When is memory released?

[sheila77]

Since I keep getting the famous NVidea display "driver not responding" but Windows fixing it (sometimes) message when I use Photoshop, I made a second user for just running Photoshop.

Do I need to reboot to release all the memory from the first user, or can I just Switch users and have that memory released?

Windows 7/64, Aero disabled.

Thanks for any explanation!!
Sheila

 

[Jonathan_King]

If you Log Off, it should do the same thing as reboot.

 

[Frostmourne]

With 12GB, you shouldn't worry about memory resources. Is your memory detected properly in 7/BIOS?

 

[sheila77]

Yes,now. This is a brand new computer and the memory wasn't being properly detected at first. Each time I rebooted it would see a different amount. The company replaced all 12 GBs and now it does report 12 GB every time.

 

[Frostmourne]

Yes,now. This is a brand new computer and the memory wasn't being properly detected at first. Each time I rebooted it would see a different amount. The company replaced all 12 GBs and now it does report 12 GB every time.

Being paranoid, I would now run Memtest86+ for 3 passes just in case.

 

[sheila77]

Will this work of 7/64 bit?

 

[Frostmourne]

Will this work of 7/64 bit?

It runs off a disk - note the question regarding 4GB or more of RAM. You boot into the disk and wait - a while with 12GB of RAM - you want no errors to show up and 3 passes will begin to push your memory. It comes as an .iso image.

 

[sheila77]

OK -I'll try it.

Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[Tepid]

not to step on any toes,, but,, 3 passes on 12G of memory won't even begin to stress it.

You need to run your tests for no less than 8 hours on that much memory.

However,, for a quick test,, yes, a few passes (more than 3) should suffice, but you won't really know till you run a stress test of at least 8 hours on that much memory. If you do get errors within the few passes then you either have a bad stick or a slot
and you will need to test all the sticks and slots individually, till you find the bad one. If the error pops within a few passes, then you don't need to test for that long on each one,, just a few passes till you find the bad one.

I would have to look around to find the reason for the long stress tests to give a full explanation as to why you want to run them that long, but the gist is,, it takes that long to test every part of the memory. More so for intermittent problems. There are some deep technical reasons that I just don't want to try and find again. They say you get 100% coverage in a single pass,, that's only partially true, to what I remember.

Similar to running a surface scan of an HDD.

I forget which company I was talking to for hardware diags,, might have been PC Doctor or Ultra-X or both. But they confirmed the need to run long overnight memory tests to test all bits of memory fully.

If you have bad memory and you fill it up, you will get BSOD's, crashes and/or data corruption, at random.

If you run it for a long time,, 8+ hours,, not to exceed a certain amount of hours,, 12G is a lot to test... I generally say 4 to 6 hours on 4G of ram, then add about a half to an hour per 1 to 2 gigs,,, it's not a perfect science. No hard rules,, just a generalization.

This might help

Also keep in mind that Memtest86 or memtest 86+ do throw false negative and positive errors. To be sure,, you should also run Windows memory Diags,, I have actually found that Windows memory Diags do a better job and throw far less false +/- errors.

edit:
hehe,, I got caught editing my post,,

 

[smarteyeball]

actually,, 3 passes on 12G of memory won't even begin to stress it.


You need to run your tests for no less than 8 hours on that much memory.

yep, I've had memory pass 8 hours, but then fail at 9 ,12, 17 hrs etc.

Quick passes on individual tests are good for 'quick and dirty' testing when adjusting timings, voltages etc, but 8hr+ is the recommended norm.

However, even if you get zero errors after 24hrs, that is not a 100% guarantee that everything is fine.

Your error with the amount of RAM would tend to suggest an application with a serious memory leak (ie the memory is being used, but not released by the application like it should when it's finished with it)

I'd check task manager and the resource monitor to see if there any applications using a HUGE amount of memory.

As for memtest86+ - run it overnight while you seep. It's as fun as watching paint dry

 

[Frostmourne]

not to step on any toes,, but,, 3 passes on 12G of memory won't even begin to stress it.

You need to run your tests for no less than 8 hours on that much memory.

However,, for a quick test,, yes, a few passes (more than 3) should suffice, but you won't really know till you run a stress test of at least 8 hours on that much memory. If you do get errors within the few passes then you either have a bad stick or a slot
and you will need to test all the sticks and slots individually, till you find the bad one. If the error pops within a few passes, then you don't need to test for that long on each one,, just a few passes till you find the bad one.

I would have to look around to find the reason for the long stress tests to give a full explanation as to why you want to run them that long, but the gist is,, it takes that long to test every part of the memory. More so for intermittent problems. There are some deep technical reasons that I just don't want to try and find again. They say you get 100% coverage in a single pass,, that's only partially true, to what I remember.

Similar to running a surface scan of an HDD.

I forget which company I was talking to for hardware diags,, might have been PC Doctor or Ultra-X or both. But they confirmed the need to run long overnight memory tests to test all bits of memory fully.

If you have bad memory and you fill it up, you will get BSOD's, crashes and/or data corruption, at random.

If you run it for a long time,, 8+ hours,, not to exceed a certain amount of hours,, 12G is a lot to test... I generally say 4 to 6 hours on 4G of ram, then add about a half to an hour per 1 to 2 gigs,,, it's not a perfect science. No hard rules,, just a generalization.

This might help

Also keep in mind that Memtest86 or memtest 86+ do throw false negative and positive errors. To be sure,, you should also run Windows memory Diags,, I have actually found that Windows memory Diags do a better job and throw far less false +/- errors.

edit:
hehe,, I got caught editing my post,,

2 passes for a new 4GB kit, bringing the memory up to 8GB - 2 passes, around 2hrs 54min, no errors. Ran the first kit for 1 pass, and daily games for 2.5 months show no issues.

 

[smarteyeball]

2 passes for a new 4GB kit, bringing the memory up to 8GB - 2 passes, around 2hrs 54min, no errors. Ran the first kit for 1 pass, and daily games for 2.5 months show no issues.

All that proves it that the Ram/timings/mobo are okay.

 

[sheila77]

After all this, it may turn out to be that my GeForce Nvidia card is the problem - not because there is something wrong with it, but because it is not compatible with openGL which I use with Photoshop CS4. The computer company is sending me a Quadro FX 1800 card to see if that works.

Sheila