93% Memory Utlization Problem..Win 98

[Don79]

Hi Guys,

Was talkin to a lady at work today who is having memory problems with her home PC. I thought I would be nice and help her out. She has the following 32-bit applications running according to the memory report she printed out for me.

MSTASK.EXE: 120 KB
AOLFIX.EXE: 44.7 KB
MSG32.EXE: 44.0 KB
VSMON.EXE: 1.02 MB
MINILOG.EXE: 344 KB
CSINJECT.EXE: 62.6 KB
NPROTECT.EXE: 217 KB
SYMTRAY.EXE: 149 KB
HIDSERV.EXE: 104 KB
TASKMON.EXE: 46.0 KB
MMKEYBD.EXE: 916 KB
HPSYSDRV.EXE: 93.0 KB
DIRECTCD.EXE: 925 KB
USBMMKBD.EXE: 99.0 KB
LVCOMS.EXE: 125 KB
STTRAY.EXE: 112 KB
REALPLAY.EXE: 194 KB
KEYBDMGR.EXE: 146 KB
STIMON.EXE: 139 KB
NAVAPW32.EXE: 324 KB
OSD.EXE: 536 KB
ZONEALARM.EXE 1.09 MB
WKCALREM.EXE: 87.8 KB
BACKWEB.EXE 3.05 MB
VSACCESS.EXE: 30.9 MB
CSINM32.EXE: 285 KB
OCRAWR32.EXE: 86.1 KB
WMIEXE.EXE: 25.1 KB
MMUSKBKB2.EXE: 98.1 KB
FREXT.EXE: 181 KB
NMAIN.EXE: 1.21 MB
SI32.EXE: 1.53 MB

16-BIT APPLICATIONS

ZONEALARM: 1.38 KB
MSGLOOP: 21.2 KB
CLEANSWEEP WOW SMART SWEEP: 19.9 KB
QUICKRES: 22.3 KB
OCRAWARE: 42.9 KB
EPSON SPOOL MANAGER: 1.53 MB

That is a huge list, I know. Would anyone be kind enough to figure out what does not need to be there? She has 126 physical memory, and 93% memory utilization.

Thanks!

 

[crisc]

LOL, all this stuff is running after she boots up?! She didn't launch anything?! My gawd that's a lot of junk!
I'd say start with whatever VSACCESS.EXE is, it's eating up almost a fourth of her RAM by itself!

 

[JonathanB]

Try to install this and uncheck all programs that is not needed.

http://www.webattack.com/get/startupcpl.shtml

 

[Don79]

Thanks Jonathan, I will tell her to install that. Is the software good in detecting what items are no longer needed, and can be deleted or un-checked? I know sometimes these 3rd party softwares make things even worse.

 

[Badger7]

ZONEALARM: 1.38 KB

Start by uninstalling this ... then reinstall it after everything else is final.

StartUpCop is a very nice program BUT if she does not know how to use it it is going to cause her all kinds of problems.

MAKE absolutely sure she uses the disable feature for a few days on all items in question before she deletes them from the startup load. There is no turning back then, except reinstalling the origional programs (unless the program has a "load at start" selector of course.)

If I recall VSACCESS.EXE: 30.9 MB is Microsoft Office Startup ... and from looking at her garbage list, like the guy said "GAWD" ... maybe she better turn that HOG off unless it is her MOST NEEDED program.

Terry

 

[cdogg]

You can use Startup Cop if you like, but in Win98 it's not necessary since you have msconfig. If you go to Start->Run, type msconfig and hit enter, you'll have a "startup" tab that gives you the same ability.

~cdogg

 

[Don79]

Right, I will tell her to go to the startup tab and disable questionable items. If she disables VSACCESS, will that make a difference to how MS Office works? What is it actually starting up?

 

[cdogg]

Well, there's probably an office component in your Startup folder under Start->Programs. I'm not sure what VSACCESS really is, but it might be related to "FastFind", "Office Startup", or "Microsoft Office".

It's always a good idea to clear out the startup folder first, then use MSCONFIG. You could jump straight to MSCONFIG, but it's better to clear the clutter of shortcuts rather than uncheck them...


~cdogg

 

[Don79]

Just spoke with her again. She said she updated her memory to 256 MB, and now about 60% is being used.

 

[cdogg]

60% is better and it's good that she upgraded the amount of RAM. However, 38 processes loading at startup is way too much for any system. You'll risk stability if you continue to let her work that way.

A general rule of thumb is to try and have less than 20 processes running at startup (the less the better) and for the free resource percentage to be above 80% (above 90% if possible). You can check the free resources at Control Panel->System->Performance tab.


~cdogg

 

[Don79]

I agree cdogg. I have advised her to disable a few processes, and she will get back to me.

 

[Jestr1]

Besides the msconfig thing, I also had to install and use a memory management utility. RAMidle will keep tabs on your system's memory and free up what you need. If I don't have it installed, I can come back to my PC after a few hours and only have 32 megs free!! That's pretty bad considering I have 512 megs installed. I've read that it has something to do with Windows 98 SE and the Athlon Thunderbird... Who knows.

 

[cdogg]

Jestr1,

Progs like RAMIdle are good to have. The reason for the problem is that Win9x/ME operating systems leak memory over time (faster depending on how many apps are left running). NT operating systems aren't as susceptible to memory leaks, which is why you could leave Win2K running for weeks at a time without a hitch!

It really has nothing to do with the fact that you're running an Athlon Thunderbird, although if you know where you read that, let me know...
ck_blk@yahoo.com

 

[Jestr1]

I got that argue impulse, but I thought better of it and dug around a little bit. I probably did a search like '' "memory leak" Athlon '', which would pull in some ostensive extraneous variables leading me to the conclusion that Athlons are bad about memory leaks. Actually, I just read an article on techrepublic that quoted Gartner Researches' information on UNIX vs. NT 4.0 and it said that NT 4.0 is really bad about leakage, too. A lot of their clients have to reboot the NT servers every weak to free their RAM.

 

[cdogg]

Yeah, I guess a lot of it depends on the type of apps you're running and how much idle time the CPU actually sees. Some apps are just poorly written when it comes to releasing resources when you close them (no matter what OS you use).

NT 4.0 had its flaws, but was certainly better than any Win9x system at keeping its resources up. NT 4.0 servers hardly make it more than a week in a large network environment without being rebooted. I have to agree there. However, on the workstation side, you rarely had to...
ck_blk@yahoo.com