Why does my available physical memory invariably drop to nearly zero?

[RaynorWolfcastle]

I have 384 MB of RAM and after 45 mins to an hour of using Windows (98), my system ressource monitor always shows that i have something like 10 MB available physical memory even if i only have 1 Explorer window open.

Is win98 so bad at memory management or do i have a memory leak in a program? Is the only solution to upgrade to an OS with the NT kernel (win2k, winXP)?

-Ice

 

[konichiwa]

Wasn't there some issue with over 256megs of RAM with Windows 98? And yes, you should definately upgrade to 2k.

 

[bacillus]

you could try using a memory program such as memturbo to reclaim some memory!

 

[sharkeeper]

The windows disk cache (vcache.vxd) will use all of your physical memory. I'd recommend limiting it's upper limit to whatever physical memory you have minus 64 MB. This way you'll always have enough physical memory for windows. The best option is to use Windows 2000.

Cheers!

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

ok, so how should i edit the vxd to behave properly?

-Ice

 

[MplsBob]

Usage of IE should not cause such a problem.

Perhaps you have some other piece of software that has a memory leak.

I would suggest that you remove all of your cards with the exceptions of the graphics adapter and modem and see if it persists.

Also, remember that a single ctrl-alt-del brings up a small window that shows what is loaded into memory. That might prove informative. Better yet, if you have the Norton Utilities or Norton SystemWorks, bring up SysInfo click on the "memory" tab and see whats there and how much memory each is taking.

If all of this proves uninformative there is another alternative. Do a ctrl-alt-delete and "end task" on the topmost item and run for awhile and see if that changes the situation. Repeat this process over and over again until, hopefully, you find the culprit.

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Also, I am unaware of any Windows issues above 256MB of RAM. There is definitely one after you cross the 512MB boundary, but that should not be causing you problems with your 384MBs.

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My best wishes to you on a speedy resolution of your "disappearing memory" problem.

 

[kylef]

You can watch where the memory is going by using the System Monitor utility. Just set up a graph to display the following things:

1. Unused Physical Memory
2. Disk Cache Size
3. Allocated Memory

I think what Sharkeeper said about the disk cache is correct, but you can watch to see if he's correct by graphing the above items.

You should see the Disk Cache Size increase as Unused Physical Memory dwindles away and Allocated Memory increases to compensate. If the memory dwindles without a corresponding increase in disk cache size, then you might actually have a memory leak like MplsBob thinks. Or you may just be running Realplayer

 

[sean2002]

Just download cacheman and use it to set your disk cache to 32786 min and max

 

[JackMDS]

There are programs that will tell you the amount of memory that is used by each application that run at the time.

Example: http://www.geocities.com/vooshmaster/sa3.html

Run this program it will tell what the memory is used for.

 

[sharkeeper]

In your system.ini you should place under [VCACHE] the following entries:

MinFileCache=8192
MaxFileCache=327680
ChunkSize=2048

Cheers!