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  • Where does the memory go?

    From hehelvie@hehelvie@snet.net.invalid (HankH) to comp.sys.mac.system on Sunday, July 06, 2003 21:23:22
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

    Running OSX 10.2.6 on a slot loading i-Mac and running MemoryStick I start
    out with about half of the memory "free" and in a few hours I have about
    one tenth "free" and everything slows down. The "inactive" part of memory grows to fill most of the rest of the space. I think this started hapening after 10.2.6 was installed. Anyone else noticed this?
    --- Synchronet 3.18b-Win32 NewsLink 1.113
  • From matt neuburg@matt@tidbits.com to comp.sys.mac.system on Sunday, July 06, 2003 21:33:15
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

    In <hehelvie-0607031723340001@12.12.252.64.snet.net> HankH wrote:
    Running OSX 10.2.6 on a slot loading i-Mac and running MemoryStick I
    start out with about half of the memory "free" and in a few hours I
    have about one tenth "free" and everything slows down. The "inactive"
    part of memory grows to fill most of the rest of the space. I think
    this started hapening after 10.2.6 was installed. Anyone else noticed
    this?

    So you're suggesting that memory management has somehow changed on your machine starting with 10.2.6? What was it doing before? I think what I'm getting at is that this is what I would expect to see - that's how
    MemoryStick behaves on my machine too. The question is not, however,
    whether "inactive" fills the space but whether you are getting pageouts
    and generating extra swapfiles (the first dot counts your swapfiles, and
    the Signal Pageouts option lets you hear a noise when you get pageouts).
    If so, you might consider getting more RAM. Alternatively, just restart
    the computer; that's what I do. m.

    PS I wrote MemoryStick.

    --
    matt neuburg, phd = matt@tidbits.com, http://www.tidbits.com/matt
    REALbasic: The Definitive Guide! 2nd edition! http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596001770/somethingsbymatt
    Subscribe to TidBITS. It's free and smart.
    --- Synchronet 3.18b-Win32 NewsLink 1.113
  • From hehelvie@hehelvie@snet.net.invalid (HankH) to comp.sys.mac.system on Monday, July 07, 2003 00:46:55
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

    In article <20030706143315182-0700@news.la.sbcglobal.net>, matt neuburg <matt@tidbits.com> wrote:

    In <hehelvie-0607031723340001@12.12.252.64.snet.net> HankH wrote:
    Running OSX 10.2.6 on a slot loading i-Mac and running MemoryStick I
    start out with about half of the memory "free" and in a few hours I
    have about one tenth "free" and everything slows down. The "inactive" part of memory grows to fill most of the rest of the space. I think
    this started hapening after 10.2.6 was installed. Anyone else noticed this?

    So you're suggesting that memory management has somehow changed on your machine starting with 10.2.6? What was it doing before? I think what I'm getting at is that this is what I would expect to see - that's how MemoryStick behaves on my machine too. The question is not, however,
    whether "inactive" fills the space but whether you are getting pageouts
    and generating extra swapfiles (the first dot counts your swapfiles, and
    the Signal Pageouts option lets you hear a noise when you get pageouts).
    If so, you might consider getting more RAM. Alternatively, just restart
    the computer; that's what I do. m.

    PS I wrote MemoryStick.

    Very few pageouts and swap files. I reboot about once a day. This is new
    with 10.2.6.
    Thanks
    --- Synchronet 3.18b-Win32 NewsLink 1.113
  • From billbjohnson555@billbjohnson555@nospamhotmail.com (Bill B. Johnson) to comp.sys.mac.system on Sunday, July 06, 2003 19:00:59
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

    In article <hehelvie-0607031723340001@12.12.252.64.snet.net>, hehelvie@snet.net.invalid (HankH) wrote:

    Running OSX 10.2.6 on a slot loading i-Mac and running MemoryStick I start out with about half of the memory "free" and in a few hours I have about
    one tenth "free" and everything slows down. The "inactive" part of memory grows to fill most of the rest of the space. I think this started hapening after 10.2.6 was installed. Anyone else noticed this?

    I don't have OSX 10.2.6 but Sarah has it on her mac that she makes use of
    at work. She said that the tech in charge of the macs had to place much
    more RAM in the macs since almost everyone was complaining about memory
    related problems.
    --- Synchronet 3.18b-Win32 NewsLink 1.113
  • From ZnU@znu@acedsl.com to comp.sys.mac.system on Monday, July 07, 2003 12:23:10
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

    In article <hehelvie-0607031723340001@12.12.252.64.snet.net>,
    hehelvie@snet.net.invalid (HankH) wrote:

    Running OSX 10.2.6 on a slot loading i-Mac and running MemoryStick I start out with about half of the memory "free" and in a few hours I have about
    one tenth "free" and everything slows down. The "inactive" part of memory grows to fill most of the rest of the space. I think this started hapening after 10.2.6 was installed. Anyone else noticed this?

    This isn't new with 10.2.6; it's standard Unix memory management
    behavior. The system doesn't unload things right away when it's done
    with them. It keeps them around, so it doesn't have to read them from
    disk if they're needed again. It only kicks them out of RAM if the
    memory is actually needed by an active process.

    If things are slowing down, it's not related to this.

    --
    "First, let me make it very clear, poor people aren't necessarily killers. Just
    because you happen to be not rich doesn't mean you're willing to kill."
    -- George W. Bush in Washington, D.C. on May 19, 2003 --- Synchronet 3.18b-Win32 NewsLink 1.113