RamBooster opinions?

  • Thread starter Thread starter J44xm
  • Start date Start date
J

J44xm

Firefox currently has a memory leak that causes it, on my system, to use
up to 60 MB of RAM sometimes. Another user suggested a freeware program
called RamBooster to help free up RAM.* Before I try it, I thought I'd see
if anyone had any experience with this program, and check to be sure it's
what I need. Thanks much.
 
In J44xm posted:
Firefox currently has a memory leak that causes it, on my system, to
use up to 60 MB of RAM sometimes. Another user suggested a freeware
program called RamBooster to help free up RAM.* Before I try it, I
thought I'd see if anyone had any experience with this program, and
check to be sure it's what I need. Thanks much.
Click to expand...

See
http://www.epinions.com/cmsw-Utilities-All-RamBooster/display_~reviews

DanlK, FYI Services
www.FYIS.org
Visit our re-opened eBay store @ http://tinyurl.com/35wgv !
____________________________________________
Don't forget to put this html code on your web page:
<SCRIPT language=JavaScript
src="http://www.georgewbush.com/WStuff/BPForm.aspx">
</SCRIPT>
 
J44xm said:
Firefox currently has a memory leak that causes it, on my system, to use
up to 60 MB of RAM sometimes. Another user suggested a freeware program
called RamBooster to help free up RAM.* Before I try it, I thought I'd see
if anyone had any experience with this program, and check to be sure it's
what I need. Thanks much.
Click to expand...

There's an article - The Memory-Optimization Hoax by Mark Russinovich (sysinternals)
here

http://www.winnetmag.com/Windows/Article/ArticleID/41095/41095.html


Quote:-

"Finally, vendors often claim that RAM optimizers regain memory lost to leaks. This claim is perhaps the most patently false
assertion of all....."
 
J44xm said:
Firefox currently has a memory leak that causes it, on my system, to use
up to 60 MB of RAM sometimes. Another user suggested a freeware program
called RamBooster to help free up RAM.* Before I try it, I thought I'd see
if anyone had any experience with this program, and check to be sure it's
what I need. Thanks much.
Click to expand...

I used it before opening my scanning program. I started using it when I
found my scanning program crashed or was very slow, but when I rebooted
it worked fine. It was a memory issue and I only had 128MB at that time
running on w98 SE.

I found no performance benefit running it all the time however.

I run maxramfree at the moment
http://www.max2k.com/programs.php?id=12
 
Firefox currently has a memory leak that causes it, on my system, to use
up to 60 MB of RAM sometimes. Another user suggested a freeware program
called RamBooster to help free up RAM.* Before I try it, I thought I'd see
if anyone had any experience with this program, and check to be sure it's
what I need. Thanks much.
Click to expand...

This is not leaking memory its caching pages, the default cache size is 50Mb.
Change the cache size if you want it to use less memory.
 
Try cacheman from outer technologies (http://www.outertech.com). I use it
and find that it quickly frees up memory on the fly. I don't know if it's
still freeware/donationware.
There is also a free cache booster on the AnalogX website
(http://www.analogx.com). best wishes, He2

*************************************************************
* Remove "pi." before replying by email. *
*************************************************************
 
J44xm <[email protected]_g> wrote:
Click to expand...
Firefox currently has a memory leak that causes it, on my system, to use
up to 60 MB of RAM sometimes. Another user suggested a freeware program
called RamBooster to help free up RAM.* Before I try it, I thought I'd see
if anyone had any experience with this program, and check to be sure it's
what I need. Thanks much.
Click to expand...

Is there anyone in the forum that is connected with Firefox who can give a
definititive answer?

If it is simply caching too much you might try adjusting your cache to a lower
setting.

When I ran 98SE I used 'RamIdle' and it worked wonderfully! I never had any
resource or memory problems. I don't run things like Norton, which usurp beyond
help though.

There are three versions here (alphabetically arranged on the page):

http://www.woundedmoon.org/win32_freeware.html

While the first two work good, the third is an unlimited shareware version and
it does work better. The license states that you may use the program as long as
you want to in order to decide if you want to purchase it. The license is so
liberal and it really does work so well that I archived it on an otherwise pure
freeware page. Use one of the freeware versions if you prefer to on principle.

Start with the default settings and then do some tweaking. I suggest unchecking
the CPU usage button, only using it when you really want to see it. For me using
98SE, this was the most valuable program on the machine. I've read many articles
that state these utilities are useless. I disagree. It made 98SE run like my XP
machine does now, simply no resource/memory problems at all.
 
Try cacheman from outer technologies (http://www.outertech.com). I use it
and find that it quickly frees up memory on the fly. I don't know if it's
still freeware/donationware.
There is also a free cache booster on the AnalogX website
(http://www.analogx.com). best wishes, He2
Click to expand...
I was using MaxMem from AnalogX(very small footprint) to free memory on
our old and cranky Pentium with EDO-RAM. Otherwise the computer wouldn't
run properly with W98SE.

After I installed my free version of Cacheman(5.11), however, I am no
longer in regular need of MaxMem or any other memory-freeing program.
It's worth noting that Cacheman makes changes to exploit the resources
more effectively. It doesn't run in the background.
It's particularly effective, I've read, in W9x and ME.

The last version of Cacheman, Cacheman 5.50, is shareware now. It is
stated, though, that "If you really cannot afford the shareware fee you
are allowed to use Cacheman as Freeware". The fee is 10$. There is a
nagging splash screen for those who don't pay.
 
["derek / nul"; Fri, 06 Aug 2004 23:04:40 GMT]
This is not leaking memory its caching pages, the default cache size
is 50Mb. Change the cache size if you want it to use less memory.
Click to expand...

Since this solution doesn't require any additional software, I'll try this
first. I'm not too interested in cacheing, so I lowered my cache size to
only 1 MB. I did notice a significant decrease in used resources.

Thanks to everybody for your help. So memory optimizers ... don't work? It
seems some say yes and others say no. Well, we'll see if this works, and
if it doesn't, then what's next.
 
Is there anyone in the forum that is connected with Firefox who can give a
definititive answer?
Click to expand...

< snip >

I was using Netscape before I installed RamBooster. It was obvious
from day one that it made a positive impact on my '98 system. I now
use it with Firefox. No problems. Still worthwhile.

Regards, John.

--
****************************************************
,-._|\ (A.C.F FAQ) http://clients.net2000.com.au/~johnf/faq.html
/ Oz \ John Fitzsimons - Melbourne, Australia.
\_,--.x/ http://www.vicnet.net.au/~johnf/welcome.htm
v http://clients.net2000.com.au/~johnf/
 
It was a dark and stormy night when REM said:
J44xm <[email protected]_g> wrote:
Click to expand...
Firefox currently has a memory leak that causes it, on my system,
to use up to 60 MB of RAM sometimes. Another user suggested a
freeware program called RamBooster to help free up RAM.* Before I
try it, I thought I'd see if anyone had any experience with this
program, and check to be sure it's what I need.
Click to expand...
[Snip]
When I ran 98SE I used 'RamIdle' and it worked wonderfully! I
never had any resource or memory problems. I don't run things like
Norton, which usurp beyond help though. [Snip]
For me using 98SE, this was the most valuable program on the
machine. I've read many articles that state these utilities are
useless. I disagree. It made 98SE run like my XP machine does now,
simply no resource/memory problems at all.
Click to expand...

With all due respect I totally disagree with you about memory
managers.

Two comments:

First the comment with less weight is my personal experience with
RamIdle.

After reading your message I was very curious about RamIdle and I
wanted to try for myself just to see it doing its 'magic'.

Plus as a student of software development (albeit a very raw one) I
thought that creating a bad developed application would be a very
interesting learning exercise, I mean, creating a very simple
application that only leaks memory is not the theme of many win32
tutorials/textbooks. ;-)

Anyway. I downloaded and installed RamIdle 4.8.2 (standard) and
rebooted my PC (MS Windows 98 First edition + Celeron 400 MHz + 32 MB
RAM). Then I started SciTE, MS Resource meter, RamIdle and the
leaking app.

System/User/GDI resources as shown by MS resource meter and RamIdle
were going down at a consistent pace (about 2%-3% about 20-30
seconds):

- about 80% -
So far RamIdle did nothing automatically so I clicked on its systray
icon and selected 'Free up 2/4/8 MB' a few times but it did nothing.

- about 60% -
mmm ... Maybe RamIdle can only recover memory leaks when the faulty
app is closed? Just to be sure I closed the leaking app and waited
for a moment but nothing happened, then I selected (again) 'Free up
2/4/8 MB' a few times but there was not noticeable effect. I started
the leaking app again.

- about 30% -
Trivia: can you guess what happened? ;-)

- about 20% -
Again no noticeable effect by RamIdle either automatically or by
selecting the options 'Free up 2/4/8 MB'

- below 10% -
The systray icon of RamIdle was being shown with a 'X' and I got the
dreaded message 'Insuficient system resources, close some running
apps, MS Windows could stop responding, etc, etc, etc' so I just
closed all the apps and rebooted the PC.

Summary: my personal experience is that RamIdle is unable to do
anything to stop a memory leak.

Second comment (the one that counts ;-):

Of course the key issue about memory managers is what proficient and
respected programmers/jornalists say about this kind of applications:

Fred Langa has a negative opinion about them:
<http://www.informationweek.com/
story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=17200583>

Mark Russinovich (SysInternals) said they are a hoax:
<http://www.winnetmag.com/Windows/Article/ArticleID/41095/41095.html>

Radsoft is even more extreme and call them 'rainmakers':
<http://radsoft.net/resources/software/reviews/redux/>

On the other side of the fence I have not found (yet) a 3rd party
article from someone of the level of Steve Gibson/Robin
Keir/SysInternals/Radsoft/Fred Langa saying good things about memory
managers.

So IMHO memory managers are just a waste of time.

Best regards.
 
rir3760 said:
It was a dark and stormy night when REM said:
J44xm <[email protected]_g> wrote:
Click to expand...
Firefox currently has a memory leak that causes it, on my system,
to use up to 60 MB of RAM sometimes. Another user suggested a
freeware program called RamBooster to help free up RAM.* Before I
try it, I thought I'd see if anyone had any experience with this
program, and check to be sure it's what I need.
Click to expand...
[Snip]
When I ran 98SE I used 'RamIdle' and it worked wonderfully! I
never had any resource or memory problems. I don't run things like
Norton, which usurp beyond help though. [Snip]
For me using 98SE, this was the most valuable program on the
machine. I've read many articles that state these utilities are
useless. I disagree. It made 98SE run like my XP machine does now,
simply no resource/memory problems at all.
Click to expand...

With all due respect I totally disagree with you about memory
managers.

Two comments:

First the comment with less weight is my personal experience with
RamIdle.

After reading your message I was very curious about RamIdle and I
wanted to try for myself just to see it doing its 'magic'.

Plus as a student of software development (albeit a very raw one) I
thought that creating a bad developed application would be a very
interesting learning exercise, I mean, creating a very simple
application that only leaks memory is not the theme of many win32
tutorials/textbooks. ;-)

Anyway. I downloaded and installed RamIdle 4.8.2 (standard) and
rebooted my PC (MS Windows 98 First edition + Celeron 400 MHz + 32 MB
RAM). Then I started SciTE, MS Resource meter, RamIdle and the
leaking app.

System/User/GDI resources as shown by MS resource meter and RamIdle
were going down at a consistent pace (about 2%-3% about 20-30
seconds):

- about 80% -
So far RamIdle did nothing automatically so I clicked on its systray
icon and selected 'Free up 2/4/8 MB' a few times but it did nothing.

- about 60% -
mmm ... Maybe RamIdle can only recover memory leaks when the faulty
app is closed? Just to be sure I closed the leaking app and waited
for a moment but nothing happened, then I selected (again) 'Free up
2/4/8 MB' a few times but there was not noticeable effect. I started
the leaking app again.

- about 30% -
Trivia: can you guess what happened? ;-)

- about 20% -
Again no noticeable effect by RamIdle either automatically or by
selecting the options 'Free up 2/4/8 MB'

- below 10% -
The systray icon of RamIdle was being shown with a 'X' and I got the
dreaded message 'Insuficient system resources, close some running
apps, MS Windows could stop responding, etc, etc, etc' so I just
closed all the apps and rebooted the PC.

Summary: my personal experience is that RamIdle is unable to do
anything to stop a memory leak.

Second comment (the one that counts ;-):

Of course the key issue about memory managers is what proficient and
respected programmers/jornalists say about this kind of applications:

Fred Langa has a negative opinion about them:
<http://www.informationweek.com/
story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=17200583>

Mark Russinovich (SysInternals) said they are a hoax:
<http://www.winnetmag.com/Windows/Article/ArticleID/41095/41095.html>

Radsoft is even more extreme and call them 'rainmakers':
<http://radsoft.net/resources/software/reviews/redux/>

On the other side of the fence I have not found (yet) a 3rd party
article from someone of the level of Steve Gibson/Robin
Keir/SysInternals/Radsoft/Fred Langa saying good things about memory
managers.

So IMHO memory managers are just a waste of time.
Click to expand...
After many years of using various such programs in the mistaken belief
they were actually doing me any good I finally (and reluctantly...it's
hard letting go of a cherished myth) uninstalled all of them and let
Windows manage the memory. Not a perfet scenario, to be sure, but it
seems to be the most common advice out there nowadays. And I have
stopped worrying about trying to eke another mb of memory from the
system somewhere.
 
I was using MaxMem from AnalogX(very small footprint) to free memory on
our old and cranky Pentium with EDO-RAM. Otherwise the computer wouldn't
run properly with W98SE.

After I installed my free version of Cacheman(5.11), however, I am no
longer in regular need of MaxMem or any other memory-freeing program.
It's worth noting that Cacheman makes changes to exploit the resources
more effectively. It doesn't run in the background.
It's particularly effective, I've read, in W9x and ME.

The last version of Cacheman, Cacheman 5.50, is shareware now. It is
stated, though, that "If you really cannot afford the shareware fee you
are allowed to use Cacheman as Freeware". The fee is 10$. There is a
nagging splash screen for those who don't pay.
Click to expand...

A few hours ago I installed the latest version of Cacheman on my Win '98SE 400MHz 128MB machine.
I was using RAMPage before, but was getting a lot of "not enough memory - close some
applications" messages.

The result - after I set Cacheman up for a low memory PC, loading of Mozilla took around half
the time it used to (possibly even less), & even at the moment with Mozilla running + Mailwasher
+ Weather Watcher + anti-virus & lots of others I still have 13.4MB free - with RAMPage it was
usually sitting around 7-9MB, & often down to 0.
 
did said:
Summary: my personal experience is that RamIdle is unable to do
anything to stop a memory leak.
Click to expand...

I don't believe you ran the test properly - all that you proved is that
RamIdle is unable to stop a RESOURCE leak, which is a completely
different thing to releasing memory (I.e. RAM). It and other memory
managers don't claim to be able to stop resource leaks, just to release
RAM that is no longer being used but Win9x hasn't realised it. You
should try a memory manager and see whether it releases MEMORY rather
than RESOURCES. AFAIK nothing will fix a resource leak in Win9x except
closing the program that's doing it, and there are no progs that claim to
be able to reclaim the resources that have already been lost. This is
not a problem with 2000 or XP - they look after both memory and
resources themselves.

I don't know whether a memory manager would help much with only 32 mb RAM
anyway - when you're running Win9x and a couple of apps like you were
there's probably no RAM left that could be freed. But if you were only
looking to see if resources had been released you were looking in the
wrong spot. Try finding an app that uses some RAM that doesn't get
released when you close it, then try freeing RAM with the memory manager.

By the way, just my two cents worth re Rambooster, it was great when I
had 128mb RAM or less, especially when running a browser, but it used to
freeze when I was running 256mb - but I never had any trouble with
FreeRAM XP Pro.
 
It was a dark and stormy night when MinMin said:
I don't believe you ran the test properly
Click to expand...

I think I did and the reason why is explained in the next paragraph.
all that you proved is that RamIdle is unable to stop a RESOURCE
leak
Click to expand...

I tested RamIdle because REM implied that his usage of RamIdle and
the absence of resource problems in his PC were related. If you are
kind enough to read REM's message you will find that he said:

"When I ran 98SE I used 'RamIdle' and it worked wonderfully! I never
had any resource or memory problems."

-and-

"It made 98SE run like my XP machine does now, simply no
resource/memory problems at all."

As you can see from the above paragraphs my criticism has more to do
with REM's reply than RamIdle's capabilities.
[Snip]

Regards
 
Back
Top