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jacrys
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winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Sun Dec 30, 2012 8:07 am

the system is 2 years old, have been through a lot of installations, applications, but there is strong need to keep it runnig well. concerning the speed it is not so bad, but that memory usage i can see is too much. i got hijack log as follows:

Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.4
Scan saved at 15:26:28, on 2012-12-26
Platform: Windows XP Dodatek SP2 (WinNT 5.01.2600)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP2 (6.00.2900.2180)
Boot mode: Normal

Running processes:
C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ibmpmsvc.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\system32\TpShocks.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\rundll32.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\ABBYY\FineReader\9.00\Licensing\PE\NetworkLicenseServer.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\Service\AdskScSrv.exe
C:\Program Files\M-Audio\Install\EvoInst.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2008\mentalray\satellite\raysat_3dsMax2008_32server.exe
C:\Program Files\Analog Devices\SoundMAX\SMAgent.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\TPHDEXLG.exe
C:\Program Files\ThinkPad\Utilities\PWMDBSVC.EXE
C:\PROGRA~1\ThinkPad\UTILIT~1\PWMUIAux.exe
C:\Program Files\Opera\opera.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\Program Files\IObit\Advanced SystemCare 3\Sup_SmartRAM.exe
C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HiJackThis\HiJackThis.exe

R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.ask.com?o=14780&l=dis
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Search_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Local Page =
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Local Page =
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [TpShocks] TpShocks.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [PWRMGRTR] rundll32 C:\PROGRA~1\ThinkPad\UTILIT~1\PWRMGRTR.DLL,PwrMgrBkGndMonitor
O4 - HKCU\..\RunOnce: [FlashPlayerUpdate] C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Flash\FlashUtil32_11_5_502_110_Plugin.exe -update plugin
O17 - HKLM\System\CCS\Services\Tcpip\..\{13D82424-5F7B-4C39-A85A-D4BD1EF2ADB0}: NameServer = 212.2.96.54 212.2.96.53
O18 - Protocol: linkscanner - (no CLSID) - (no file)
O22 - SharedTaskScheduler: Moduł wstępnego ładowania interfejsu Browseui - {438755C2-A8BA-11D1-B96B-00A0C90312E1} - C:\WINDOWS\system32\browseui.dll
O22 - SharedTaskScheduler: Demon buforu kategorii składników - {8C7461EF-2B13-11d2-BE35-3078302C2030} - C:\WINDOWS\system32\browseui.dll
O23 - Service: ABBYY FineReader 9.0 PE Licensing Service (ABBYY.Licensing.FineReader.Professional.9.0) - ABBYY (BIT Software) - C:\Program Files\Common Files\ABBYY\FineReader\9.00\Licensing\PE\NetworkLicenseServer.exe
O23 - Service: Autodesk Licensing Service - Autodesk - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\Service\AdskScSrv.exe
O23 - Service: Digidesign MME Refresh Service (DigiRefresh) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Digidesign\Drivers\MMERefresh.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: M-Audio Installer (EvoInstallerService) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\M-Audio\Install\EvoInst.exe
O23 - Service: ThinkPad PM Service (IBMPMSVC) - Lenovo - C:\WINDOWS\system32\ibmpmsvc.exe
O23 - Service: InstallDriver Table Manager (IDriverT) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\Driver\1150\Intel 32\IDriverT.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: mental ray 3.6 Satellite for Autodesk 3ds Max 2008 32-bit 32-bit (mi-raysat_3dsMax2008_32) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2008\mentalray\satellite\raysat_3dsMax2008_32server.exe
O23 - Service: Power Manager DBC Service - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\ThinkPad\Utilities\PWMDBSVC.EXE
O23 - Service: Remote Packet Capture Protocol v.0 (experimental) (rpcapd) - CACE Technologies, Inc. - C:\Program Files\WinPcap\rpcapd.exe
O23 - Service: SoundMAX Agent Service (SoundMAX Agent Service (default)) - Analog Devices, Inc. - C:\Program Files\Analog Devices\SoundMAX\SMAgent.exe
O23 - Service: ThinkPad HDD APS Logging Service (TPHDEXLGSVC) - Lenovo. - C:\WINDOWS\System32\TPHDEXLG.exe

--
End of file - 4279 bytes

what else tool can i use to generate another log/more info ?
 
flip-mode
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Sun Dec 30, 2012 8:26 am

What's the starup memory usage if you start in Safe Mode?

Did you poke around in msconfig.exe yet and see if there's anything you can disable?
 
bthylafh
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Sun Dec 30, 2012 8:46 am

Unrelated, but why in the world are you still on WinXP SP2 and IE6? You're begging to get a nasty malware infection. You should update to SP3 and IE8, then apply all remaining updates.

Actually, malware could account for the extra RAM you're using.
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nanoflower
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Sun Dec 30, 2012 9:14 am

I agree with bthylafh that you should upgrade to SP3. As far as memory goes using 512MB sounds like a lot but it looks like you have a few license servers that are going to run at boot time. That combined with the normal windows services that you have running (which you may or may not be using) could explain the memory usage. I think I'm at about 290MB on bootup but I don't have any license servers running at that time.

As flipmode suggests you should look at how much memory you are using in safemode. That would tell you the minimum your current setup is going to use. Looking at msconfig is also a good idea if you understand which programs listed there you can turn off. Though some will automatically turn themselves back on (I'm looking at you Adobe/Oracle.)
 
Flying Fox
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Sun Dec 30, 2012 5:40 pm

This seems to be a Thinkpad, meaning a bunch of Thinkpad related utilities and services are being run. Useful utilities, so I would not try to remove all of them at once. The license servers, as mentioned, are also contributing to memory use. Looks like you are running somewhat heavy duty apps like 3dsmax and whatever that FineReader thing is. Not sure what that "Advanced System Care 3" is.

How much RAM in your system? Using half a gig is not a problem as long as you have enough. The key here is that you have enough RAM, not using as little as possible. If you have the RAM why not use it? Are you experiencing problems?
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jacrys
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Mon Dec 31, 2012 5:00 am

@bthylafh: still using xp just because for me it is perfect os, i do not need anything more what win7 can give me. sp2 was from the begining with this machine, now it's too late to install sp3. it could confuse it all and make all system stop working. ie6 i do not use at all so i dont need ie8, i use current version Opera or Firefox.
 
jacrys
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Mon Dec 31, 2012 5:02 am

i've got 1.5 gb physical ram. just after startup i got 1570,000 kb total and 1170,000 kb free. just after Opera starts i got 1127,000 kb free.
Last edited by jacrys on Mon Dec 31, 2012 6:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
 
Firestarter
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Mon Dec 31, 2012 5:54 am

jacrys wrote:
@bthylafh: still using xp just because for me it is perfect os, i do not need anything more what win7 can give me. sp2 was from the begining with this machine, now it's too late to install sp3. it could confuse it all and make all system stop working. ie6 i do not use at all so i dont need ie8, i use current version Opera or Firefox.

If you don't use IE6, why don't you upgrade it to something slightly more secure? IE6 is a massive liability and there is absolutely no reason to have it around in anything other than a VM.
 
jacrys
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Mon Dec 31, 2012 6:10 am

@Firestarter: i do not use internet explorer at all, i don't need it.
 
bthylafh
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Mon Dec 31, 2012 8:57 am

:roll:

Install SP3 anyway. You're almost certainly not going to break anything, and Microsoft doesn't release security fixes for SP2 anymore. Likewise with IE, because tons of programs use the IE engine for rendering HTML, so you're making all of /them/ vulnerable. This is one of those times you simply need to listen to your elders.

I hope you're not refusing because you've got a pirated version of Windows.
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Flying Fox
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Mon Dec 31, 2012 10:01 am

I really don't see why it is "too late" to install SP3. Windows Update still has it, and the "network install for IT admin" version (the big self-extract deliverable) should still be available for download.

And yes, the bit about IE's rendering engine being everywhere is true. You need to update anyways. Plus, there has been a few more system module level vulnerabilities that have been patched since SP2. I think a few of them got the highest "critical" ranking.

Since you seem to have RAM available, what is the concern of the startup RAM usage? You have a few "heavy apps" installed that is to be expected. This is called using a system.
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absurdity
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Mon Dec 31, 2012 11:26 am

Clean with MalwareBytes. Reboot, and install SP3. Reboot, install all other remaining updates.
 
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Mon Dec 31, 2012 12:18 pm

Ditto. Not installing SP3 is an open invitation to malware infection.

The amount of RAM being used on startup doesn't seem out of line given all the extra stuff you've got running.

What's the maximum amount of RAM this system can support? If lack of physical RAM is causing problems, max the RAM out.

Also be aware that even with SP3, security patch support for XP ends in a little over a year. So you're eventually going to need to ditch WinXP anyway.
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Yan
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Mon Dec 31, 2012 3:51 pm

bthylafh wrote:
I hope you're not refusing because you've got a pirated version of Windows.

No doubt that's the real situation: the user has an illegitimate copy of Windows and is afraid that updating to SP 3 or IE 8 will deactivate the computer.

According to Wikipedia, "the original release of Internet Explorer 7 required the computer to pass a Windows Genuine Advantage validation check prior to installing, but on October 5, 2007, Microsoft removed this requirement." This apparently also applies to IE 8. I believe that Microsoft decided that it was better to let users mitigate the security problems of IE 6 even if the copy of Windows is illegitimate.

(I hope I'm not breaking any forum rules: Microsoft itself deliberately decided that Internet Explorer 6 could be updated on any computer.)
 
jacrys
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Tue Jan 01, 2013 7:23 am

installing sp3 now could really stop system working. just know it. anyway that is really not a point in this thread. thats off topic, waste of time. look at the thread subject above.
 
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Tue Jan 01, 2013 7:42 am

jacrys wrote:
installing sp3 now could really stop system working. just know it. anyway that is really not a point in this thread. thats off topic, waste of time. look at the thread subject above.

Then answer the other question that I have been asking since my first reply: what is the problem with ram usage? Are you experiencing any slowdowns? Symptoms of malware infection? What is the issue? It is not like you only have half a gig of RAM and your system is paging really badly? If you have enough RAM what is the worry?
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Firestarter
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Tue Jan 01, 2013 7:53 am

jacrys wrote:
@Firestarter: i do not use internet explorer at all, i don't need it.

You don't need it, yet you keep it around? I'm sorry that I'm going on a tangent here, but keeping software up to date is one of the most important things to do if you want to keep your system reasonably secure. Malware really doesn't give a flying **** if you use outdated software or not if it only needs to exploit its vulnerabilities.
 
bthylafh
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Tue Jan 01, 2013 10:11 am

jacrys wrote:
installing sp3 now could really stop system working. just know it.


No, it really won't as long as you're not pirating XP. I had one or two machines that needed care after SP2 installed automatically (and a repair install fixed the problem; programs and data were just fine afterward, only needed to install Windows updates again), but I don't think any of them had trouble with SP3.

Why don't you open up Task Manager and find out which processes are using the most RAM?
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Tue Jan 01, 2013 2:14 pm

jacrys wrote:
installing sp3 now could really stop system working. just know it. anyway that is really not a point in this thread. thats off topic, waste of time. look at the thread subject above.

Not installing SP3 also runs a serious risk of stopping the system from working due to malware infection.

If you want to figure out what processes are using RAM, use Task Manager as bthylafh suggested. As I already noted, you seem to have a lot of stuff running. RAM usage seems more or less in line with what you've got running. If you want to reduce the RAM usage on startup, figure out what services and auto-run apps you don't need. (Do you really need those license servers running all the time? What the heck is SmartRAM?)

If you really do need all those services, and amount of physical RAM becomes a problem when you start launching applications, the obvious solution is to get more RAM.
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nanoflower
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Tue Jan 01, 2013 4:38 pm

Smart Ram is a program to free up memory (probably by forcing unused programs out of physical memory.) http://blog.iobit.com/smart-ram_602.html

I don't know if this system is or isn't pirated but that's no reason to decide to not install SP3 since that can be installed on any XP system, whether it's pirated or not. Though I would suggest that if a system is running a pirated XP that it be upgrade to Windows 8 as it seems that Microsoft has made the upgrade cheap and they have made Windows 8 a low resource usage OS as well as keeping the responsiveness of Win7.
 
vargis14
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Tue Jan 01, 2013 4:59 pm

Where did the OP go once pirated version of windows came up "poof" he vanished :)
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Tue Jan 01, 2013 5:13 pm

nanoflower wrote:
Smart Ram is a program to free up memory (probably by forcing unused programs out of physical memory.) http://blog.iobit.com/smart-ram_602.html

At the end of the day, 3rd party memory manager tools are often counter-productive; in general you're better off just letting the Windows VM subsystem decide when to move things in/out of RAM. If a program that is loaded into RAM is not being used, Windows will page it out on its own; it doesn't need help from 3rd party tools to do this.

The 3rd party memory manager also takes up some RAM for itself; you'd be better off using the RAM it occupies for stuff you actually use instead of a "tool" of dubious benefit. My recommendation would be to ditch it.

vargis14 wrote:
Where did the OP go once pirated version of windows came up "poof" he vanished :)

No, he posted once since that came up.
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carpo
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Tue Jan 01, 2013 5:16 pm

Listen to the other advices, and update, OP.

If you are so afraid of what might happen - just image the system partition with something - Hirens Boot CD, PartedMagic, System Rescue CD, etc.

This way - if anything goes bad - you can reimage your system partition, and thus revert the updates...

These are security fixes we are talking about here...

And on XP - I personally find sysinternals ProcessExplorer a lot more detailed and generally able - than XP's Task Manager, given its a recent enough version...
 
bthylafh
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Tue Jan 01, 2013 5:31 pm

I'm nobody to give anyone a hard time about pirating Windows. Until I got legal in '09 with Win7 I'd been pirating it for the better part of a decade[1], so I'm not judging you about that -- if that's what's going on.

But yeah, as others have pointed out, using 512MB nowadays isn't surprising. We can't give people machines with WinXP and 512MB anymore because that's just enough to run the operating system and our anti-virus. Even a modern web browser bogs too badly on such a machine. If you can't afford to buy more RAM for the thing, see if any of your friends have the right kind, or if anybody at the local computer club's got any they want to get rid of cheaply.

[1] Mostly I'd been running Debian or Ubuntu Linux in the first half of the last decade, but still dual-booted XP now and again to game.
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c1arity
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Tue Jan 01, 2013 6:13 pm

512mb of RAM usage on a system that isn't a CLEAN install is perfectly normal. Just use msconfig to prevent some of the stuff installed from coming up. If it doesn't prevent it, uninstall the stuff you don't need.

Also, get rid of that advanced systemcare garbage. That's probably the heaviest program running.
 
jacrys
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Thu Jan 03, 2013 11:07 am

@vargis14: i got legal copy of winxp. i bought my thinkpad with os installed.
 
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Thu Jan 03, 2013 11:15 am

jacrys, you're wasting our time here. You're not willing to tell us which programs are taking up how much RAM, so there's no further point in continuing this discussion.
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jacrys
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Thu Jan 03, 2013 11:17 am

@Flying Fox: i do not experience permanent slowdowns. as you can see above i got 1.5 gb ram. system is not paging. sometimes after switching from a big app to a browser it starts slowly. what are those people doing, like dogs fell upon me. can you suggest some tiny tool to bring up some more data, another log, telling more of my system.

you say it is not strange, such memory usage. ok, i started this thread to get some knowledge of maintaining winxp. is that clear?
 
jacrys
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Thu Jan 03, 2013 11:25 am

@bthylafh: you wasting my time too. you should say 'my' instead of 'our'. who are you to say 'us' ? it is not me to say too much offtopic words in this thread. and i can give some more data of my ram usage.
 
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Re: winxp uses 0.5 gb ram on startup

Thu Jan 03, 2013 11:34 am

jacrys wrote:
@vargis14: i got legal copy of winxp. i bought my thinkpad with os installed.

There's absolutely no good reason to not install SP3 then. As already noted, if you are still worried about breaking something make a backup image of the hard drive first. (FWIW the only thing I have ever seen break due to SP3 was some HP printer drivers.)

Getting back to your original question, I think we can summarize as follows:

1. The amount of RAM being used looks reasonable given the number of background services you are loading on startup.

2. If the system is slowing down when running your applications, you need to look at whether this is a RAM issue, CPU issue, or I/O issue. Use Task Manager (or Process Explorer) to figure out whether there's a particular process that is hogging the RAM and/or CPU. Does the hard drive light stay on continuously when the slowdowns occur, indicating an I/O bottleneck?

3. You've got multiple license servers running. Each one of these consumes system resources. Disable any that are for products you no longer use, or that you use only infrequently. You probably ought to ditch Advanced System Care 3 regardless.

I should also point out that there are some suspicious looking files on your system. Rpcapd.exe in particular is a packet sniffer, designed to snoop on network traffic. Unless you intentionally installed this for some reason (why?), I'd say odds are high that you've got a malware infection. Just one more reason that you NEED to install SP3 and run a full malware scan with something like Malwarebytes.
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