Memory trouble

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RogerM

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As a matter of routine I get an "insufficient memory" warning several times per day. Sometimes I may only be running MyTrack, OE, and 2 or 3 pages in IE. Rebooting resolves it for a few hours.

I am running Win98, PIII-667, 2 monitors with an Appian Geronimo 16MB video card, 576MB RAM (2x256 plus the original 64), a 20GB HDD of which 12GB is in use. I clear the temporary files from IE daily.

Whilst I appreciate that this is not the hotest setup around, surely it should be able to cope with more than I'm asking of it? Any ideas please?
 
Yep, a memory leak!

Have you Windows Updated your machine?
Have you set up the pagefile to the correct size? i.e Half pysical memory?
Are there any other little apps etc that load on boot up?

JonnyT
 
Memory

RogerM,

There are a number of things that could be causing this as I had a similar problem with one of my own PCs. From what you have said there is nothing obvious that should be causing the issue as you have adequate hardware, (in my view) to run what you need. One of the most likley causes is a corrupt "dll" file which can cause all sorts of issues. Are you running WIN98 (SE) ? which stands for "second edition" I know quite a few people who were having a lot of problems with WIN 98 original. That said WIN98 is not the most reliable of platforms and I have recently switched to Windows XP on one machine and Windows 2000 on another that I use. When I upgraded to Windows 2000 it took me forever to locate drivers for some of my hardware so I dont recommend doing that unless you know what you are doing. But if you can it is absolutley bullet proof in reliability, well so far anyway.

Good Luck


Paul
 
eeerrrr Memory.

Roger,


Many of the memory leakages can be attributable to poor code, however I use mytrack and OE do not have leakage problems. Win98 was a flaky OS - my firs suggestion is to get a new OS pref Windows 2000 (NT ver 5.0).

Another way of determining which app is eating the memory is to look at the performance within the windows task manager.

You may also have some adware on your pc which runs in the background as well
 
Roger

I've had this problem with Win 98. I tried installing a memory manager but even that wouldn't run sometimes through lack of memory.

For other reasons I then downloaded and ran "Addaware"(free)which found some 21 instances of spy and adware in the registry etc.

I have had no memory problems since cleaning these out. May be worth trying before upgrading your OS.

Although my Win 98 still seems to crash for other reasons, probably related to running more than one JAVA based program at the same time.

I think for serious trading you should upgrade to W2K or XP pro anyway.

HTH
 
Hi,

I would concur that upgrading to Win2K SP3 or XP SP1 would be a good move for reliability.

My choice now would be XP, it will probably auto install your hardware and be perfectly stable with SP1.

JonnyT (Microsoft MCSE, Cisco CCNP)
 
XP Pro is very good and stable: I run IRT plus IE6 plus futures, MIRC 2 x s/b java windows, messenger with 378MB no problems at all. 30 GB disk VM set to 1GB min.
 
Yep. Bin win98 and go win XP pro. You'll never look back. My w98 system fell over all the time, especially with my track. Now the crashes are non existant.
 
Thanks guys - I knew that there would be lots of constructive help, which hopefully will be of use to others as well.

The main message seems to be to upgrade to Win2000 or XP Pro. Not sure which is preferable although both seem to offer a quantum leap from Win98 and I'm unlikely to be unhappy with either. I've heard worrying reports about security for XP, plus stories of having to re-register the product if you add too many extra pieces of hardware. Sounds like unnecessary hassle to me. My son uses Win 2000 pro and swears by it, although I've also heard that setting up second monitors via multiheaded video cards is a problem, but not insurmountable. I will need to wait until he's home from university before I tackle an OS install though. Best to do on a new hard drive and use the existing one as a backup?


JonnyT - I've reduced startup menu to minimum and set virtual memory to be managed by the pc. Win98 is original version installed 2.5 years ago and not updated since.

Pervaz - I've run Spyware Nuker and found 155 bits of spyware in 5 files which I've cleaned out! These must predate the installation of the Norton Internet Security (firewall) package a couple of months back, so should not now be a problem?
 
Re registering is not a problem. IF you ever need to do it, it can be done on-line in a flash. Best to do a fresh install with either operating system. There are serious problems with USB/ Motherboards/win2000, so XP Pro has to be the correct choice. Security issues are resolved by downloading service pack 1. Antivirus and Firewall are a must in either case. My personal preference on dual heads is SIS315 chipset version for the agp card and Nvidia Riva Vanta chipset PCI cards for the secondary displays.
 
I agree with Chartman, go with XP Pro SP1

The DBs. Nearly all Corporate customers I deal with are now going the XP Route rather than Win2K.

My experiences are nothing but good, you do get the occaisonal old app that wont work initially, usually do to XPs own protective measures, but you can relax then for the single app.

As for trading I use MyTrack, Sierra Chart, IB, Deal4Free from XP and stability is superb. i.e Non of these will fall over.

XP also has inbuilt recovery mechanisms which allow you to effectively get things working again if you have a corrupt system file etc further adding to the reliability.

If you add hardware you will not have a problem, worst case is a call to Microsoft (i've had to do this several times) but they might need persuading if you change a Motherboard...

JonnyT
 
chnage motherboard?

Hmm I did that with XPpro: no probs at all.. no need to reregister.

Then I added more memory.
Then I changed the HD.

I suspect if I did all at once, then reregister would be required.
I did all the above over several months.. and reloaded XP with new mb and then disk. Very easy if you back up...
 
Yes sometimes you get away with it, other times you do not. Its all documented by Microsoft if you can understand it that is!

Now if you create an image then reinstall that image to a different Hardware combo i.e you have a new motherboard you have broken the terms of Microsofts license and are required to buy another...

JonnyT
 
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