Too much memory on standby.....

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  1. Posts : 2,528
    Windows 10 Pro x64
       #21

    You still haven't told us what this server is used for, how it's working, and why all of the RAM is being consumed in the first place. Honestly, getting a trace with the Windows Performance Toolkit would be in order, but that would take some time (and require .net4 on the server).
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  2. j0E
    Posts : 8
    windows7 home premium 32 & 64 bit
       #22

    Hi guys, sorry for reviving an old thread, but I've been experimenting the same issue.
    I have 8 GB of sniper DDR 3 2100 MHZ (OC to 2200), and standby memory occupies 60% of the memory sometimes and causes sluggish game behavior (dirt3) even though only 3 GB of ram are actually in use especially after long sessions of firefox browsing on the second monitor,
    I tried multiple tricks like using firefox restart button, closing unwanted services and applications, memory clean up tricks etc, none of them ware able to restitute a" FRESH" feel and good responsiveness gaming experience EXCEPT puttng windows 7 to sleep ( hibernation) then waking it back :memory in use drops tp 1.7 o 2 GB (even with firefox loaded) and game play is snappy and great.

    After more than a year looking for a solution I ended up using the hibernation trick which resets physically memory modules exactly like a fresh system boot: I think I am the first user to report this solution on a forum to the benefit of all users out there that are still looking.

    Enjoy
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  3. Posts : 1
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
       #23

    Its not just cached data, its prioritized cached data.


    Here is good description: Investigate memory usage with Windows 7 Resource Monitor - TechRepublic

    quote from the link:

    Standby

    The Standby list, which is shown in blue, contains pages that have been removed from process working sets but are still linked to their respective working sets. As such, Standby list is essentially a cache. However, memory pages in the Standby list are prioritized in a range of 0-7, with 7 being the highest. Essentially, a page related to a high-priority process will receive a high-priority level in the Standby list.

    For example, processes that are Shareable will be a high priority and pages associated with these Shareable processes will have the highest priority in the Standby list.

    Now, if a process needs a page that is associated with the process and that page is now in the Standby list, the memory manager immediately returns the page to that process' working set. However, all pages on the Standby list are available for memory allocation requests from any process. When a process requests additional memory and there is not enough memory in the Free list, the memory manager checks the page's priority and will take a page with a low priority from the Standby list, initialize it, and allocate it to that process.
    SO, if an application with a super high priority caches data (such as a VM), your regular applications may not be able to access that 'free memory' after all, and responses to this thread are incorrect.

    StandBy will cache high priority data and then fail to release it if the subsequent requesting applications fail to meet the priority test, pushing the application to pagefile.
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  4. Posts : 2,497
    Windows 7 Pro 64 bit
       #24

    Welcome to the forum.

    SO, if an application with a super high priority caches data (such as a VM), your regular applications may not be able to access that 'free memory' after all, and responses to this thread are incorrect.

    StandBy will cache high priority data and then fail to release it if the subsequent requesting applications fail to meet the priority test, pushing the application to pagefile.
    The linked to article does not support this conclusion. The Microsoft publication "Windows Internals" discusses the standby list is much more detail and there is no mention of this "problem".

    I haven't seen documentation from any reputable source that would indicate that a process is unable to use memory from a higher priority standby list. It is just that the lower priority standby lists are accessed first. Even if true there is no evidence that it would cause a problem. Windows Task Manager does not show the individual standby lists but Processor Explorer and a number of other utilities do. The normal priority level of most processes is 5. I have never seen a situation where the priority levels 6 and 7 form any more than a small percentage of the total standby list except shortly after bootup when the standby list is quite small anyway.

    The bottom line is do not suspect this as being a problem unless you have actual evidence from Process Explorer or similar utility.
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  5. Posts : 26
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
       #25

    ... Windows does NOT release Standby Memeory


    HP laptop, AMD A10-5745M, 16 GB memory, 500 GB SSD, more than 50% free, 15GB swap file.

    This laptop is used to show slide shows that are distributed as .EXEs (application).

    This is not my "first rodeo". I have been dealing with various virtual memory operating systems for over 30 years. Various OS's work slightly different or have different names for the same thing, but they all work similarly, except maybe Windows !

    Immediately after booting the machine has over 11 GB of Free memory. The slide show runs perfect. Today I was copying a large number of files from a USB2 attach hard drive. I noticed that the Free memory was down to ZERO and Standby Memory was over 13GB ! Other VM systems will "close buffers" as demand for memory increases (note this is a "rate", pages demanded per unit of time). Windows 7 DID NOT !

    I started the show while still copying files and the Standby memory DID NOT decrease. The hard fault rate was peaking at 800+ Faults/second, but the slide show played ... for a while. It crashed about 15 minutes into the show with no meaning full error message. There was still effectively ZERO Free memory. I closed the application window.

    I walked away because I wanted the file copy to finish. Sometime later, well after the copies finished, there was still ZERO Free memory available. Nothing else was being run on this laptop.

    WHY IS WINDOWS NOT RELEASING STANDBY MEMORY !

    I rebooted, and have run the slide show end to end (about 30 minutes) several times in a row. Free memory is staying at 11 GB, even though I am running Firefox and writing this post,
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  6. Posts : 2,497
    Windows 7 Pro 64 bit
       #26

    WHY IS WINDOWS NOT RELEASING STANDBY MEMORY !
    How do you know that it isn't?

    Having zero free memory does not in any way shape or form indicate a problem. This is the normal state. On many occasions I have seen zero or close to zero free memeory and experienced no problems. I have seen many complaints about standby memory supposedly not being released. But how can you really know this is the cause of whatever problem you are having? I think in most cases this is only an assumption and one not based on facts.
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  7. Posts : 26
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
       #27

    The problem I am having (if you read my post) is an application (slide show) crashing, when there is (effectively) ZERO Free memory.

    It does not crash when there is sufficient Free memory available.

    Why would Windows have >10GB of Standby memory when there is nothing running except "normal" Windows back ground tasks.

    If you this "normal" it is very different from every other VM system I have dealt with and IMHO is totally illogical !
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  8. Posts : 2,497
    Windows 7 Pro 64 bit
       #28

    The normal state of available memory is on the standby list. Free memory is the aberation, which unfortunately is often unavoidable in a modern OS. The ideal would be zero free memory at all times but we are not there yet. The NT platform has worked this way from the very beginning, although this wasn't readily apparent from Task Manager. To me this is totally logical.
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  9. Posts : 26
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
       #29

    LMiller7 said:
    The normal state of available memory is on the standby list. Free memory is the aberation, which unfortunately is often unavoidable in a modern OS. The ideal would be zero free memory at all times but we are not there yet.
    Okay, I understand where you are coming from. Free memory is wasting a resource, if there is something better that it could be used for (I/O buffers/cache).

    Then the issue is Windows NOT RELEASING STANDBY MEMORY QUICK ENOUGH when other application need it. Other OS's I have dealt with, have a "minimum" amount of Free memory >ZERO and will start releasing buffers/cache to stay above that minimum. If the Free memory minimum is still not met, non-running images are swapped out.


    Now you could make the argument that the application may be poorly designed such that it crashes instead of just pausing, but it seems ridiculous to run into the situation I am having on a machine with 16 GB of memory.
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  10. Posts : 5,642
    Windows 10 Pro (x64)
       #30

    I can tell you right now, theoldwizard1. It is not the standby memory that is causing your issue. Right now you are just grasping at straws. Right now unless we know exactly what you are doing, it is impossible to help you.
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