RAM

Hi, i have 128MB on my PC, which says alot of when it was
purchased!! Only recently i have installed a meter, which
measures CPU usuage and displays memory information.

I noticed just by switching on my pc, and running the
meter that about 70% of my memory is already gone. Within
about 10-15 mins, i only have about 5-10% of my RAM left.

This may explain why my pc freezes now and then. is this
true?

I do understand the best way to solve this is to install
more RAM (hoping to buy a new PC in 6 months). Is there
anything that i can do to maintain more RAM - instead of
alot of it being used during the start up process.

please advise

regards

iqbal.

"Iqbal" wrote:

Hi, i have 128MB on my PC, which says alot of when it was
purchased!! Only recently i have installed a meter, which
measures CPU usuage and displays memory information.

I noticed just by switching on my pc, and running the
meter that about 70% of my memory is already gone. Within
about 10-15 mins, i only have about 5-10% of my RAM left.

This may explain why my pc freezes now and then. is this
true?

I do understand the best way to solve this is to install
more RAM (hoping to buy a new PC in 6 months). Is there
anything that i can do to maintain more RAM - instead of
alot of it being used during the start up process.


Adding more memory can noticeably improve performance only if the
added memory results in reduced usage of the virtual memory swap file.
Therefore if the swap file is not currently being used to any
significant extent then adding more memory will not provide a
significant improvement.

Before installing more RAM use the System Monitor utility that comes
with Windows and use Edit - Add to set it to track "Memory manager:
Swap file in use" for several days of normal to heavy usage. If "Swap
file in use" regularly shows as 20 mb or more then the swap file is
being used extensively and more memory would result in improved
performance.

This applies regardless of how much or how little RAM is currently
installed in the computer.


Also please note that Windows will always endeavor to find some use,
anything that might potentially be of some benefit rather than just
leaving the RAM sitting there doing nothing. And just as soon as some
better use comes along for any of that RAM then Windows will
instantaneously drop the more trivial usages so as to free up whatever
is now required.


So just the fact that most or all of the RAM is actually doing
something is not in itself an indication that there is any problem.
It is only when Windows is forced to move active memory content from
RAM to the swap file so at to allow that RAM to be used for other,
currently more important, purposes that there is a problem. And the
"swap file in use" value reported by Windows System Monitor will show
you this. Other reporting utilities use a different definition for
"swap file in use" and their results may not be valid for assessing
the potential impact of a RAM upgrade.

Hope this explains the situation.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 14:21:32 -0700, "Iqbal"
wrote:

Hi, i have 128MB on my PC, which says alot of when it was
purchased!! Only recently i have installed a meter, which
measures CPU usuage and displays memory information.

I noticed just by switching on my pc, and running the
meter that about 70% of my memory is already gone. Within
about 10-15 mins, i only have about 5-10% of my RAM left.

This may explain why my pc freezes now and then. is this
true?

I do understand the best way to solve this is to install
more RAM (hoping to buy a new PC in 6 months). Is there
anything that i can do to maintain more RAM - instead of
alot of it being used during the start up process.

please advise

regards

iqbal.


While more RAM can decrease accessing of the swap file, too
little will limit the ability to multi-task w/out crashing.
If am am doing alot of tasks and decide to start MSWorks
7.0, I may get a not enough memory (that's with 380MB of
memory), so I end up either defragging the memory with Mem
Turbo and/or close applications not being used at tat
second.

Just because you may have an OS that can multi-task, doesn't
mean you should.

--
Sincerely, | (©) (©)
| ------ooo--(_)--ooo------
Andrew H. Carter | /// \\\
d(-_-)b |

"Andrew H. Carter (Applied ROT 17 Left, for Email do 17 Right)"
wrote:

While more RAM can decrease accessing of the swap file, too
little will limit the ability to multi-task w/out crashing.
If am am doing alot of tasks and decide to start MSWorks
7.0, I may get a not enough memory (that's with 380MB of
memory), so I end up either defragging the memory with Mem
Turbo and/or close applications not being used at tat
second.


MemTurbo is pure unadulterated crapware that is totally incapable of
providing any beneficial results for any computer under any
circumstances.


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

On Mon, 19 Jul 2004 19:23:40 GMT, Ron Martell
wrote:

"Andrew H. Carter (Applied ROT 17 Left, for Email do 17 Right)"
wrote:

While more RAM can decrease accessing of the swap file, too
little will limit the ability to multi-task w/out crashing.
If am am doing alot of tasks and decide to start MSWorks
7.0, I may get a not enough memory (that's with 380MB of
memory), so I end up either defragging the memory with Mem
Turbo and/or close applications not being used at tat
second.


MemTurbo is pure unadulterated crapware that is totally incapable of
providing any beneficial results for any computer under any
circumstances.


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada


Well, it might depend upon one's software environment and
the version. I didn't like version 3.0, so I went back to
2.2

Not all computers are the same, nor burners. What works for
one may not work for another. Why is it that I made
coasters of about a dozen CDs when I was endeavouring to
burn an audio CD of some MP3s on my USB HP cdWriter ? Sure
it would burn a couple of tracks, but that's it. The reason
was that I had it set to no maximum speed, but when I
changed the speed to 1x, I had no problem. Next occasion, I
might try 2x.

If RAM wasn't important then why do proggies state a
minimum? With MSWorks 7.0 one time with about 50% system
resources +/- I endeavoured to start it only to be given an
insufficient memory message. So I closed out all my apps,
then tried it again, still got the insufficient memory
message. Then I defragged my memory and was able to run
MSWorks. Dure didn't have those problems with 4.5a.

--
Sincerely, | (©) (©)
| ------ooo--(_)--ooo------
Andrew H. Carter | /// \\\
d(-_-)b |

"Andrew H. Carter (Applied ROT 17 Left, for Email do 17 Right)"
wrote:

On Mon, 19 Jul 2004 19:23:40 GMT, Ron Martell


Well, it might depend upon one's software environment and
the version. I didn't like version 3.0, so I went back to
2.2

Not all computers are the same, nor burners. What works for
one may not work for another. Why is it that I made
coasters of about a dozen CDs when I was endeavouring to
burn an audio CD of some MP3s on my USB HP cdWriter ? Sure
it would burn a couple of tracks, but that's it. The reason
was that I had it set to no maximum speed, but when I
changed the speed to 1x, I had no problem. Next occasion, I
might try 2x.

If RAM wasn't important then why do proggies state a
minimum? With MSWorks 7.0 one time with about 50% system
resources +/- I endeavoured to start it only to be given an
insufficient memory message. So I closed out all my apps,
then tried it again, still got the insufficient memory
message. Then I defragged my memory and was able to run
MSWorks. Dure didn't have those problems with 4.5a.

MemTurbo and all other programs of similar ilk are pure unadulterated
crapware. They are based on a totally false premise and can only hurt,
never help, the performance of a computer.

See http://www.radsoft.net/resources/sof...reviews/redux/ for a
more extensive technical discussion of this topic.


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

On Tue, 20 Jul 2004 17:18:38 GMT, Ron Martell
wrote:

"Andrew H. Carter (Applied ROT 17 Left, for Email do 17 Right)"
wrote:

On Mon, 19 Jul 2004 19:23:40 GMT, Ron Martell


Well, it might depend upon one's software environment and
the version. I didn't like version 3.0, so I went back to
2.2

Not all computers are the same, nor burners. What works for
one may not work for another. Why is it that I made
coasters of about a dozen CDs when I was endeavouring to
burn an audio CD of some MP3s on my USB HP cdWriter ? Sure
it would burn a couple of tracks, but that's it. The reason
was that I had it set to no maximum speed, but when I
changed the speed to 1x, I had no problem. Next occasion, I
might try 2x.

If RAM wasn't important then why do proggies state a
minimum? With MSWorks 7.0 one time with about 50% system
resources +/- I endeavoured to start it only to be given an
insufficient memory message. So I closed out all my apps,
then tried it again, still got the insufficient memory
message. Then I defragged my memory and was able to run
MSWorks. Dure didn't have those problems with 4.5a.

MemTurbo and all other programs of similar ilk are pure unadulterated
crapware. They are based on a totally false premise and can only hurt,
never help, the performance of a computer.

See http://www.radsoft.net/resources/sof...reviews/redux/ for a
more extensive technical discussion of this topic.


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada

So what you are saying is that I am not freeing up memory
when I defrag and free up the memory? Funny how after I
defrag and/or scrub my memory, but it and my Taskbar clock
TclockEx report the same amount of RAM. So it must work.

***************

Frequently Asked Questions

Here we answer some frequently asked questions from MemTurbo
users. If you don't see the answer to your question here,
please take a look at the more comprehensive online version
of the FAQ.




What does MemTurbo do?
MemTurbo manages system memory, the paging file, and the way
in which virtual memory is treated in order to maximize
performance. It recovers RAM not currently needed by the
operating system and applications, and recovers memory
leaked by applications. It also can temporarily flush
unused DLLs and libraries out to disk to make room for your
big applications and games (these come back transparently
when needed). On Windows9X, it also adjusts the system
caching in order to better target the way you use your
particular machine. This can improve disk performance,
gaming performance, and can prevent buffer under-runs that
interfere with, for example, burning CDs.


I'm not a Technical person... save the geek-speak and just
tell me how to use it effectively!
Sure! Let it start from your Startup group so that it is
running at all times. After exiting a memory-hungry program
or before launching a new one, press the hotkey (CTRL-ALT-M)
to recover and defragment your RAM. In a matter of seconds
your system should have that "just booted" feel!


How do I stop a RAM recovery in progress?
When a RAM recovery is in progress, as indicated by the
on-screen status display, just press escape. If a
background recovery (triggered by your timer or a memory
alarm level) is running, clicking on the MemTurbo tray icon
will abort the recovery.


Sometimes my system seems slower after recovering RAM...
why?
If you have your "Target" level of RAM to recover set too
high, MemTurbo may reclaim memory from the file cache, or
flush system DLLs (such as the shell and OLE) out of memory.
When you flip to an application that needs these, they must
be paged back in. Try setting your Target level to a lower
level. Note that for games that do not use much of the
operating system, a higher Target level is better, since
more memory will be available to the game. Remember that
too much free RAM is as good as RAM in your desk drawer:
nice to own but unused! A good compromise takes a while to
discover, but that's why we give you the control to adjust
it!


Can MemTurbo make my system unstable?
No. If anything, because it increases the amount of memory
available to applications, your system should become more
stable. It installs no VxDs or drivers and does not modify
your system files in any way.


Does MemTurbo compress memory?
Absolutely not; there is no performance-robbing compression
at all. It simply causes what physical RAM you have to be
used in a more efficient manner, and allows you to reclaim
that memory from applications and the operating system when
you need it most.


Why does MemTurbo not always recover up to the Target
setting?
Because if you set the target too high, you've set an
impossible goal! MemTurbo will recover as much RAM as
possible, and can usually get up to your target level
(though the higher the level, the more work MemTurbo must
do, and hence the longer it will take). Note that on
Windows NT, the kernel manages the memory in such a way that
as soon as memory is recovered, it is used by waiting
applications and the operating system, so the displayed
value may never equal the target level. It's still doing
its job, though, even if not apparent!


Why can "Program X" seemingly recover more RAM than
MemTurbo?
MemTurbo tries to be pragmatic about its memory recovery.
It doesn't just arbitrarily toss things out of memory to
meet your goal if that means dumping code and data you
really should keep in memory, like parts of the kernel and
so forth. While it would be possible to recover more memory
at times (and early betas of MemTurbo did so), it proved
detrimental to performance, so we strove to keep the
heuristics on how to recover more conservative.


Why do I get "Low Virtual Memory" pop-ups under Windows NT?
Your page file size is too small for proper performance.
Take the system's advice, and increase your paging file size
in your system properties.


Can MemTurbo really recover memory leaks?
While it cannot recover them from the address space (the
application would fault if it did indeed try to use that
memory at some point) it can recover the physical RAM
leaked, making it available for use by the operating system
and other applications.


What is the Memory Load Index?
This is a statistic provided by the system that serves as a
general measurement of how much demand for RAM there
currently is in your system, with 0 being very little and
100 being very much. If you find your system pegged to 100%
shortly after startup, you should seriously consider adding
more physical memory to your system (even MemTurbo won't be
enough by itself in this case).


Can MemTurbo improve gaming performance?
Yes. Let's say you start a game, and part way in, it
suddenly demands memory for graphics, etc. Without
MemTurbo, your system would visibly pause as other
applications and parts of the operating system were
page-faulted out to make room. If you "Defragment and
Recover" before starting the game, MemTurbo should make a
noticeable improvement.


How does MemTurbo prevent buffer underruns while burning
CDs?
In the Windows9X registered version only, it adjusts the
system file caching to ensure that enough cache is set aside
so that the data you are burning to a CD is available,
rather than having to fight with the CD on the I/O bus for
the next block of data.

***************

For a system that is bloatware and a resource hog, from what
I gather XP is moreso than 98/98SE, why isn't such a good
thing?

Also why does XP require a faster processor and more RAM
than 98/98SE ? At best, unless I upgrade my MOBO, I can
only get WindowsME.

You'll have to do better than mentioning that such a piece
of software is bad. That's like saying fire is bad. It is
bad if uncontrolled, it is also required in some cases as in
a forest fire to release the seeds from the pine cones.
Without fire, there would be many a cold meal.


--
Sincerely, | (©) (©)
| ------ooo--(_)--ooo------
Andrew H. Carter | /// \\\
d(-_-)b |