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Possible memory leak? Game practically locks my computer
wombat140
Member Posts: 971 Arc User
Recently, the game has been pushing my computer's RAM capacity to the limit, to the point where the computer is often practically locked. Sometimes it doesn't do it, for some reason, but mostly it does. This is not the texture bug, as far as I can tell. (I did get that once, in Starfleet Academy, at the same time as this was happening, but haven't seen it since.)
I know that sounds like my laptop just hasn't got enough RAM, but the thing is that it didn't do this until recently and the computer hasn't changed that I know of. It wasn't a problem until Season 8.5, or possibly Season 8 but if so it's definitely got worse since 8.5. Can it really be possible that 8.5 uses that much more memory than 8 and 7? Somebody suggested that it might be a memory leak, possibly connected to the graphics card. If so, can it be fixed?
The game currently uses 700MB of memory at good times (it seems to clear up slightly when between maps), rising to about 770MB most of the time. How does that compare to what other people are getting?
Spec:
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU, 2.00GHz, 2 Cores.
2GB RAM.
Windows Vista Home Premium.
Graphics card, if I'm reading System Information correctly, is "Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family", "Adapter RAM 829MB".
I know that sounds like my laptop just hasn't got enough RAM, but the thing is that it didn't do this until recently and the computer hasn't changed that I know of. It wasn't a problem until Season 8.5, or possibly Season 8 but if so it's definitely got worse since 8.5. Can it really be possible that 8.5 uses that much more memory than 8 and 7? Somebody suggested that it might be a memory leak, possibly connected to the graphics card. If so, can it be fixed?
The game currently uses 700MB of memory at good times (it seems to clear up slightly when between maps), rising to about 770MB most of the time. How does that compare to what other people are getting?
Spec:
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU, 2.00GHz, 2 Cores.
2GB RAM.
Windows Vista Home Premium.
Graphics card, if I'm reading System Information correctly, is "Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family", "Adapter RAM 829MB".
Post edited by wombat140 on
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Comments
Is it only STO that locks up? Or actually the whole thing (Windows included)?
Having only 2GB and an Intel graphics card is somewhat touching the lower limit of the game.
If it's your machine, there could be two or three reasons able of causing this.
A) Your video drivers might be out of date (my laptop was more then fine, but sometimes that thing just dragged and puffed, etc... Up until I updated my drivers)
You might want to use Speedfan while playing to see the actual temperature while under load (above 90C is pretty hot).
If you believe temperature isn't the problem, and you're at least a bit tech savvy, try out Hirens Boot CD. Hiren CD is like a techie's swiss knife; you can load up a mobile XP (mini-xp) where you can do benchmarks, memorychecks and virusscans, without your actual windows locking up files and such...
I call it, the Stoutes paradox.
So out of your 2GB of RAM, 829MB has already been set aside for the chip set graphics system...
They say that with Windows Vista, you need at least 4GB of RAM to have a stable system...
It's Windows that locks up, not just the game - while it's doing that, everything slows down to a crawl, including any other programs that are running, such as Firefox. I'll try out those suggestions.
As for Windows Vista needing at least 4GB of RAM... huh. The laptop was sold with Windows Vista and 2GB RAM. Looks like I've been had, eh? Although it does run perfectly well with everything else. You're sure the 829MB isn't the video card's own memory?
Intel Express is a Mobile Motherboard chipset (since Intel itself does not sell stand alone graphic cards for laptops) and shares system RAM with the CPU...
You might want to check to see if the laptop RAM can be upgraded through an additional SO-DIMM memory card. This would be much less expensive then purchasing a new laptop...
When the game freezes and I check with the task manager it say unresponsive, so I just end the process and reboot the game client.
My system uses windows 7 32bit/amd Athlon 7550 dual core processor 2.5GHz/3GB ram and HD space is 238/286, so plenty of empty HD space left.
GPU is a Galaxy Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 1024MB/MO GDDR5
This has only become an issue since S8 launched, and hasn't stopped yet. :mad:
So far I have managed to eliminate my freezing issue with defragmenting the computer's files, but will keep my fingers crossed and see if it still happens.
EDIT: Still seems to happen. :mad:
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
The problem with the disk accessing now also persists even after I exit STO, forcing me to usually have to turn the machine off and on again to clear it. It only happens with STO, and so far nothing with Champions Online and Neverwinter, or other programs/games.
I have exhausted all possible options on my end to see if there's any problems with my machine and I, nor anyone else whose tried to help, can find anything wrong. The task manager wasn't showing any other unusual processes at the times this happens either.
My system is:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Pentium Dual-Core CPU E6500 @ 2.93 GHz x2
8.00 GB Ram
GeForce GTX 650 Ti
Commanding Officer: Captain Pyotr Ramonovich Amosov
Dedication Plaque: "Nil Intentatum Reliquit"
Also, has the amount of RAM the game needs increased seriously in the last one or two Seasons? It used to cope all right. Thanks for the advice, grouchyotaku.
The introduction of 'HUGE' maps such as New Romulus, the Spire, and the Battlezone has increased the amount of textures and graphics map data that has to be available for the graphics card to use...
Mine will run anywhere from 700-900mb according to the task manager.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
From what I have read up on this subject, it is not uncommon for memory leakage to become prudent when dealing with such vast file streaming.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
Rare one - the game run slow and find arc using 25% of cpu time. Once started arc isn't even required to continue playing, shame windows ctrl-alt-delete is so slow these days.
More often is locking down of the machine when the game starts, which takes quite a while to clear, thats with 8GB ram
I have started having a similar problem and it only happens with STO. On 2 occasions the computer locked up completely. It started happening after Season 8. Hmm after I gave Arc a try in fact. I have a similar set up as yours except:
16.00 GB RAM
RADEON HD 7900 2GB
It is very annoying. The other day the game locked up moments after I beamed down to Starfleet Academy.
By the way:
I can't work out how to download/burn the bootable CD from that page. Can you explain please? I could do with a bootable CD - I make a disk image backup (using DriveImager XML, which is included on that CD apparently) before doing anything drastic to the computer, but I've recently realised that without a bootable CD I couldn't restore from the image if anything did go wrong!
If you want to use Hiren Boot CD; first of all, you don't have to worry about if something drastic would happen. It actually works as a seperate "instance".
First of all, the actual Hiren download can be found here.
There are two ways to boot from this "CD";
By burning it on a disc.
Or putting it on a USB drive.
As soon as you boot up from that disk, you get a choice of what you want to start. Choose "Mini XP". This will start a Windows XP in your computer memory. As soon as it's started you will have the ability to open the hiren console. Within this console you would be able to choose any program offered.
I call it, the Stoutes paradox.