Memory Usage with WinXP pro

  • Thread starter Thread starter praful.vora
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praful.vora

My desktop configuration is:
MoBo: Intel-DG965SS,
CPU: Intel-D805,
DRAM: 2X512 MB 800 MHz DDR-2,
HDD: Seagate-250 GB sata-2,
Monitor: Dell-1905FP 19inch LCD,
Writer: Sony- DVD writer,
Accessory: Leadtek Winfast Palmtop TV tuner box with USB output.
Creative WebCamera (USB), Creative Zen Nomad,
Creative Zen Media M.
OS: Windows XP pro SP-2.
Bios set for 128 MB of video ram.

Though I have a total of 1 GB of DRAM (dual channel), I find that the
Ctrl-Alt-Del-Performance tab shows almost 500 MB of available
'physical memory' during normal working. Even if I am running the
antivirus software on system, or doing a 'defrag' or running Corel
Draw or running many applications simultaneously, the available
physical memory rarely goes below 300 MB. Yet the above applications
run slow considering that so much spare ram is lying unused. Is this
because of the CPU-FSB of 500 MHz or because I am not using more of
the DRAM?

I have set the C: drive Virtual Memory at 'system managed size' and
'processor scheduling' at 'programs' and 'memory usage' at
'programs'. The maximum VM is 2500 MB but remains mostly between 380
and 600 MB. Should I change VM settings or 'memory usage' setting to
'system'?

Please guide me on how to maximize memory usage. Its only when I run
'google earth' that I find the 'available physical memory' drops down
to below 100 MB, indicating that I am using it efficiently. I feel if
I use most of the available RAM, my desktop would be faster without
having to shut down some applications and my VM would also be smaller
(again giving me speedier performance). Am I right with this
thinking?

Comments please.
 
Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak?

You should be able to gather more information from Task Manager. With
the Processes tab open select View, Select, Columns and check the boxes
before Peak Memory Usage and Virtual Memory size. What are the figures
for the 6 processes using the largest amounts?

Are you leaving your computer on 24/7?

Open Disk Defragmenter and click on Analyse. Select View Report and
click on Save As and Save. Now find VolumeC.txt in your My Documents
Folder and post a copy. Do this before running Disk Defragmenter as it
is more informative.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak?

You should be able to gather more information from Task Manager. With
the Processes tab open select View, Select, Columns and check the boxes
before Peak Memory Usage and Virtual Memory size. What are the figures
for the 6 processes using the largest amounts?

Are you leaving your computer on 24/7?

Open Disk Defragmenter and click on Analyse. Select View Report and
click on Save As and Save. Now find VolumeC.txt in your My Documents
Folder and post a copy. Do this before running Disk Defragmenter as it
is more informative.

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Click to expand...


The Commit Charge (K) details:
total ... 426080
limit ... 4197160
peak ... 498864

The six processes using max mem are:
Image Name Peak Mem Usage VM
Size
firefox.exe 83,128
K 60,124 K
Mcshield.exe
63,532 54,908
flashget.exe
62,236 53,538
explorer.exe
22,636 14,304
svchost.exe
24,180 13,888
IntelAudioStudio.exe
25,308 11,384

The Disk Defragmenter Report for boot drive C:\ as follows: (BTW the
'Analyse' report says 'defrag not reqd.')
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Volume System (C:)
Volume size = 19.53 GB
Cluster size = 4 KB
Used space = 12.92 GB
Free space = 6.62 GB
Percent free space = 33 %

Volume fragmentation
Total fragmentation = 7 %
File fragmentation = 15 %
Free space fragmentation = 0 %

File fragmentation
Total files = 70,939
Average file size = 284 KB
Total fragmented files = 621
Total excess fragments = 4,056
Average fragments per file = 1.05

Pagefile fragmentation
Pagefile size = 1.46 GB
Total fragments = 2

Folder fragmentation
Total folders = 5,826
Fragmented folders = 20
Excess folder fragments = 53

Master File Table (MFT) fragmentation
Total MFT size = 75 MB
MFT record count = 76,984
Percent MFT in use = 99 %
Total MFT fragments = 3

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fragments File Size Most fragmented files
804 79 MB \Documents and Settings\Praful\My
Documents\My Pictures\2007_12_18\MVI_0129.avi
309 30 MB \System Volume Information
\_restore{4E26DCC4-1E42-4120-A408-9DC9D1C3D35E}\RP147\snapshot
\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
305 30 MB \System Volume Information
\_restore{4E26DCC4-1E42-4120-A408-9DC9D1C3D35E}\RP148\snapshot
\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
164 1 KB \Documents and Settings\Praful
\ntuser.dat.LOG
116 7 MB \System Volume Information
\_restore{4E26DCC4-1E42-4120-A408-9DC9D1C3D35E}\RP140\A0053649.dll
116 7 MB \System Volume Information
\_restore{4E26DCC4-1E42-4120-A408-9DC9D1C3D35E}\RP140\A0053784.dll
116 7 MB \System Volume Information
\_restore{4E26DCC4-1E42-4120-A408-9DC9D1C3D35E}\RP140\A0053858.dll
64 4 MB \Documents and Settings\Praful\Desktop
\SandhyaLIVE20071230.wmv
44 778 KB \Documents and Settings\Praful\Local
Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Movie Maker\MEDIATAB1.DAT
43 1 KB \Documents and Settings\Praful\Local
Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows\UsrClass.dat.LOG
42 2 MB \Documents and Settings\Praful\Desktop
\PrafulLIVE20071230.wmv
35 2 MB \System Volume Information
\_restore{4E26DCC4-1E42-4120-A408-9DC9D1C3D35E}\RP149\A0054532.mfl
34 2 MB \System Volume Information
\_restore{4E26DCC4-1E42-4120-A408-9DC9D1C3D35E}\RP142\A0054279.mfl
34 2 MB \System Volume Information
\_restore{4E26DCC4-1E42-4120-A408-9DC9D1C3D35E}\RP146\A0054392.mfl
33 2 MB \System Volume Information
\_restore{4E26DCC4-1E42-4120-A408-9DC9D1C3D35E}\RP140\A0054002.mfl
33 2 MB \Documents and Settings\Praful\My
Documents\My Pictures\2007_12_18\IMG_0130.jpg
32 2 MB \System Volume Information
\_restore{4E26DCC4-1E42-4120-A408-9DC9D1C3D35E}\RP140\A0053970.mfl
32 2 MB \System Volume Information
\_restore{4E26DCC4-1E42-4120-A408-9DC9D1C3D35E}\RP140\A0053703.mfl
31 2 MB \System Volume Information
\_restore{4E26DCC4-1E42-4120-A408-9DC9D1C3D35E}\RP140\A0053570.mfl
30 2 MB \System Volume Information
\_restore{4E26DCC4-1E42-4120-A408-9DC9D1C3D35E}\RP140\A0053559.mfl
29 2 MB \Documents and Settings\Praful\Desktop
\AdityaHridayam.mp3
29 2 MB \Documents and Settings\Praful\My
Documents\My Pictures\2007_12_18\IMG_0131.jpg
23 2 MB \System Volume Information
\_restore{4E26DCC4-1E42-4120-A408-9DC9D1C3D35E}\RP148\snapshot
\_REGISTRY_USER_NTUSER_S-1-5-21-1715567821-492894223-725345543-1006
22 1 MB \System Volume Information
\_restore{4E26DCC4-1E42-4120-A408-9DC9D1C3D35E}\RP149\A0054646.dll
21 1 MB \System Volume Information
\_restore{4E26DCC4-1E42-4120-A408-9DC9D1C3D35E}\RP140\A0053653.exe
21 1 MB \System Volume Information
\_restore{4E26DCC4-1E42-4120-A408-9DC9D1C3D35E}\RP140\A0053788.exe
21 2 MB \Documents and Settings\Praful\Local
Settings\Temp\IMT4A.xml
21 2 MB \System Volume Information
\_restore{4E26DCC4-1E42-4120-A408-9DC9D1C3D35E}\RP147\snapshot
\_REGISTRY_USER_NTUSER_S-1-5-21-1715567821-492894223-725345543-1005
21 2 MB \System Volume Information
\_restore{4E26DCC4-1E42-4120-A408-9DC9D1C3D35E}\RP148\snapshot
\_REGISTRY_USER_NTUSER_S-1-5-21-1715567821-492894223-725345543-1005
17 1 MB \System Volume Information
\_restore{4E26DCC4-1E42-4120-A408-9DC9D1C3D35E}\RP146\A0054323.PNF
 
My desktop configuration is:
MoBo: Intel-DG965SS,
CPU: Intel-D805,
DRAM: 2X512 MB 800 MHz DDR-2,
HDD: Seagate-250 GB sata-2,
Monitor: Dell-1905FP 19inch LCD,
Writer: Sony- DVD writer,
Accessory: Leadtek Winfast Palmtop TV tuner box with USB output.
Creative WebCamera (USB), Creative Zen Nomad,
Creative Zen Media M.
OS: Windows XP pro SP-2.
Bios set for 128 MB of video ram.

Though I have a total of 1 GB of DRAM (dual channel), I find that the
Ctrl-Alt-Del-Performance tab shows almost 500 MB of available
'physical memory' during normal working. Even if I am running the
antivirus software on system, or doing a 'defrag' or running Corel
Draw or running many applications simultaneously, the available
physical memory rarely goes below 300 MB. Yet the above applications
run slow considering that so much spare ram is lying unused. Is this
because of the CPU-FSB of 500 MHz or because I am not using more of
the DRAM?

I have set the C: drive Virtual Memory at 'system managed size' and
'processor scheduling' at 'programs' and 'memory usage' at
'programs'. The maximum VM is 2500 MB but remains mostly between 380
and 600 MB. Should I change VM settings or 'memory usage' setting to
'system'?

Please guide me on how to maximize memory usage. Its only when I run
'google earth' that I find the 'available physical memory' drops down
to below 100 MB, indicating that I am using it efficiently. I feel if
I use most of the available RAM, my desktop would be faster without
having to shut down some applications and my VM would also be smaller
(again giving me speedier performance). Am I right with this
thinking?

Comments please.
Click to expand...

Use the performance monitor. By default it will show pages/sec. If that is
near zero then the system has as much physical memory as it can use.
 
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