|
Dan Daily and The "Dan Daily" Sites presents Living With Your Computer To go to the Main Tips Site; Click Here For A Printer Friendly Version of this Page; Click Here
To stop the music, click the stop button below.
Don't Forget To Check Out The Store! Click--Here
Hey Gang, the Members sites are over 30 times the size as these free sites. I have much, much more then just computer tips! Membership includes the free "Danny's Gold" CD! Check it out: Click Here
The Difference Between System Resources, and Ram Memory Written by: Dan Daily
Hi Gang! I know the last time we were together; I said this issue would be about the setup of Quick Time. That will have to wait until next time. Many questions have arisen about System Resources, and Ram Memory. So today, we'll discuss this issue. Normally, I like to take two weeks between issues, but I felt this was important enough. .
The first thing you must realize, is that System Resources, are NOT Ram Memory. In fact; they're not even close. You can never run out of Ram Memory. Windows creates a swap file on your hard drive called "Virtual Memory," this is only limited by the free space on your hard drive. But understand, Ram works in nanoseconds, your hard drive works in milliseconds. If Windows has to use virtual memory, it's on the order of 1000 times slower at best! That's why Ram is called the poor mans upgrade. For a much more detailed write up on Virtual Memory, see my first and second columns; "Avoiding System Crashes."
System Resources Made Simple You know I always try to make this understandable, so here goes: (deep breath) There are two kinds of System Resources. User resources and GDI resources. So; before we go any further, lets get you a meter for it. And guess what, you already have one. Go to Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools, and there it is. It's called "Resource Meter." Not there? Well, you still have it anyway. Do this; go to Control Panel/Add Remove Programs, and click on the tab labeled: Windows Setup. Scroll down the list until you get to System Tools, highlight it and click on the "Details" button. Scroll down the list until you come to "Windows Resource Meter," check the little box, Click OK and Click APPLY, don't forget the Apply. I did in writing this. whew, that was close. You may have to put in your 98 CD. Most times, it just finds it in the cab files. Poof all done. Now a little trick; Go to Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools, and right click on the Resource Meter, then click make a shortcut. See the short cut on the bottom now? OK, now hold a left click on it, and drag it all the way over to your Programs/Startup Folder, don't let go yet, let the startup folder show you what's there, and drop it in that list. Now, every time you boot up, the little resource meter will pop up in your system tray. Neat huh? I couldn't live without it. OK, We Have The Meter Now hold your mouse over the meter, and the labels will pop up with your reading. One says System, the other User, and the last GDI. System, just shows the lowest of the two. If you double click on it, it will pop up with a graph. Minimize it, and it pops back up in the system tray. The Windows Resource Meter: Know It, Learn It, Live It, Use It User Resources Basically: User resources is a listing of all the Windows apps you have running at this moment. All your DLL files take space here as well. The more you want Windows to do, the more User resources you use. Simple as that. GDI Resources GDI keeps track of all the things Windows is doing to put on your screen, what's on your screen. Things like colors, fonts, bitmaps, etc etc. So the more stuff you have on the screen, the more GDI resources you're using. This is why you'll notice a drop on a complex web page, like my Easter Issue. So What? Well I'll tell you so what: The important thing to know about User and GDI resources is; the size of these files is finite. All the Ram in the world won't make them bigger. You could very well get a Windows Resource warning, and have all the free Ram in the world. More Ram won't matter! Basically; Microsoft decided how many things they wanted you to run at the same time, and that was that. Period! There is no way to change them.
The Confusion! It seems that many would be wanna be "computer experts," (like Aol Techs?) tell you to have 90% of your resources free. Gang; this is an impossibility. Example: Right this moment; I have Ad Subtract running, Zone Alarm, AOL, I'm online, I'm writing this in Windows Front Page 2000, I have a driver for my DSL running, one for my cordless mouse, and one to connect AOL with my DSL driver. On top of all of this, I also have my clip board program running, "Clip Trakker," and Terminator running as a shell for my AOL. This doesn't include systray, and the other apps Windows needs to function. It brings tears to my eyes when I realize how far we've come since my hot rod 286 days. I'd never had believed it possible. With all this running, I show 53% User, and 59% GDI. Right this moment, I'm doing the first proof read of this from the net. So add Internet explorer running with this page loaded on top of everything else. I'm at 51, and 53% respectively. You don't even have to worry until you get below 30%. I think the meter turns yellow at 15 or 20. I believe you get a warning at about 5%. For this column, I loaded everything I could think of, damned near everything on my computer! And still showed 32%! But stay away from the Easter Page! LOL OK, OK, I know what you're thinking, "Well Danny, you have a 1.1 athlon with 640 megs of memory." Yes, that is true, but, with my K6-2 and 64 megs of ram, the readings are EXACTLY THE SAME! She runs a lot slower of course, because with all these apps running at the same time, Windows is using one hell of a big swap file in virtual memory. But the system resource readings are the same. Now, with all that said, you could have a running drop of resources. A poorly written program can leak it. That's what Aol6 does, or did, or still does, hell I don't know, just stay away from it. A good way to check on a program, is to shut all your running apps down. Then open your program; now read your resource meter readings and write it down. Use the program for a while; put it through it's paces. Now exit it and re-check your resource readings. It had better be pretty darned close to what it was. This is an excellent way to track down bad software. So forget what the wanna be's say. Stop asking me for comments about these clowns. They probably use their CD Rom trays for coffee cup holders anyway! I only give you the facts. Take it or leave it.
I hope this helps you on your road. Your Road? Yes, Your Road To Computer Sanity Danny
Do You;
Have twitches of the hand when you walk by your terminal? Then Join The Club! Your NOT NORMAL! You're a Mutant! LMAO
|
