SaltPeter
Wed Jan 28 00:47:40 CST 2004
"TechGuy" <support@axiomint.com> wrote in message
news:51ff01c3e560$b36cd0e0$a301280a@phx.gbl...
> I've got a 900MHz Athalon with 384M memory installed. I
> can be doing nothing but editing a small document with
> Microsoft Word and my memory will drift from 170M
> available to 0M - then the system locks up. I don't even
> have to be physically editing anything. It's not only with
> Word either - I can have no apps open on this machine,
> just the operating system and watch the memory just
> dissapear to 0M and then either the system locks up or I
> get a BSOD - WHERE IS MY MEMORY GOING TO? Does anyone have
> any suggestions? Do I need one of those memory
> defragmenters? What can I test? I'm baffled...
Your problem is not related to the amount of physical memory on the system.
Your OS uses both a Stack and a Heap to allocate memory space for an
application's objects. While the Stack is used for automatic variables and
objects that get destroyed dynamically when they go out of scope, a Heap is
entirely under the programmers control. If an applications reserves space on
the heap but the programmer forgets to free the reserved space, a memory
leak occurs. The same goes with applications that have been corrupted
(pointers fail to be de-allocated) or destructors failed to be called.
What you have is either a virus, a poorly written application, a damaged
application or an incompatible application relying on APIs that don't exist
in WinME.
To troubleshoot this, run msconfig and identify whats running/starting on
your system. download Process Explorer from www.sysinternals.com and look
for unusual activity. If you see utilities like Office FindFast running on
startup, disable it using the proper procedure. Repairing/reinstalling
damaged applications might help too. etc...
Here is the steps for Office 97 FindFast, find the URL for your Office
product if you use another:
http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/q158/7/05.asp