Memoryproblems
 

Is this correct behaviour of LimeWire that after a short period of LimeWire time "Activity Monitor" shows that almost no free memory is left?
LimeWire gets very slow after a short while, so I figured it might be a memory issue. I've got 1,5 gig installed, which is definitely enough. The chunk of free memory however gets smaller and smaller with every new search I'm doing, and the chunk of inactive memory gets bigger, to the extent that there's no free memory left, and 90% inactive. When I shut LW down everything returns to normal.

Has anybody here experienced the same? What could it be? It hasn't always been like this, with previous versions everything was cool.
I'm using LW Pro 4.10.5

Thanks, Bman

There's been a problem with Apple's java and Virtual Memory for a while, but your situation sounds a bit different. Once a week I have to shut down the computer for 2 minutes or so to clear the virtual memory.

Do you have about 10% free space on the hard drive?

Yes, I do have more than 10% free space on my HD, should be something around 30% on my system drive. The drive with my download folder got about 50gig left...

I don't know how to access Virtual Memory anyway, how to turn it on and off. Under OS9 i knew how, but with OSX i have no clue.

Is it advisable to have it on or off?

But this behaviour of LW occupying all memory is no good. I need to know how I can get rid of this!

Funny you would mention Java. Until a week ago or so LW would refuse to start up. This came very unexpected, from one day to the other LW was crashing upon startup. It was definitely a Java problem. Now, a couple days later, I haven't done anything, LW decides to work again. So I say great my Mac fixed itself. Aren't Macs great? Still kinda weird, no idea what's going on.

Any more ideas are welcome :)

Cheers,

Bman

OS X's memory management is automatic--no need to do anything here.

Re the "self-fixing" I've noticed that too, and am not sure how it works. It might be "just-in-time" (JIT) caching of high-demand parts of Java.

What else to do? Hmm--a "safe boot" wouldn't hurt. Just shutdown the machine for two minutes, then hold the shift key right after the start-up sound (until the spinning grey cog appears). This will do a file system check-and-repair and boot into "safe mode." It's a bit like the OS 9 repair with extensions off.

LW has know about the problem with Apple's java for about a year, and keeps hoping the next java release will fix it. Sadlly, the last few releases have also added some unpleasant surprises. Still, I keep hoping ;)

And is there anything I can do once I've done the safe boot? Or is the safe boot itself what fixes things?
Cheers... Bman

The safe boot is just general OS X maintenance, so a safe boot could only help java memory problems indirectly, if at all.

Cleaning out the incomplete folder is also good practice (incompletes that try to resume use up memory), so that's another way to reduce memory demands.

I find concentrating on just two or three downloads at a time helps, and hiding LW overnight also helps.

Wish there was a quick and easy solution, but I can't think of any others.

OK, thanks. I'll try what you suggested, maybe it helps. :-)

Stief, I might have fixed the problem. On the LW support page I read Apple acknowledges Mac OS X 10.3.9 Java issues., leading to some articles on how to fix this.

Typing some strings of text into terminal everything seems to be cool now. My memory doesn't get used up as before. Still there is a percentage labelled "inactive", which I don't understand why (after all I've got the RAM in there to BE actice) but the free RAM doesn't get used up anymore. Let's hope it stays like this.
Greez,


Bman

thanks for the tip--usually that problem meant people couldn't even get LW to start! Your situation is the first I've heard of LW starting :p

Thanks for the update--cheers

Oh--maybe the fix was coincidence: see http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107918 for a description of Activity Monitor's readings.

Until last week I couldn't get LW to start myself, but this problem however fixed itself. I was surprised when LW suddenly decided it's be time again to comply, only that the RAM problem appeared. Now everything cool....
B.