Tech: Memory Leaks

Subject: RE: Tech: Memory Leaks
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 26 Jan 05 - 05:47 PM

At work some years (I had typed 'tears'!!!) ago, we were using an expensive XTerm Windows Program on either 3.1 or 95 - a net sniffer revealed that when the window was covered by another - it would barrage the server with requests - bogging down the LAN. Also, each time an XTerm window was opened and closed it chewed RAM and the only way to recover it was to reboot - shutting the app did not recover it.... a phone call produced an 'upgrade' which was more useful...

Subject: RE: Tech: Memory Leaks
From: Bert
Date: 26 Jan 05 - 11:30 AM

Jon, you make a good point. Sometimes it is just one program that is doing it. If you can identify that program and stop using it, that may cure the problem. Start with a program that you use a lot and turn task manager on to check if your available memory is decreasing.

I try to reboot fairly often, at times when it's convenient for me, like coffee break.

Subject: RE: Tech: Memory Leaks
From: GUEST,pavane
Date: 26 Jan 05 - 06:46 AM

The biggest problem I have with memory is the UNDO stack. The more levels of UNDO you allow, and the bigger the working document, the more space is needed.

At present, HARMONY has an unlimited UNDO, which means that it doesn't release the space until you close the tune.

This may be one of the reasons why other programs use so much memory.

Subject: RE: Tech: Memory Leaks
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 26 Jan 05 - 04:56 AM

Three Sheds, probably the best option is to use a later version of Windows which might handle memory better (it's not always the fault of the application programmer and Unix, etc. did not earn their reputation for being more stable than Windows because only Windows application programmers made mistakes with things like malloc). Also, be on the lookout for a rogue application. If you are frequently hitting problems, it is likely to be that. It's imossible for me to quantify but with my usage of Win 98SE or 2000 pro, I'd expect my system to run for a week.

It's a long while ago for me but from what I remember, one of the weaknesses of some versions of Windows was that for things like GUI (was it - I think they grouped them under "resources", they allocated something like a global 64K (maybe it was more) for all apps so there wasn't really a lot of space for some purposes even if you had 128Mb of memory.

Subject: RE: Tech: Memory Leaks
From: El Dano
Date: 26 Jan 05 - 02:54 AM

So whats best practice for minimising memory leaks reboot often?

Subject: RE: Tech: Memory Leaks
From: HuwG
Date: 26 Jan 05 - 02:03 AM

As Bert says, the "C" programming language is a prolific source of memory leaks. Briefly, it is possible to call a function e.g. alloc (), malloc () or calloc (), to reserve free space memory (also referred to as the "heap"). The reserved memory is not available to the operating system for other purposes, until the owning process releases it or is terminated, or the machine is rebooted.

Assembler is potentially even more dangerous in this respect, but very little Assembler code is written nowadays, and most Assembler programmers were brought up with 64Kb limits on memory, and therefore a Scrooge-like attitude to memory use.

Sloppily written code will often fail to release memory, and keep on grabbing more. Run for long enough, a badly written process (program) will eventually grab enough memory to prevent other processes running, or affect the system speed.

Later programming languages such as "C++" are better in this respect, since they force the programmer to think in "objects", which are supposed to clear up after themselves. Even later languages, like "Java" and "C#" won't usually even allow the programmer to pre-empt memory on the heap.

Subject: RE: Tech: Memory Leaks
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 25 Jan 05 - 03:18 PM

Both McAfee and particularly Zone Alarm are BIG drains on old machinery.

Try Avast, and Tiny

Subject: RE: Tech: Memory Leaks
From: Bert
Date: 25 Jan 05 - 03:05 PM

The same as a computer Kaleea, go to sleep for a while;-)

Subject: RE: Tech: Memory Leaks
From: GUEST,ShiplapStructure(guess whos lost their Cooki
Date: 25 Jan 05 - 04:21 AM

Treewind
Thanks for that AdAware tip
I already run Spybot Search and Destroy
Running AdAware is a bit daunting at first but it seems to be pretty thorough it certainly has found some junk on my machine

Subject: RE: Tech: Memory Leaks
From: Kaleea
Date: 25 Jan 05 - 03:32 AM

Can anyone tell me how to reboot my brain cause till now, I thought my memory leaks were caused by the gray hair on my head.

Subject: RE: Tech: Memory Leaks
From: Bert
Date: 25 Jan 05 - 01:32 AM

The problem is almost always caused by the use of the "C" programming language.

Unless you have access to the source code then the easiest way to recover is to reboot.

Subject: RE: Tech: Memory Leaks
From: Bill D
Date: 24 Jan 05 - 07:07 PM

with Win98, a memory helper is still a bit useful... (I used MaxMem) ..but above Win98..(2000, XP) it does almost no good. XP 'almost' solves the memory leak situation with built in controls.

Subject: RE: Tech: Memory Leaks
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 24 Jan 05 - 06:55 PM

When my PC has a memory leak, I usually get pissed off...

Subject: RE: Tech: Memory Leaks
From: Sorcha
Date: 24 Jan 05 - 05:48 PM

Memory leaks are caused by too much beer and too many years.

Subject: RE: Tech: Memory Leaks
From: treewind
Date: 24 Jan 05 - 05:39 PM

Memory leaks are caused by buggy software and the cure is to fix the bugs or get updated versions with the bugs fixed.

Windows slowing down, however, can be caused by:
- your registry getting full of crap
- your hard disk needing defragmenting
- your sytem full of spyware and adware

Much of that can be cleaned up for free with Spybot Search and Destory and AdAware.

Outlook Express may be slow because your mailbox is getting big. Look for file mailbox.pst and see how big it is. Consider archiving or deleting old messages.

Anahata

Subject: Tech: Memory Leaks
From: GUEST,shiplap structure
Date: 24 Jan 05 - 04:49 PM

What is there for curing memory leaks.
I used to use an application called Freemem which was supposed to release memory that Windows applications supposedly hung on to, it appeared to work for a while but things speeded up when I eventually removed Freemem, and then I upped the memory to 128Ram (I know thats not a lot by modern stds but thats what my elderley 350mhz machine has got)
Recently I've noticed how slow outlook express opens up when its the only application running other than McAfee and ZoneLabs firewall
Any thoughts?