PagedPoolSize(Registry Key) in Windows XP

[Harish U]

Hi,

I want to know if it is advisable to update the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
\PagedPoolSize" registry key to (0xFFFFFFFF) in Windows XP to better
the low pool memory scenario. I also want to know about the safety of
modifying "PoolUsageMaximum" at the same location.

Reference KB article : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312362/
This article is said to be applicable for the Servers , I like to know
if we face the same problem in WinXP , can we go ahead and make the
changes mentioned in the KB article ?

Plz provide some reference to support the answer(if you can !)

Thanks,
Harish

 

[Gurpreet Singh]

Keep the following in mind when you make the changes

1) The OS is designed to manage the resources well so change it carefully.
2) It will maximize the paged pool memory. Paged pool is the memory used by
kernel mode code and this can be paged if required. The change in registry
will force the system to start with the maximum pool it can accomodate. The
second registry basically avoids the cleaning of the pool at a certain limit.
3) If you have a paged pool leak ina kernel mode driver the issues you are
currently facing will only be delayed.

Please refer
http://blogs.technet.com/askperf/ar...-management-understanding-pool-resources.aspx

 

[Harish U]

Keep the following in mind when you make the changes

1) The OS is designed to manage the resources well so change it carefully..
2) It will maximize the paged pool memory. Paged pool is the memory used by
kernel mode code and this can be paged if required. The change in registry
will force the system to start with the maximum pool it can accomodate. The
second registry basically avoids the cleaning of the pool at a certain limit.
3) If you have a paged pool leak ina kernel mode driver the issues you are
currently facing will only be delayed.

Please referhttp://blogs.technet.com/askperf/archive/2007/03/07/memory-management...

Hi Gupreet Singh,

thanks for your reply.

Its right , I have a Filesystem driver that its crashing due to lack
of Paged pool memory.
Buy you cant call it a leak. The Scenario is "An XP machine(where our
product is installed) is never rebooted or in other words the drive is
never disconnected for years. With every file operation we need to
hold that file in the Tree structure(which would use paged pool
memory). The same is true with NTFS of Windows OS. So in such a use
case it want to conform that it would not be un-acceptable to make the
changes mentioned in the KB article mentioned.

thanks,
Harish

 

[Gurpreet Singh]

If a driver is crashing due to lack of pool resources, you have to check what
caused the lack of pool resources. unless you have /3gb switch the system
should have enough paged pool available to work fine. If not then there has
to be a driver which is eating up all the pool and make this driver fail ue
to lack of paged pool. It may be even this driver that may be asking of pool
but never releasing it back. In both scenarios there should be a pool leak
somewhere. If your system has fallen short of pool then setting up those
registry keys will only delay the problem and once this additional pool is
also consumed you will se ethe issue reoccur. My advice is to find out what
is using high pool and check if there is a pool leak.