Losing memory in Win2k - Now with Task Manager Screen Captures

[nightowl]

On my Win2k machine memory gradualy starts to disappear after about 2-3 days. When Win2k first starts up it is using about 85MB of memory. After 2-3 days or so, memory usage is up to 150MB or more with the same programs running in Task Manager. Where does my memory go. It seems to have gotten worse after I went from 256MB to 512MB. It is not like I am short of resources on my computer, it is jus that I do not want it to use any more than it has to.

Also, I took the time to add up both the physical and virtual memory and the numbers do not add up to equal the total at the bottom of Task Manager
Task Manager right after start up
Task Manager after 30 hrs
Task Manager after 2 days

Edit: 2 new screen shots
Task Manager with Graph
Task Manager with list of apps

 

[jeebus21]

Windows 2k considers pagefile (pagefile.sys) memory as part of the total count. Check your available physical memory against what Windows is using...if it reads that it is using 200MB of memory and you have 400MB of physical memory, then it is just pagefile. For example, Half-Life pushes my computer to 240MB of usage even though I have 90MB+ of physical RAM available.

Your observation that it has gotten "worse" with your RAM upgrade is spot on. Windows will adjust the pagefile to a size no less than 3/2 * Physical RAM (so, 384MB pagefile on a 256MB Physical RAM system) and thus seem to use more resources...

hope this helps some.

jeebus

 

[nightowl]

I know that the swap file is considered part of the total memory in Win2k. It is just that my entire memory usage, both VM and physical memory, increases the longer my computer has been up. Like I said before, my computer uses around 85MB at start up and after 2-3 days it is up to 150MB or more, with a max around 200MB. This is with the same processes running in Task Manager at both times.

 

[loosbrew]

you should check out whats running in the back round. maybe an app thats starting up with windows is leaking memory? just a thought. also you can set your own pagefile to whatever you want, but no less than 2 or 20 i forget i have mine set to 128 and the max set to 256 while i actually have 256.

good luck
loosbrew

 

[potz]

it seems that eventually a lot of memory goes into the "system cache" when you start loading apps it'll come back. but one time the kernel decided it was going to take 100mb of ram. i had no idea why but it refused to give it up so i rebooted. but that's only happened once.

 

[jeebus21]

I guess my point is: Windows constantly pages and I have always seen memory usage increase over a time period, especially if the computer is used at all.

 

[Suppafly]

i have my computer up for a week or more constantly and dont have this problem.. something you are running is leaking memory. check to see if any weird services are running and check to see which programs you are running on startup. in task manager sort the task by memory usage.. youll prob notice that something is taking alot.. somethings explorer takes a bunch.. if it bothers you just kill the task and right click and start it again.. unlike in win98, you can kill and restart explorer with out restarting the system.

 

[nightowl]

Bump for update

 

[Panther505]

Nightowl-

I have a system that is routinely up 35 to 40 days without a reboot and this is my workstation at work. My server at work(the 2 that I am responsible for) have been up for 35 and 75 day respectively. I think that you need to look at what apps you are running and try running with several of them disabled for a time. If you can localize what apps is causing the issue then you can either look for a new app that accomplishes the same thing or look for a version that doesn't have the memory leak.

Also give us a screen shot of the next tab over- Performance. I am interested in what you are using to judge the amount of memory that the system is using..

 

[nightowl]

I am going off the number at the bottom right corner which is also on the Performance tab. I am also going by the mem and VM usage columns listed. Once my system has been up long enough to have the memory start to "disappear" I will add a screen shot of the Performace tab.

 

[mitaiwan82]

that's strange...i've got 512 megs of the same RAM and win2k sp1, only it's on an AMD system. I never have a problem w/ a memory shortage. btw my paging space is set to 766MB

EDIT oh my bad i didn't read carefully enough and didn't see that you didn't have a resource problem...guess i'm just not as picky as your where my ram goes...beside I reboot every couple of days =)

 

[nightowl]

bump for new screen shots