough RAM. The monitor suggested is good and I've

>> used it myself several times.

>>

>> It doesn't bother me that you see a lot of RAM used, depending on

>> what that RAM is. RAM, the physical memory sticks, always has a lot

>> in it, and retains it after closing programs, in case you want to

>> use it again, and especially if your have a habit the system has

>> noted of going back and re-using them.

>> It's normal for a lot of RAM to contain data.

>>

>> What isn't normal is that your laptop should go "funny".

>> First, run the RAM monitor and set it always on top so you can watch

>> it working. If the pagefile gets too big, and stays large more than

>> a few seconds after the programs close, someone isn't managing their

>> RAM usages very well. Try to figure out which of your applications

>> is causing that.

>>

>> Also, I've noticed that, sometimes, the ORDER/sequence the

>> applications are started in can make a difference in pagefile and

>> even system RAM usages. Try starting the apps in a different order

>> and see if it makes a difference.

>>

>> If you've had crashes of any of those apps, and had to power your way

>> out to close them (kill task, hit the power button, whatever), they

>> have left an immense amount of trash on the disk that could

>> eventually be discovered and tries to get used. Do a good Disk

>> Cleanup in System Tools, and see if that helps.

>> Also, with RAM (which description often includes the pagefile,

>> since that's what it's being used for) hungry apps, disk

>> fragmentation can really go astray. So, the program starts OK and

>> probably initially runs OK because t hose parts aren't fragmented,

>> but before long the apps start asking for pieces of code onthe disk

>> that are fragmented, often many megabytes at a time, and that's

>> going to slow things down. With RAM hungry and disk intensive

>> apps (Office, rendering, etc.) defrag is something that needs to be

>> done OFTEN. I'm a video editor and the first thing I do after

>> rendering video is a defrag because of the fragmentation it causes.

>> And if the program should crash and I have to power my way out of

>> it, there's a lot MORE crap to remove.

>>

>> So, whatever you mean by "rendering" and depending on the apps you're

>> running, that could very well be an issue.

>>

>> Get that monitor and see what your pagefile is doing.

>> Oh! And if it's NOT set for Sytstem Manages the size of the

>> pagefile, you're making a BIG mistake! Let the system decide how

>> big the pagefile needs to be. There are seldom any good reasons for

>> speccing a max size; it'll often also rob system RAM of some of its

>> contents. IF you can put the pagefile on a different, PHYSICAL

>> hard drive, not just another partition, it will help speed things

>> up, too. But let Windows manage the size of the pagefile! Be sure

>> to make the original pagefile small, in say the 100 top 300 Meg

>> range so it'll use the other disk more often.

>>

>> HTH some at least,

>>

>> Twayne