Memory issue with WM5

Youna · 03-02-06, 07:59 AM

Hello,

Using my X51 with vBar is the title bar, I can see memory allocation increasing over the time. I assume vBar is displaying RAM memory consumption, right ?

Everytime I stop a program, I take care of killing it, not just hidding it (using either vBar shortcut or Setting->Memory-> Running Programs). Whatever, even if nothing running, except the Today screen, memory is not always released (at least this is what vBar is indicating).

Can someone explain this (applications not releasing memory properly ?) ?

Is there any utility existing to check RAM utilisation and option for optimisation ?

Please help ...

Mokubai · 03-02-06, 12:02 PM

I've seen this too, and I can only assume it is like windows in that when dlls are loaded they are not immediately unloaded when the application exits, this results in progressively more memory used when running and exiting lots of applications but faster load times when you re-run one of those applications. The dlls should get unloaded when low-memory conditions occur.

It's basically a method of using the free memory to buffer parts of applications so that they load faster.

This is just what I *think* is happening, so I could be wrong.

Youna · 03-02-06, 12:25 PM

Ok, thanks Mokubai, explanation makes sense.

So basically, it would mean that I don't have to worry if vBar is indicating more 'red' memory status than 'green'.
If new application requires memory, the unloaded ones will be then removed, right ? (in other words, I don't have to soft reset regularly to release memory)

03-02-06, 01:21 PM

Youna: Yes and no. WM5 will unload RUNNING applications as needed, and then attempt to free up space in the background by removing unused DLLs. However, things like the GWES.EXE process, which has cached a bunch of items, will probably stay the same size. As long as you've got more than 5MB of RAM available at any given time, you're probably okay, however.

If you want to see what Processes are running, I'd suggest using either MemMaid by DinarSoft (which has a good interface that's easy to read), or SKTools by SK Software (which is a lot more cluttered and difficult to read, but has the advantage of being able to free up WM5 RAM space by forcing the OS to unload DLLs).

Youna · 03-03-06, 03:08 PM

Thanks Haesslich,

I've tested MemMaid and SKTools. I go for SKT (twice cheaper and more features).

03-03-06, 04:13 PM

I personally run them both - MemMaid does the 'clean the built-in storage' part pretty well, while SKTools does have Storage Card management features as well as the "Free up RAM" module which makes it especially useful when I don't want to soft-reset.

Youna · 03-04-06, 05:23 AM

What does exactly the feature 'clean the built-in storage' ?

03-04-06, 10:31 AM

Basically, MemMaid looks for temp files, junk files, junk registry entries, duplicate notifications and everything else that SK Tools can do... but it's a lot easier to use and you can set it to do automatic cleaning on soft-resets, and the like. It also has a better viewer for storage-card usage (showing the biggest folders on a card, both in normal size measurements as well as pie-chart displays), is a lot easier to use (IMO) when it comes to sorting the startup order (you just move items around so the top item's the first startup item, versus the slightly confusing interface in SK), and overall has a more polished look... plus is a bit easier for me to set custom folders to clean up.

SK Tools is a bit more thorough and does a lot more than just let you clean up unnecessary files, however. And the RAM clearing function alone was enough to get me to buy it. As I said, I run both, and I'm quite happy with them.