keenart opened this issue on Jun 21, 2007 · 29 posts
keenart posted Fri, 29 June 2007 at 11:45 PM
You are really going to get me started on this post. About hard drives, swap files, and memory. I will use my usual "phraseology."
Techs have test driven this scenario many times, and usually the results are nearly the same, depending on who is doing the testing. If you have a single drive with two drive letters, it reduces the efficiency of the OS to have the swap file on the other letter. This is not the case if you have two drives of the same make and speed, in which case, the swap file improves performance of the OS when on the second drive. Then there is the scenario of one drive is faster than another of a two drive setup. Typically the tech’s agree that you should use the fastest drive to put the swap file on, not the OS. The reason other applications will need the speed over the system.
About swap files and low memory problems;
Increase the paging file (virtual memory) size: Typically Windows can address 3.1 gigs of memory on a 32 bit system, which means you should set the Virtual memory size or page file to a minimum of 3100 megs in a system that contains 2 gigs of RAM. The system requires 300 megs for XP and 600 megs for Vista to function, add this additional amount to get out of a bad situation. The maximum should be no more than 3 times the size of the minimum. Too much Virtual Memory will slow down the system rather than speed it up.
There is another problem with all of this 2 ram MS uses 3.1 formula, many programs are held to the 32 bit format of 1.99 gig per max file size, and in this case it may not make any difference if you have 4 gigs to the program. But, it can make a difference to the Operating System. This extra ram may avert crashes and allow the OS to recover from a “Bad App” situation.
Determine if a program overuses memory;
If the computer becomes low on memory whenever you run certain programs, one or more of those programs might have a memory leak. To stop a memory leak, you need to close the program to recover used memory. Because some programs do not use managed code they will not release the memory threads, in which case you must reboot the system to recover the the dirty threads of memory.
To repair a memory leak, you need to check for updates for the program or contact the publisher of the software when possible.
To determine which program is using the most memory:
Click on Task Manager;
Click the Processes tab and find the amount of usage.
You can also check for program errors and troubleshooting information using Event Viewer.
Memory Leaks and how to find them;
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/177415
If this is too difficult, use the System Monitors, to read memory, disk and CPU usage while an application is running. If the app is about to crash, the memory usage will take off until depleted, instead of remain low or constant, . By using the System Monitor, you wil have a better monitor before a system crash. 80% usage of System Resource is nearing crash time and you should be saving and getting outing out if possible.
Vue uses Visual Studio 5, in particular read Discussion;
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318263/en-us
Automatic Memory Management: Vista uses Visual Studio 2003, and Vue uses Visual Studio 2005.
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/f144e03t.aspx
The explanation of Garbage Collection and the use of 3 GB switch.
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/0xy59wtx.aspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/319043
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316739/EN-US/
MS recommends http://www.liutilities.com/products/speedupmypc/speedupterms/recovermemory/
I do not believe this will stop Vue from crashing, since they port and use unmanaged code. As long as Vue uses unmanaged code, the OS cannot always get out of a crash, because it is locked in indecision as what to do until too late to recover. This is a bad scenario for an application that continually crashes and brings the OS to a halt.
Microsoft will not tolerate continual system crashes and interventions buy third party software. There are several hundred snippets of code that analyze and determine how an app behaves and how to classify its conduct according to compatibility and other factors. It starts out as a Good App, but after the crashing starts, it gets reclassified, new code added to make the app more compatible. However, if the app continues to crash, and begins stopping the function of the OS, MS will finally intervene by killing the app when it misbehaves. Vista is good at this and usually after killing an errant app, even its own apps, it restarts them and things are back to normal. Unfortunately, Vue is unmanaged code, and most of the time cannot be stopped from crashing, or restarted to recover memory and bring the system back to a normal stat of function, because Vue does not address the OS in the correct response.
Now the problem with all of this is that many of us have been having a horde of crashes and all of this info is going to MS. Recently I received two new x64 security patches, and noticed different handling of Vue when it crashes. When it crashes I now get a “BSOD” and Errors in the Events viewer:
"The program Vue6.eon version 0.0.0.0 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed."
I have never before gotten this Error message during or after a Vue crash, and this happened hours after the last Vista update. I would say that MS is now aware of the problem, BIGTIME!!!
I think one of the reasons this error occurs is because of Vue’s coding. Also, my video drivers and Vista use a combination of Video Ram and System Ram to bolster the Aero desktop, a sort of mini-SLI mode.
That means that my video cards 256 ram also gets 256 additional shared ram from the 2 gig System ram so that my video card appears as if it has 512 megs. Unfortunately this leaves my System ram with 1.75 gig. This should be enough to run Vue and the Vista OS if you turn off the features I mentioned previously. It isn’t, Vue tries to take what is forbidden, ergo, crash.
The only solution, new managed code. Again, do not get me wrong, I am not trying to bash Vue, just explain what is happening, so that others can see and possibly find solutions to the problem. I got to take a coffee break!?!