j7n Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 I am experiencing poor disk or cache performance after Windows XP has been up for 20 or more days. Loading a web browser now takes a long time, during which there is unusually heavy disk access. System has 3 GB of RAM, out of which 1 to 2 GB is in use. An unfragmented 2 GB Swap file (partition) is also enabled. Rebooting the system greatly improves performance, compared to closing all processes and reopening them. Is it possible to flush the cache without a reboot, or tweak it so that the problem doesn't occur? Some stats about current memory usage Under System->Performance I have currently set: Adjust for best performance of: Background services Memory usage: Programs UpTime 5802845 sec (67 days, 3 hours, 54 min, 5 sec) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryTri Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 Is it so difficult to reboot once in a while (recommended)? 67 days? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda43 Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 Unless this is a specially built SERVER, it was never designed to run 24x7.Home PC's are built with Hobby Grade components specified for a minimal duty cycle of maybe 8 hours a day, followed by a shutdown.There are actually things in Windows that can only be done during the shutdown procedure, like re-writing the registry to the hard drive.As witness by the OP, the longer a system is left running, the more negative the performance. (that goes all the way back to the early days of the IBM PC)Even if the PC is used for receiving Fax's and needs to be left on Overnight, it should be taken down once a day anyway.Just sayin' B) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 Even if the PC is used for receiving Fax's and needs to be left on Overnight, it should be taken down once a day anyway.I will re-state how I run an install of NT 4.00 since more than 10 (ten) years 24/7 and the reboots are made only for maintenance purposes, probably less than 4 per year.The only issue I had, and that somehow was solved (though I cannot really say how exactly) some years ago by tweaking some registry entry was a "strange" accumulation of mouse movements (the machine actually runs almost exclusively a "DOS" program, in which interaction is through the keyboard only) which made after several months the mouse unresponsive.Of course NT has less services than XP running (and most probably I actually disabled what I do not need), but still the "reboot once a day is needed" is way more than needed IMHO.Apart that machine, my "everyday use" PC is also not switched off/rebooted often, i.e at stretches comparable with the 60 days or so, but I did never notice such a degradation in performance. jaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j7n Posted February 11, 2014 Author Share Posted February 11, 2014 I eventually got to reboot the computer. It feels much 'snappier' now, for a lack of a better term. I have 2 desktop computers running 50-150 days without between reboots. They're stable. Except this issue that when they have to access lots of files from a hard disk, they behave as if out of memory: unresponsive and writing to the disk a lot. I'll keep investigating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinifera Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 (edited) IMO removing swap file would prevent this behaviorand you have enough RAM to compensate lack of swap fileeven tho its on its own partition its a still constant needle jumping all around (I assume you don' have SSD)and windows always is trashing something into swap file Edited February 11, 2014 by vinifera Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponch Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 Unless this is a specially built SERVER, it was never designed to run 24x7.Home PC's are built with Hobby Grade components specified for a minimal duty cycle of maybe 8 hours a day, followed by a shutdown.I doubt the quality of the hardware components are in any way "reset" by a shutdown/reboot. It's a software problem, well known with Windows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 Maybe this helps , since the dawn of time I setup Windows NT's with the swap file as "Manual" (aka non Windows managed), FIXED size and on it's own partition (wherever possible also on a different disk drive).jaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomasz86 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 (edited) How about the HDD itself? Is it full and / or heavily fragmented? Is it in good condition (SMART, temperature, etc.)? I also don't reboot my Windows XP at all unless absolutely necessary, and use hibernation instead of shutting down so it's basically equal to being on 24/7. No performance issues here. Edited February 13, 2014 by tomasz86 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROTS Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 I know XP accesses part of the Hard drive ( that 9x does not ) I do not know if this is with all NT platforms, but XP seems to do alot of heavy loading. The "Sleep" feature is meant to be used with hardware that supports it, granted keeping a computer on 24/7 and treating it like a workstation, means you have to respect the hardware. 9x, XP, WV , W8, ME, 2000, NT all have sleep, but is the hardware meant for it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TELVM Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 ... Is it possible to flush the cache without a reboot ... ?From Vista onwards that can be done with Sysinternals RAMmap clicking on 'Empty' => 'Empty Standby List' .Most unfortunately RAMmap doesn't run on XP . You may try this: ClearMem.exe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJARRRPCGP Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 ClearMem is so old school that it appears to have a compatibility issue with more than about 512 MB of RAM installed.It's from the Windows 3.1x period, LOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jody Thornton Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 Is it so difficult to reboot once in a while (recommended)? 67 days? Windows 9x/Me were the last operating environments that I needed to ever do that with. Most NT class operating systems usually can stay up and running for three weeks plus, maybe even lots longer. I only restart after Patch Tuesday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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