memory problem

Matt615 · Post by **Matt615** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 8:44 pm

I seem to be having a problem in XP Pro. I have 512MB of RAM which is sufficient most of the time for what I need to do, but when I run programs and the amount of RAM free drops, it never seems to go back up to what it was before I started using the computer. Most of the time this isnt a problem, but after a few days out of 512 I may have 170-190 free while running nothing, whereas when I restart the computer I will have 310 free or so. This is all according to the windows up Task manager. I definately notice a slow down when the amount of RAM free is way down there. So my question would be, what is causing this to happen, and is there any way to fix it. Could there be something wrong with the RAM physically or is this a software issue.

Thanks for the help,
Matt

Easto · Post by **Easto** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 10:41 pm

It could be a lot of things but I know from my personal experience that everytime I open a pdf file and then close Adobe Reader it still stays running in the background. I usually have to go into my Task Manager to end the process.

mccoffee · Post by **mccoffee** » Sun Jan 11, 2004 1:47 am

Adobe is a trickey program that uses a lot of resources.

cyberskye · Post by **cyberskye** » Sun Jan 11, 2004 3:13 am

Do you close programs 'gracefully'? As in File>Exit, or the equiv? Clicking on the ' X ' in the upper right corner of a console may just kill the console and not the process behind it.

When a process dies, the kernel should free the ram. If a process is left running, windows lets the app decide what resources it needs.

Suggestion - Close all your apps through their gui's/controls and then check taskmgr. See how much memory per prcoess (that should be dead) and how many threads are still running under it.

Always possible that an app you use has a memory leak. Check thread counts per process in taskmgr and make sure they aren't growing in size over time. This might indicate a memory leak in that app.

Skye