System resources after running CPU hungry apps

[daveleau]

Hi everybody!

I have noticed a drop in my CPU power after running CPU hungry apps, most notably after online gaming with Team Fort. Classic. I normally would not notice a change except my RC5 rate plummets. It goes from 2.48 MK/s to ~1.5MK/s after gaming. This is after I run my FreeMem memory recovery utility and this situation persists no matter how long I let the system run. After I reboot, I am back to 2.48 until I run TFC again.

My question is, what can I do to regain this power. Is this a function of fragmented RAM or something else? I use FreeMem b/c it is more stable than RamBooster in my experience. I would use MemTurbo, whihc I love but it only works with 128MB or less RAM. I have 384 MB PC100.

Thanks for any input.
Dave

System specs:
Cel 566 @ 910
Abit BF6
384 PC100 Infineon
2--20GB WD hdds 7200rpm ATA66 (RAID0)
Fasttrak66 PCI
SB Live Value
Matrox G400 MAX DH
2 NICs
Kenwood 52X
8250i HP burner
300W PS

[BFlurie]

IME, Freemem actually caused problems instead of helping. Try disabling Freemem (or temporarily disabling all startup progs)& see if anything changes. Dave, the Winmag series on W9X resources pretty much debunked the usefulness of any mem defragger.

[daveleau]

I will check on Winmag for that.

How is RAM recaptured after Windows apps claims and does not release resources after termintaing? I would rather use FreeMem or another mem app instead of rebooting after every CPU/ RAM intensive process.

Thanks
Dave

[BFlurie]

I'm no expert -- the articles mentioned go into details. Certainly a few apps are so old or poorly written that despite Windoz attempts to release, they won't let go after terminating. If your particular app is a DOS prog, you might check the "use protected memory" button on the prog's properties sheet. Here's a registry hack that might help -- use with the usual caution.

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\explorer\AlwaysUnloadDLL]
@="1"

There's a simple way to do the exact same thing Freemem or similar does. If you have Visual Basic scripting (IE5 provides it), you can write a little VBS file -- just a blank text file w/the following line:

FreeMem= 8000000

Make sure you have the space as shown above. Name the file Anything.vbs
In this case the file will force Windoz to free 8 MBs of mem -- put in any value you want to try. Just double-click the file or a shortcut to it any time you want to perform this.

[This message has been edited by BFlurie (edited 07-26-2000).]

[daveleau]

Interesting. This will do the same as using a mem mgr? I am searching WinMag for their reasoning. I know most of the Mem reclaiming software does not defrag RAM, but push unneeded dlls out, which can sometimes be troublesome. That's why I like MemTurbo, b/c it did defrag the RAM. Thanks for the info. I will continue my search for the reasoning behind why mem mgrs might be bad.

The programs I am using are not DOS based. Is this registry hack something that works in Windows in general, or is it something I should use if I am using the DOS programs you mentioned before the reg hack?

Thanks
Dave

[BFlurie]

I'm not sure if the hack I show is Windoz default or not. It simply removes from mem, when that program is terminated, the dlls that the program requested when it was first started. I truely doubt it will cause any problems -- that's always been in my registry w/o any problems. And it would be for any prog -- DOS or otherwise.

[This message has been edited by BFlurie (edited 07-26-2000).]

[daveleau]

Ah yes, I saw that freememory script somewhere before. Nice little addition. My registry already has the AlwaysUnloaddll=1 so... I will try the scripting and see how it works compared to what Freemem does now. Hopefully it will haev more luck restoring my system performance.
Thanks
Dave

[daveleau]

Ah, I found the site where it details how to do this with Notepad (the freemem visual basic script)...it is here: http://members.aol.com/axcel216/newtip15.htm

I ran it on my system at work with 64MB RAM. I have MemTurbo in the system tray and watched my RAM levels through it.

With the Freemem.vbs file (Visual Basic File), it gives a little blip, like it cannot free any more RAM. This is when the RAM is at 3MB with only RC5 and MemTurbo in the system tray.

When I run MemTurbo, it frees up 42MB of RAM (levels of both the script and MemTurbo are set to retreive 48MB of my total 64MB on this machine).

Dave

[BFlurie]

Yea, it's obvious there's more functionality with Freemem. But when I was using Freemem, I started getting "Not enough memory to blah, blah, blah" messages when 60 MBs RAM were free according to Freemem & Sysmon.exe! I had never, ever received those messages before, plus I had read of others w/the same problem. So I had to conclude that there was a flaw in the Freemem program. Your symptons may in fact be caused by a resource limitation & not a general RAM limitation -- not the same. How much free RAM is available when you experience a slowdown? This would tell you.

[daveleau]

Thanks BFlorie. I have had similar problems with system resources and Freemem. I get the little white error saying I do not have enough system resources...with 384MB RAM?!?!?
Anyway, my RAM is usually around 270MB free while I have the RC5 slowdown. The system itself is fairly quick, but I can see that something is amiss since the RC5 rate goes way down.
Thanks
Dave