Virtual memory question?

[Videot]

If this isn't the correct forum for this question please point me in correct
direction.

I can be playing a file like an MP3 & suddenly the music stops for anywhere
up to 6 or 7 seconds before continuing playing. This sudden freeze of sound
also extends to programs where the mouse refuses to move for several
seconds. Could this be something to do with the Virtual memory? The reason
that I ask is that the a bubble window popped up to say that Windows was
adjusting virtual memory because there wasn't enough. My machine has 1GB of
RAM but I also have video editing programs on the machine & the settings on
memory in this area may be set too high. Is this possible & it so just how
much can to allocate to these program.

 

[dev]

/Videot/ said:

If this isn't the correct forum for this question please point me in correct
direction.

I can be playing a file like an MP3 & suddenly the music stops for anywhere
up to 6 or 7 seconds before continuing playing. This sudden freeze of sound
also extends to programs where the mouse refuses to move for several
seconds. Could this be something to do with the Virtual memory? The reason
that I ask is that the a bubble window popped up to say that Windows was
adjusting virtual memory because there wasn't enough. My machine has 1GB of
RAM but I also have video editing programs on the machine & the settings on
memory in this area may be set too high. Is this possible & it so just how
much can to allocate to these program.

May not be the problem, but here's good info on VM...
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

 

[Cuan P]

If this isn't the correct forum for this question please point me in correct
direction.

I can be playing a file like an MP3 & suddenly the music stops for anywhere
up to 6 or 7 seconds before continuing playing. This sudden freeze of sound
also extends to programs where the mouse refuses to move for several
seconds. Could this be something to do with the Virtual memory? The reason
that I ask is that the a bubble window popped up to say that Windows was
adjusting virtual memory because there wasn't enough. My machine has 1GB of
RAM but I also have video editing programs on the machine & the settings on
memory in this area may be set too high. Is this possible & it so just how
much can to allocate to these program.

Hmmm...1Gb is nice. What processor are you using? If it's re-paging the
page file, then there is a memory usage problem. Just how many apps does
your machine load when it boots? These are startup menu apps and
registry-started apps. Use ctrl-alt-del to check the resources being used
by the processes running. Also, do you have any of these video editting
programs running while you're listening to these mp3's? What you can also
do to measure this, is to open the performance tab in the task manager and
ALT-TAB out to your other processes. The task manager will remain on top.
While your running your different apps, just watch the graphs to see just
when and where the cpu usage spikes. If the processor spikes to 100%, then
you'll start noticing how jerky things become.

I work with audio editting and multitrack sequencing, and since my cpu is
becoming more and more underpowered for the later and later software that
gets released, I get some BIG TIME freezing the more tracks I try to
synthesize. With me, it's a combination of memory and cpu, however. I
don't know whether you're *that* short of memory, though. Lemme know what
you find out.

later

- cuan

 

[Videot]

I run msconfig about once a month & delete whatever I can. I don't have
lots of things running. I can even have this momentary freeze when I'm just
playing a CD & nothing else is running. I have 1GB memory because I run
video editing software & 'Vegas is capable of doing RAM rendering.

I don't understand your comment about it possibly 're-paging the page
file'. I have no ideas so to what this is.

 

[Cuan P]

I run msconfig about once a month & delete whatever I can. I don't have
lots of things running. I can even have this momentary freeze when I'm just
playing a CD & nothing else is running. I have 1GB memory because I run
video editing software & 'Vegas is capable of doing RAM rendering.

okay. that tells us very little more than your last post. I know Vegas -
Sonic Foundry makes very good software as far as memory utilisation goes.
We also now know that you don't need to have any active applications running
for a system slow-down to happen. Which brings us to the other experiments
in the task manager. Those would tell you which programs are sucking up
processor time and memory. The type & speed of your cpu is important
information. You can have a vast reservoir of ram and be running a puny
celeron and have some TSR running which is causing the cpu to choke. A
virus would also fall into the TSR category. Are you running a network at
home? Is your machine a server? As the saying goes..."need more input..."

What I find puzzling is that it 'stutters' while you're listening to a CD.
CD audio functions independently of software. It's a direct cable from the
cd-rom to the sound card. So I must assume that you're not referring to the
audio jerking while you're listening to a CD, but possibly mouse-pointer
movement. If the audio from the CD is jerking, then I would say you should
stop kicking your machine while the cd is playing. ;-)

I don't understand your comment about it possibly 're-paging the page
file'. I have no ideas so to what this is.

What it means is that windows is resizing the swap (or page) file. This
normally happens when it calculates that it doesn't have enough virtual
memory for the amount of physical memory in use.

- cuan