how do I detect a memory leak?

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Guest

I have been scouting these discussions for a while now in relation to a
problem I have had for a number of months regarding my computer playing up
and acting erratically after a period of time of use.

It seems that a number of posts refer to memory leaks within XP/third party
software that could cause the symptoms I am having.

My question is simply this: Is there a way of monitoring memory leaks or a
way in which I could scan my system to find out if memory leaks are present?

Thanks in advance peeps.. :)
 
Big said:
I have been scouting these discussions for a while now in relation to
a problem I have had for a number of months regarding my computer
playing up and acting erratically after a period of time of use.

It seems that a number of posts refer to memory leaks within XP/third
party software that could cause the symptoms I am having.

My question is simply this: Is there a way of monitoring memory
leaks or a way in which I could scan my system to find out if memory
leaks are present?

Thanks in advance peeps.. :)
Click to expand...

Yes, there are several audits etc. that you could use, but with no
information to work to, not even what your os is, you're only going to get a
few guesses. Hope your lucky day is today.

What's your OS? What specifically would you like to monitor? What symptoms
are you getting? What is your computer expertise level? Etc.

Pop
 
Thanks for your reply Pop.

Bearing in mind we're on an XP newsgroup, that should be an indication I'm
running XP ;-).

My reason for not posting too many details about the symptoms I am having of
this problem is several fold, mostly because they are very wide ranging,
intermittent and don't seem to fall into any pattern I can recognise.

Basically, my machine is fine but periodically, it will drop it's internet
connection, report that either my DNS or IPAddress setup is incorrect and
trash my sound drivers. The log on/off routine fails too, windows explorer
claims that my HD is empty (along with 'my documents') in the Start Menu, and
when trying to diagnose the problem with XP's built in computer management
console I get 'application faied to initialise'.

Reboot and hey presto, all is ok.

Checking the event logs has been no use, because nothing has been reported
as unusual.

As mentioned in my post, trawling these discussions for posts from people
experiencing one or more of the symptoms I have listed above has pointed me
towards the fact that a memory leak may be evident.

Can you help my friend?

Cheers..

Big Liam :)
 
Big said:
Thanks for your reply Pop.

Bearing in mind we're on an XP newsgroup, that should be an indication
I'm running XP ;-).

My reason for not posting too many details about the symptoms I am
having of this problem is several fold, mostly because they are very
wide ranging, intermittent and don't seem to fall into any pattern I
can recognise.

Basically, my machine is fine but periodically, it will drop it's
internet connection, report that either my DNS or IPAddress setup is
incorrect and
trash my sound drivers. The log on/off routine fails too, windows
explorer claims that my HD is empty (along with 'my documents') in the
Start Menu, and when trying to diagnose the problem with XP's built in
computer management console I get 'application faied to initialise'.

Reboot and hey presto, all is ok.

Checking the event logs has been no use, because nothing has been
reported as unusual.

As mentioned in my post, trawling these discussions for posts from
people experiencing one or more of the symptoms I have listed above
has pointed me towards the fact that a memory leak may be evident.
Click to expand...

From your description, I wouldn't think a "memory leak" is to blame. The
random nature of the problem indicates a hardware issue. Since nothing
shows up in Event Viewer, that also leads me to suspect the hardware
since problems with drivers or other software (such as processes or
programs) should show up there. You might also ask yourself the First
Question Of Troubleshooting: what changed between the time things
worked and the time they didn't?

Here are some general hardware troubleshooting steps:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Tshoot

Testing hardware failures often involves swapping out suspected parts
with known-good parts. If you can't do the testing yourself and/or are
uncomfortable opening your computer, take the machine to a professional
computer repair shop (not your local equivalent of BigStoreUSA).

Malke
 
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