Hi
My system cache is on the fritz. Just last night I formatted and reinstalled Windows XP to try to make it behave again but to no avail. Currently, the system cache is ignoring what "mode" I place it in (minimize memory used, balance, maximize throughput for network apps, maximize throughput for file sharing) and caching just about every single byte of data read from any file on either of my 2 hard drives no matter what program is reading that data.
This activity is extremely annoying, because while the system cache will grow until there is no more physical memory to expand into. I have 512 megs of RAM, and it will gleefully suck all of them up (minus the memory windows requires to function). In the process of sucking memory, the virtual memory manager will dump all memory in use by applications to the paging file, causing the entire computer to be very very slow. Watching the windows task manager as the system cache grows, I can see that once all available physical memory is freed, the system will de-cache about 70 megs of ram, and begin caching all over again.
This problem is most evident while running a file sharing program (in my case DC++: http://dcplusplus.sourceforge.net). When uploading at 1MBps over a LAN, available memory decreases at the same rate, as it is being filled by the growing System Cache, which also grows at the same rate (the windows task manager tells me this). Once the file is done being uploaded, memory the system cache used will be freed, however the "System Cache" readout portion of the "Physical Memory" frame in the "Performance" tab does not decrease in size. Whatever windows does with the system cache at this point is a mystery.
I have no idea why windows is doing this, and have no idea how to make it behave. I really want to fix this somehow as this shouldn't be happening and I've only heard of it happening to a few other people and found no information as to what they did to fix it. Any ideas on how to make the system cache behave? Or even better, how to completely disable it?
SnakeChomp
My system cache is on the fritz. Just last night I formatted and reinstalled Windows XP to try to make it behave again but to no avail. Currently, the system cache is ignoring what "mode" I place it in (minimize memory used, balance, maximize throughput for network apps, maximize throughput for file sharing) and caching just about every single byte of data read from any file on either of my 2 hard drives no matter what program is reading that data.
This activity is extremely annoying, because while the system cache will grow until there is no more physical memory to expand into. I have 512 megs of RAM, and it will gleefully suck all of them up (minus the memory windows requires to function). In the process of sucking memory, the virtual memory manager will dump all memory in use by applications to the paging file, causing the entire computer to be very very slow. Watching the windows task manager as the system cache grows, I can see that once all available physical memory is freed, the system will de-cache about 70 megs of ram, and begin caching all over again.
This problem is most evident while running a file sharing program (in my case DC++: http://dcplusplus.sourceforge.net). When uploading at 1MBps over a LAN, available memory decreases at the same rate, as it is being filled by the growing System Cache, which also grows at the same rate (the windows task manager tells me this). Once the file is done being uploaded, memory the system cache used will be freed, however the "System Cache" readout portion of the "Physical Memory" frame in the "Performance" tab does not decrease in size. Whatever windows does with the system cache at this point is a mystery.
I have no idea why windows is doing this, and have no idea how to make it behave. I really want to fix this somehow as this shouldn't be happening and I've only heard of it happening to a few other people and found no information as to what they did to fix it. Any ideas on how to make the system cache behave? Or even better, how to completely disable it?
SnakeChomp
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