Computer Memory Lost

I seem to have reached the limit on what I can have on my machine, I got an error I was loosing memory.With that, I uninstalled, and deleted several unused programs. I can tell I'm at the brink, because MSTS dissapears after about 5 minutes of play time.What else can I do to avoid a crash because of limited memory?Should I keep deleting more stuff, or is there something I can buy (memory card)? Thanks.Jeffrey

Courteous Future Engineer
NKP 2-8-4 #765. www.765.org
Chessie System Historical Society. http://moosevalley.org/cshs/
My Website; www.xanga.com/csxd765

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RE: Computer Memory Lost, LAHDPOP, Mar-26-04, 00:50 AM, (1) RE: Computer Memory Lost, stryder47, Mar-26-04, 01:22 AM, (2) RE: Computer Memory Lost, rpicardi1, Mar-26-04, 08:00 PM, (3) RE: Computer Memory Lost, FURX, May-01-04, 07:29 PM, (4) RE: Computer Memory Lost, rdamurphy, May-02-04, 05:53 AM, (5) RE: Computer Memory Lost, chuckzeiler, May-02-04, 11:20 AM, (6) RE: Computer Memory Lost, kmanc21, May-02-04, 03:33 PM, (7) RE: Computer Memory Lost, FURX, May-02-04, 08:32 PM, (8) RE: Computer Memory Lost, calr, May-02-04, 11:28 PM, (9) RE: Computer Memory Lost, matthewloveday, May-03-04, 10:59 AM, (10) RE: Computer Memory Lost, calr, May-03-04, 12:13 PM, (11) RE: Computer Memory Lost, sinclair97, May-04-04, 07:41 PM, (14) RE: Computer Memory Lost, tsayyote, May-03-04, 03:29 PM, (12) RE: Computer Memory Lost, trainmaster_1, May-04-04, 07:15 PM, (13) RE: Computer Memory Lost, FURX, May-04-04, 09:08 PM, (15) RE: Computer Memory Lost, mdeming, May-04-04, 10:17 PM, (16) RE: Computer Memory Lost, trainmaster_1, May-04-04, 10:39 PM, (17) RE: Computer Memory Lost, FURX, May-06-04, 09:39 PM, (18) RE: Computer Memory Lost, heffed, May-06-04, 09:58 PM, (19)

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Memory is different than storage space. Deleting things off your hard drive will help a little bit, but it sounds like you've either got a memory problem, or simply not enough. How much memory do you have? What are your system specs?

Bret

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LAST EDITED ON Mar-26-04 AT 01:29 AM (EST)

In addition to what Bret said, and he is correct, have you tried defragging your hard drive? If you have never done it or done it rarely you can gain a lot of space there. Also, check your internet folder and see if there isn't a lot of files there that are put there when you visit any site on the web. I use Window Washer to get rid of mine and it does a good job of it. You would be amazed how much space you can get back just using this program to get rid of those unneeded files.
But of course in the end, you will need more harddrive space I am afraid. No, memory won't fix that. And you need to be careful of what you get rid of, unless of course it is a game or something. Try the above first and see if they don't help. You can get a demo version of Window Washer, just do a look up on google and you will find it. I don't have the site on the tip of my tongue at the moment. Anyway, give us the specs of your computer as Bret suggested. Perhaps we can come up with more ideas.I do believe the reason you are losing memory is the fact that you don't have enough hard drive space for the virtual memory to use. I think that is the memory problem you are having, especially if it was working all right before. Programs use this virtual memory, or harddrive space as much as they use your onboard memory. My guess this is what it is in your case, but give us those computer specs of yours and we will know this better.Good luck,Tim
Western Maryland
"Gone but never forgotten"

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Several things could be causing this such as limited system resources, hard drive almost full, or, some virus, worm, or spyware that is eating up ram and resources.Something is sure eating up resources on the net today. Train-Sim site is running so slow as to be almost impossible to use. The firewall has blocked several trojan horse access attempts in the past hour, and the inbox was full of virus infected mail again.All of the above is a guess until you can post some specs on your systam and what routes you are trying to run.SRV Ron

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Oh man! I forgot about this thread, Im so sorry!Here are my specs, I'm not a computer person, I'm just reading off the sticker on "that big grey box I keep kicking"eMachines T11201.2 ghz Intel Celeron Processor 40 gb Hard drive ultra DMA3d AGP graphics Intel direct AGP256 mb SyncDRAMAll Greek to me -Jeffrey

Courteous Future Engineer
NKP 2-8-4 #765. www.765.org
Chessie System Historical Society. http://moosevalley.org/cshs/
My Website; www.xanga.com/csxd765

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Right click on the "My Computer" Icon. Select Properities. Look at the graph depicting your hard drive, on the lower right corner, click "Disk Cleanup". Select everything EXCEPT "Compress old files", click OK, confirm, you'll probably get back a couple of gigs...Rob

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http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/system/maxmem.htm

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256 mb SyncDRAMThere is your problem. The memory you have is pretty much the bare minimum for running Windows, not even thinking of MSTS which is a memory hog. I would recommend going to 512MB and even more if your system will allow it. I currently run XP Pro and have 768MB and am strongly considering going to 1.5GB. That's on top of dual 80GB 7200 RPM hard drives. The upgrades would be fairly easy and shouldn't cost alot. Memeory prices are still going down and you can pick up a HDD fairly cheap.
Ken

How did I survive before MSTS

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For a few different reasons, I bought an externam HD today, 80gb, and a 128 mg video card , AGP-Asylum MX 4000.....Now, the new HD is named drive "E". If I move all the train sim stuff to "E", will it operate from there?Thanks,-Jeffrey

Courteous Future Engineer
NKP 2-8-4 #765. www.765.org
Chessie System Historical Society. http://moosevalley.org/cshs/
My Website; www.xanga.com/csxd765

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NO! Your problem is not hard disk space. You need more RAM. As was stated above, to run MSTS and any of the MSTS tools, you need a minimum of 512 mb of RAM. The additional hard disk space is nice but will not help your problem. RAM is relatively cheap. You should be able to get another 256 mb for about $75 or less.Cal Rasmussen
Beaverton, OR
(My email is in my profile)Columbia Gorge Route (Phase 2-- Started)

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your processor is also a big problem as 1.4ghz will not give good frames on the more quality routes. i would suggest upgrading:processor
ram
and graphics in that order

A man walks into a scientist's lab looking to buy a new brain. He asks the scientist how much the brains cost. The scientist says, "Well first we have a normal human brain, it costs $1000, next we have a scientist's brain, it costs $5000, and then we come to a politician's, it costs $10,000."
"How come the politician's brain costs so much?", asks the man.
The scientist replies, "Because it's never been used."

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I respectfully disagree on replacing the processor. I used a Celeron 566 mhz system to do all of my work on Columbia Gorge 1. I had a good video card, although not initially. However I had to increase RAM to 512 mb to keep the RE screen from turning black, indicating not enough memory.I am now using an Athlon 1.2 ghz system with 512 mb RAM and the same video card. Performance is improved. The next thing I am going to upgrade is to replace the video card with a new 128 mb AGP card.Cal Rasmussen
Beaverton, OR
(My email is in my profile)Columbia Gorge Route (Phase 2-- Started)

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LAST EDITED ON May-04-04 AT 07:41 PM (EDT)

Hi Cal,You said that you used a "Celeron 566 mHz" system to do your work as I would be interested to know your views on the "Celeron" since you are a user. I have read in recent posts that the Celeron is not very good to put it mildly, so I would appreciate your view.Mike Michael Sinclair

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>I seem to have reached the limit on what I can have on my
>machine, I got an error I was loosing memory. Did the error message state that Windows was low on virtual memory and needed to increase it? One way to fix that is, like everyone else said, buy more ram. The second thing you can do, until you can buy more ram, is to increase the paging file for the virtual memory.

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Yea you should buy more ram it is good and improves performance and defrag your HD it helps to get some space back but also tidy's everything up so the programs that you want to open are opened much quicker.........I have a computer that is a 1 GHz AMD Athlon with 128 MB SDRAM PC133, 40GB HD and a 128 MB DDR ATI Video Card. Because I got KHP2 I knew that the graphics was gonna be higher so upgraded the ram so now its....
1.0 GHz AMD Athlon Processor
768 MB SDRAM PC133
40 GB HD (may get a 60 or 80 GB HD anytime soon)
128 MB DDR ATI Video Card and now its pulling in good frame rates.....I turned off the spectacular lighting, dynamic shadows and distant mountains and my frame rates went up even more....from 15 to 30 fps with all 3 on to...21 to 50+ fps with the 3 off. And ya know that my computer is a Compaq Presario 5000 series (actually 5012CA model that had the original 8MB NVidia Video Card in it)

Mike
Future CP Locomotive Engineer

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Yeah, the external HD wasn't really my idea, and I think adding ram wil be the next step. I've defragmented my system a few times in the past month but I haven't seen much improvment. Thanks everyone,-Jeffrey

Courteous Future Engineer
NKP 2-8-4 #765. www.765.org
Chessie System Historical Society. http://moosevalley.org/cshs/
My Website; www.xanga.com/csxd765

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LAST EDITED ON May-04-04 AT 10:18 PM (EDT)

You did not say what Operating system you are using. If you are using Windows me that O/S has a memory leak which can cause headaches There is a program called Maxmem from AnalogX that will help monitor memory usage a good little program to have. It will free up memory for you.
Mike

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The ironic thing is my Operating System is Windows ME and I don't have any such problems with it well maybe some problems....that was before but I repartition my hard drive because I wanted the whole storage space back because I had it partitioned so I can use it as a back up when the system failed.

Mike
Future CP Locomotive Engineer

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Found a RAM chip at best buy, what do you all think? Is it what I should do?PNY Tech 127mb PC100 Memory MasterIt's $60. Essentially, I want to be able to run a 45 car mixed freight, with full detail levels, and maintain 10 fps. 10 is better than the 3 fps I get with a 15 car train with mid detail levels.-Jeffrey

Courteous Future Engineer
NKP 2-8-4 #765. www.765.org
Chessie System Historical Society. http://moosevalley.org/cshs/
My Website; www.xanga.com/csxd765

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Well, RAM isn't going to help you that much when you max your detail sliders. That tends to bring your whole system into the picture. (vid card, cpu, etc...)That said, if you are looking for a RAM upgrade, I wouldn't get anything less than 512MB. And PNY is garbage.-Jeff

Union Pacific fan.

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