[heathermb769]

Ok, I haven't had any luck in finding an xp sp1 disk to repair my xp. But I noticed something else - a friend suggested running task mgr while working, to keep an eye on memory. I've noticed that my aol software starts out using around 30k, but keeps getting bigger and bigger - I was chatting with my sister about her RAM needs,and checked my memory usage - aol was sucking up 190k, and I'd been online for a whole 45 minutes. Is this normal? How can I stop this? Is it possible that it keeps pulling out memory until the computer cant take it and shuts down?

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Click start then right click my computer, click properties then advanced, click settings for performance then advanced, click change for virtual memory, put the dot in system managed, click set, click apply, reboot

[Retired Tech]

Click start then right click my computer, click properties then advanced, click settings for performance then advanced, click change for virtual memory, put the dot in system managed, click set, click apply, reboot

[heathermb769]

Will do in AM. I think I already have it set there - but the laptop crashed a bit ago, I wrote my earlier post on the pc... I'll fire it up and double check that setting in the morning (my morning!).
Thanks

[Retired Tech]

How much RAM Memory is there

[heathermb769]

I have 2 x 256 mb ram installed. I changed my settings for Windows to manage memory, and still see the slowly increasing memory usage for AOL.

At this moment, I'm fluctuating between 5 - 100 % cpu usage, and my pF usage is steady at 330 mb.

I do have a Windows XP SP2 disk, if that would work to attempt a repair.

[Retired Tech]

You can check if you click start then run, type sfc /scannow then press enter, when it asks for an XP CD, load that and if it says it is the wrong one, no go with the repair

If it runs the file check then you should back up all the data to be safe before using the CD to run a repair

[heathermb769]

Is it normal for an application to start out using only 30k so of memory, then climb in use? Started out around 30k this am for aol, now I'm at 85K.

When I ran sfc /scannow earlier in the week, it did not ask for a disk.

[Retired Tech]

Can you click start then control panel then network and internet, click internet options, click advanced, tick, do not save encrypted pages to disk and also empty the temporary internet folders when the browser is closed, click apply

When AOL creeps up then close the browser and re-open it, then check what AOL is up to

Does AOL check your e-mail and other stuff besides browsing

Is the firewall and anti virus part of the package

[heathermb769]

AOL is my primary browser, and also my email accounts. I have 4 users set up.

I use Norton Anti-Virus and McAfee Firewall, not the aol packaged ones. Have been considering using AOL's package ones, or switching, but haven't made any changes in that for over a year, other than the updates.

Ticked off "do not save encrypted pages to disk" cleared temp internet files and cookies, reopened aol. Memory usage for aol was at about 10 k when i reopened it, now, after being logged on for 5 minutes, answering a couple emails, sending a couple invoices, it's up over 40k.

[Retired Tech]

Can you see if it keeps growing, if so, it isn't releasing when it closes

If you got tune up, click the yellow one then click optimize, memory optimizer, manual optimization, set the slider to the right, click clear now, check AOL

[heathermb769]

When I run the memory optimizer manually, it knocks AOL down to about 5 k, which immediately starts growing again.

[Retired Tech]

I will get back to you, it's a tweak thing which makes programmes hand back the memory when they close, so need to look that up. At least you can keep it in check with tune up

[heathermb769]

Thanks for hanging in there with me. I will do that to keep the memory use down. Could that be the cause of the slowness and shutdowns? AOL is pretty much always open on my laptop.

[Retired Tech]

If it keeps growing, yes, an option is to increase the memory if the laptop allows it, then whatever AOL uses, the laptop still has enough for everything else

[heathermb769]

If I X out of AOL, then reopen it, the amount of memory used does drop down significantly. When I was at 190k, I shut down aol, then reopened it, and was back at about 10 - 15 k to start.

But even just sitting idle, like now, it keeps increasing the amount of memory used - I'm on the PC, have the laptop on a different s/n and the memory was at 5K after running tuneup memory optimizer, I haven't done anything on that one at all, and now, about 40 min later, it is up to 35k. Just sitting there, doing nothing.