Page outs

[tribe3]

Hi guys,

I have a 2.0 HGz 2GB RAM Intel Core Duo MacBook Pro.

For some time now I've been experiencing a problem for the first time in 6 years as a Mac user: I get enormous amounts of page outs. The relation gets to about 50.000 page ins and 200.000 page outs.

I keep open 4 or five apps. : Browser, I use Shiira more than Safari; iPhoto; Microsoft Messenger; sometimes Photoshop CS; Activity Monitor...

I do Permissions repair regularly, I do Onyx every once in a while, I have all my software and firmwares up to date.

I added 1 GB 3rd party RAM (OWC) when I bought it and never had problems. I took the stick out because I was going to send the computer to Apple to have a noisy fan checked out but I finally didn't send it yet because I have a deadline to meet so I installed the RAM back in.

Needless to say is that the book starts to feel very slow and sluggish and when I look I find the pageouts had gone wild.

Any idea, help will be highly appreciated!

 

[CanadaRAM]

The only thing I can think of is that the total software load (plus whatever haxies you have) is consuming more than 2 Gb. Maybe one of your programs has a memory leak and is gobbling RAM?

It doesn't matter how much RAM you have, if you open enough software to go over that amount, you;ll have page outs.

 

[IJ Reilly]

I suspect one application you're using has a bad memory leak. I'd suggest rebooting, then launching Activity Monitor. Try to note when the page-outs start to mount up. You should be able to identify the culprit pretty quickly.

 

[tribe3]

What browser are you guys using or do you recommend? I stopped using Safari because I suspected it had memory leakage but now that you (both)mentioned it, Shiira was using 1.5 GB real memory with 5 tabs active just before I decided to post this SOS.

Thanks for your replies

 

[KD7IWP]

Bad news for me then...

I have 1 gb in my MBP and I am in the same scenario. I never had pageouts EVER on m 1gb powerbook before. So I'm thinking this Intel chip is using way more RAM for me. I just ordered an extra 1 gb, so are you telling me it's not going to solve my problem? Also, I am using iPhoto 06 on this MBP whereas I had iPhoto 05 on my Powerbook and that could be different because my current iPhoto 06 has sometimes used 400+ mb of my RAM where as iPhoto 05 never used that much on my Powerbook.

 

[gnasher729]

I do Permissions repair regularly, I do Onyx every once in a while, I have all my software and firmwares up to date.

Just in case: Do "About this Mac" and check that your Macintosh really thinks it has 1 GB. Some people don't put in their memory sticks correctly and the Mac doesn't work, maybe it is possible to put memory sticks in in a way that they are not even detected.

"Repair permissions" will definitely not affect memory usage. It might fix problems when something doesn't work (unlikely nowadays; I doubt it does much good at all), but memory usage is high because you use applications that use lots of memory.

I know there are some web pages using Flash that use absolutely ridiculous amounts of memory. You could turn "enable plugins" off in Safari; check if that makes a difference. iPhoto will use lots of memory if you have lots of photos, especially if you have tons of high resolution photos (thousands of six megapixel photos). Having applications open doesn't hurt, actually using them simultaneously may hurt.

 

[milozauckerman]

You're running Photoshop through Rosetta, that probably eats up a great deal of RAM.

 

[Lone Deranger]

I concur.... PhotoShop (particularly through Rosetta) gobbles up Ram like nothing else.. Add iPhoto to that, your 1.5GB shiira session and you'll have a good indication of where your problems might be originating from.

btw... My current Safari session (with 5 windows totalling 9 tabs) uses no more than 207.12MB real and 755.58MB Virtual Ram.

 

[Abstract]

Photoshop and MS Messenger are both running under Rosetta. I don't know about Shiira, but I use Firefox (slow) and Camino (better, but you can't move tabs around).

I have a total of 1GB of RAM, but like you, it doesn't seem to be enough. I get around 50 000 pageouts per day at the moment, which is quite a lot. My 12" 1GHz PB with 1.25 GB of RAM never had this many pageouts. I usually get slowdown when I'm running iPhoto. I thought it was either iPhoto being a memory hog, or beacuse I have 7-8 other programs I have running at the same time, and iPhoto puts my computer over the top in terms of RAM usage.

Anyway, I bought a 1 GB stick and expect it next week. I'll have a total of 1.5 GB (512MB stick + 1 GB stick).