Memory Leak

  • Thread starter Thread starter Phil
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Phil

A few weeks ago I asked a question, and someone answered,
that my computer symptoms indicated a memory leak. I
printed out procedures to check but have lost them. Could
someone give me info again or a reference to check it out
at. XP Home (SP 1), IE 6. Symptoms are: when nav the
web all ok, plenty fast, no complaints. BUT, it is
considerably slower for info internal to my computer, like
System Restore, Help and Support, word, and pictures on my
hard drive. System mechanic has been recommended but, did
no good. Thanks, Phil
 
I'm not going to get into the memory leak question wiothout knowing more
information but if you are refering to Registry Mechanic instead of System
Mechanic you might have damaged your registry as there have been several
reports that Registry Mechanic has caused more faults than it has fixed as a
lot of these so called registry optimising\fixing programs do.

I monitor memory usage completely on my XP Pro computers and have never seen
a memory leak in any of Windows built in programs. The only programs I have
ever noticed memory leaks with were file sharing (peer 2 peer) programs
shareaza, emule that sort of thing.

Midnight
 
Thanks Midnight. It was System, NOT Registry, Mechanic.
Sounds like plus for me. Don't have peer 2 peer. If
problem not memory leak, what could be slowing down stuff
that is internal to my computer? Any other ideas. Any
other info I can send to help diagnose? Thanks, Phil
 
Why do\did you think it was a memory leak. XP memory management is excelent
so I can't see any of the standard programs causing a leak. You mention
slowdon in your original post. A slowdown is usually caused by a
program\process using cpu cycles and nothing to do with memory leakage. If
you open task manager (ctrl + alt + del) click the process tab then click
where it says cpu. This will line up procesess in order of how much
processor time they are using. If you look at the top where it says file
options view etc click on view\select columns. Tick memory usage, peak
memory usage and virtual memory usage don't click cpu time. You will be able
to see what is using both your cpu cycles and where your memory is being
used. Don't confuse low free memory with memory leakage because Windows XP
will cache programs\processes etc in any unused memory. So your free memory
may drop but it is really just cached. This makes XP react faster when you
need to reuse any programs\proceses previously used. This is nothing to do
with the page file which is akin to a 9x system swap file.

I think I have covered most things but as it is 6 am I'm about to go to bed
so if this isn't very clearly written I appologise. From the cpu usage and
the peak memory usage you should see where your computer slowdowns are and
also get an idea what is using your memory.

One thing, how much RAM do you have and what processor are you using? As
long as you have at least 256mb RAM you should have enough for most things.
The computer I'm writing this on is an old P3 733MHz with 384mb PC133 RAM. I
have 48 processes running and still have 150mb ram free with 200mb cached.
Cpu usage is floating between 30% to 50% and I run a ftp server 24\7 and
it's been running for 3 days since I last rebooted and it normally runs for
weeks without needing to be rebooted. I normaly only reboot after installing
or upgrading software.

If you leave task manager running and just use your computer you should see
after a while what's going on. The longer you leave it running the more
accurate the results so don't just start the computer and jump on the first
thing that seems to be using all your resources.

Midnight
 
Phil said:
Thanks Midnight. It was System, NOT Registry, Mechanic.
Sounds like plus for me. Don't have peer 2 peer. If
problem not memory leak, what could be slowing down stuff
that is internal to my computer?
Click to expand...

R-click in unoccupied Task Bar, take Task Manager. Look on the
Processes page to see what process is using a lot of CPU.

One possibility is svchost; that is an interface that runs a whole slew
of services for the system. They initialise in batches so expect 4 or 5
instances. For them you have to look in Control Panel - Admin tools -
Services for ones that are started, then *very* cautiously stop (and
restart) one at a time to try to identify the culprit. Possibilities
are

Background Intelligent Transfer
Routing and Remote access

or the pair
SSDP Discovery
Universal PnP
which you could do without *unless* you have a router that needs it to
do the address translation (NAT)

Others not likely to be needed are
Alerter
Messenger (which is not 'Instant Messaging'
Indexing

And ones associated with third party AV and the like are always possible
 
Midnight, Alex....Thanks both. I got some education and
I'll try to use it to stay out of trouble. Didn't know
all this stuff was avail in the computer. A little
knowledge can be a dangerous thing but, I'm not going to
screw around with this stuff other than look and
say "ok". Again thanks, Phil
 
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