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.

Similar Messages

30,000 to over 100,000 pageouts of memory is this normal?

Hi, I have 8 gbs of memory in my Mac Pro. I notice that sometimes istat nano will show alot of page outs used up.
After restarting my computer, It usually starts at 300 pageouts, then it goes up to 30,000, then over 100,000. This can happen within a day of restarting my Mac or a few days.
These are the applications that I have open: Iphoto (45,000 pictures), Itunes , calendar, Quicktime X, Apple Mail, Finder, Safari, Preview.
Is it normal to have that many page outs with those apps open? Sometimes I don't even use my Mac much and it still goes up. Thanks guys

Depends on how much installed RAM you have, number of open applications, and the sort of work you are doing. By itself Pageouts is not an indicator of anything special other than over the course of time the computer has accumulated that total as a result of various applications having to page out data to the hard drive. A more significant indicator is the value in parentheses shown by 'top' in the Terminal. If that number is positive and increasing then it means you do not have sufficient RAM to accommodate all the applications you are running concurrently. See:
About OS X Memory Management and Usage
Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor
Memory Management in Mac OS X
Performance Guidelines- Memory Management in Mac OS X
A detailed look at memory usage in OS X
Understanding top output in the Terminal
The amount of available RAM for applications is the sum of Free RAM and Inactive RAM. This will change as applications are opened and closed or change from active to inactive status. The Swap figure represents an estimate of the total amount of swap space required for VM if used, but does not necessarily indicate the actual size of the existing swap file. If you are really in need of more RAM that would be indicated by how frequently the system uses VM. If you open the Terminal and run the top command at the prompt you will find information reported on Pageins () and Pageouts (). Pageouts () is the important figure. If the value in the parentheses is 0 (zero) then OS X is not making instantaneous use of VM which means you have adequate physical RAM for the system with the applications you have loaded. If the figure in parentheses is running positive and your hard drive is constantly being used (thrashing) then you need more physical RAM.
Also, visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on the spinning beachball of death (SBBOD.)
Message was edited by: Kappy

Freshly restarted mbp shows 390mb of active memory, is this normal?

Note this is only active memory not includig wired. It is a 4gb week old brand new model. Just double checking thanks. I guess these new computers take up more RAM than what I am used to. I dont mind as long as its normal because the controls are sooooo smooth.

Thanks, I noticed that when I hadn't restarted for a few days active RAM quickly got up to 2 gigs but Im sure that is expected.

The server is running low on virtual memory.

When running a sheet in discoverer I am getting the following error after around 10 mins
The server is running low on virtual memory. This can happen due to insufficient disk space or heap space on the server. Please contact your Discoverer Administrator for assistance.
I have changed the following settings to
maxvirtualdiskmem = 4096000000
maxvirtualheapmem = 4096000000
The query returns 625500 records with parameters selected
and 834360 records without any parameters set
Can anyone help

Memory usage is going to depend on several things. While rows returned is part of it, other things like sorts, calculations, page items and report type can have a huge impact. Out of curiosity, is the report a crosstab? are there a lot of sorts, of some complex calculations?
How many users are accessing Disco at the same time, and is there anything else on the same box as Disco?
Also, after you changed the settings (and I am assuming the change was made to pref.txt), did you run applypreferences.sh and then bounce the app server? If not, the changes have not taken place.

What the heck is going on with my Virtual Memory??!!

I'm not really sure why but when I check activity monitor and see my VM it says i'm using anywhere from 230-270 gigs of virtual memory. This is literally fresh out of restart when it says this much and never changes. I go through and check every process I see runing and create a quick estimate of the virtual memory being used, and it's definitely not over 10 gigs if even 5; honestly I think it's listing between 1-2.
What the heck could be causing this? Verified HD and came up clean. Should I be concerned? I'm not gonna lie this macbook isn't running the best it used to be. Watching videos, whether mp4, mkv, youtube, is pretty laggy. I'm aways sure to close all other processes to to try and maximize video performance, not that it helps much. I'm considering a fresh install and recovery via timemachine.

I excluded the list of fonts from step 4 as I'm a graphic design major and have well over a thousand...and I didn't want you to burn up your scroll wheel or rub the tips of your fingers off with the amount of scrolling you'd have to do had I included them .
Command 1:
com.displaylink.driver.DisplayLinkDriver (1.7)
com.rogueamoeba.HermesAudio (3.0.1)
com.Cycling74.driver.Soundflower (1.5.1)
com.bresink.driver.BRESINKx86Monitoring (7.0)
com.logmein.hamachi (1.0)
foo.tun (1.0)
foo.tap (1.0)
Command 2:
com.autodesk.backburner_server
com.autodesk.backburner_manager
net.openvpn.client
com.vmware.launchd.vmware
com.themha.airlock.daemon
com.rogueamoeba.hermes
com.logmein.hamachi
com.google.keystone.daemon
com.displaylink.usbnivolistener
com.bombich.ccc
com.autodesk.wiretapgateway
com.autodesk.sw_start
com.autodesk.sw_server
com.autodesk.sw_probed
com.autodesk.sw_dbd
com.autodesk.sw_bwmgr
com.autodesk.dl_mpd
com.autodesk.backburner_start
com.autodesk.adlm
com.adobe.versioncueCS4
Command 3:
com.wacom.pentablet
com.lexmark.hostregister
com.lexmark.hostinfoupdater
com.lexmark.hbnlistener
com.google.keystone.root.agent
com.displaylink.useragent
com.adobe.CS4ServiceManager
com.google.GoogleContactSyncAgent
com.adobe.ARM.930da3ce175de4e82bd3cdf1dd8571f74bd3b6a7236bc94bfc00f6e9
com.adobe.AAM.Scheduler-1.0
Command 4:
/Library/Components:
XiphQT.component
/Library/Extensions:
ham.kext
/Library/Frameworks:
.DS_Store
AECore.framework
AEProfiling.framework
AERegistration.framework
Adlm.framework
Adobe AIR.framework
AudioMixEngine.framework
Cairo.framework
Compressor.framework
DSPPublishing.framework
DivX Toolkit.framework
EWSMac-GC.framework
EWSMac.framework
Frameworks
FxPlug.framework
GLib.framework
Gtk.framework
HPDeviceModel.framework
HPPml.framework
HPServicesInterface.framework
HPSmartPrint.framework
Jackmp.framework
Jackservermp.framework
MacFUSE.framework
MediaServerAPI.framework
Mesh3DS.framework
Mono.framework
NyxAudioAnalysis.framework
OpenVPN.framework
Panda.framework
PluginManager.framework
ProMetadataSupport.framework
Python.framework
Qmaster.framework
TSLicense.framework
WacomMultiTouch.framework
XSKey.framework
libZJBIG.dylib
libxml.framework
/Library/Input Methods:
/Library/InputManagers:
Safari AdBlock
/Library/Internet Plug-Ins:
AdobePDFViewer.plugin
CANONiMAGEGATEWAYDL.plugin
CANONiMAGEGATEWAYLI.plugin
CouponPrinter-FireFox.plugin
CouponPrinter-Safari.webplugin
DivXBrowserPlugin.plugin
Flash Player.plugin
Flip4Mac WMV Plugin.plugin
Flip4Mac WMV Plugin.webplugin
Google Earth Web Plug-in.plugin
JavaAppletPlugin.plugin
Quartz Composer.webplugin
QuickTime Plugin.plugin
Silverlight.plugin
Unity Web Player.plugin
Unused
WacomNetscape.plugin
WeatherScope.plugin
flashplayer.xpt
googletalkbrowserplugin.plugin
iPhotoPhotocast.plugin
npdivx.xpt
npgtpo3dautoplugin.plugin
nsIQTScriptablePlugin.xpt
/Library/Keyboard Layouts:
/Library/LaunchAgents:
com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist
com.adobe.CS4ServiceManager.plist
com.displaylink.useragent.plist
com.google.keystone.agent.plist
com.lexmark.hbnlistener.plist
com.lexmark.hostinfoupdater.plist
com.lexmark.hostregister.plist
com.wacom.pentablet.plist
/Library/LaunchDaemons:
com.adobe.versioncueCS4.plist
com.apple.aelwriter.plist
com.apple.qmaster.qmasterd.plist
com.apple.remotepairtool.plist
com.autodesk.adlm.plist
com.autodesk.backburner_manager.plist
com.autodesk.backburner_server.plist
com.autodesk.backburner_start.plist
com.autodesk.dl_mpd.plist
com.autodesk.sw_bwmgr.plist
com.autodesk.sw_dbd.plist
com.autodesk.sw_probed.plist
com.autodesk.sw_server.plist
com.autodesk.sw_start.plist
com.autodesk.wiretapgateway.plist
com.bombich.ccc.plist
com.displaylink.usbnivolistener.plist
com.google.keystone.daemon.plist
com.logmein.hamachi.plist
com.rogueamoeba.hermes.plist
com.themha.airlock.daemon.plist
com.vmware.launchd.vmware.plist
net.openvpn.client.plist
org.macports.Privoxy.plist
/Library/PreferencePanes:
DivX.prefPane
Fan Control.prefPane
Flip4Mac WMV.prefPane
MacFUSE.prefPane
PenTablet.prefPane
VersionCueCS4.prefPane
/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools:
com.bombich.ccc
/Library/Privoxy:
privoxy
/Library/QuickLook:
BrushViewQL.qlgenerator
GBQLGenerator.qlgenerator
LogicQLGenerator.qlgenerator
VMware Fusion QuickLook.qlgenerator
iWork.qlgenerator
/Library/QuickTime:
AppleHDVCodec.component
AppleIntermediateCodec.component
AppleMPEG2Codec.component
AppleProResCodec.component
CanonMJPEGAVI.component
CanonMJPEGAVIDec.component
CanonText.component
DVCPROHDCodec.component
DVCPROHDMuxer.component
DVCPROHDVideoDigitizer.component
DVCPROHDVideoOutput.component
DVCPROHDVideoOutputClock.component
DVCPROHDVideoOutputCodec.component
DesktopVideoOut.component
DivX Decoder.component
DivX Encoder.component
FCP Uncompressed 422.component
Flip4Mac WMV Advanced.component
Flip4Mac WMV Export.component
Flip4Mac WMV Import.component
Google Camera Adapter 0.component
Google Camera Adapter 1.component
IMXCodec.component
MayaIFF.component
/Library/ScriptingAdditions:
Adobe Unit Types.osax
/Library/Spotlight:
GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter
LogicPro.mdimporter
Microsoft Office.mdimporter
iWork.mdimporter
/Library/StartupItems:
BRESINKx86Monitoring
CoreDuoTemp
FanControlDaemon
/etc/mach_init.d:
/etc/mach_init_per_login_session.d:
/etc/mach_init_per_user.d:
Library/Address Book Plug-Ins:
SkypeABDialer.bundle
SkypeABSMS.bundle
Library/Fonts:
alot...
Library/Frameworks:
Library/Input Methods:
.localized
Library/Internet Plug-Ins:
Move_Media_Player.plugin
doubleTwistWebPlugin.bundle
fbplugin_1_0_1.plugin
fbplugin_1_0_3.plugin
Library/Keyboard Layouts:
Library/LaunchAgents:
com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist
com.adobe.ARM.930da3ce175de4e82bd3cdf1dd8571f74bd3b6a7236bc94bfc00f6e9.plist
com.apple.AddressBook.ScheduledSync.PHXCardDAVSource.8F30A2BB-9699-4472-B47A-69D 7FA822C70.plist
[email protected]
com.apple.FolderActions.enabled.plist
com.apple.FolderActions.folders.plist
com.google.GoogleContactSyncAgent.plist
Library/PreferencePanes:
.c4dsetup
.c4dsetupCINEMA 4DF51A2E69
Airlock.prefPane
Connect360.prefPane
Perian.prefPane
Library/QuickTime:
AC3MovieImport.component
Perian.component
Command 5:
Connect360Helper, DockSpaces, MiniUsage, OpenVPN Connect, Bowtie, SpacieHelper, Rowmote Helper, Dropbox, BambooCore

Virtual memory hundreds of megs

What does it mean that all my things are using hundreds of megabytes of virtual memory. This is in my 2004 iBook G4, 768 megs ram, Leopard 10.5.8.
Here's a screenshot of the activity monitor:
http://www.jpgbox.com/jpg/8367_800x600.jpg

Dave:
If you have the iBook G4 12-inch (Mid 2005) it comes with 512 MB of logic board RAM and you can install up to 1 module up to 1 GB in the user serviceable slot. If you have an earlier iBook G4 the max is a total of 1.25 GB.
Am I correct in assuming that with these numbers (Pages out higher than Pages in), the only fix is to increase my memory from 1GB to say 1.5GB?
The stats you have given indicate that you do not have sufficient RAM for the processes you are running. I would look at each of the processes running and see what is eating up your RAM capacity. You may have to choose not to run several memory intensive processes at the same time. And the answer to you quesion about RAM is yes. That additional 512 MB will make a difference.
In addition to RAM, performance can also be affected by your HDD. If you have the original drive that came with the computer, you may be due for a new HDD. As drives age they become sluggish and slower, before failing altogether. The average life of an laptop internal HDD is 3 to 5 years. With age and the internal heat of the drive the thin coating of lubricant on the platters thicken and become gummy, and spin out to the edges of the platters, cause the heads to stick and and slows up the drive. In addition, over time most of us tend to accumulate more and more stuff on our drives and as the available capacity becomes less and less performance decreases as well, and may even lead to drive failure. A newer, larger capacity HDD will improve the performance of your computer as the larger capacity will give you greater areal density allowing the computer to read more data on each rotation of the platters. If you have the original HDD, I would suggest that you consider installing a newer and larger capacity drive.
I have three processes working called DashboardClient. Am I supposed to have three of these processes running, or is this strange?
Each of the Dashboard clients represents a widget. I am not sure how memory they consume, but it should not be a lot. I use a widget called Stop Dashboard to quit Dashboard when I don't need it. f12 will get it going again when needed.
cornelius

Mail.app grabs more and more virtual memory... then quits

Hello all,
I'm running OS X 10.4.8, and Mail.app 2.1 and I recently had trouble with my internet connection (Verizon's fault). Now that I'm back up and running, Mail.app takes over my computer.
After I launch Mail, it seems to read my mail off the server okay, and shows it in the right window, but I get that spinning grey circle next to the icon for "inbox" (I normally see this whenever I'm checking mail), but the circle never stops spinning.
After noticing that my computer becomes slow as molasses, I was able to watch what was happening via the Activity Monitor utility. Mail.app starts out with about 100 Mb of Virtual Memory, but this number goes up, and keeps on going up. By the time it gets to 2 Gb Mail eventually quits "unexpectedly." But the whole time I've lost the ability to use the computer (even the mouse pointer hangs, I can't even point to the Dock, etc).
This behavior happens even when I unplug the computer from the internet (ethernet).
I've tried repairing permissions, but that had no effect. So now I'm left to only check mail using the mac.com website.
Thanks in advance.
iMac 800 Mhz G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8) 512 Mb RAM

Hello Chett.
Verify/repair the startup disk (not just permissions), as described here:
The Repair functions of Disk Utility: what's it all about?
Also, go to Apple Menu > System Preferences > Network > Show: Network Port Configurations, and make sure that the configuration used to connect to Internet appears at the top of the list.
How many accounts do you have and what type are they (POP, IMAP, .Mac)?
Do you have any Mail plug-ins installed? In the Finder, go to each of the following folders (if they exist). What do you see there?
/Library/InputManagers/
~/Library/InputManagers/
/Library/Mail/Bundles/
~/Library/Mail/Bundles/
Note: For those not familiarized with the ~/ notation, it refers to the user’s home folder. You can easily locate any of the folders referred to in this post by copying the folder path here, doing Go > Go to Folder in the Finder, and pasting the folder path there.

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.

Mystery Virtual memory/disk usage

I have installed SL on a Mac Mini and MBP with no problem. But now I have installed it on a Macbook and something is eating the disk and/or virtual memory.
After a fresh reboot I have 120G free disk space. This steadily reduces until the OS starts popping up the force quit dialog saying that I am out of application memory. Quitting applications has minimal effect and soon I am forced to reboot. At which point I am back to 120G of free disk space.
I have had a look at it with activity monitor as well as top and there are no real standouts in terms of of real memory or virtual memory. Perhaps it is something crashing over and over again, but there is nothing in /cores.
Any suggestions on how I can track this down?

Hi Andrew and welcome to the forums
Any suggestions on how I can track this down?
In the Finder, do command-f and when that search window opens, set to search your mac & set filters (add/+) to show all visible and hidden files over a certain size, say 1 or 2 gb or larger....it may take a couple tries depending on max file sizes that legitimately sit on your drive, etc. - see what shows up and go from there. Good luck in any case.

How to change the optimal virtual memory

Hi, i use a tevra m2 1.8 GHz 512 MB laptop.
normally used for office work and not for gaming,
antivirus bitdefender consumes lots of memory so one has to be cautious on using memory.
so i was wondering if anybody knows how to configure the best the 'virtual memory' : min and max : about 1.5 and 2 times the RAM-size ?
Thanks in advance

Hi
Please go to:
System Properties - "Advanced" tab - Settings in the performance area - "Advanced" tab - "Change" button
There you will find the Virtual memory settings.
I would recommend setting the settings to "System managed size". In this case the OS will control the value automatically.

[SOLVED] Virtual Memory Exhausted with unused 16g Swap Partition.

Hello all, long time reader, first time poster. So basically what I'm running into is that I'm having Virtual Memory Exhausted errors with various programs even though I have a 16g swap partition mounted. I've manually enabled it to try it as well. Here's some outputs to give you an idea of how my system is set up. It's a UEFI fresh install, only a couple days old.
fstab:
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs nodev,nosuid 0 0
# /dev/sdb3
UUID=ea7a0311-6314-4215-b98d-7360552b28c4 / ext4 rw,relatime,data=ordered 0 1
# /dev/sdc3
UUID=8f6f2006-3a9c-4563-a149-547d758e2af1 /home ext4 rw,relatime,data=ordered 0 2
# /dev/sdb2
UUID=baf1ba80-ddf3-4cbb-a13e-b81a0af0a9e7 /boot ext4 rw,relatime,data=ordered 0 2
# /dev/sdb1
UUID=2B46-5340 /boot/efi vfat rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro 0 2
# /dev/sdc1
UUID=4336d783-c289-4fbf-8c59-f1a1da782130 /var ext4 rw,relatime,data=ordered 0 2
# /dev/sdc2
UUID=96a60f08-a57f-42f1-80ff-846d02a29199 /var/log ext4 rw,relatime,data=ordered 0 2
# /dev/sda2
UUID=c5d5879a-b0e8-4976-8057-2f95975a1251 /share ext4 rw,relatime,data=ordered 0 2
# /dev/sdb4
UUID=6e6277c4-a69a-4838-83cd-c206959acf0e /store ext4 rw,relatime,data=ordered 0 2
#swap
UUID=21a56b10-85e5-48a1-91e5-995eae0dfba4 none swap defaults 0 0
lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 931.5G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 16G 0 part [SWAP]
└─sda2 8:2 0 915.5G 0 part /share
sdb 8:16 0 931.5G 0 disk
├─sdb1 8:17 0 1G 0 part /boot/efi
├─sdb2 8:18 0 1G 0 part /boot
├─sdb3 8:19 0 50G 0 part /
└─sdb4 8:20 0 879.5G 0 part /store
sdc 8:32 0 931.5G 0 disk
├─sdc1 8:33 0 20G 0 part /var
├─sdc2 8:34 0 2G 0 part /var/log
└─sdc3 8:35 0 909.5G 0 part /home
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
cat /proc/meminfo
MemTotal: 12256600 kB
MemFree: 9926584 kB
Buffers: 212588 kB
Cached: 774636 kB
SwapCached: 0 kB
Active: 1179860 kB
Inactive: 638584 kB
Active(anon): 831604 kB
Inactive(anon): 14480 kB
Active(file): 348256 kB
Inactive(file): 624104 kB
Unevictable: 4 kB
Mlocked: 4 kB
SwapTotal: 16777212 kB
SwapFree: 16777212 kB
Dirty: 32 kB
Writeback: 0 kB
AnonPages: 831320 kB
Mapped: 196008 kB
Shmem: 14892 kB
Slab: 345008 kB
SReclaimable: 316620 kB
SUnreclaim: 28388 kB
KernelStack: 2616 kB
PageTables: 27032 kB
NFS_Unstable: 0 kB
Bounce: 0 kB
WritebackTmp: 0 kB
CommitLimit: 22905512 kB
Committed_AS: 3365808 kB
VmallocTotal: 34359738367 kB
VmallocUsed: 357936 kB
VmallocChunk: 34359373819 kB
HardwareCorrupted: 0 kB
AnonHugePages: 86016 kB
HugePages_Total: 0
HugePages_Free: 0
HugePages_Rsvd: 0
HugePages_Surp: 0
Hugepagesize: 2048 kB
DirectMap4k: 117756 kB
DirectMap2M: 4059136 kB
DirectMap1G: 8388608 kB
swapon -s
Filename Type Size Used Priority
/dev/sda1 partition 16777212 0 -1
core file size (blocks, -c) 0
data seg size (kbytes, -d) unlimited
scheduling priority (-e) 20
file size (blocks, -f) unlimited
pending signals (-i) 94832
max locked memory (kbytes, -l) 64
max memory size (kbytes, -m) unlimited
open files (-n) 1024
pipe size (512 bytes, -p) 8
POSIX message queues (bytes, -q) 819200
real-time priority (-r) 0
stack size (kbytes, -s) 8192
cpu time (seconds, -t) unlimited
max user processes (-u) 94832
virtual memory (kbytes, -v) unlimited
file locks (-x) unlimited
I did just notice that it's showing 4gb less RAM than there should be (12 instead of 16, I'll be checking into that about the same time I hit submit) but as far as I can tell the system shouldn't even be worried about swap 99.99% of the time. Any ideas?
Edit: On reboot system show the full 16gb of RAM.
Last edited by inquisitorthreefive (2012-11-19 07:44:32)

inquisitorthreefive wrote:
I did just notice that it's showing 4gb less RAM than there should be (12 instead of 16, I'll be checking into that about the same time I hit submit) but as far as I can tell the system shouldn't even be worried about swap 99.99% of the time. Any ideas?
Edit: On reboot system show the full 16gb of RAM.
Could it be a hardware problem with RAM? Is there a 4 GB RAM chip in the machine that may have failed?

Slow Lion - really high virtual memory use

Lion is running really slow on both my Mac Mini and my Mac Book Pro. Both systems are less than two years old, both with 4 GB of RAM. I checked Activity Monitor (right after restart, running Chrome, Mail, and iTunes only) and I get a VM size of 266.42 GB! Is this normal? And could this be the reason why it seems so dreadfully slow?

budusa,
Take a really deep breath and let it out. Relax. The universe is ok.
You have to step back at look at what your data is showing you.
Physical Memory: 4 GB
Virtual Memory: 266.42 GB < notice this larger than your physical.
Note the amount of memory used by your system, Wired, 675.4 MB. From what I understand so far of how OS X lion uses memory is that your system is using less a 1 gigabyte of memory.
Now note the amount of Inactive memory, 535.7 MB. I bet if you looked for the processes you used the amount they where accessing would equal that amount.
Also note your Active memory used, 1.52 GB. That was currently being used at the moment of your snapshot. Note also it could reflect was used recently also.
Ok, now look at your Free memory, 1.30 GB.
And the last part, the Used, 2.70 GB.
Do you notice something yet? Do you see it?
Ok, you have 4 GB of Physical RAM installed.
According to your information you used only, roughly, 2.70 GB of Physical RAM.
That means you used 2.70 of 4 GB of physical RAM.
Now if you notice your free memory, 1.30 GB.
If you take 2.70 - 4 = 1.30 < notice the answer, Free memory, 1.30 GB.
Basically your system used 2.70 GB of 4 GB to run the applications listed.
Look at your Virtual Memory, 266.42 GB. Notice it larger than 2.70 GB?
My understanding of how a 64 bit OS works, and the key item why it works better than 32 bit, is the Virtual Address Space. This is how the OS allows programs to run with out taking up all the physical memory. The programs go there to play as I like to say. Another way to look at it is do want only 4 GB's or 8+ Terabyte's of Virtual Address Space?
So, the Virtual Memory you see is ok and is normal.
Do not follow some advice I have seen here about switching programs to run in 32 bit mode. You defeat the purpose of 64 bit.
If you system is running slow then look at your installed programs. Note also that if you have a small hard drive it can cause sluggishness too.
I hope this helped. Maybe it confused. Sorry for making it long as I did.

Low virtual memory

i am running a vi which uses telnet, and has 5 picture indicators on the front panel with 2 or 3 Jpeg's in each of them. after running the vi for approx 30 mins, virtual memory runs out.

A couple things to try:
1. Can you post the vi in question?
2. You can use the vi profiler to see which aspect is using the memory over time. Turn it on under Tools->Advanced->profile vis, check "Profile Memory Usage" and then run the program.
3. Which OS are you using? What is your hard drive free space? What is your physical memory size. For NT based windows OSs (NT, XP, 2000, ME) the Task Manager will also give you memory statistics (ctlr-alt-del to bring it up). In 95/98 you can get the same info using the Start Menu->Accesories->System Tools->System Monitor.
Hope it helps!
~js
2006 Ultimate LabVIEW G-eek.

Virtual Memory question

Not sure which part of the forum to post this, so i'm just posting it here. When i'm sitting in windows just browsing the internet etc, my virtual memory is at around 400/3940mb. When i start up a game, it spikes up to around 1000mb of 3940. Is this normal?

Skylinee,
I am from another school, if your comp keeps paging to your HD, I add more RAM.
I set my page file to min and max both at 384mb and I disable the paging executive in the Windows Registry.
Take Care,
Richard

Vista 64/Premiere CS4/32GB Ram Virtual Memory Recommendation

Vista 64
Premiere CS4
32 GB Ram
Here are my current Virtual Memory Settings...
On C:
It is set to "System Managed Size" which has created a ~34GB pagefile.sys file on C:\
On V: (RAID)
It is set to Custom Size, Initial= 16396, Maximum= 32768 which has created a ~16GB pagefile.sys file on V:
Are these settings adequate or overkill?? Any suggestions would be helpful. I still have some occasional blue screens that are unexplained.

Despite some comments you heard previously in this thread, there are a few things about pagefiles to keep in mind.
1. Create a pagefile with a fixed size, min and max being the same. That avoids resizing and thus defragmentation of the file.
2. Keep the pagefile on a separate disk from where most activity takes place, not on the OS disk, not on the media disk, but on a third disk, that can contain other software or data, like audio, downloads or the like as long as you don't access them very frequently.
3. Create the pagefile on the disk when it is still empty, so it is the first file on the disk.
4. It used to be a good rule of thumbs to make the size of the pagefile around 1.5 times the amount of physical RAM.
In your case with 32 GB of RAM you may never need the pagefile (it depends on the software you use, for 3D you may need it) and it depends on the storage that you have available (storage is cheap), but if you create a fixed pagefile of 16 GB you should never run into trouble, nor will you lose much diskspace.
Just my 0.02

My Mini is gobbling up virtual memory--is this normal?

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