NS 7.1 system (GDI) resource drainage in Win98

[Lorraine]

Well, you peaked my curiosity again.
Where is the resource system in NS7.02 ?

I used to know where it was in NS4.73-5
I think, it was Programs/Accessories, Resource system...

I thought I was told at that time, it should be at 90 percent.

Can someone tell me how to find it?
I found something in accessories, System Info.

That's not what I want, I want the little square that used to
be in the bottom right hand side of taskbar
-Lorraine

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20030208 Netscape/7.02

[Edward]

I have Win98, 192ram, 386mhz. I've been using netscape7 since preview release last year. I really like it. SOOOOO much better than IE6. I've been on Net7.1 for about 2 hours now and my resource meter says:

System Res. 58% free
User Resources 63% free
GDI resources 58% free

Is this good or bad?

Those are similiar to what I see on my dual-boot system, and haven't had any problems with those numbers.

FWIW, I have 512 Mb of RAM in this, but I can't say that the Linux version of 7.1 had been trouble-free on this system (since removed).

UserAgent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Linux 2.4.20-4GB i586) Opera 7.11 [en]

[Fulvio]

Well, you peaked my curiosity again.
Where is the resource system in NS7.02 ?

I think, it was Programs/Accessories, Resource system...

I thought I was told at that time, it should be at 90 percent.

Can someone tell me how to find it?
I found something in accessories, System Info.

That's not what I want, I want the little square that used to
be in the bottom right hand side of taskbar
-Lorraine

Lorraine the resource meter is not in Netscape, but, as you said correctly, in Windows Accessories. You should be able to get that in the systray.
However, I am using something else, which being in the systray takes some resources. The number are either expressed as three similar figures. My AOL debugger has one system resources, which is enough. That number decreases with the number of open applications, so 53% may be ok when compared to the initial conditions, for some, but horrible for me, who starts at 90%, with Zone Alarm, AVG and AOLtray utility. I had opened Open Office, and it did not release all the memory, but there was little change when I closed it, and then open NS7.1. The effect on the resources is ok now. Howver, it start draining as soon as other features of NS are using. There is no change in 7.02, when I open mail, while I drop from 69 to 65 in 7.1, dropping after writing a single e-mail. And, resources will keep dropping, even after closing mail. And, resource go down by just going into a website. This is not right! Down to 58%. Memory is ok.
Maybe it is the Spam Control, which is a slow learner in 7.1 when compared with Moz1.4.
Anyway, I can use 7.1, and prefer it over 7.02, but I have to be careful.
I got a red warning after turning on a music program, now at 31%.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax)

[Lorraine]

Thanks Fulvio.
Wow, red light warning....doesn't sound too good.

Hope it isn't like a car, pull over when you see the red light on the dash!!

Maybe you should do the same before you fry your puter !
-Lorraine

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20030208 Netscape/7.02

[Mandrake]

For NT/2k/XP Hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete and the Task Manager should appear, it'll tell you how much memory you have free, and how much is being - and by what. You might get a Windows Security thing instead, in that case just choose Task Manager. In Windows 95/98/Me this feature doesn't exsist, but you can open My Computer and Help, About Windows. It will tell you roughly what percentage of system resources are free.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax)

[Mandrake]

Hmmm... I've managed to get to happen for me on an old Windows 98 machine - I tried a few things but couldn't resolve the issue. Seems to be a 95/98/Me issue only. I've seen no-one with problems in NT4/2k/XP.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax)

[Ramona]

I think this is a cool way to check on your Cache:

In your Location Bar, type in "about:cache" this is what you will see:

Memory cache device
Number of entries:
Maximum storage size:
Storage in use:
Inactive Storage:

List Cache Entries

Disk cache device
Number of entries:
Maximum storage size:
Storage in use:
Cache Directory:

List Cache Entries
---

After you have checked this out, close the window, then go to your Preferences | Advanced | Cache and clear the Cache. This button clears both Memory and Disk Cache. Now check out the about:cache... 8)

Ramona

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (Compact)

[Fulvio]

I think this is a cool way to check on your Cache:

Ramona,
I must credit Alice at the Compact newsgroup for pointing out your newest. In the meantime, I found out that one is too lazy to go through the user.js set up, but has the Prefbar, it is not so bad. It does not take much more than a click on the Clear Cache button to restore a lot of the resources.

There is one thing which I don't understand. My memory cache limit is 7168K. At the last count had 495 k stored and 305 k inactive. If I reduce the size of the memory cache, I should reach the limit faster, and, then what? As comment #70 why Memory cache in first place?
Anyway, using the Prefbar Clear Mem Cache, I have been successful in keeping the system, and GDI resources at about 70%, which is as good as it has been in a while.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax)

[Ramona]

If your system resources and GDI are at 70%, then no doubt you are not keeping multiple tabs/windows open.

If I reduce the size of the memory cache, I should reach the limit faster, and, then what? As comment #70 why Memory cache in first place?

Just the reverse. In Netscape 7.1 setting a lower memCache setting slows down resource use. It also depends on the amount of RAM that you have installed. If you set a higher Memory cache setting, you run out of resources more quickly, as you have experienced.

Why memory cache? For the reason stated: "smaller cache gives better performance than either no cache or a large cache." Memory cache draws faster on reload, as it is a portion of memory made of high speed static RAM (SRAM). Disk Cache uses the conventional main memory. By storing this information in the SRAM, the computer avoids slowing down by accessing the slower DRAM, as disk cache draws much slower.

Ramona

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (Compact)

[Fulvio]

If your system resources and GDI are at 70%, then no doubt you are not keeping multiple tabs/windows open.

If I reduce the size of the memory cache, I should reach the limit faster, and, then what? As comment #70 why Memory cache in first place?

Just the reverse. In Netscape 7.1 setting a lower memCache setting slows down resource use. It also depends on the amount of RAM that you have installed. If you set a higher Memory cache setting, you run out of resources more quickly, as you have experienced.

Why memory cache? For the reason stated: "smaller cache gives better performance than either no cache or a large cache." Memory cache draws faster on reload, as it is a portion of memory made of high speed static RAM (SRAM). Disk Cache uses the conventional main memory. By storing this information in the SRAM, the computer avoids slowing down by accessing the slower DRAM, as disk cache draws much slower.

Ramona

Hi,
something is going on that I don't understand. I had my "given" memory cache at 7000k(take or leave a few), I never got past a few hundred k in use or inactive. I did nothing but get into NS7.1, since my mail locked up once again( forget about setting up AOL or Webmail). I had set the Mem.storage size to 2048k, and I had 2626k in use, which is more than the maximum. I closed 3of the 4 tabs , and now I have 1866K in use, and 1478 inactive. My system and user, are the same old 69%. But, using the Prefbar Clear Mem Cache gets me to 76-77%. Down to 72% with Mail open
In other words, lowering the maximum storage size may not be such a good idea, or I may have to increase it, just to keep any tabs, but only constant flushing out of the MemCache may work.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax)

[Ramona]

An update on the resource leak in Netscape 7.1:

Although I was able to keep the leak somewhat in control by frequently clearing Cache, and using minimum tabs, my available resources still dropped to a low 30%. This was using a 2048 memCache setting.

I decided last week to try the 1024 setting, which I had also seen recommended. The results are good. I find that I can go back to my Tab Group of 14 tabs, leaving them open all day. I don't have to clear the Cache at all, because now the resources are released once they have dropped to a very low percentage. When I run the System Resource Meter, I can see that it is getting very low, but when I check again, the resources have been released, and I'm back to my normal 68 - 70% available resources again. This is very, very, good!

So if you're experiencing this problem, by all means try the 1024 if you haven't already.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax) (CK-SillyDog)

[Fulvio]

An update on the resource leak in Netscape 7.1:

Although I was able to keep the leak somewhat in control by frequently clearing Cache, and using minimum tabs, my available resources still dropped to a low 30%. This was using a 2048 memCache setting.

I decided last week to try the 1024 setting, which I had also seen recommended. The results are good. I find that I can go back to my Tab Group of 14 tabs, leaving them open all day. I don't have to clear the Cache at all, because now the resources are released once they have dropped to a very low percentage. When I run the System Resource Meter, I can see that it is getting very low, but when I check again, the resources have been released, and I'm back to my normal 68 - 70% available resources again. This is very, very, good!

So if you're experiencing this problem, by all means try the 1024 if you haven't already.

I changed the setting from 3072(I liked the number) to 1024. The resources dropped from 86% to 68% with mail on. I close mail, and it drop some more to 66%. Clear Cache brought things up to 68%. Basically, I don't see any difference from the other setting. I have been using 7.1 for nearly two hours, and I have five tabs. The memory (RAM) is taking a beating.
And, the PC100 memory cards, I need, are not so cheap, as everyone keeps telling me. The PC133 are very cheap.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax) (CK-SillyDog)

[Amrad]

I think this is a cool way to check on your Cache:

In your Location Bar, type in "about:cache" this is what you will see:

Memory cache device
Number of entries:
Maximum storage size:
Storage in use:
Inactive Storage:

List Cache Entries

Disk cache device
Number of entries:
Maximum storage size:
Storage in use:
Cache Directory:

List Cache Entries
---

After you have checked this out, close the window, then go to your Preferences | Advanced | Cache and clear the Cache. This button clears both Memory and Disk Cache. Now check out the about:cache... 8)

Ramona

Hello Ramona,

I'm using Netscape 7.1 Base with Mail & Newsgroups installed.

I tried your method of checking my cache, with these results:

Memory cache device

Number of entries: 347
Maximum storage size: 21504 k
Storage in use: 6042 k
Inactive Storage: 5543 k

List Cache Entries

Disk cache device

Number of entries: 4098
Maximum storage size: 51200 k
Storage in use: 40773 k
Cache Directory: C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\default\brmi5adt.slt\Cache

List Cache Entries

However, when I look in Edit/Preferences/Advanced/Cache, there is only a disk cache shown with a setting of 50MB and the ability to specify the cache location.

The 50Mb ties in with the information shown by "about:cache."

What I'd like to know is, how is the memory cache set up, can it's size be changed and if so, how? Should it, perhaps, be shown along with the disk cache which, if I remember correctly, was the case with Communicator 4.x.

In the Netscape Help files, I found two entries, among others, about the cache, one for the disk cache and one for the memory cache.

However, both of these entries give the same information, which is for the disk cache!

Regards,

Dave.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win 9x 4.90; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax)

[Ramona]

Dave,

Check out this page: Resource Leak in Netscape 7.1 It should answer all your questions.

Ramona

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (CK-SillyDog)

[Amrad]

Dave,

Check out this page: Resource Leak in Netscape 7.1 It should answer all your questions.

Ramona

Hello Ramona,

Many thanks for your reply and for pointing me to the link. I've taken a quick look (it will take some time to check it out thoroughly!) and it does seem to answer my questions.

Regards,

Dave.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win 9x 4.90; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax)