Huge amount of virtual memory and system slows to a crawl

I have a mac mini with 5 GB of memory running os x mavericks and server 3, prior to the mavericks upgrade, it ran fine.Now it is showing an excessive amount of virtual memory in use, 40-70 gb, and the system slows to a near stop: e.g. switching apps takes over 30 seconds, starting one takes well over a minute, pressing command tab doesn't respond with list of apps and the display doesn't always wake up. A hard reboot (hold down power button to turn off, then back on) seems to be the only thing that works to get out of this. I tried scheduling a shutdown and reboot with energy saver but that just resulted in a completely non-responsive system. When the display does wake up, there's nothing in the activity monitor memory display that indicates a high memory usage.
I'm considering wiping out the hard drive and reinstalling unless somebody has some other ideas.
Does anybody have similar problems with mavericks and server 3?

I managed to look at it before the system hung up and it looks like devicemgrd is the top user of memory. Of course, I don't know if this is indicative of a problem as I have only 1 server. I saw it up to 1.4 GB just a little bit ago and now it is down below 800MB and dropping.

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13 MBP Retina -- fan comes on and system slows to a crawl

I had seen there was a firmware SMC update v1.1 for the 15in. Is there somethng like that for the 13in

More activity monitor observations..
When the fan is on the %CPU for kernal task was at 341.9
I close the lid wait a second for fan to shut off. open back up.
and right now kernal task is cruising at 1.4 to 4.7 % ( normal )
When it is a 341% clearly it is locked up with some process that is either poorly written or otherwise in some infinite loop ( small pun )
There is nothing else in the activty moniter that looks likes it is contributing to the 341.9% cpu ..

I have a huge amount of my memory used by 'other' than photos and music - to my knowledge, there is nothing there apart from a few songs and photos and 5 podcasts. What could it be? How could I get rid of this 'other' stuff and get the memory back?

I have a huge amount of my memory used by 'other' than photos and music - to my knowledge, there is nothing there apart from a few songs and photos and 5 podcasts. What could it be? How could I get rid of this 'other' stuff and get the memory back?

See -> What is "Other" and what can I do about it? by Kappy.
Clinton

Frame bytes, virtual memory and you

Hi,
I made a screensaver for a client using Flash and FlashJester
Creator Pro. They told me that on some of their older machines, it
is running out of virtual memory and crashing the machines. So we
started looking at eliminating sections of the screensaver.
We ran the diagnostics on the original FLA, and this is what
we get:
1 5464 5464 Scene 1 (AS 2.0 Classes Export Frame)
2 34 5498
3 16447 21945
4 2736 24681
5 10555 35236
6 7891 43127
7 55472 98599
8 7438 106037
So frame 7 is the problem right? I delete that entirely, just
for kicks.
1 7866 7866 Scene 1 (AS 2.0 Classes Export Frame)
2 55 7921
3 22266 30187
4 3698 33885
5 15978 49863
6 10593 60456
7 7 60463
8 10050 70513
And as you can see, the other sections suddenly GREW in size.
Can somebody explain this to me. Does anybody have any better ideas
on how to solve the "running out of virtual memory" issue?

When this happens FireFox has to be closed using TaskMan and NO crash report is generated by Firefox!
This crash happens daily because I am using hibernation on a regular basis. But there has been no crash report in abort:crashes since September 2011!
So I can only post the Windows eventlog entry:
'''Entry 1:'''
''Fehlerbucket 2554508690, Typ 5
Ereignisname: AppHangB1
Antwort: Nicht verfügbar
CAB-Datei-ID: 0
Problemsignatur:
P1: firefox.exe
P2: 8.0.0.4325
P3: 4eb4a985
P4: f85d
P5: 5
P6:
P7:
P8:
P9:
P10:
Angefügte Dateien:
C:\Users\Standard\AppData\Local\Temp\WER5F34.tmp.appcompat.txt
C:\Users\Standard\AppData\Local\Temp\WER605D.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml
Diese Dateien befinden sich möglicherweise hier:
C:\Users\Standard\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\AppHang_firefox.exe_ff754f3c26af1f5eee4f88694b2b4d228d91d4_10c36bf0
Analysesymbol:
Es wird erneut nach einer Lösung gesucht: 0
Berichts-ID: 44ea48bf-172e-11e1-af76-001bfc4f0ee6''
'''Entry 2:'''
''Programm firefox.exe, Version 8.0.0.4325 kann nicht mehr unter Windows ausgeführt werden und wurde beendet. Überprüfen Sie den Problemverlauf in der Wartungscenter-Systemsteuerung, um nach weiteren Informationen zum Problem zu suchen.
Prozess-ID: 1a58
Startzeit: 01cca9ea3b1ff2ea
Endzeit: 10
Anwendungspfad: C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe
Berichts-ID: 44ea48bf-172e-11e1-af76-001bfc4f0ee6''

Design partner for hug amounts of db connections and data?

I am new to J2EE and I have a question to the more experienced architects here. I would like to build an application based on a J2EE server that will regularly poll multiple databases from different manufactures over the network or the Internet (could be several 1000) and save this data in a central database. This would mean that a full-scale application could receive hug amount of data in bursts or sent on an e2e fashion. For a web shop type of application there is the MVC architecture but is there a design partner for this type of problem where I need to handle hug amounts of db connections and data?
Any help or suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

Are you talking about merging serveral data base to a single repository database ?

Does iOS support virtual memory and a swap file?

I'm getting conflicting reports on this one...

From +Memory Usage Performance Guidelines+
Both Mac OS X and iOS include a fully-integrated virtual memory system that you cannot turn off; it is always on. Both system also provide up to 4 gigabytes of addressable space per 32-bit process. In addition, Mac OS X provides approximately 18 exabytes of addressable space for 64-bit processes. Even for computers that have 4 or more gigabytes of RAM available, the system rarely dedicates this much RAM to a single process.
To give processes access to their entire 4 gigabyte or 18 exabyte address space, Mac OS X uses the hard disk to hold data that is not currently in use. As memory gets full, sections of memory that are not being used are written to disk to make room for data that is needed now. The portion of the disk that stores the unused data is known as the backing store because it provides the backup storage for main memory.
Although Mac OS X supports a backing store, iOS does not. In iPhone applications, read-only data that is already on the disk (such as code pages) is simply removed from memory and reloaded from disk as needed. Writable data is never removed from memory by the operating system. Instead, if the amount of free memory drops below a certain threshold, the system asks the running applications to free up memory voluntarily to make room for new data. Applications that fail to free up enough memory are terminated.

Activity Monitor showing incorrect amount of virtual memory size

Hi,
I noticed that in Activity Monitor that the Virtual Memory size was incorrect.
Does any body else have the same issue?

Ignore that. The method it's calculated works as following:
1. You have the Finder and Safari open.
2. Both programs and no other ones use the content of a single block of data. This block takes up 2MB of RAM or swapfile space.
3. The block is counted as 4MB in the VM size entry because it's being used twice.
Expanding the scenario over many processes and blocks adds up to a VM size figure which is far larger than the actual amount in use or the combined total of RAM and swapfile space.
(48360)

Media Encoder only using 15% CPU, and system slows to cement

Not sure what's going on, but trying to export from Premiere CS6 to Media Encoder and very basic 640x360 H264 4 minute clips are taking 40 minutes, only using 15-30% CPU (on 2011 Macbook Pro 2.3 core i7), and the system slows to a cement crawl (had to stop it just to type this post). Nothing else is using any CPU and RAM is 25% free.
I don't even know where to begin to troubleshoot. Tried restarting is all so far. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Brandon

It seems there is a problem with the Mercury Playback Engine on my MBP. I turned it off and switched to software only mode, and now CPU is screaming at 750% on export and estimated time is about 8 times faster

Virtual memory - does it slow my system down?

So I have a Mac Pro, quad core xeon with 12 GB of RAM.
I have noticed that when I watch videos, usually from YouTube but elsewhere also, the video is very choppy and the overally computer performance becomes laggy. I thought it was Flash, so I deleted flash and switched my youtube preferences to HTML 5. No change.
So I bust out activity monitor, and it doesn't seem to be a CPU issue, but I note that the VM size is 200-400 GB. That seems excessive. I've about 80 GB available free space on my startup drive; I can move some stuff to another drive to create more free space if that's the issue. But is that much VM normal in 10.7? It seems like a lot.

Virtual in that scenerio is not real page out VM, it is "address space" and 140GB is very normal. When you boot using 64-bit kernel mode, guess what? those figures are higher.
Go To Folder /Var and take a look in VM and count how much actual page files there are.
If it was "real" your drive would crash but OS X would warn your first.
Disk drive space: boot drives: keep 35% or more free. That means yes it is good to not have anything but the OS and apps and mini home library.
For a 900GB drive that does mean 300GB free - you don't want slow long disk I/O seeks to find and write files and cause the disk to "thrash" about. And why SSD which have gotten cheaper can be ideal boot drive - $120 / 120GB or 240GB / $200. Along with 1TB / $120 to hold data files.
12GB should be fine for even medium work load with graphics. For what you were doing you might want to try with a guest or trial user (standard user) account.

IPod touch w/2.0.1 update-keyboard and system slow to respond after update

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I had the same problem with my ipod touch... What is happening with the 2.0.1 update???

Safari is using 5 to 6 GB of memory (of 8) and everything slows to a crawl, requiring force quit of what little I have open.

Safari is using 5 to 6 GB of memory (of 8) and everything comes to screeching halt, requiring force quit of what little I have open. Frustrated, I switched to Chrome. This worked for awhile but now I see Safari is still 'there' in the Activity Monitor, doing I know not what, as I never opened the app.
Sometimes the memory sink happens immediately, sometimes it builds up over time. But it always happens regardless of what else is opened. I find I have to keep checking the activity monitor to make sure Safari has not snuck in there, even though I am not using the Safari browser. I tried to throw Safari in the trash but the system would not let me.
This is a brand new imac, only 2 weeks old and I feel like throwing IT in the trash too. (Kidding). But seriously, my old 2010 imac never had this issue. Safari on my iphone and ipad appears normal.
My safari is 6.0.5 and my OS is 10.8.4. I think these are both the latest and greatest.
I disabled all extensions in Safari. Did not help. I saw a post suggesting to cut off Java which I just did, but I am not optimistic this will work either given how persistent and pervasive this problem appears to be.
Any help would be welcome.
Deb

Although you are not launching Safari yourself, make sure it's not launching itself on restart. Any applications that are open when you shutdown/restart will relaunch unless you deselect the tick shown in this image:
Also check System Preferences>Users & Groups>Login items and review what's set to load at boot-up. Remove anything that is not required using the 'minus' button. You can always add things back if necessary.
Another thought - what third-party software have you installed, if any? Any anti-virus programs or apps that promise to 'clean' or 'speed up' your Mac. There are some apps that are known to bring a Mac to its knees - MacKeeper is top of the list.
If none of this helps, then I agree you should take advantage of your warranty/phone support.

When I launch iTunes all web browsers and system slow down. Why?

System 10.6.8, iTunes 10.6.3.

I too am having this problem. I've noticed that it seems to do it more often when i'm in full screen mode, if there is something downloading or i try to play something within the first minute of opening. Also, finding a lot airplay issues and playing to apple tv is a nightmare without a LAN connection. Anyone got a solution?

I unwittingly opened a huge amount of documents simultaneously and this crashed my Mac. How do I tell the Mac to do not open these documents on the startup?

I use iMac with Mac OS X (10.5.4). Thanks!

Check System Preferences / Accounts - Login Items.
BTW... if you are running v10.5.4, there are updates available. The latest version for Leopard is v10.5.8.
Click your Apple menu / Software Update...

Have installed 10.10 on my iMac (mid 2007) 2.4 GHz 2Gb memory which has slowed to a crawl

have installed 10.10 on my iMac (mid 2007) 2.4 GHz me 2 GB which has slowed to a crawl

Try these in order testing your system after each to see if it's back to normal:
1. a. Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM
    b. Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
2. Restart the computer in Safe Mode, then restart again, normally. If this doesn't help, then:
     Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the
     COMMAND and R keys until the Utilities menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the
     computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager
     screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
3. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.
4. Reinstall Yosemite: Reboot from the Recovery HD. Select Reinstall OS X from the Utilities menu, and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.
5. Reinstall Yosemite from Scratch:
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
How to Clean Install OS X Yosemite
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
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My Mini is gobbling up virtual memory--is this normal?

My "late 2005" 1.5GHz/1GB RAM Mini has turned into something of a wind tunnel. The fan is constantly revving up and down, making really annoying "whistling wind" noises.
I've been watching the Activity Monitor for several days now, trying to figure out which processes might be causing this strange behavior.
One thing I've noticed is that the machine is using huge amounts of Virtual Memory. In some instances, applications such as Mail are using 10 times more Virtual Memory than Real Memory. For instance, right now, Mail (sitting idle) is using 0.00% of the CPU, 56MB of Real Memory, and 336MB of Virtual Memory. Several other "idle" applications are also using between 200 and 400 megabytes of Virtual Memory. And I've seen instances where Adobe Photoshop is eating up more than a gigabyte of Virtual Memory.
Are these numbers normal? Is this perhaps what is contributing to my Mini's erratic behavior?
Thanks in advance to anyone who cares to offer words of advice!

I don't run Photoshop CS on my mini, but the mail app is typically running 24/7 and doesn't cause me any issues, and only runs up to 80+% CPU load when fetching or sending large files. Normally I'd be inclined to suggest that is a normally well behaved application is causing an issue with a specific system it would possibly be worth checking the heat sink to make sure it's located correctly, but since you report that CPU load is also high, the chances are the cooling system is doing what it should - being triggered by load.
It is therefore, in my mind, much more likely that you have a software/OS problem than a hardware issue, and while that's easy to say, it makes it harder to try and diagnose because it could be caused by any number of things - even multiple or damaged fonts, bad cache files, faulty prebinding etc.
First thing to try therefore is a multi-function utility (my favorite is YASU, but OnyX and Cocktail are good too - and all available from www.versiontracker.com). Select complete prebinding, cleaning all system and user caches, cleaning logs files/running cron tasks, and repairing permissions (in YASU that would be selecting all tasks except deleting cookies). Once completed and the system rebooted, it'll be sluggish at first as the cache files are being rebuilt. If the problem disappears, the likelihood is that it had suffered a corrupt system cache - possibly the font cache. If it doesn't, download a copy of Preferential Treatment from versiontracker and run that with system and user preferences selected (this application examines preference files for damage). If that doesn't work, then open Foot Book (in the applications folder) and check through your installed fonts. A duplicate or a damaged font could cause the sort of CPU load you are experiencing.

Huge amount of virtual memory and system slows to a crawl

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