OT Free up your ram programs???

sure, one is called spybot search & destroy, then there's ad aware as well,

Any memory leak program is just crap on xp, and will just USE MORE memory running than it would help. Best to avoid it.

What program are you having a problem with?

this looks promising ...

http://www.download.com/RAMBooster/3...l?tag=lst-0-11

RAMBooster, as mentioned, but also FreeRAM XP Pro 1.4. I like the latter more but have them both. Both can be downlowded at www.pcworld.com in the download section.

uhm, memory leaks aren't some form adware/spyware they are the result of bad programming.

True, but as he obviously just said, it's not some program, he doen't even know; he just doesn't want to use as much memory as he's obviously using.
This could be caused by malware/adware running in the background.

And if you're really concerned about how much memory each program is using download service pack 2, not some ram program.

huh?

Yes, by all means download service pack 2. If your PC even runs afterwards, it will so badly that third party programs will be the least of your concerns, as you will then be fighting the infamous service pack two damage.

Kind of like hitting yourself in the head with a hammer, to distract your mind from the thumb you just hit... with the same hammer.... yeah.

The best thing is to note which programs are using how much ram, and make sure they all deserve to be running. Msconfig can help show you what is loading up at startup, task manager can show you what programs are slowly eating memory, if you watch it for a bit. But I dont believe there is any program that can spontaneouly give you back ram, without killing processes that use the ram.

Good idea on the spyware scan- its just good housekeeping, you might be surprised.

Eric

i've been running sp2 on my laptop and my desktop for about 2 - 3 weeks now... i've not had a single problem. i even loaded WMP10... please tell me that you're kidding.

Agreed. I have been running SP2 on our 1.3Ghz P4 desktop and have had absolutely no problems.

Personally I don't download SPs until there's been a good amount of "real world" feedback and at least a few waves of patches. SP1a for me until I am confident that the flaws in SP2 are addressed.

Don't all these programs (in reference to the RAM boosters) just try to flush out the disk cache and then consume and release enough memory to force other programs to swap out more to disk?

The reason i suggested sp2 is because it incorporates DEP now. (data execute prevention).
Although hardware wise it only works with amd chips, it is software compatable across the board.

From what I have read, theres about a 16% attrition rate on SP2, and it in general can cause some performance issues - boot lag being the biggest of em.

I was being a bit, shall we say, hyperbolic. But I am not going to load SP2 for a long time. My sp1 works just fine, I see no need to break it, hehe.

I also get alot of calls from people who load sp2 and it fries thier system, so take that as you will. If your system is running it well- consider yourself lucky, IMO.

I am obviously biased towards people not loading it, not just yet, although SP2 repairs are making me money.

/from a techies perspective

Eric

Funny, most of the work I get tends to stem from quite the opposite, people having problems because of not keeping software, i.e. windows up to date. Sure not everyone is going to have a great expirience, but I think that your greatly overexagerating. Never have I heard of someone's pc "frying" from upgrading to a service pack. And if you really are a tech, and you know that the benefits of keeping you pc up to date, and patched far outweigh any negatives. To say you don't think so and that you hope people screw up their pc by updating keeps the money rollin is bs and you know it.

Neo-

You could not be more wrong, and you are spinning what I am saying out of perspective.

I am saying dont put on sp2. I am NOT saying dont do any updates. I am fully patched on sp1. I have seen sp2 fry pcs, run a google search on the winipsrv.exe blue screen, thats a common one.

I make no money off people in this forum, my business is a local on to my town here only. I do not hope people have screwed up PCs whatsoever. From the past month I can tell you that SP2 hose ups have been popping up almost as much as my virus'd PC calls.

And yes, if you dont keep software up to date, then you will get hosed- I feel that applies more to anti virus software though.

Microsoft is notorious for coming out with poorly tested service packs. On the NT4.0 platform, service packs 2 and 4 were very bad, and took out alot of machines and various services. XP sp2 is not as bad in a general sense, again, from what I have read its been about a 16% attrition rate- IE 16% of users see problems, the rest do not. Of those that see problems, they tend to be bad.

Dont listen to me- do the research yourself. But again, you werent listening- I was saying specifically to avoid sp2 for now- not "never update anything" as that is plain idiotic.

Check out annoyances.org and see what they say about sp2, some pretty knowledgaeble people over there.

Also, bear in mind that, last I checked, its service pack 2, release candidate 2. Which means the first release- RC1, needed fixing, so its really like sp2.1 at this point. Not a great sign.

Again people- dont listen to me or Neo here- do the research yourself, make your own decision, and follow the preinstall instructions that microsoft puts out.

Eric

k, fair enough. sorry if i came off like an as_hole.

You may be right , or i may be right. The lesson here:

Back up your hard drive!

Windows XP SP2 is running flawlessly on my secondary P3 600 Mhz/128MB PC100/8GB hard drive laptop. SP2 seems to have made it run a bit faster...