I understand this is a problem with this version.I have to reboot my pc once a day to clear out the buffer since if I don't do this after a couple of days all my available memory plus my cache will fill up.Closing down boinc with not fix this problem only a reboot will fix it.
I am using windows xp with 4 gigs of ram and an i7 2.80 gigahertz processor.
As an example I rebooted my pc last night.I use generally about 1.5 gigs of ram.Before I rebooted tonight I was up to 3.5 gigs of ram used.This is a daily problem I deal with.I currently has boinc to run from 5 am to 5 pm daily so I can fully use the pc at night.Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Which projects are you attached to and from which do you have work?
Which projects run when the memory leaking happens?
When you exit BOINC, do you also exit the science applications? Or do you only exit BOINC Manager, but the rest stays running? (Check in Windows task manager->Processes tab)

Running an i7 on Windows XP is almost blasphemy. Why be so skint, why not upgrade to Windows 7 - 64bit? Is this XP then in the least fully updated to the last monthly updates?

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Additionally:
Which processes in your system do leak memory, and approx. at which rate? (You could find out with TaskManager, but ProcessExplorer (set to 10 sec update speed) could be more convenient - you could see the memory consumption of single processes as graphs.)

Peter

I am linking to 6 projects seti@home,Rosetta@home,NFS@home,GPUGRID,Primegrid and NFS@home.The ram leakage appears to depend on how many processes are completed during the day.Using Taskmanager I show that 2.6 Gigs of memory is currently being committed as being unavailable.If I shutdown down the BONIC manager which at this time the processes are suspended for the night the used ram goes down about 50 megs also none of the science applications are showing up in the processes list in Taskmanager.
This version of Windows XP is fully updated.


As to using windows XP,funny you should mention that as I have been trying to upgrade to vista for 5 or 6 times and I keep getting a "windows could not update the computer's boot configuration" error message during the upgrade process which stops at that point. I hope to upgrade to Windows 7 after I find a solution to my upgrade problem.

As to using windows XP,funny you should mention that as I have been trying to upgrade to vista for 5 or 6 times and I keep getting a "windows could not update the computer's boot configuration" error message during the upgrade process which stops at that point. I hope to upgrade to Windows 7 after I find a solution to my upgrade problem.

Ever seen and tried the solutions from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931697 ??

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As to using windows XP,funny you should mention that as I have been trying to upgrade to vista for 5 or 6 times and I keep getting a "windows could not update the computer's boot configuration" error message during the upgrade process which stops at that point. I hope to upgrade to Windows 7 after I find a solution to my upgrade problem.


Ever seen and tried the solutions from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931697 ??

I tried the above Microsoft solution but it didn't work for me.

I have to reboot my pc once a day to clear out the buffer since if I don't do this after a couple of days all my available memory plus my cache will fill up.Closing down boinc with not fix this problem only a reboot will fix it.

I am using windows xp with 4 gigs of ram... I use generally about 1.5 gigs of ram.Before I rebooted tonight I was up to 3.5 gigs of ram used.This is a daily problem I deal with.

I am linking to 6 projects seti@home,Rosetta@home,NFS@home,GPUGRID,Primegrid and NFS@home.The ram leakage appears to depend on how many processes are completed during the day.Using Taskmanager I show that 2.6 Gigs of memory is currently being committed as being unavailable.If I shutdown down the BONIC manager which at this time the processes are suspended for the night the used ram goes down about 50 megs also none of the science applications are showing up in the processes list in Taskmanager.

I believe you should clarify first, because you are mentioning both terms... Are you talking about large amounts of used RAM (off the 4 GB installed), as seen e.g. in the Task Manager's "Physical Memory Usage Graph" (sorry, you are on XP, there is the Committed memory displayed; I'd really like to know, why the hell does it display physical RAM on Vista and 7, damn...), or large amounts of committed memory (approx. = RAM + pagefile)?

If you are really meaning RAM, then (unless some science application would be intentionally locking large amount of RAM for its exclusive use, which is off course doable, but you would be able to notice it) this is managed solely by the OS and there is not much BOINC (apps) can do with it, except not computing and sitting idle.

I'd again recommend you taking a look on your system memory through the eyes of Process Explorer (eventually Process Hacker or any other similar tool). The processes' memory usage graphs will tell more than a lot of words...

Peter

As I said I have 4 gigs of physical ram,xp uses part of it so I have actually have 3.2 gigs of usable ram.As far committed memory when I check the windows task manager It ranges from 2.8 to as high as 6.5 gigs.I normally use about 1.5 gigs.I am watching it more closely so I check it daily.
I am doing an experiment,I have suspended all projects but one which I will rotate daily by unsuspending a different project each day and monitoring the memory usage. I should have a good idea which project may be causing or be a prime suspect in the cause of the memory leakage.

I've maybe overlooked it, but you've still not stated, whether you think your processes are leaking the committed memory, or using too much RAM. I think you mean the RAM.

If it helps you - in the past, I've been often reading complaints on how Windows badly manages its RAM, it was often said that it "still leaves a lot of RAM unused". In contrast, those peoples were praising Linux for "using as much RAM as possible (for caching and in order to use as less swap as possible), leaving 0 of it unused".

The RAM is in your computer to be utilized. Be not worried if Windows really uses it, as much as possible. If the system does not thrash memory, then everything's fine.

If I had enough RAM, I would maybe switch the page file off completely. (I've no idea if it is still possible with Win7. At least I've been occasionally doing it on WinXP in the (dark) past (when there was no BOINC yet). Just that I had to observe its usage very closely, because after accidentally approaching its limits, some processes immediately evaporated :-)

Peter

I read a message that was I believe was posted last fall with the same problem but the only answer at that time was it was a known problem with the latest version of Boinc but could be be duplicated. I was hpoing that posting that I have the same problem will help pin the cause down.
BTW so far in my little experiment by unsuspending one project at a time and leaving all the other projects suspended I have the following results after running Boinc for 12 hours each day, Rosetta@home 2.6 gigs total memory committed and NFS 2.9 gigs of ram committed. I close Boinc down and make sure no projects are still showing up in ram in the task manager before I check the ram.

[...]I was hpoing that posting that I have the same problem will help pin the cause down.
BTW so far in my little experiment by unsuspending one project at a time and leaving all the other projects suspended I have the following results after running Boinc for 12 hours each day, Rosetta@home 2.6 gigs total memory committed and NFS 2.9 gigs of ram committed. I close Boinc down and make sure no projects are still showing up in ram in the task manager before I check the ram.

OK. From my point of view, I could be helpful, if I'd understand, whether you mean "Committed memory" (combined RAM + paging file) (or "Commit Charge", named also "Virtual memory size" in WinXP Task Manager or "Private memory") or "RAM memory" ("Physical Memory", named "Working Set" or "Memoru usage" in the list of processes). You should start to distinguish these terms. (The problem is also that their naming is changing in different Task Manager versions. I'd again recommend you trying some better application then Task Manager.)

If you would like to continue with experiments, then you have to observe both values. At best for all processes, which belong to BOINC. And both values for the overall system memory.

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An example from my AQUA process roqs_0.08_windows_x86_64__mt1.exe:

It was running a couple of hours and is sitting now idle, preempted by other tasks. It has currently allocated 756 184 KB of memory (it's maximum since the process started 3 1/2 days ago was 756 216 KB). This is mostly virtual memory - while used, it resides in RAM, otherwise she OS can (partially) shift it into page file, when some amounts are more useful for other running processes.

While the process is running and actively uses a lot of memory, the system will copy its parts from page file in RAM. My AQUA process was probably actively using most of its allocated memory and (at its best times) the OS has allocated it 741 016 KB RAM - this is the highest observed value - Peak Working Set.

But while it is idle for a longer time (and there is lack of RAM in the system), majority of its memory will (as mentioned before) be just in the page file. Currently my AQUA has just 3 552 KB of RAM assigned, because other processes are utilizing it better.

I wrote before:

[...] some science application (c)ould be intentionally locking large amount of RAM for its exclusive use, which is off course doable, but you would be able to notice it [...]

This is the process' Private Working Set. My AQUA process' has just 3 136 KB locked for its exclusive use. But sometimes processes really lock a lot of memory and the OS is then unable to share the amount of RAM with other processes. An example could be my Einstein process einsteinbinary_BRP3_1.05_windows_intelx86__BRP3SSE.exe - from the memory it uses, it has locked 214 992 KB RAM for its exclusive use. Thus, even when it sits idle and the system has lack of RAM, Einstein's RAM usage would for sure not sink under this value.

Peter

What I mean is physical memory plus the virtual page or you can interpret it as you stated "the combined memory plus the virtual page file".

What I mean is physical memory plus the virtual page or you can interpret it as you stated "the combined memory plus the virtual page file".

OK. Then you are indeed not talking about RAM usage.

Some projects need much more memory, than others. E.g. Rosettas at least 200-300 MB, not sure with other projects you've listed (btw. NFS@home is twice there). If you multiple it with 8 cores, + system and other applications...

How large is your Page file? It could be possible you simply need to enlarge it. Observe occasionally your Commit Charge Peak value in the Task Manager. If it will often approach the Commit Charge Limit value, then you have not enough available memory for your typical workload and have to increase it (add RAM or enlarge the pagefile).

Peter

My pc virtual memory file 6.4 gigs.

My pagefile is 4.2 GB (now automatically set by the OS, on past systems I've been always setting it manually and pretty high), + 4 GB RAM gives roughly 8.2 GB commit limit. This often seems to be not enough (6.5 GB is required just now, "merely" 1.566 GB out of it is the sum for all BOINC-related processes), a week ago it was once nearly 15 GB.

The longer the system runs, the more gets allocated... Use the "Swap space: use at most xx% of total" and "Memory: use at most xx% of total" preferences to limit BOINC's memory requirements. Then you can (occasionally or periodically) check, whether BOINC obeys the limits. There is also one debugging flag for the client to periodically log its memory usage (it writes a lot long-term, but is necessary to use it for any serious complaints). The remaining applications running in the system... depends on your workload.

Peter

I checked to see what my Boinc disk and memory preferences were. Here is what I found.



Disk and memory usage
Disk: use at most 2 GB
Disk: leave free at least
Values smaller than 0.001 are ignored 0.001 GB
Disk: use at most 50% of total
Tasks checkpoint to disk at most every 60 seconds
Swap space: use at most 75% of total
Memory: when computer is in use, use at most 50% of total
Memory: when computer is not in use, use at most 70% of total

I am using windows xp with 4 gigs of ram ...

My pc virtual memory file 6.4 gigs.

When the pagefile.sys is 6.4 gigs, then the whole combined available virtual memory (commit charge limit) should be around 10.4 gigs.

I checked to see what my Boinc disk and memory preferences were. Here is what I found.
[...]
Swap space: use at most 75% of total
Memory: when computer is in use, use at most 50% of total
Memory: when computer is not in use, use at most 70% of total

Well... then you can expect BOINC using up to 7.8 gigs of the whole (virtual, commit charge) memory, using up to 2.0-2.8 gigs of RAM. Or, you should set your settings lower, if you do not like it this way.

Peter

My pc virtual memory file 6.4 gigs.

On Windows XP? The maximum page file you can set there on any one disk is 4096MB, as that's the maximum memory address you can fill under any 32bit operating system. Even if you add more, it isn't used. Windows cannot use it, it won't be able to address any memory address, real or virtual over 0xFFFFFFFF --even with PAE or Physical Address Extension enabled.

You need 4-Gigabyte Tuning, as else your maximum virtual memory use is 2GB for apps and 2GB for the system.
You also need to be starting with the PAE extension as else you can only use a maximum of 2 to 3.5GB of RAM.

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My pc virtual memory file 6.4 gigs.

On Windows XP? The maximum page file you can set there on any one disk is 4096MB, as that's the maximum memory address you can fill under any 32bit operating system. [...]

I beg to disagree... The 2 to 3.5 GB address space limit is for a single process. The pagefile is used for all processes and its size is possibly limited to 4GB on a Fat32 file system. But definitely not on NTFS, because I've been using larger pagefiles on it.

Peter

Here are the results of my experiment this week.
Rosetta 2.6 gigs
NFS 2.9 gigs
Milkway 2.1 gigs
SETI 2.9 gigs
GPUGRID 2.9 gigs
Primegrid 2.4 gigs

This is total committed memory after I shutdown the Boinc program after running 12 hours.

It seems to be across the board problem with the Boinc software itself since when I run all the projects simultaneous the memory leak increases as more processes are completed by each project.It really came to my attention when I received a low memory message from windows and when I checked the task manager it showed that I was using more than 6.5 gigs. I was hoping this problem may be fixed the next version the BOINC program. BTW If I had not said I am using version 6.10.58 of the BOINC program.