need for tweaking - what is the ideal RAM amount?

[ipaq_wannabe]

with the latest PPCs today only having about 64MB RAM - tweaking your PPC to squeeze out every last ounce of RAM becomes more important than ever...

my ol' PPC - a WM2003 Loox 610 QVGA (WiFi/BT) had about 128MB of RAM (aside from the FileStore/BIS), and I was sometimes troubled on what to do with the remaining RAM (Program Memory)

but with my present PPC (age: 7 days), an Axim x50v, which has only 64MB of Main RAM - i really feel the pinch - installing most of my apps in BIS/SD card, and thus reducing overall system performance

nevertheless i have managed to keep it at having a PROGRAM MEMORY of 47MB, and about 26MB unused after a soft reset (Today plugins, etc. are all loaded in)...

but how 'bout you people? what would be the ideal memory percentage of your WM2003SE devices?

thanks!!

[Menneisyys]

installing most of my apps in BIS/SD card, and thus reducing overall system performance


RFelocating apps doesn't necessarily result in reduced performance. It's only with some programs (for example, Netfront, which, by default, keeps its cache in its home directory - that is, on the memory card, if you install it there) that the performance difference becomes staggering.

Actually, in some cases, relocating everything into flash ROM may even increase performance because it frees up RAM. And, the less files stored in RAM, the better the performance (WinCE is very sensible to the number of files in main RAM). You may want to check out some of the related benchmarks on my homepage osee my sig).

[jimski]

I have the 128MB RAM upgrade from PPC Techs on my hx4705 and generally keep about 72MB allocated to Program Memory. Even so, when I get to around 28-30MB in use, my PPC starts to get a bit sluggish. At 35MB in use, I nearly comes to a complete stop and usually need a asoft reset to gain back available memory.

So at least based on the WM2003SE OS, allocating more than 30 or 40MB is unnecessary. Hopefully WM5 will improve memory allocation.

FYI, I have 54MB allocated to Storage Memory, with about 39MB in use, split between the My Documents folder and apps that just prefer to be in RAM. Most of my other apps are loaded into File Store.

[Kowalski]

here is my opinion: 64 megs of ram is enough for 99% of users.
i have more than 45 megs of ram avaible. 10 megs is used as storage space, the os takes 10 megs after a soft reset, this leaves me more than 25 megs to operate programs.

i have never seen the system uses more than 20-25 megs of program memory.

my system is solid stable

[ipaq_wannabe]

so, basically, a 64MB MAIN memory PDA like the x50v would have about 40MB allocated to the Program Area, and have about 25MB remaining after a soft reset (ie., when youlopen the PDA at the beginning of the day)

is this correct to assume?

thanks!!

[Patrick Y.]

nevertheless i have managed to keep it at having a PROGRAM MEMORY of 47MB, and about 26MB unused after a soft reset (Today plugins, etc. are all loaded in)...

I think it is more than enough...

[ipaq_wannabe]

the reason i ask this questions is that (based on my posts in other threads) inspite of having around 47/46MB RAM allocated to Program Memory (26MB free) - sometimes it takes forever (as in literally forever) for applications to run... the hourglass just stays there - and only a soft reset could cure this hiccup

[Patrick Y.]

I read your other post, and I don't think the problem is caused by insufficient RAM.

[ipaq_wannabe]

I read your other post, and I don't think the problem is caused by insufficient RAM.

yes, i think that was a good call - as of yesterday i have reinstalled/configured everything from a voluntary hard reset

so far, so good...

i wonder which app was the culprit (or at least causing a conflict), though: I removed UpTime, WorldMate 2004 Standard (VGA non-compatible), NetFront 3.2, and ButtonMax...

hhhmmm...

[Patrick Y.]

I think you should keep an eye on background processes. My recommendation is to use PHM taskmanager, Airscanner process manager, or ItaskMgr + (all FREE) to observe the running processes. Try disabling some third-party processes and see what happens. If you have time, maybe you can also install applications one at time to seek out the troublemaker.

[ipaq_wannabe]

okay - after about 21 hours since using it from a fresh state (installed apps, and configurations), it happened again ---> my first soft-reset... with PlanMaker (the Excel for handhelds) - which is installed in an SD card.

and it would seem that the main culprit could either be bad memory management in the OS, or poorly developed software.

upon checking the support forums for PlanMaker, it seems that it needs a contiguous amount of RAM.

okay - so i check my RAM amount before running PlanMaker, and it is about 25MB free (out of 46MB). unfortunately, the hourglass just stayed there (how long do you usually consider when something freezes? is there a general rule of thumb?).

note: i was only running QMail, PI 2005, and the built-in Memopad

of course, i never bothered to wait more than a minute, and soft reset... and this time, the app works perfectly fine.

i think to myself - c'mmon, amongst 25MB free RAM, the software couldnt find a continguous set of memory?

[Patrick Y.]

There may be some background processes that's causing the problem. Try disabling third-party processes and see what happens.

[ipaq_wannabe]

i just did some testing, and it seems that i could now reproduce the problem 90% of the app... and it seems to be pointing to an app called "QMail" (you could call it somewhat of a Japanese WebIS Mail).

my guess is that the mail folder of QMail is configured to the SD card (the app is stored in BIS), and the app that always crash is PlanMaker, which is stored in BIS (documents are in the SD card).

so, what i am assuming is that QMail, upon exit, is not releasing the "locks" to the SD card, and thus NOT making it available for PlanMaker.

a second culprit could be PI 2005 (program is stored in BIS) because ive have had a test case wherein PI was ON, and PlanMaker crashed.

[Patrick Y.]

Congradulations on finding the troublemaker. :mrgreen: