Strange loss of system resources

"Buffalo" wrote in
:

SNIP

1)turn OFF your "FreeRAM XP Pro 1.40" program
2)Set ConservativeSwapFileUsage to 0
3)Remove your limits on MaxPagingFileSize

(Sys res. readings from Resource Meter)

3 ABOVE DONE "NORMAL" (IE NONE OF THE 3 DONE)

after boot:
86, 86, 88 85, 86, 85

ADSL network log on
forgot to check 81, 81, 81

after :30 min of myspace
68, 73, 68 73, 73, 75 (a few diff sites)

after 1:00 hr of myspace, 4 browser windows open
60, 73, 60 59, 59, 65

after 1:30 hr of myspace, 3 windows open, 2 browsers,
XNews and 2 other small things
65, 65, 65 61, 61, 65

after 1:45, 1 window open and 2 small progs
69, 69, 75 70, 70, 72

almost 2 hrs, download manager open and a few basic
windows in left column,
nothing open in right column
69, 69, 80 76, 76, 78

Swapfile, in spite of removing the upper limit, has
remained at 200 MB and 0 of it has been used (which is why
it didn't get bigger, I imagine ;-)

Basically, with minor variations in the order of 5%-10%
which I would consider as insignificant, I do not see much
difference. I either didn't push the machine hard enough
(I didn't open 10 FFox and 10 Opera windows) or I was
lucky - because 1 or 2 windows will sometimes bring me
down to under 20%, but as you see, I never even got below
55% on any of the 3, and I used myspace (which is the
biggest bloat I could think of) for the test!

Another mystery is whether the "unload DLL's" registry
entry has ANYthing to do with this. Shouldn't have, but
MAY have. I am doing this test now (I turned the "always
unload" to OFF) as the next and final one. I am at 57, 57,
69, and I only have Xnews and 3 tiny utils open. There may
be something going on here...

Sigh.

I /really/ appreciate your patience and help.

(And I really hope I didn't offend you with that statement
about nobody needing XP or Vista...
Just realized my current signature is singularly
appropriate to that particular incident !!!)

t.

Now try it with ConservativeSwapFile set to one and turn
off your Free Ram program and let Windows manage your
swapfile. Don't forget to reboot. (AFAIK, the CSF above set
to one stops Windows from using the swap file until all
physical memory is used up) Then you might leave the above
and set the min-max limits the same again for you swap file
and reboot. Who knows, something may even work. At least
you won't get bored. Buffalo

OK sir. You ARE one of the most patient people I have run across
around here.
Will report.

BTW I disabled the "unload DLL's and it does not seem to have
made much difference.
I have been on the /web/ with lots of images and flv's and eBay
and stuff all day, including ACDSee thumbnailing 120 pictures
(that used to almost do it to my resources) of Kate Perry who I
just discovered (the American Lily Allen, some say, others get
offended) and at the moment I am at 59, 59, 68, and have been
higher when I closed something.

I am *baffled* - two weeks ago I would have gotten hung for sure
(/what/ is the proper syntax here?). It just does NOT make ANY
sense. But it's Windows I suppose.

Still, tomorrow, I will change these setting you mention above
and reboot and see how it goes.

Thanks.


--
"We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are."
Anais Nin

"Buffalo" wrote in
:

SNIP

1)turn OFF your "FreeRAM XP Pro 1.40" program
2)Set ConservativeSwapFileUsage to 0
3)Remove your limits on MaxPagingFileSize

(Sys res. readings from Resource Meter)

3 ABOVE DONE "NORMAL" (IE NONE OF THE 3 DONE)

after boot:
86, 86, 88 85, 86, 85

ADSL network log on
forgot to check 81, 81, 81

after :30 min of myspace
68, 73, 68 73, 73, 75 (a few diff sites)

after 1:00 hr of myspace, 4 browser windows open
60, 73, 60 59, 59, 65

after 1:30 hr of myspace, 3 windows open, 2 browsers,
XNews and 2 other small things
65, 65, 65 61, 61, 65

after 1:45, 1 window open and 2 small progs
69, 69, 75 70, 70, 72

almost 2 hrs, download manager open and a few basic
windows in left column,
nothing open in right column
69, 69, 80 76, 76, 78

Swapfile, in spite of removing the upper limit, has
remained at 200 MB and 0 of it has been used (which is why
it didn't get bigger, I imagine ;-)

Basically, with minor variations in the order of 5%-10%
which I would consider as insignificant, I do not see much
difference. I either didn't push the machine hard enough
(I didn't open 10 FFox and 10 Opera windows) or I was
lucky - because 1 or 2 windows will sometimes bring me
down to under 20%, but as you see, I never even got below
55% on any of the 3, and I used myspace (which is the
biggest bloat I could think of) for the test!

Another mystery is whether the "unload DLL's" registry
entry has ANYthing to do with this. Shouldn't have, but
MAY have. I am doing this test now (I turned the "always
unload" to OFF) as the next and final one. I am at 57, 57,
69, and I only have Xnews and 3 tiny utils open. There may
be something going on here...

Sigh.

I /really/ appreciate your patience and help.

(And I really hope I didn't offend you with that statement
about nobody needing XP or Vista...
Just realized my current signature is singularly
appropriate to that particular incident !!!)

t.

Now try it with ConservativeSwapFile set to one and turn
off your Free Ram program and let Windows manage your
swapfile. Don't forget to reboot. (AFAIK, the CSF above set
to one stops Windows from using the swap file until all
physical memory is used up) Then you might leave the above
and set the min-max limits the same again for you swap file
and reboot. Who knows, something may even work. At least
you won't get bored. Buffalo

OK sir. You ARE one of the most patient people I have run across
around here.
Will report.

BTW I disabled the "unload DLL's and it does not seem to have
made much difference.
I have been on the /web/ with lots of images and flv's and eBay
and stuff all day, including ACDSee thumbnailing 120 pictures
(that used to almost do it to my resources) of Kate Perry who I
just discovered (the American Lily Allen, some say, others get
offended) and at the moment I am at 59, 59, 68, and have been
higher when I closed something.

I am *baffled* - two weeks ago I would have gotten hung for sure
(/what/ is the proper syntax here?). It just does NOT make ANY
sense. But it's Windows I suppose.

Still, tomorrow, I will change these setting you mention above
and reboot and see how it goes.

Thanks.


--
"We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are."
Anais Nin

thanatoid wrote in
:

Not tomorrow yet, but I just thought I'd tell you that after
over 12 hrs non-stop, doing all sorts of stuff, I have just
closed everything and I am at 76, 76, and 81.

Curiouser and curiouser.



--
"We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are."
Anais Nin

thanatoid wrote in
:

Not tomorrow yet, but I just thought I'd tell you that after
over 12 hrs non-stop, doing all sorts of stuff, I have just
closed everything and I am at 76, 76, and 81.

Curiouser and curiouser.



--
"We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are."
Anais Nin

thanatoid wrote:

"PCR" wrote:


I was wondering what TIF meant... Well, in my case that would be
the cache directories for FFox and Opera - they are not
adjustable in any manner that I am aware of, although I have NOT
read the FFox help file, but it is Opera that seems the bigger
culprit anyway...

... for Firefox:

The size of the Cache (on Disk) is adjustable in the normal place
to set preferences.
Tools(Menu) : Options : Advanced : Network(Tab) : Cache /MB

You can set the location of the Disk-Cache in a more CLI-like
preference way by entering 'about:config' via the address-field.

Filter for 'browser.cache.disk.parent_directory'. If it doesn't
exist, right-click in the big window and create a new
'String'-value with that name and a value with your desired
cache-path location. (I have for example: 'C:\Caches\Firefox\'
because i want my cache less deeply buried then the default.)



SNIP

| control, except by prayer maybe. I know my GDI resources
| went up after switching to an LSD
|
| ahem...



--
"Change returns success - Going and coming without error
Action brings good fortune - Sunset - Sunrise"


Please followup in the newsgroup.
E-mail address is invalid due to spam-control.

thanatoid wrote:

"PCR" wrote:


I was wondering what TIF meant... Well, in my case that would be
the cache directories for FFox and Opera - they are not
adjustable in any manner that I am aware of, although I have NOT
read the FFox help file, but it is Opera that seems the bigger
culprit anyway...

... for Firefox:

The size of the Cache (on Disk) is adjustable in the normal place
to set preferences.
Tools(Menu) : Options : Advanced : Network(Tab) : Cache /MB

You can set the location of the Disk-Cache in a more CLI-like
preference way by entering 'about:config' via the address-field.

Filter for 'browser.cache.disk.parent_directory'. If it doesn't
exist, right-click in the big window and create a new
'String'-value with that name and a value with your desired
cache-path location. (I have for example: 'C:\Caches\Firefox\'
because i want my cache less deeply buried then the default.)



SNIP

| control, except by prayer maybe. I know my GDI resources
| went up after switching to an LSD
|
| ahem...



--
"Change returns success - Going and coming without error
Action brings good fortune - Sunset - Sunrise"


Please followup in the newsgroup.
E-mail address is invalid due to spam-control.

thanatoid wrote:
thanatoid wrote in
:

Not tomorrow yet, but I just thought I'd tell you that after
over 12 hrs non-stop, doing all sorts of stuff, I have just
closed everything and I am at 76, 76, and 81.

Curiouser and curiouser.

Well, maybe the computer gods are finally smiling on you.
Buffalo
PS: I have no other ideas and hopefully, if it happens again perhaps you
will find the cause.
It could have even been a browser or some other program update, or as you
mentioned, 'just Windows'.
Enjoy your PC.

thanatoid wrote:
thanatoid wrote in
:

Not tomorrow yet, but I just thought I'd tell you that after
over 12 hrs non-stop, doing all sorts of stuff, I have just
closed everything and I am at 76, 76, and 81.

Curiouser and curiouser.

Well, maybe the computer gods are finally smiling on you.
Buffalo
PS: I have no other ideas and hopefully, if it happens again perhaps you
will find the cause.
It could have even been a browser or some other program update, or as you
mentioned, 'just Windows'.
Enjoy your PC.

Etal wrote in
:

SNIP

... for Firefox:

The size of the Cache (on Disk) is adjustable in the normal
place to set preferences.
Tools(Menu) : Options : Advanced : Network(Tab) : Cache /MB

You can set the location of the Disk-Cache in a more
CLI-like preference way by entering 'about:config' via the
address-field.

Filter for 'browser.cache.disk.parent_directory'. If it
doesn't exist, right-click in the big window and create a
new 'String'-value with that name and a value with your
desired cache-path location. (I have for example:
'C:\Caches\Firefox\' because i want my cache less deeply
buried then the default.)

Thanks kindly for the info. I will apply all suggestions, they
are excellent.

Yes, the way Firefox buries its cache 6 levels down (or smth) is
almost enough reason to dump it. And because of its lack of
extensions in the cache I have stopped using it for image-
oriented web sites because it takes forever to get at the cached
images. It saves flv's much better than Opera though, and those
are so huge they are never a problem to identify.

So this works out well since Opera crashes with the swf plugins
at last half the time and although that can supposedly be
"repaired" I have not been able to do so. Also, Opera would not
save ALL flv's, it seemed about 8MB was the cutoff point. Weird.

But I still prefer OffByOne for everything and Opera for Java
sites, like the bank.


--
"We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are."
Anais Nin

Etal wrote in
:

SNIP

... for Firefox:

The size of the Cache (on Disk) is adjustable in the normal
place to set preferences.
Tools(Menu) : Options : Advanced : Network(Tab) : Cache /MB

You can set the location of the Disk-Cache in a more
CLI-like preference way by entering 'about:config' via the
address-field.

Filter for 'browser.cache.disk.parent_directory'. If it
doesn't exist, right-click in the big window and create a
new 'String'-value with that name and a value with your
desired cache-path location. (I have for example:
'C:\Caches\Firefox\' because i want my cache less deeply
buried then the default.)

Thanks kindly for the info. I will apply all suggestions, they
are excellent.

Yes, the way Firefox buries its cache 6 levels down (or smth) is
almost enough reason to dump it. And because of its lack of
extensions in the cache I have stopped using it for image-
oriented web sites because it takes forever to get at the cached
images. It saves flv's much better than Opera though, and those
are so huge they are never a problem to identify.

So this works out well since Opera crashes with the swf plugins
at last half the time and although that can supposedly be
"repaired" I have not been able to do so. Also, Opera would not
save ALL flv's, it seemed about 8MB was the cutoff point. Weird.

But I still prefer OffByOne for everything and Opera for Java
sites, like the bank.


--
"We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are."
Anais Nin