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RAM Charger 8 For Macintosh
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System Bar Growing


 

(Tech0024A -- 04/28/98)

 

If you are running RAM Charger 8 and you system grows then this would probably be the result of some particular application using "Temporary memory". More About This Mac is unable to track "Temporary memory" at this point, and thus it is shown in the System Bar. In OS 8, and not before, the Finder's About This Mac is able to track some "Temporary memory" usage and assign it to the appropriate application. However, even OS 8 Finder's About This Mac cannot track all this sort of usage (specifically, code fragments stored in resources, a technique used by Office 98).

The bottom line is that some memory may used by applications, but not attributed to them in About This Mac. Instead, the memory is shown in the system bar. As a result, the only sure way to determine what is up is to monitor you memory as each application is started and shut down. Doing this in combination with More About This Mac "View:by Location in Memory" and the Finder's About This Mac should enable you to determine the responsible application in specific cases worth investigating.

Also, some application(s) may actually cause your system to grow, and it may not shrink back down when the application(s) are quit. For example, starting Word may cause your system to grow as a result of loading in Fonts which are still of value after Word is quit. This sort of growth is normal. Your system starts out as trim as it can, but may grow somewhat as you operate and more things are kept in memory which have been used and may be used again.

In specific, Office 98 and Netscape are known to use memory that is not always shown in their bars in About This Mac.

Conclusion

About This Mac is not God's word. Though it shows the truth in most cases, it does not always attribute memory usage to the appropriate place. When the user of memory is not known, it will be added into the "system" memory; this does not change the fact that some applications may in fact be responsible for the memory usage. When some symptom introduces doubt, the only way to know for sure what applications are responsible is to monitor Total Unused Memory before, during, and after using one particular application.

 



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Copyright © 1995-98 Jump Development Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Jump, OptiMem, RAM Charger, and More About This Mac are trademarks of Jump Development Group, Inc. Apple and Macintosh are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.