On Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:32:43 +0100, "Synapse Syndrome"
<synapse@NOSPAMsyndrome.me.uk> wrote:
>"Rick Rogers" <rick@mvps.org> wrote in message
>news:%23M3DH7iHJHA.1304@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>
><newbie top-posting macro corrected>
>
>>>
>>> hello guys,
>>> i'm getting a lot of hard memory faults even when memory is less than
>>> 50% used
>>> i have 2 gigs of memory
>>>
>> Please give more detail on what you mean by "hard memory faults". What is
>> the specific message? When did it start? Is it happening during a specific
>> program or routine? Are you getting a blue screen (stop error)? Have you
>> run the internal memory diagnostic tool?
>>
>
>I think Hard Faults is the confusing new name for Page Faults in the
>Resource Monitor.
>
>ss.
>
Correct. Hard Faults are just another name for Page Faults.
Regardless, both have a misleading name since both suggest something
bad happened. Worse a Page Fault CAN also mean a system crash as in a
BSOD event. So it depends.
Few understand how Task Manager and Resource Monitor can show what's
going on. You can learn more here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../cc722173.aspx
In a nutshell a Page Fault in the context explained means Windows
needed to swap something into physical memory since it wasn't there
when needed. Remember whatever your computer is doing for it to happen
it MUST move the code to 'do it' into physical memory even if it there
for just tiny fractions of a second.
Take my system. I have 2 GB RAM. I installed the Gadget that monitors
CPU and Memory usage. Right now I'm pushing things a bit since I'm
using my news reader Agent, plus I'm monitoring my E-Trade account
which uses Java to provide real time stock quotes, plus I'm in the
middle of rendering a video using Sony's Vegas.
According to Gadgets right now my CPU usage is between 52-60% with
some spikes to 80% while memory is at a steady 54%. That would suggest
there still is plenty of RAM and there should be little if any page
swapping if you would believe what Vista is telling you.
If I look at the processes tab in Task Manager it shows that Vegas has
made over 200,000 page faults in the past several minutes. But wait...
the sidebar (which the gadgets run under) shows a whopping 500,000
plus page faults for the same time period.
Confusing? You bet it is. What does it all mean?
Depends.
Since Vegas is busy actually rendering a video it MUST write to the
hard drive as it creates a new file. That explains the spike in page
faults for Vegas. It NEEDS to shuffle things in and out of physical
memory as it creates the new video file. But why is Gadgets which has
no need to write anything to the hard drive generating twice as many
page faults? Good question. I have no answer. These Gadgets simply
monitor, and should not have any need to write anything to the hard
drive and are small enough to be easily contained in a small portion
of my RAM. So why is Vista constantly shuffling them in and out of
physical memory? No idea.
Waiting till Vegas got done rendering, CPU usage now has dropped to
just 3%, my normal load while not doing anything intensive. However
page faults for Vista internals are still flying high, with Sidebar,
Desktop Window Manager and Windows Explorer all having repeated Page
Faults while free RAM now shows 47% or better than half available.
This begs the question WHY are three applets of Vista, Sidebar,
Explorer and Desktop Manager swapping to the hard drive when half my
physical memory is free? Again, I have no idea and cookie to donuts
nobody else does either.
Linear Mode
