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Why Does Seti@Home Create So Many Page Faults?
- Thread starter Escalade
- Start date
JWMiddleton
Diamond Member
Escalade, I would assume that you need more memory. SETI is constantly reading chucks of the WU into memory for analysis. If you had 128MB of RAM this could put you on the edge. On my Win2k box I have 192MB RAM and 86MB is available. If I open Word, the available memory drops to 80MB. One more app and I would be beyond the 128MB mark.
If you have more than 128MB, then you might need to look at other apps like Norton AV.
If you have more than 128MB, then you might need to look at other apps like Norton AV.
hummm....reading up on page faults a bit:
CAUSE
This error message can occur for any of the following reasons:
- An unexpected event has occurred in Windows. An "invalid page fault" error message often indicates that a program improperly attempted to use random access memory (RAM). For example, this error message can occur if a program or a Windows component reads or writes to a memory location that is not allocated to it. When this behavior occurs, the program can potentially overwrite and corrupt other program code in that area of memory.
- A program has requested data that is not currently in virtual memory, and Windows attempts to retrieve the data from a storage device and load it into RAM. An "invalid page fault" error message can occur when Windows cannot locate the data. This behavior often occurs when the virtual memory area becomes corrupted.
- The virtual memory system has become unstable because of a shortage of physical memory (RAM).
- The virtual memory system has become unstable because of a shortage of free disk space.
- The virtual memory area is corrupted by a program.
- A program is attempting to access data that is being modified by another program that is running.
More Reading:
Win2k Page Faults
There is also a tool on the Resource Disk called Pfmon that monitors applications and page faults:
Pfmon
More:
Page Faults/sec ? hard page fault occurs when a program doesn?t have enough physical memory to execute a given function. If there?s frequently over 5 hard page faults/sec, this is another strong indication of a memory bottleneck. Increase RAM.
Sometimes software applications use the system?s RAM very inefficiently, causing performance problems. Inefficient use of memory occurs for at least 2 reasons: poor program design and failure to return memory to the server after a process is complete (leaking memory). Leaking memory is a very common problem that has a cumulative impact, because the program may go through several cycles in which it repeatedly accesses blocks of memory that aren?t released. The result is that the page file continually grows, resulting in slower and slower performance. Adding RAM or increasing page file size in that case is not likely to address the performance problem. A better solution is to identify the program and redesign it or purchase on that is more efficient. In System Monitor, track the Process object and the counters Page File Bytes and Page Faults/sec, for each process that you suspect is causing a problem. A high rate of page faults for one process in relation to total number of page faults is a strong indicator that there?s a problem with that process.
CAUSE
This error message can occur for any of the following reasons:
- An unexpected event has occurred in Windows. An "invalid page fault" error message often indicates that a program improperly attempted to use random access memory (RAM). For example, this error message can occur if a program or a Windows component reads or writes to a memory location that is not allocated to it. When this behavior occurs, the program can potentially overwrite and corrupt other program code in that area of memory.
- A program has requested data that is not currently in virtual memory, and Windows attempts to retrieve the data from a storage device and load it into RAM. An "invalid page fault" error message can occur when Windows cannot locate the data. This behavior often occurs when the virtual memory area becomes corrupted.
- The virtual memory system has become unstable because of a shortage of physical memory (RAM).
- The virtual memory system has become unstable because of a shortage of free disk space.
- The virtual memory area is corrupted by a program.
- A program is attempting to access data that is being modified by another program that is running.
More Reading:
Win2k Page Faults
There is also a tool on the Resource Disk called Pfmon that monitors applications and page faults:
Pfmon
More:
Page Faults/sec ? hard page fault occurs when a program doesn?t have enough physical memory to execute a given function. If there?s frequently over 5 hard page faults/sec, this is another strong indication of a memory bottleneck. Increase RAM.
Sometimes software applications use the system?s RAM very inefficiently, causing performance problems. Inefficient use of memory occurs for at least 2 reasons: poor program design and failure to return memory to the server after a process is complete (leaking memory). Leaking memory is a very common problem that has a cumulative impact, because the program may go through several cycles in which it repeatedly accesses blocks of memory that aren?t released. The result is that the page file continually grows, resulting in slower and slower performance. Adding RAM or increasing page file size in that case is not likely to address the performance problem. A better solution is to identify the program and redesign it or purchase on that is more efficient. In System Monitor, track the Process object and the counters Page File Bytes and Page Faults/sec, for each process that you suspect is causing a problem. A high rate of page faults for one process in relation to total number of page faults is a strong indicator that there?s a problem with that process.
Are the "Page Faults" in task manager the same thing as "Invalid Page Fault"?
We have all seen the Win 9X blue screen due to Invalid Page Fault error, is this merely that Windows has learned how to deal with this problem without crashing?
As badthad said, everything produces page faults. Literally everything in task manager here shows a minimum of one page fault and since seti is using 99% cpu power and is the most active thing running it shows the highest number of faults and is the one process that produces more faults than any other on my system.
Maybe it is merely that the system is attempting to access memory but the processes using that memory have moved on without properly closing / flushing?
Maybe it's due to not having enough cache?
I don't know, I'm not an engineer.
With 50 Gigs free disk and now 305 megs free physical ram those are definitely not issues here.
We have all seen the Win 9X blue screen due to Invalid Page Fault error, is this merely that Windows has learned how to deal with this problem without crashing?
As badthad said, everything produces page faults. Literally everything in task manager here shows a minimum of one page fault and since seti is using 99% cpu power and is the most active thing running it shows the highest number of faults and is the one process that produces more faults than any other on my system.
Maybe it is merely that the system is attempting to access memory but the processes using that memory have moved on without properly closing / flushing?
Maybe it's due to not having enough cache?
I don't know, I'm not an engineer.
With 50 Gigs free disk and now 305 megs free physical ram those are definitely not issues here.
Invalid page faults only happen with drivers from my quick reading. The blue screen happens with an "invalid" page fault so that everything stays protected...the blue screen is actually a good thing, LOL. Applications have page faults mainly because of their poor use of memory. It appears that SETI uses memory BADLY and perhaps leaks it by sucking down memory pages and not freeing them when done.
I suspect that this is reason:
- A program has requested data that is not currently in virtual memory, and Windows attempts to retrieve the data from a storage device and load it into RAM.
SETI frequently accesses lots of data so it must keep paging to memory in order to keep the CPU fed. I suspect the faster your CPU the more of these "faults" will exist. They actually appear to be quite harmless IMO.
I suspect that this is reason:
- A program has requested data that is not currently in virtual memory, and Windows attempts to retrieve the data from a storage device and load it into RAM.
SETI frequently accesses lots of data so it must keep paging to memory in order to keep the CPU fed. I suspect the faster your CPU the more of these "faults" will exist. They actually appear to be quite harmless IMO.
I guess all of microsoft's are too because EVERYTHING running has page faults. Shut off SETI and set explorer.exe to high priority and watch the page faults rack up. SETI generates more (and faster) page faults because it's so intensive. The program is constantly moving data through all the subsystems at the computer's maximum speed.
Apparently page faults are easily controlled by the OS and are of no consequence. The problem occurs with the "invalid page fault", that will freeze you to the BSOD. No OS engineers out there?
Apparently page faults are easily controlled by the OS and are of no consequence. The problem occurs with the "invalid page fault", that will freeze you to the BSOD. No OS engineers out there?
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