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System resources constantly being sucked up w/ 128MB RAM! What's the deal with this?

M

Madcowz

Platinum Member
I've had this problem constantly with 2 of my systems both containing 128MB RAM. One was a generic stick and this one contains Mushkin Mosel Rev 2 RAM if that makes any difference. Anyways I'll just be doing some light browsing with AOL IM and my USB radio software running in the background and my system resources would be around 30-35%. That's horrible, I wonder what it's like with gaming! I know it's not any of the programs I'm using b/c even just with a browser open and nothing else I'll be at about 50%. This is after using the system for a while... of course I'll be in the 90's right after a fresh boot. I've tried those memory freeing programs before but they are annoying and is just another resource sucking program running in the background. Except for the automatic memory refresher one's i'd forget to constantly free up the memory and the automated one's use more resources than the manual one's anyways and you have to have them running in the background. Anyways is there any way I can free up leaks and make my system manage resources more efficiently so I don't have these problems? I hear everywhere that anything more than 128MB of RAM dosen't show any difference unless your running business and graphics apps constantly, which I'm not. The odd thing is that my friend who has 192MB's is usually at a much healthier 70-80%. Can anyone offer any suggestions?
 
one of the process you are running MUSt be a resource hog

it has NOTHING to do with your RAM

resource and memory are totally different things

even if you have 64MB, the resource you have is the same
even if u have 4G ram
same amount of resource (at least in win9x)

anyway
what u do is to load EACH program individually
and while monitoring your resources
see WHICH one is the culpuit
 
xtreme2k

I dont know if they are totally different...

Doesnt Windows allocate some certain amount of your memory to resources? I'm pretty sure your right that it doesnt matter how much ram you have though.

One of the programs your using must be using your resources and not returning them when it closes. Try running msconfig (type "msconfig" in the run menu), and see what is loading at startup. remove everything that isnt needed.
 
Use CTRL-ALT-dELETE and see what programs are running. You might look for multiple entries of the same program running. It seems that some Virus Scans, specifically McAfee, sometimes takes a program that you close and keeps it running in the background without you knowing about. I had that problem and I recently went on a friend's Dell and found that his resources were at 40%. Lo and behold, McAfee had created his email (Msimn) program as a running program four times and was eating up his resources. I removed McAfee and replaced it with a free virus scan and he's now running 80% free.
You might reduce the number of startup programs. Click on Start/Run and type msconfig. Click on Start up and uncheck any program that you really don't need running. This will also free up resources.
 
Resources are basically three stacks containing handles (brushes, and other graphical objects). In win9x, those stacks have 16bit addressing (came from win3.1), hence 64K limit. NT/2000 has 32bit stacks, and therefore resources are virtually unlimitted.
Either way, one of the programs that start at boot time is a resource hog (i.e. the programmer who wrote it is an idiot and/or their QA sux).
Type msconfig in the Run box, go to start-up, and disable anything you don't need.
 
as far as i know

most 'resources free-er' dont work

from what i know
only the program that actually take up the resource can free them
NTHING else
 
You could try optimizing your swapfile by going start>run>sysedit>ok>system.ini and under 386Enh at the bottom of the list try typing ConservativeSwapFileUsage and then press save and restart. This will not really do anything to your memory but will stop accessing the hard drive all the time which may speed your friends system up a bit. Yes,I know this was not the question but this will help with speed.
 

> from what i know
> only the program that actually take up the resource can free them
> NTHING else

Correct; No such animal. But nonetheless try it, you just may like it.
 
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