Computer Nerd Wanted D:

This link is AFTER selecting the right mirror to download from, I usually use Securityworks.net because my security is built tough...

Securityworks Mirror Spybot download

or if you don't trust me, you can select your own mirror...

Spybot Mirrors

also check your virtual memory, it could be that you haven't allowed a sufficient paging file size.

searchindexer is a good thing. It's what makes near real-time searches possible on Vista/Windows 7 (I guess XP got it from a windows update). I make use of the start menu search all the time. I think it's worth 24MB of RAM. :-)

Firefox will tend to use a ton of RAM if you have any to give. If you use any addon's it can make the problem worse. I've been using Chrome alot lately, it's fast but still uses alot of ram. Every Chrome window/tab spawns it's own process. Right now I have 14 chrome processes running they are using between 2 and 64MB of ram each. If a website crashes chrome, just that process can be closed, which is nice.

With a 32bit XP you can have 3GB and it shares your address space with your video memory. If XP is only recognizing 2GB of ram, I think there is a BIOS setting that can correct that. When it comes time to upgrade your operating system, I would suggest windows 7 64bit and make sure your hardware is 64 bit compliant.

Haha this thread has managed to answer a couple of my questions :O (Thank you dear OP!)

Alas, I come to you with a fault of my own~!

Has anyone ever had a problem with windows Media player leaking memory? Like leaving it on for 30min + will soak up all your memory like a sponge and then you have to force it closed using task manager since it won't close down properly.... I've looked -everywhere- (except here!) for an answer D:, even tried fixing it several times (downgrading etc) but to no avail.
I'd completely uninstall it if it wasn't such a pain in the arse D:

as a side note: yes WMP sucks anyhow XD but it's nice to watch movies on since I can't stand using winamp for that or loading up Nero e_e

I have WMP Version 12.0.7100.0, I haven't experienced leaks, although, I don't use it that much.


I suggest Media Player Classic or VLC.

For me, Media Player Classic performs alot better than VLC when playing H.264 encoded HD movies. http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/DXVASupport.html

I really like Gom plays well with pretty much any kind of file rediculous amount of options/customizations

Thanks guys!!! you are both very very awesome :) I'll check those players out pronto~

I use gom and love it, its much better then windows media player and plays almost anything

As mentioned, I clicked this hoping for a personal ad. Dx Anyhow, I'd honestly recommend switching to Chrome for now as even if you found something to be causing excessive memory consumption, Firefox takes quite a bit regardless. If you update to the beta releases of Chrome you'll have access to their extensions gallery as well and it should fill the gap for you fairly seamlessly if you import bookmarks and passwords from Fx. I use both still and am really impressed with Chrome.

If you'd like to continue using Firefox, first try making a new profile that is clean of config changes, extensions and settings to see if your problem persists. If so then you'll know it's going to be either Firefox itself or a problem with the installation. Everyone using Firefox has a profile, it just doesn't say anything about them since most stick to one single default profile (which you can back up!). Instructions on that here: http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Managing+profiles

Also, for spyware/malware I'd recommend just using the single application called MalwareBytes along with a popular antivirus. Free MalwareBytes doesn't schedule scans but aside from that has great detection and speedier scans than Spybot.

For music I use Foobar2000 and MediaMonkey (this is good shite with an 'e') and for video I use Media Player Classic - Home Cinema for the same reasons Scragg mentioned.

Wont fix your problems, but I like "Ccleaner" great program for slower systems, and you can find any of the fore-mentioned programs as well as ccleaner on www.filehippo.com

o.o



Is FFXI running in the background? If so, phew... RAM should be the least of your worries seeing you've got lots of remaining memory left.

Also, I hope people are doing this regularly, defrag your hard drives (at least your local drive) once or twice a week, can't tell you how much it saved me from running out to upgrade my RAM. (2gigs for now...)

As for Chrome vs. Firefox, tried both.

I'd say firefox is great for those using tabs a lot (a lot as in 4+ tabs). Usually the memory usage is almost the same, and increases as time goes along (maximum for me was ~400k, leaving it on for... lemme see... a week?). Would be bad for those needing an extensive amount of RAM for anything other than firefox.

Now Chrome is almost like IE, uses separate runs for each tab (each tab is a different processing, so if you open the taskmanager, you'd notice more than one chrome.exe). BUT, it seem to use less amount of memory. A pro and con. Basically for light work, Chrome wins.
But I can't use it cause my work needs 10+ tabs, you'd try to imagine that on chrome lol.


Wish chrome has adblock as good as firefox's... hope mods won't give me the cold shoulder for this >.>

yea running ffxi in the background there lol

but every now and then for no obvious reason the CPU goes up to 100% and stays there for a few min or so, really annoying :(

I've noticed Firefox has a habit of showing a ridiculous amount of memory usage, even when it's not using it.

Shrugged it off since there's no literature about this on the net, but seeing other people having the exact same 'problem' made me think of it. Certainly, I didn't notice my computer slowing down, even when Firefox was supposedly using more memory than my computer has.

Could be anything; could even indirectly not be involved with Firefox altogether, I don't know. Just thought I'd share this. I still use Firefox and I have no problems with memory, never notice any computer slowdown, even when Firefox has been running for hours and the memory usage is slowly going up and up.

As for the second problem, I'd recommend doing a search online about those. Ending the task of something and it auto-restarting sounds like Spyware / Malware to me, if it's not associated with some official part of windows. Seems like you're on Vista or something, though, so I don't know anything more than that (Still on XP pro myself.)

Only other case would be the CPU issue. I had similar problems before, but no matter how much RAM I've upgraded, it's still the same.

So I took the drastic method, and upped my CPU from Pentium Dual core (got it in the factory default emachine @.@) to Core 2 Duo (I have no idea, so if that sounded HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE, my bad, in the library trying to study >.>).

But anyways, see what you can do, and report back. Who knows, some might have the same problem, and could use this thread as a way to fix their problem :)

I get this problem later at night usually. I often keep at least 10 tabs up, though that doesnt seem to make any difference, FFXIwiki slows it down alot if you leave it on the wrong page, but I have no idea what causes it, it'll run at 2-15% .. then suddenly jump up to 100% till I close the process down and reload it.

As far as I know Firefox's memory problems are directly related to the way it stores and saves tabs since you can re-open any tab and window you've closed during a browsing session.

Just use IE8 I do Now again :) btw yes reading this I learn alot too

lol

Honestly, i would recommend using both as spyware/malware removal programs don't usually have active scanning. I always get good results with spybot, and it has found many things that MalwareBytes has missed, though it does occasionally find infections that Spybot misses. That's why i usually recommend people use both. Anti-virus software, on the other hand, works properly only when you have one program installed. I recommend either Avast or avira for anti-virus software since both are free.

Back to the OP though, I don't think i've ever seen firefox go over 80-90K on my machine. I have changed several settings on my to speed up website load times. Iirc, there is a way to limit the amount of RAM that ff uses, though it can make it unstable. If i can find a link to the instructions, i'll post them up.

There needs to be more than one browser that has a FFXI add-on! :{

You can check out these pages as they give a good explination on how to streamline FF

http://www.tweakguides.com/Firefox_1.html
Good comprehensive guide explaining many things possible with Firefox

http://www.madwahm.com/webmaster-stuff/8-easy-firefox-tweaks-for-super-fast-web-browsing/
8 tweaks to speed up browsing

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/01/25/a-handful-of-firefox-tweaks-that-will-double-your-browser-speed/
Includes tips on how to speed up browsing, but also includes how to limit the amount of RAM Firefox uses

Completely coincidental that I noticed this today, but maybe this can improve the situation somewhat? http://lifehacker.com/5426767/memory-fox-manages-firefoxs-memory-use-aims-to-keep-it-low

Not that it's really unique to PCs only and I'm sure your Dad has yelled it at you in the past; "If you're not in a room, turn the lights off"

Means if you're concerned about resources, and aren't staring at your browser for "6 days at a time" then simply turn it off.

If you look things up a lot on ffxiclopedia, then set that as your home page or Google or whatever. Personally when I work on PCs for friends, I like to set their home page to facialabuse.com and change their entire scheme over to porn-related which I have backed up on CD lol.

Point is; if you're really that concerned about saving resources, turn ***off.
You have several messengers running, most likely at least one of them is left open just for one person.
Did you know most messengers can send messages to people not even using them?
Ex: You can save your MSN list into Yahoo! and vise-versa. You don't need to have each one open.

Also, jqs.exe? lmao - how often do you truly NEED to update your Java?

WudfHost? Unplug that Sansa clip piece of crap and get an iPod.

lol @ only mentioning the browser being what's sucking resources.
You have an entire galaxy of useless crap that's dragging you down.

^- this. Also, if my memory serves me, Firefox tends to cache alot of content in-memory as opposed to on-disk. While this does eat up RAM, it also improves performance.

I have a habit of closing Firefox only when it crashes and leaving it running for weeks/months at a time. I have seen FF hold on to more than 1.5GB of memory, even after the 3.0 version that 'fixed' memory problems. The easiest way to recover the memory is to close it and start fresh. :P

Chrome is a wonderful browser, I use it for all my work's web-based stuff. It opens in 5 seconds even on my crappy, overloaded work PC, and has all the spiffy goodness everyone has been mentioning. The only thing that holds me back from switching is the lack of AdBlock, NoScript, and other assorted goodies in the for of Firefox extensions.


Yo. ;D

Ninja Edit:

---

A tasty cookie for anyone that might know how to make Access and Outlook use less memory. :P

I'm going to take a look at those links shortly, but wanted to post my thoughts / experiences first.

*I like search & destroy for adware/malware. There's another program that hasn't been mentioned, but I can't remember the name of it right now.

*Firefox vs Chrome: I use FF over Chrome due to Chrome using more memory overall. I average 10-15 tabs at any given time. When I'm researching for FFXI (missions or crafting) I can have upwards of 30 tabs open across multiple windows. Summary: If you use 2-5 tabs at a time, Chrome will probably work wonders for you. If not, stick to firefox because either way the memory used sucks.

*Internet Explorer: Honestly, I have no qualms since they added tab capabilities. I simply prefer other browsers over it. I haven't experienced the bugs that a lot of people mention, and I don't want to.

And now I must sprint to the -- DAMN IT! I missed the airship AGAIN.

Edit:

One thing I like about chrome is the screen that pops up when you open it. I like seeing pages I commonly visit right there. The ability to pin them to that page is icing on the cake.

There is an addon that will do this in Firefox. It's not as pretty as Chrome's but it works.