Resources

[Zej]

recently my resources have been getting eaten up! this never happened before!! . i have 128MB RAM. what's going on??? how can i stop this or at least monitor what's eating them up??

Empty the recycling bin and how much stuff do you have running?

[kedaman]

I use Resource Meter to monitor my resoruces, they'll often get low when i use Internet Explorer so looking at the gauge in the system tray, you could know when to be careful opening more appz.
Shoud be in windows directory:

C:\WINDOWS\RSRCMTR.EXE

[manual]

Things to do:

Empty your temp file. (Reboot before and after you do this, do not delete anything that has today's date)
Empty your Recycle Bin
Empty your temp internet files.
Defrag
Scandisk

[Technocrat]

There maybe extra programs loaded in memory that are draining your resources. For example both ATI and Diamond load extra program into memory that allow you to access the start menu or video functions anywhere. Unless you need these types of programs you can remove them and free up memory.

You can do this by rebooting, then do ctrl+alt+delete and see what you have running. The only two programs that need to be running are explorer and systray. Most everything else is not needed. You will find most of these programs loading in the start menu and/or in the registry (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\(all the run entries) Just delete the ones that you dont need. I would write down the shortcuts and backup the registry before anything. This should help you free up some memory.

Also large wallpapers and lots of icons on the desktop can kill system resources also.

One final thing, I have notice that any program I make in VB that does alot of memory intense things will drain some resources each time I run it. I now have the resource meter running all the time so I will know when it is time to exit VB and when to restart my machine.

[kedaman]

If you have problems with VB eating your resources there are probably some basic problems;
You don't unload your objects correctly, no freeing all memory.
Your apps have too many controls in runtime.
You have too many designtime classes involved.

Another think i think is that recyclebin has nothing to do with it, or other harddisk related stuff. Also system resources isn't directly proportional to physical memory

You could also go to Start > Program > Accessories > System Tools > Clean Disk. That'll delete a whole bunch of useless sh**. And as manual suggested, Defrag your computer as well.

[HeSaidJoe]

while we're on the topic of defrag..I have a 20G drive and I once defraged it overnight and it seemed to finish. Last month I left it for 2 days and it never got by 10%.

Is there something that stops defrag from doing it's stuff?
ie..I don't use screensavers..just the windows black out on low res if not in use for a certain period of time...

I was thinking I have to format my drive but I really don't want to do that...it's far too time consuming to get everything back.

[Technocrat]

Originally posted by kedaman
If you have problems with VB eating your resources there are probably some basic problems;
You don't unload your objects correctly, no freeing all memory.
Your apps have too many controls in runtime.
You have too many designtime classes involved.

Another think i think is that recyclebin has nothing to do with it, or other harddisk related stuff. Also system resources isn't directly proportional to physical memory

I manually unload everything from objects to forms and I still get memory leaks even though they are small. With one program, after about 25 runs of my program my resources are about gone. If I exit VB and go back I wll get back about 95% of the resources I lost. So after about 10 VB restart I have to restart my computer. Also if I make a .exe of my program I can run it all day long with very little or no memory leaks. I think VB got a buggy memory allocator.

You need hard drive space to make a swap file but it doesn't need much. Windows needs at least 100mb free on boot to make a correct swap file. Windows will only use a maxim of 250mb for swaping correctly. Anything greater then 250mb and Windows with now use it correctly. At least that was true for 95 & 98. Scan disk and defrag will do very little to help your system resources. If you are lucky it will speed Windows up some.

[Technocrat]

Originally posted by HeSaidJoe
while we're on the topic of defrag..I have a 20G drive and I once defraged it overnight and it seemed to finish. Last month I left it for 2 days and it never got by 10%.

Is there something that stops defrag from doing it's stuff?
ie..I don't use screensavers..just the windows black out on low res if not in use for a certain period of time...

I was thinking I have to format my drive but I really don't want to do that...it's far too time consuming to get everything back.

Anything that does a HD scan, read, or write will stop a defrag. Make sure to close all your programs before defraging. Antivirus are the kings at stoping a defrag. I have to kill mine each time I do it.

[kedaman]

The larger a program is the harder it is to avoid memory leaks, i think. VB surely is one of them but Internet Explorer is worse

[invitro]

Look into your registry and look what kind of programs are starting in there, maybe theres something in there u dont want, or dont need.

U can also look in
win.ini - for useless system files.
autoexec.bat

and all that, if u need more info, give me a shout.

Press Ctrl+Alt+Del and terminate programs that are unnecessary.

[invitro]

Some programs are hidden from the alt-ctrl-delete
The best way is to terminate them before they start up, or find a way to close hidden progs.

[dsy5]

Originally posted by HeSaidJoe
while we're on the topic of defrag..I have a 20G drive and I once defraged it overnight and it seemed to finish. Last month I left it for 2 days and it never got by 10%.

As Technocrat said, anything that accesses the hard drive
will cause defrag to restart the whole process from scratch.
Make sure you have no programs running when you defrag. Also <Ctrl><ALT><DEL> will bring up the manager, so close all but explorer and systray. Even better, boot to safe mode when defragging.

[kedaman]

Another good thing is that you uninstall stuff you don't need for the moment, while keeping the installers so you can reinstall anytime you want.