[comp.os.os2.misc] Memory problems

ballard@cheddar.ucs.ubc.ca (Alan Ballard) (01/11/91)

In article <4951@lure.latrobe.edu.au> CCMK@lure.latrobe.edu.au (Mark Kosten - Computer Centre, La Trobe Uni.) writes:
>I am running version 1.20 on an IBM model 70 with 6MB memory
>and with memory swapping and compaction on in config.sys.
>...
>I run a few programs repeatedly (quitting and restarting, such
>as the file manager, editor) and slowly memory gets eaten up
>till there is about 20 KB left and then sometimes I get a system
>shutdown with 'memory faulty' error, which I do not believe as
>no tests or other programs have ever found faulty memory. 

I run a very similar configuration and haven't encountered this problem.
I can think of two possibilities:
-- a genuine memory fault.  OS/2 checks out your memory much more thoroughly
than other uses. Many diagnostics don't seem to check all installed RAM, or 
don't check all bits, or something. IBM's own *certainly* don't test the RAM
properly.  I have encountered problems with RAM failing under OS/2 that 
seemed to work fine in other situations. 
-- how is your swap file configured?  If you have SWAPPATH in the config.sys,
the parameter is the amount to leave *free* for possible file system use. If
this number is too big, relative to the amount of free space on your disk, 
OS/2 will be unable to swap. 



Alan Ballard                   | Internet: ballard@ucs.ubc.ca
University Computing Services  |   Bitnet: USERAB1@UBCMTSG
University of British Columbia |    Phone: 604-228-3074
Vancouver B.C. Canada V6R 1W5  |      Fax: 604-228-5116

CCMK@lure.latrobe.edu.au (Mark Kosten - Computer Centre, La Trobe Uni.) (01/11/91)

I am running version 1.20 on an IBM model 70 with 6MB memory
and with memory swapping and compaction on in config.sys.
I run a lot of stuff in the background (DECnet, TCP/IP,
clock, cpu monitor, etc, totalling 59 processes), and after
boot up have 1.2MB free (a little utility tells me this).
I run a few programs repeatedly (quitting and restarting, such
as the file manager, editor) and slowly memory gets eaten up
till there is about 20 KB left and then sometimes I get a system
shutdown with 'memory faulty' error, which I do not believe as
no tests or other programs have ever found faulty memory.

Does anyone have any ideas?  It seems some programs do not
give back memory, such as the file manager, on exiting,
plus my machine seems loathe to swap or compact segments.
Am I dreaming the whole thing, or should I just wait for 1.3,
which apparently solves a lot of memory problems?

Dr Mark Kosten,        phone: +61 3 479-2767
Computer Centre,       AARNet (internet): ccmk@lure.latrobe.edu.au
La Trobe University,   X.25 (PSI): 05052347300000::ccmk
Bundoora, 3083
Australia

cfreas@eeserv1.ic.sunysb.edu (Terry Freas) (01/11/91)

In article <4951@lure.latrobe.edu.au> CCMK@lure.latrobe.edu.au (Mark Kosten - Computer Centre, La Trobe Uni.) writes:
>I am running version 1.20 on an IBM model 70 with 6MB memory
>and with memory swapping and compaction on in config.sys.
>I run a lot of stuff in the background (DECnet, TCP/IP,
>clock, cpu monitor, etc, totalling 59 processes), and after
>boot up have 1.2MB free (a little utility tells me this).
>I run a few programs repeatedly (quitting and restarting, such
>as the file manager, editor) and slowly memory gets eaten up
>till there is about 20 KB left and then sometimes I get a system
>shutdown with 'memory faulty' error, which I do not believe as
>no tests or other programs have ever found faulty memory.
>
>Does anyone have any ideas?  It seems some programs do not
>give back memory, such as the file manager, on exiting,
>plus my machine seems loathe to swap or compact segments.
>Am I dreaming the whole thing, or should I just wait for 1.3,
>which apparently solves a lot of memory problems?

Your 'mem free' utility probably is using the standard DosXXX call
for the *largest* block of free ram.  After a good deal of memory
usage, fragmentation is reasonable.  Try using a nice little program
called freemem written by Metz.  A feature causes it (every interval)
to allocate all free blocks of ram until swapping would occur, and
then free it.  It then reports your total free ram.
-- 
Jeremy Wohl / wohl@max.physics.sunysb.edu / cfreas@csserv1.ic.sunysb.edu