Clear Memory without ReBooting ?

[21stHermit]

I'm running WinXP Home on my laptop with 256M. I use a lot of image programs with large TIF files (19-200M).

If I use one of the programs and then close it and open another, it acts as if the first program is open and still running and subsequent programs are either poky or don't run well at all. To date my only solution is to close all programs and reboot.

Is there a way in XP to close all programs, "zero" the memory so that I effectively get a reboot?

Some of the programs I'm running include Capture One (a RAW to TIF converter), Image Stacker (combines TIFFs), Corel Photo Paint, CorelDraw, Epson Printer Driver. All of these programs run snappily if they're the first to be opened after booting.

BTW, The same thing happens on my desktop with 768M.

 

[Matthias99]

That's very odd, because the memory management scheme of WinNT/XP/2K should not suffer from leaked memory once the offending program is closed. All memory allocated by a program is freed and returned to the system when that program is terminated.

Does the system seem to be going to virtual RAM (ie, thrashing the HDD whenever you try to manipulate an image you've loaded)? Have you mucked with any of your virtual memory settings? It sounds like maybe an issue there...

 

[21stHermit]

Originally posted by: Matthias99
Does the system seem to be going to virtual RAM (ie, thrashing the HDD whenever you try to manipulate an image you've loaded)? Have you mucked with any of your virtual memory settings? It sounds like maybe an issue there...

I've set my swap space very large (2G min - 4G max) and no system is very quiet, not hitting the hard drive. It just turns into a pig.

 

[Afro000Dude]

I remember a program called MPower that did that, but that was back in W98 days. It crashed my computer the first time I used DDR ram under W98 and later under XP. Haven't tried it since.

 

[GoSharks]

try logging off and then back on.

 

[TechnoPro]

I used to use MemTurbo back in the Windows 98 days when memory leaks were inevitable. Worked miracles. You can both manually or autmotaically free up memory.