Too Much Memory

[Guest]

I have a beast of a system running Windows XP Pro, when it should probably be running Server 2003. I have a problem with too much memory and not enough programs to run. The Task Manager reports that my system cruises at 304 MB of memory used. I know that turning off Virtual Memory is a bad thing, but is there a gentle way of coaxing programs to stay resident in memory?

I'd also like to know if there is a way to associate a certain program to run on a particular processor (in a multi-processor machine) each time the program is invoked.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Michael

How much RAM memory? How do you know how much virtual memory is being used?
There is no utility in Windows XP which gives you virtual memory usage! You
need a third party utility to get that information!


~~~~~~


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have a beast of a system running Windows XP Pro, when it should probably

be running Server 2003. I have a problem with too much memory and not enough
programs to run. The Task Manager reports that my system cruises at 304 MB
of memory used. I know that turning off Virtual Memory is a bad thing, but
is there a gentle way of coaxing programs to stay resident in memory?

I'd also like to know if there is a way to associate a certain program to

run on a particular processor (in a multi-processor machine) each time the
program is invoked.

 

[Guest]

I have 4096 MB of physical memory. My BIOS reports that I have 3506 MB of memory. This is a known issue with my motherboard.

There is an easy way to view the amount of virtual memory currently used by the system. Go to Control Panel->System->Advanced->Performance, Settings->Advanced->Virtual Memory, Changed. The bottom part of the window that pops up will say “Total paging file size for all drives.†This is the amount of virtual memory that windows reports it is using.

If you want to check this information out yourself, all that you need to do is find a little file called “pagefile.sys.†This file can live in the root directory of any hard drive connected to your system. The Virtual Memory screen described above will tell you which drive it is on. If that’s confusing, it is probably at C:\pagefile.sys. To view the file, go to My Computer->Tools->Folder Options->View. Now select “Display contents of system folders†and “Show hidden files and folders†and deselect “Hide protected operating system files.†This will allow you to see pagefile.sys. Check its size and poof, you know how much virtual memory your system has allocated (it is another question altogether if it is using it).

Can somebody answer my original questions please?
-Michael

 

[Guest]

Michael,

The Performance Monitor (perfmon) can show you how much memory is actually being used per process.
There are various memory counters: virtual (total amount of memory used by the process), private (virtual bytes used solely by the process) and working set (actual bytes committed to physical memory). The latter is also what you see in the Task Manager on the "Mem Usage" column.

And speaking of the Task Manager, if you have a multi-CPU machine (or HT), open the processes tab on TM, right-click a process and select: "Set Affinity...". This will allow you to select which what CPU(s) should be used to schedule threads for the process.

Good luck!

Ofer

 

[Guest]

Michael,

The Performance Monitor (perfmon) can show you how much memory is actually being used per process.
There are various memory counters: virtual (total amount of memory used by the process), private (virtual bytes used solely by the process) and working set (actual bytes committed to physical memory). The latter is also what you see in the Task Manager on the "Mem Usage" column.

And speaking of the Task Manager, if you have a multi-CPU machine (or HT), open the processes tab on TM, right-click a process and select: "Set Affinity...". This will allow you to select which what CPU(s) should be used to schedule threads for the process.

Good luck!

Ofer

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Michael

You are misinterpreting what you are seeing!

Right click on the My Computer icon on your Desktop and select Properties.
The amount of RAM memory is stated on the General tab. It is unlikely that
you have 4,096 mb or 3,506 mb for that matter!

"This is the amount of virtual memory that windows reports it is using." No
it is the amount of disk space set aside for virtual memory. Whether it is
being used is another matter.

The size of pagefile.sys is not an indicator of virtual memory being used.
Allocations of virtual memory are made to applications for their use as and
when they need it. That does not mean they are using it ( you make this
point yourself ). Read more in the link below:
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

The Article above contains a link to a small Pagefile utility created by
Bill James, which measures the pagefile in use:
http://billsway.com/notes_public/WinXP_Tweaks/

Page file in use is the key factor. If you are using too much virtual memory
you may benefit from adding RAM memory. However, we need to know how much
virtual memory you are using and how much RAM you have?

How old is your computer? Was the machine bought with Windows XP installed
or did it come with an earlier version of Windows installed?

Done you have more than one hard drive? Are any drives partitioned?

~~~~~~


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have 4096 MB of physical memory. My BIOS reports that I have 3506 MB of

memory. This is a known issue with my motherboard.

There is an easy way to view the amount of virtual memory currently used

by the system. Go to Control Panel->System->Advanced->Performance,
Settings->Advanced->Virtual Memory, Changed. The bottom part of the window
that pops up will say “Total paging file size for all drives.†This is the
amount of virtual memory that windows reports it is using.

If you want to check this information out yourself, all that you need to

do is find a little file called “pagefile.sys.†This file can live in the
root directory of any hard drive connected to your system. The Virtual
Memory screen described above will tell you which drive it is on. If that’s
confusing, it is probably at C:\pagefile.sys. To view the file, go to My
Computer->Tools->Folder Options->View. Now select “Display contents of
system folders†and “Show hidden files and folders†and deselect “Hide
protected operating system files.†This will allow you to see pagefile.sys.
Check its size and poof, you know how much virtual memory your system has
allocated (it is another question altogether if it is using it).

 

[Guest]

Hi Gerry,

Thanks for recommending some utilities, however, I would prefer and answer to my question: “is there a gentle way of coaxing programs to stay resident in memory?†[First post of this thread].

My pagefile.sys file stays at 102,400KB. I could go lower, but I don’t want to decrease performance if or when the pagefile needs to increase in size. Running all sorts of programs and crunching data does not increase the size of the pagefile.

I’m just looking for a way to get a performance boost. Virtual memory slows everything down because of the inherent abstraction and IO to a slower medium.
-Michael

 

[Guest]

Thanks Ofer,

Awesome, thanks for the information. Is the Performance Monitor used a lot for code profiling and tuning? I'd imagine it would be really useful for examining all sorts of programs. I haven't played around with it too much yet, but is there a way to look at all the threads spawned from a single process?

I've seen the "Set-affinity" option in the task manager before and have wondered if setting an affinity could be a permanent thing? (i.e. I set Outlook to run on the 4th processor, I close Outlook (OUTLOOK.EXE process is terminated). Can I change something so that the next instance of OUTLOOK.EXE will run on the 4th processor?

Thanks again,
-Michael

 

[Guest]

Thanks Ofer,

Thanks for pointing out the performance monitor. I haven’t played around with it too much, but is there a way to get into a multi-threaded application to see what resources each thread is using? I would think this would be really useful for developers and people trying to optimize and tune their code.

I’m aware of the set-affinity within the task manager. I’d really love it if this “affinity†stuck between invocations of the process. For example, if I set OUTLOOK.EXE (already running) to run on processor 4, then exit Outlook (making sure that OUTLOOK.EXE terminates), and invoke Outlook again, then I would like it to already have an affinity for the 4th processor (but this does not happen). Am I making sense?

Thanks again,
-Michael

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Increasing the amount of RAM for a start may be one way but unless you
answer questions we cannot determine whether that is the right way to
proceed. Use the SINGLE utility suggested to determine what is the size of
the swap file.

There is also a probable issue of misreporting on your machine but until we
get the correct figures it is difficult to determine what is going on!

There are three ways to get a performance boost. Increase the capacity of
the hardware. Cut out unnecessary programmes running in the background and
regular houeskeeping. My standard text follows.

Poor system performance can be the result of a single problem or a
combination of factors. Listed
below are issues, which you may wish to examine if you are experiencing poor
performance after
the boot process has completed. Some items may help with slow starting of
Windows XP but the
list has not been prepared for tackling that problem. Work through the list
until you achieve an
acceptable result.
Regular and effective housekeeping is essential. What you do and how often
you do it will depend
on how you use your computer. A suggested routine may include:
1. In Outlook Express empty your Deleted Items folder.
2. In Outlook Express run File, Folder, Compact All whilst OFFLINE.
3. Run Disk Cleanup. Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk
Cleanup with
Temporary Internet Files, Offline Web Pages (optional), System Restore (
more Options tab )
and Recycle Bin selected for deletion. If you have more than one drive /
partition you may
need to do this operation for each drive / partition.
4. Remove Cookies. Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, General, Delete
Cookies.
5. Run Disk Defragmenter.

Check whether you could reduce the number of days the History of sites
visited is retained. Start,
Control Panel, Internet Options, General, History.
Spyware causes many problems. If not installed download Adaware and / or
update Reference file
from http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/ and use it to remove
parasites. If Spyware
persists as a problem try a Hosts file.
http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/what_is_hosts.html
Slow performance resulting from insufficient memory, causing over reliance
on virtual memory,
may be especially noticed by those upgrading to Windows XP from an earlier
version of Windows.
Windows XP will run with 64 MB of RAM memory. However, a minimum of 256 MB
is
recommended and many users will recommend 512 MB. You may check on pagefile
(virtual
memory) usage with Page File Monitor for XP:
http://www.dougknox.com/

Check how much free space you have on the hard drive / partition where your
pagefile is located.
You need a minimum of 15% but 20% or more is better.

Check your setting for the Indexing Service. Start, Administrative Tools,
Services, Indexing
Service. The default setting is Manual. Check that it is not running. More
information here:
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/service411.htm#Indexing_Service
You can have too many programmes running in the background. Close
programmes/windows after
use. Check whether all the programmes loading when Windows is started are
really necessary.
http://aumha.org/a/loads.htm
Check whether you can identify slow performance with a particular programme.
Look in Google to
see whether others have encountered the same problem and found a solution.
http://groups.google.com/
Are there any error messages in Event Viewer? You can access Event Viewer by
selecting Start,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning of the
error, information
regarding Event ID: and Source Description is important.
HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308427&Product=winxp

~~~~~~


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi Gerry,

Thanks for recommending some utilities, however, I would prefer and answer

to my question: “is there a gentle way of coaxing programs to stay resident
in memory?†[First post of this thread].

My pagefile.sys file stays at 102,400KB. I could go lower, but I don’t

want to decrease performance if or when the pagefile needs to increase in
size. Running all sorts of programs and crunching data does not increase the
size of the pagefile.

I’m just looking for a way to get a performance boost. Virtual memory

slows everything down because of the inherent abstraction and IO to a slower
medium.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Michael

Task Manager is useful but you could look at another freeware utility
Process Explorer, which provides similar information but adds that little
bit extra towards seeing what the running processes represent. For further
information about Process Explorer see here:

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml

--

~~~~~~


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks Ofer,

Thanks for pointing out the performance monitor. I haven’t played around

with it too much, but is there a way to get into a multi-threaded
application to see what resources each thread is using? I would think this
would be really useful for developers and people trying to optimize and tune
their code.

I’m aware of the set-affinity within the task manager. I’d really love it

if this “affinity†stuck between invocations of the process. For example,
if I set OUTLOOK.EXE (already running) to run on processor 4, then exit
Outlook (making sure that OUTLOOK.EXE terminates), and invoke Outlook again,
then I would like it to already have an affinity for the 4th processor (but
this does not happen). Am I making sense?

Thanks again,
-Michael

by the process), private (virtual bytes used solely by the process) and
working set (actual bytes committed to physical memory). The latter is also
what you see in the Task Manager on the "Mem Usage" column.HT), open the processes tab on TM, right-click a process and select: "Set
Affinity...". This will allow you to select which what CPU(s) should be used
to schedule threads for the process.used by the system. Go to Control Panel->System->Advanced->Performance,
Settings->Advanced->Virtual Memory, Changed. The bottom part of the window
that pops up will say “Total paging file size for all drives.†This is the
amount of virtual memory that windows reports it is using.to do is find a little file called “pagefile.sys.†This file can live in
the root directory of any hard drive connected to your system. The Virtual
Memory screen described above will tell you which drive it is on. If that’s
confusing, it is probably at C:\pagefile.sys. To view the file, go to My
Computer->Tools->Folder Options->View. Now select “Display contents of
system folders†and “Show hidden files and folders†and deselect “Hide
protected operating system files.†This will allow you to see pagefile.sys.
Check its size and poof, you know how much virtual memory your system has
allocated (it is another question altogether if it is using it).

 

[Unknown]

Are you merely trying to be a perfectionist or is your system running slow.
For the amount of memory you have your page file is much too small even tho it
probably isn't being used..

Hi Gerry,

Thanks for recommending some utilities, however, I would prefer and answer

to my question: “is there a gentle way of coaxing programs to stay resident in
memory?†[First post of this thread].

My pagefile.sys file stays at 102,400KB. I could go lower, but I don’t want

to decrease performance if or when the pagefile needs to increase in size.
Running all sorts of programs and crunching data does not increase the size of
the pagefile.

I’m just looking for a way to get a performance boost. Virtual memory slows

everything down because of the inherent abstraction and IO to a slower medium.

 

[Guest]

I’m not a perfectionist. I just had the money to create a really nice system, so that’s what I did. I’m not experiencing any performance problems. My programs run great, but I’m sure they could run a little faster and that’s what I’ve been looking for. I'll just let the system handle the size of the pagefile.

-Michael

Are you merely trying to be a perfectionist or is your system running slow.
For the amount of memory you have your page file is much too small even tho it
probably isn't being used..

Hi Gerry,

Thanks for recommending some utilities, however, I would prefer and answer

to my question: “is there a gentle way of coaxing programs to stay resident in
memory?†[First post of this thread].

My pagefile.sys file stays at 102,400KB. I could go lower, but I don’t want

to decrease performance if or when the pagefile needs to increase in size.
Running all sorts of programs and crunching data does not increase the size of
the pagefile.

I’m just looking for a way to get a performance boost. Virtual memory slows

everything down because of the inherent abstraction and IO to a slower medium.

-Michael

 

[Unknown]

You say you're sure your programs can run faster. How do you know that? If for
example the latency of memory is 6 nano seconds how can you speed it up? What
indications do you have that the programs can run faster?

I’m not a perfectionist. I just had the money to create a really nice

system, so that’s what I did. I’m not experiencing any performance problems.
My programs run great, but I’m sure they could run a little faster and that’s
what I’ve been looking for. I'll just let the system handle the size of the
pagefile.

-Michael

Are you merely trying to be a perfectionist or is your system running slow.
For the amount of memory you have your page file is much too small even tho it
probably isn't being used..

Hi Gerry,

Thanks for recommending some utilities, however, I would prefer and

answer
to my question: “is there a gentle way of coaxing programs to stay resident in
memory?†[First post of this thread].

My pagefile.sys file stays at 102,400KB. I could go lower, but I don’t

want
to decrease performance if or when the pagefile needs to increase in size.
Running all sorts of programs and crunching data does not increase the size of
the pagefile.

I’m just looking for a way to get a performance boost. Virtual memory

slows
everything down because of the inherent abstraction and IO to a slower medium.

-Michael

:

Michael

You are misinterpreting what you are seeing!

Right click on the My Computer icon on your Desktop and select Properties.
The amount of RAM memory is stated on the General tab. It is unlikely that
you have 4,096 mb or 3,506 mb for that matter!

"This is the amount of virtual memory that windows reports it is

using."
No

it is the amount of disk space set aside for virtual memory. Whether it is
being used is another matter.

The size of pagefile.sys is not an indicator of virtual memory being used.
Allocations of virtual memory are made to applications for their use

as
and

when they need it. That does not mean they are using it ( you make this
point yourself ). Read more in the link below:
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

The Article above contains a link to a small Pagefile utility created by
Bill James, which measures the pagefile in use:
http://billsway.com/notes_public/WinXP_Tweaks/

Page file in use is the key factor. If you are using too much virtual memory
you may benefit from adding RAM memory. However, we need to know how much
virtual memory you are using and how much RAM you have?

How old is your computer? Was the machine bought with Windows XP installed
or did it come with an earlier version of Windows installed?

Done you have more than one hard drive? Are any drives partitioned?

~~~~~~


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



I have 4096 MB of physical memory. My BIOS reports that I have 3506

MB
of

memory. This is a known issue with my motherboard.

There is an easy way to view the amount of virtual memory currently used
by the system. Go to Control Panel->System->Advanced->Performance,
Settings->Advanced->Virtual Memory, Changed. The bottom part of the window
that pops up will say “Total paging file size for all drives.†This

is
the

amount of virtual memory that windows reports it is using.

If you want to check this information out yourself, all that you need to
do is find a little file called “pagefile.sys.†This file can live in the
root directory of any hard drive connected to your system. The Virtual
Memory screen described above will tell you which drive it is on. If

that’
s

confusing, it is probably at C:\pagefile.sys. To view the file, go to My
Computer->Tools->Folder Options->View. Now select “Display contents of
system folders†and “Show hidden files and folders†and deselect “Hide
protected operating system files.†This will allow you to see pagefile.sys.
Check its size and poof, you know how much virtual memory your system has
allocated (it is another question altogether if it is using it).

Can somebody answer my original questions please?
-Michael

:

Michael

How much RAM memory? How do you know how much virtual memory is being
used?
There is no utility in Windows XP which gives you virtual memory usage!
You
need a third party utility to get that information!


~~~~~~


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



message
I have a beast of a system running Windows XP Pro, when it should
probably
be running Server 2003. I have a problem with too much memory and not
enough
programs to run. The Task Manager reports that my system cruises

at
304

MB
of memory used. I know that turning off Virtual Memory is a bad thing,
but
is there a gentle way of coaxing programs to stay resident in memory?

I'd also like to know if there is a way to associate a certain program
to
run on a particular processor (in a multi-processor machine) each time
the
program is invoked.

 

[Guest]

Yes, you are correct about memory speeds, but if some of that memory is dumped to the disk to free up memory (which is an unnecessary operation for my system), time is wasted dumping that memory to disk and fetching it again at a later time. If there is a program which "assumes" that it is running on a system with low memory, it might dump some data to disk that it doesn't need to. Disk operations are slow and if you have the memory, you should put all the data you need in memory. Therefore you can expect a performance increase by making the most of your memory.

-Michael

You say you're sure your programs can run faster. How do you know that? If for
example the latency of memory is 6 nano seconds how can you speed it up? What
indications do you have that the programs can run faster?

I’m not a perfectionist. I just had the money to create a really nice

system, so that’s what I did. I’m not experiencing any performance problems.
My programs run great, but I’m sure they could run a little faster and that’s
what I’ve been looking for. I'll just let the system handle the size of the
pagefile.

-Michael

Are you merely trying to be a perfectionist or is your system running slow.
For the amount of memory you have your page file is much too small even tho it
probably isn't being used..
Hi Gerry,

Thanks for recommending some utilities, however, I would prefer and answer
to my question: “is there a gentle way of coaxing programs to stay resident in
memory?†[First post of this thread].

My pagefile.sys file stays at 102,400KB. I could go lower, but I don’t want
to decrease performance if or when the pagefile needs to increase in size.
Running all sorts of programs and crunching data does not increase the size of
the pagefile.

I’m just looking for a way to get a performance boost. Virtual memory slows
everything down because of the inherent abstraction and IO to a slower medium.
-Michael

:

Michael

You are misinterpreting what you are seeing!

Right click on the My Computer icon on your Desktop and select Properties.
The amount of RAM memory is stated on the General tab. It is unlikely that
you have 4,096 mb or 3,506 mb for that matter!

"This is the amount of virtual memory that windows reports it is using."
No
it is the amount of disk space set aside for virtual memory. Whether it is
being used is another matter.

The size of pagefile.sys is not an indicator of virtual memory being used.
Allocations of virtual memory are made to applications for their use as
and
when they need it. That does not mean they are using it ( you make this
point yourself ). Read more in the link below:
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

The Article above contains a link to a small Pagefile utility created by
Bill James, which measures the pagefile in use:
http://billsway.com/notes_public/WinXP_Tweaks/

Page file in use is the key factor. If you are using too much virtual
memory
you may benefit from adding RAM memory. However, we need to know how much
virtual memory you are using and how much RAM you have?

How old is your computer? Was the machine bought with Windows XP installed
or did it come with an earlier version of Windows installed?

Done you have more than one hard drive? Are any drives partitioned?

~~~~~~


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



message
I have 4096 MB of physical memory. My BIOS reports that I have 3506 MB
of
memory. This is a known issue with my motherboard.

There is an easy way to view the amount of virtual memory currently used
by the system. Go to Control Panel->System->Advanced->Performance,
Settings->Advanced->Virtual Memory, Changed. The bottom part of the
window
that pops up will say “Total paging file size for all drives.†This is
the
amount of virtual memory that windows reports it is using.

If you want to check this information out yourself, all that you need to
do is find a little file called “pagefile.sys.†This file can live in the
root directory of any hard drive connected to your system. The Virtual
Memory screen described above will tell you which drive it is on. If that’
s
confusing, it is probably at C:\pagefile.sys. To view the file, go to My
Computer->Tools->Folder Options->View. Now select “Display contents of
system folders†and “Show hidden files and folders†and deselect “Hide
protected operating system files.†This will allow you to see
pagefile.sys.
Check its size and poof, you know how much virtual memory your system has
allocated (it is another question altogether if it is using it).

Can somebody answer my original questions please?
-Michael

:

Michael

How much RAM memory? How do you know how much virtual memory is being
used?
There is no utility in Windows XP which gives you virtual memory
usage!
You
need a third party utility to get that information!


~~~~~~


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



message
I have a beast of a system running Windows XP Pro, when it should
probably
be running Server 2003. I have a problem with too much memory and not
enough
programs to run. The Task Manager reports that my system cruises at
304
MB
of memory used. I know that turning off Virtual Memory is a bad thing,
but
is there a gentle way of coaxing programs to stay resident in memory?

I'd also like to know if there is a way to associate a certain
program
to
run on a particular processor (in a multi-processor machine) each time
the
program is invoked.