Available resources/memory problem in XP?

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Hi, I have been encountering a problem with Windows XP that looks much like
the problems that are well documented about Windows 9x, in that after heavy
use, it appears that I run out of system resources to open up new
windows,etc.

I have done searches, and see that this problem supposedly can't happen in
Windows
XP because of how it manages the resource pool. I will describe what is
happening on my machine.

I have a Dell 8250, 2.4Ghz, 80GB HD, 512MB RAM
On the Windows drive (C) I have over 3 GB free space. My virtual memory
setting is set to allow windows to manage it, and the pagefile is about
800mb.

I do a LOT of window opening and closing during the day. Opening and
closing 100's of chart windows in IE. At max, I have about 20 windows
open, about 12 in IE. I have an Ameritrade ticker running, giving me
streaming stock quotes. I also tend to have AOL 8.0 open, and sometimes
Quicken. While this is a lot of activity, I am NOT running anything
requiring very heavy resources like photo editing software for example.

Eventually whether its in AOL or IE, or anywhere in windows, I get to the
point where additional windows won't open. When it happens inside AOL, I
get a message, "The operation cannot be completed due to low memory or hard
drive space. Please close one or more windows and try again". If I then
close a window or two, I can proceed for a while, eventually having to close
more windows. In IE, I'll click on a link to open in new window, and the
window just refuses to open, unless I close other windows first. In control
panel, clicking on System refuses to bring up that window. Yesterday I
opened Quicken and resources were so low that all the Quicken icons weren't
even able to display.

When I bring up Windows task manager, it shows physical memory 523K,
available 121K, System cache 236K. Kernel memory, total 45K, 33K paged,
12K nonpaged.

So you see, these symptoms look to me exactly like the Windows 9x world of
insufficient system resources, a problem which supposedly can't happen in
XP.

Can anyone explain what is happening here that is keeping me from opening
new windows?
 
If Windows manages the pagefile it will fill up with rubbish pretty
quickly - change the settings to custom pagefile - set the minimum to be
about 50% higher than your systems RAM and the max to be 250% system RAM and
see how that affects things.
 
XP does not have limited resource heaps like 9X, but that doesn't mean it is
immune to other kinds of memory problems which may be caused by bad
software. I suspect that AOL 8 is very likely the cause of your troubles.
There are many known problems with AOL 8 and XP, although some users seem to
have less trouble. I have specifically seen the AOL low memory message you
mention on some client's machines and ultimately determined that AOL itself
was causing the problem, and impacting other programs. Since they wanted
to stay with AOL, going back version 7 turned out to be the best solution.
See http://tech.ratmachines.com/aol/aol.php for some interesting discussion
of AOL 8 and XP problems.

Although there could be other issues, I would start with this one.
 
Andi B said:
If Windows manages the pagefile it will fill up with rubbish pretty
quickly - change the settings to custom pagefile - set the minimum to be
about 50% higher than your systems RAM and the max to be 250% system RAM and
see how that affects things.
Click to expand...


Page file usage is *inversely* related to the amount of physical RAM.

More RAM means less page file
Less RAM means more page file

The page file exists to compensate for the *lack* of sufficient RAM to
meet the total memory requirements being placed on the computer.


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."
 
from the said:
Page file usage is *inversely* related to the amount of physical RAM.

More RAM means less page file
Less RAM means more page file

The page file exists to compensate for the *lack* of sufficient RAM to
meet the total memory requirements being placed on the computer.
Click to expand...

Is true, for any individual PC/user/usage pattern.

For the set of 'all PCs in the world', it's a bit more complicated, and
(historically) PCs with more RAM in also tended to need more page file
(since most folks could only afford ~50% of their -maximum- memory
requirement .. indeed, 99% of the time they only needed ~50% of the
maximum, so buying more would have been stupid).

These days this is less true - many people have over-equipped their PC
with RAM just because it was cheap and easy to do so.
 
Is true, for any individual PC/user/usage pattern.

For the set of 'all PCs in the world', it's a bit more complicated, and
(historically) PCs with more RAM in also tended to need more page file
(since most folks could only afford ~50% of their -maximum- memory
requirement .. indeed, 99% of the time they only needed ~50% of the
maximum, so buying more would have been stupid).

These days this is less true - many people have over-equipped their PC
with RAM just because it was cheap and easy to do so.
Click to expand...

For any PC anywhere if you double the RAM and nothing else is changed
the page file requirements will be reduced.

And if you reduce the RAM by half and nothing else is changed the page
file requirements will be increased.


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."
 
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