Ram Defrag

Vlad the Impaler · Feb 10, 2004

When I reboot my computer, and I press CTRL ALT DELETE, I have approx 850MB of free physical memory (i have a gig of RAM). As I use the computer, this # ofcourse keeps dropping and dropping, until the machine is slow and I have to reboot. However, I tired of rebooting, so in every session I use my computer I run a RAM defrag, and it will boost my available physicle memory back above 850MB. It may not do it after one defrag, but I can do it several times and the memory will keep going up. At one point, I got it over 900MB.

It this a bad idea?

I haven't had to reboot for a month. My computer only has problems when it reboots , so I will do whatever it takes to not have to reboot!

Major Attitude · Feb 9, 2004

Debateble, a lot of them dont do much and waste resources rather then recover. There are very few I found that actually work. Your better off with a tool that tweaks the memory settings as opposed to "freeing" the ram. You might want to try Cacheman, I have been very happy with it. Its possible, like in my case, that you have a particular program with a memory leak and there isnt anything you can do about that except look for a product patch. I have a program that has used up as much as 250 megs at one time and the company denies it claiming the Windows task manager isnt accurate as to the memory usage it claims, though when I close it things speed up. Anyhow, that may be a problem your having. A ctrl alt delete and see what process is using all this memory MAY point you to a buggy program.

Vlad the Impaler · Feb 9, 2004

Major Attitude said:

Debateble, a lot of them dont do much and waste resources rather then recover. There are very few I found that actually work. Your better off with a tool that tweaks the memory settings as opposed to "freeing" the ram. You might want to try Cacheman, I have been very happy with it. Its possible, like in my case, that you have a particular program with a memory leak and there isnt anything you can do about that except look for a product patch. I have a program that has used up as much as 250 megs at one time and the company denies it claiming the Windows task manager isnt accurate as to the memory usage it claims, though when I close it things speed up. Anyhow, that may be a problem your having. A ctrl alt delete and see what process is using all this memory MAY point you to a buggy program.
Click to expand...

I tried Cacheman once, and after I tweaked with it, for some reason my virus scanner took 4 hours to cpmplete a scan! Before I messed with cacheman it only took 25 minutes max. I don't know if cacheman caused that or what, but I have done a clean install since then and haven't tried it again. I use a program called Rem Defrag XT. As I stated before, when I reboot the comp i have 850MBof RAM free according to CTRL ALT DELETE and the computer performance is superb. As I use the computer, that number will gradually decrease. In a few days it will creep down to 700MB and then the comp acts slow and freezes up sometimes. If I run Ram Defrag, it will bump the free RAM all the way back up to 850MB and beyond and the computer acts as though it was rebooted-- it runs smooth like that... does this make sense?

da chicken · Feb 9, 2004

I found RAM defraggers to work best on Win9x machines, where the system itself had countless memory leaks.

Certain programs can suck up memory. A roomate I used to have was on IRC all the time. If he left mIRC open for more than a few days the program would eat up all system resources, sending the machine into a disk thrashing loop. This was on a Win2k box. It only seemed to do it when he was connected to more than ~6 networks, but he was all the time. He installed a RAM "defragger", and the problem went away.

Vlad the Impaler · Feb 10, 2004

robo said:

Another consideration: "freeing" RAM is not the only reason for rebooting...restarting the machine and the OS clears temporary folders, allows initiations to the registry for installation of new programs, resolves many software conflicts, releases files deemed "in use" after an application closes, etc...
To follow M.A.'s train of thought, you might want to find out why your computer "only has problems when it reboots": you obviously have some other issues going on...
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I have tried everything to solve the problem of my computer freezing when it reboots. I get to the screen with the scrolling bar, and then I will get a blank screen instead of the welcome screen/desktop forcing a power down and reboot. This only happens sometimes. I have reformatted, and the problem comes back, sometimes immediately after the reinstall, sometimes weeks after. I have posted on here several times and nobody really knows the problem.

DavidGP · Feb 10, 2004

One other thing is that depending on the software used and how well it ends it tasks once closed, dlls can get left in memory so this adds to memory loss ( or is that my memory loss )

you could always try adding this sub-key to the registry and force windows to unload unused .dlls

open regedit and find this

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\

next if its not their you need to add a new string value called AlwaysUnloadDLL and give it a value of 1 (to unload ) or 0 ( if you want to revert back to default )

you will need to restart to see any effects of regisrty changes... plus normal care is needing when editing regisrty.

Dunno if this will help your problem it wont hurt it tho, but as Robo said you have a few outstanding issues that do need replys to as wether they are gone or still exist?

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Ram Defrag

Vlad the Impaler F.K.A. Immaculate

Major Attitude Co-Owner MajorGeeks.Com Staff Member

Vlad the Impaler F.K.A. Immaculate

da chicken MajorGeek

Vlad the Impaler F.K.A. Immaculate

DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member