Re: plenty of memory. running out anyway.

From: Dominic (Dominic_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 07/14/04 

Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 16:13:02 -0700

Hi Al,

Strange that it didn't wrap. I manually put carriage returns last time and everything.
I'm using the interface at microsoft.com, specifically:
http://communities2.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?pg=3&cat=en-us-win-winclient-generaldiscussion&lang=en&cr=US&guid=&dg=microsoft.public.windowsxp.general&fltr=

I don't usually use newsgroups.

(more at the bottom of this thread)

"Al Dykes" wrote:

> I still have to wrap you parapraphs. (I'm using TRN in a unix shell,
> it's never wrapped anything. ) FWIW, there's a lot of this in the 'net
> lately. What's your usenet client.
>
> In article <0B6B31C0-BAFA-408B-9345-4EEA1377EE32@microsoft.com>,
> =?Utf-8?B?RG9taW5pYw==?= <Dominic@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> >"Al Dykes" wrote:
> >> In article <BD3AF78A-029A-4151-B3AB-909D8789595A@microsoft.com>,
> >> =?Utf-8?B?RG9taW5pYw==?= <Dominic@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> >> >"Al Dykes" wrote:
> >> >> (Please learn to line-wrap your text. Thanks)
> >> >
> >> >(this form should wrap my text for me, no?)
> >> >
> >>
> >>
> >> Well, it's not wraped when it gets to the nntp servers, and the
> >> servers are not supposed to modify a message. I see your text as
> >> lines almost 200 chars long. These lines are probably chopped when I
> >> reply if I don't wrap. In my news client I get a warning if I try to
> >> send a line longer than 79 chars.
> >>
> >> >> In article <5B99523F-7D64-4961-8BD0-624BDA0833B2@microsoft.com>,
> >> >> =?Utf-8?B?RG9taW5pYw==?= <Dominic@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: >I
> >> >> have 1Gb of RAM on my P4 PC. However, lately XP has been giving me
> >> >> memory management problems. The physical ram is fine and shows up on
> >> >> the Windows Task Manager - Performance tab.
> >> >>
> >> >> > >Now when I open a few
> >> >> programs and some IE windows, suddenly windows runs out of "system
> >> >> resources" and I am unable to open up any more programs or additional
> >> >> windows. I have tried increasing the pagefile size from the windows
> >> >> managed setting to 3Gb-4Gb but to no avail. I can't imagine ever
> >> >> using anywhere close to a total of 5Gb of memory. > >I'm thinking
> >> >> there is a memory leak or something. Are there any memory management
> >> >> utilties that are safe for use with XP? I'm looking for something to
> >> >> manage the memory or at least diagnose or fix the cause of this "out
> >> >> of resources" problem.
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >> In Taskman, have you looked in the performance tab to see which
> >> >> processes are running and how much memory they use ?
> >> >
>
> >> >Yes. When I have the problem, I find that the biggest memory
> drains take up maybe 40-50Mb. The total memory used (listed in
> the Processes I mean) is never close to the 1Gb of RAM I have.
>
> >> >
> >> >> I'm thinking major spyware. Get Spybot and run it. See if it finds
> >> >> anything.
> >> >
>
> >> >I definitely do not have spyware. I'm pretty web savvy, plus I have about 3 levels of protection against spyware. I've checked the start-up in the registry and everything. Definitely no spyware on my PC.
>
> >> >
> >> >> perfmon.exe (part of XP) can diagnose exactly what your memory is
> >> >> being used for but it's got a bit of a learning curve. Give it a try.
> >> >
> >> >I will have a look at this. That is at least somewhere to start. Thanks.
> >> >
> >> >> What applications are you running ? You didn't buy a GB of memry just
> >> >> to run Internet Explorer.
> >> >
> >> >Photoshop, outlook, other office apps, flash, etc...
> >> >
> >> >> Is your system patched (SP1, plus all the critical patches) ?
> >> >
> >> >Patched and completely up to date.
> >>
> >>
> >> Hmmmm. Aside from Photoshop, everything can run fine in 256MB.
> >> I use PS5 once in a while in 512MB. Not real fast, but OK.
> >>
> >> How big are youir PSD files ?
> >
> >
> Not too big and the memory problem happens often. It's definitely not that photoshop is using 1 Gb of memory.
> >
>
> >> Have you looked into Event Viewer to see if there are any error
> >> messages ?
> >
>
> >You know I should have thought to do this sooner. There is a
> >plethora of errors I had not seen. Most are faulting application
> >errors and hanging application errors. They must get logged every
> >time I have this "out of resources" error. There doesn't seem to be
> >any particular culprit.
>
> >However there are also some warnings in there that say the following:
> >Windows saved user COMPUTER\Me registry while an application or
> >service was still using the registry during log off. The memory used
> >by the user's registry has not been freed. The registry will be
> >unloaded when it is no longer in use. This is often caused by
> >services running as a user account, try configuring the services to
> >run in either the LocalService or NetworkService account.
>
> >Perhaps that warning is linked to this other peculiarity on my PC...
> >I'm running a version of Agnitum Outpost Firewall and every time I
> >shut down it says something like "unexpected error happened".
> >Perhaps it is accessing the registry when windows is trying to shut
> >down. So then perhaps all this memory that is not freed is building
> >up? Could that possibly persist and accumulate through reboots of
> >the machine? I don't think that's possible... is it? > I know if
> >you have the PS Browser open the whole system slowes > down, again
> >not a memory problem. Nope that's not it. > Exactly what error
> >message are you getting ?
>
> >Often I don't get any message at all. I just can't seem to launch a
> >program, like a new Internet Explorer window for example. Then I
> >close a program or two and can proceed. If I don't close a program,
> >I can't launch anything new. Some programs just don't seem to make
> >an attempt to launch, while others like photoshop generate an error
> >message when the memory constraint does not allow them to load fully,
> >but it's vague.
>
> You may still have spyware, although It would he hard to imagine
> enough crap to fil up all your memory. There are so many places for
> stuff to hide in the registry that you need to look at every process
> you see in taskman and google it to find an explanation of what it
> is. Post the name of anything that looks suspicious, here.

I'm pretty good at removing spyware and monitoring the processes running on my PC. Believe me, I don't have spyware.

> You said you have 3 levels of spyware protection, It's possible
> they are stepping on each other. IMHO you should have
> exactly one spyware package and one AV package installed.

Well I run WinPatrol to protect against trojans, I *was* running Webroot Spysweeper to protect against other spyware, and I have a customized firewall.
Those are my "3 levels". They don't interfere with each other.

> You still haven't satisfied me that you are in fact running out of
> memory. "windows runs out of "system resources"" is not necessarily
> memory.

Well when I can't open anything new until I close something else,
I assume that it's a memory problem. It's definitely a resources problem of some sort.
If it's not, then what else can it be?
 
> Go to the microsoft.com knowledgebase support site and put parts of
> the significant error messages you see into the search and see what
> you've got.

Tried it. They suggested installing something called UPHCleanup to remove
profiles from memory that were otherwise stranded. I did that.

> You might have a completely corrupted XP and need a repair or
> reinstallation.

That's a last resort. In addition to the UPHCleanup, I upgraded my firewall
version. Now I don't get that strange "some error happened" message when
I shut down.

It's hard to tell if those two steps have solved my problem, but so far I haven't
had any difficulty. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Hopefully that's that!
:-)

Thanks for your help,
Dominic