Re: Why I am Limited to about 35 Open Windows With 3GB Ram in New

I accidently replied to another message, so will paste again below:

Mak,

When I used the command prompt to try to start more IE7 windows using "start
iexplore", I got the same effect, could not open any more windows than if I
tried to start IE7 by double clicking on the IE icon on the desktop.

I tried creating the graphs that you suggested in performance, and I think I
did it correctly. I only needed to set the max scale to 1600 instead of
10000. The Handle Count curve was a horizontal line at about 1400. the
Working Set curve was a horizontal line at about 560. The Virtual Bytes
curve was a horizontal line at about 170. The % Processor Time curve varied
with time up to about a max value of 54. The Pages/sec curve was at zero
most of the time.

There is a lot that I don't understand about all this. I think I understand
Processor Time, but that is about it. I am an aerospace engineer, so use
computers a lot, but have not been trained in any of these details. It is
great to learn about anything that helps me use computers more efficiently,
and about computers in general.

Let me know if I am doing something wrong or if you have any other
questions, etc. Perhaps I need to do this differently, or perhaps there
something else I need to check.

Regards,

John

"Mak" wrote:

I think you can find out what is happening John.
First, start your IE (single window or tab), then:

Start - run: perfmon {enter}

on the toolbar click on "+"
Under Performance object select "Process"
Under select counters from the list select "Handle Count"
Under select instances from the list select "iexplore"
Click add.
Add also "Virtual bytes" and "Working set" for "iexplore".
Right click somewhere on the graph, properties / graph tab. Under vertical
scale, maximum, type 10000.

Now you can start opening your IE windows... When you can't do that anymore,
go back to permon and check the numbers.
You either running out of handles (most likely) or out of virtual address
space per process (virtual bytes) wich is 2GiB by default.
Extra RAM won't help for any of those.

10000 handles per process is hardcoded in Windows XP, there used to be a
"fix" to increase this number to something like 16000, but I can't find it
anymore. Whatever is set in the registry needs underlying file to work
properly with bigger number of handles, hence, I won't recommend changing
handle quota value without it.
In any case the solution to this problem is easy - just start second IE
process.

"John_061211" <John061211@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1B5C80AD-56EB-418E-A761-C0BC2123FD47@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thanks very much for all the information. Mak, I did not understand your
replies that well, but it is is still helpful, thanks.

It would be interesting if someone else with 3GB or more of memory tried
this, but it seems at this point that the problem is not a memory
limitation,
and it seems that others have run into this without resolution. Perhaps
the
solution would be switching to Windows Vista, or perhaps that would create
new problems.

Regarding my recent memory purchase, I think I will take the memory out to
see if the machine runs any slower without this extra memory. If it makes
no
difference, I may send it back for a refund, as the primary reason for
purchasing it was to solve this limitation on the number of windows I
could
open. Or maybe I will keep the extra memory if this is needed for Windows
Vista, assuming it is worth the upgrade.

Thanks again for this information. This user community here is great.
Dell
support and also Crucial Technologies (Micron Technologies - the memory
maker) had no idea what was wrong. I think it is odd that they do not
understand this problem.

Another reason, by the way, that I use so many windows is that I have a
large screen to look at. I have a 24" LCD screen which seems to cause me
want to have more applications or windows open at the same time.

Regards,

John


"Mak" wrote:

oh, forgot to mention.... if you're not up to session limit, but only per
process, you can start separate IE process from command prompt via:
"start
iexplore" command.

"Mak" <nospam@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OzeqUtZHHHA.1248@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
John, you might be running out of GDI Handles.

AFAIK in Xp it's set by default to 10,000 per process. (I've checked
mine
and it's set to 10,000, though I don't remember if I modified that or
not)
You can fire up permon, object 'process' | counter 'handle count' |
process 'iexplore' and watch it rise... check the number after wich you
can't open tabs anymore.
Also, system wide the number of hadles per session is limited to about
65k
(theoretical limit I think).
Total system wide number of handles is also displayed in Task Manager.


"John_061211" <John061211@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:6345D3EF-09B8-41C3-A1F7-5A5A217C71E5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have a 6 month old Dell dual-processor Windows XP desktop PC that is
very
fast. I have Windows XP Media Edition with Service Pack 2. I noticed
I
was
limited to about 35 open windows (for example 35 IE7 windows - not
using
the
tab option in IE7) before apparently running out of memory when I had
just
1GB of memory in the machine. I am working on many things at once and
would
like to be able to open at least 50 windows on the machine.

I just added 2GB of memory (3GB total now) and although the computer
recognizes the extra memory, I can not open any additional windows.
Is
there
some limitation in Windows XP on the maximum number of windows or
applications you can have open, or is there perhaps something wrong
with
the
memory that I installed? I call the memory manufacturer, and they
said
they
memory should be fine and that it is the correct memory for my
machine.
I
called Dell technical support and they don't have any clues. All
inputs
I
received suggest going from 1GB Ram to 3GB Ram should allow me to have
a
lot
more windows open than I had before.

I suspect there is either a limitation in Windows XP or some setting
that
I
need to change to allow it to make use of the additional memory that I
have.
Otherwise it must be bad memory, or something wrong with other
hardware
components.

Thanks in advance for any help or comments on this problem.

--
John








.

Relevant Pages

  • RE: Virtual memory
    ... You can configure virtual memory in windows xp and thereby improve the ... How to set performance options in Windows XP ... if you have background programs such as printing or disk ... It is also known as the paging file. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain)
  • [NT] NNTP Service in Windows Contains Memory Leak
    ... NNTP Service in Windows Contains Memory Leak ... An affected server could be restored to normal service by ...
    (Securiteam)
  • Re: Physical Memory
    ... These Windows services are started: ... Memory optimizers/defragers are nothing more than snake ... These optimizers work by making demands on the Windows Memory Manager ... The funny thing about all of this nonsense is that the snake oil memory ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Slow performance
    ... computer has two memory slots so to achieve 1 gb you need to install 2 x ... own set up consists of AVG 8 Anti-Virus, Spybot S& D, Windows Defender ... of programme is generally not recommended in these newsgroups. ... My disk drive is pretty full right now, mainly due to fact that I just ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain)
  • Re: Physical Memory
    ... Thanks for your help, John. ... As for the services just use the Windows Services Management Console to ... Remote Access Connection Manager ... gig Pentium 4 processor and apparently a half gig of available memory, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
Loading