What do you think of TweakXP or similar software?

[buildingit]

Hi, I was wondering if you think $50 Can is worth it for TweakXP? Do you think TweakXP is good?

I am looking for a software that can free up Ram (optimise the RAM - 'to reorganise the physical RAM and release as much RAM as possible')- it's a problem with Itunes memory usage and apparently this works.

If you know of freeware that can do this, that would be great.

Thanx!

[EzyStvy]

Optimising the RAM software is pure junk and not worth it even when you get it free.

[Fatality]

I use this program to free up RAM after playing a game or after bootup. You can try it, it's virus-free and takes up minimal space. http://www.download.com/3000-2086-10070530.html

[glc]

That's Free RAM XP Pro - it does work and it is free. I would advise you to set it to NOT load with Windows or run in the background - just use it manually when needed.

You have 1.5gb physical ram? What are your virtual memory (pagefile) settings? How often do you defrag your hard drive?

[buildingit]

Thank you for the link, I downloaded it yesterday but was too chciken to press "go". I have since discovered that many other Itunes users are having this problem but still only less than 5% of windows users and there seems to be no answer. I am not sure anymore if it is Ram after installing this FreeRam- it shows that I am never using more than about 50% of my Ram and about 95-99% of my virtual memory is free. I had this application open at the same time Itunes was freezing on me and no spikes in Ram usage just 100% CPU.

My pagefile.sys is 2GB, is that what you meant?

I just formatted my disk and installed my os 2 days ago, I defragged when done- I am now at 5% fragmentation after one day's use.My disk is 40GB, 30GB are free.

I was looking at the task manager, it says my MFT (master file table) is 99% in use. Is that ok? My pagefile.sys has 1 fragment.

I was thinking Ram because the way Itunes freezes my whole computer feels just the way Windows 3.1 use to feel with it's swapfiles and hang ups etc.

ITunes freezes when changing focus to outside Itunes. Also after playing about 5 songs within ITunes. The CPU spikes to 100% at these times and even the mouse is unresponsive. I was looking at Windows Explorer at these times and a tmp file - a copy- of the Itunes database xml file is written and then erased- it appears and then almost instaneously dissappears at the exact same time the CPU is spiking and the freeze is on. My xml file is only 5MB. I turned off my antivirus scanning of xml files with little improvement.

Anyway **sigh** I really think it's a programming error. People with 3.0 GHz P4's are having this problem. There seems to rhyme or reason as to what system it happens to. For me, it has been going on for menths, just getting worse.

Thisngs are better after I reboot. Or defrag. Or quit and restart Itunes. But whatever garbage is going on, it starts piling up and it starts gettting worse within minutes.

The fact that the xml database is 5MB and it is being copied instaneously to hard disk and then erased...... well, I don't know why they are having to write the tmp file to disk- while they are updating the main file. My hard disk buffer on this drive is only 2 MB. I don't know if that has anything to do with it. Itunes will not let me change the location of the xml file- it goes on the OS disk. My larger disk has a 16MB buffer but I would have to install my OS on it.


Anyway, thanx for the help.I am not sure this one can be solved. Apple has had more than enough time to correct this.

[buildingit]

well, I am pretty sure I have found what it is. I did ask my antivirus not to real time scan xml files and it doesn't scan itl files but it must have been scanning them anyway. If I turn of real time scanning althogether, those temp files are not being created and althought the cpu spikes, it is very fast and no hang up occurs. It makes sense that the antivirus software was making the temp files and not ITunes- I can't imagine ITunes being that sloppy. I know this post doesn't belong in XP anymore, feel free to delete it, THanks

[glc]

What antivirus are you using?

[kev7555]

GLC---If I remember right from last week's post in Drives and Storage, she was using Shaw-secure, a program from her ISP. I advised removing all ISP software and going to our (meaning the stuff you and I use) basic security package but I have not heard if she did so...


Catherine-

I suspected from the beginning that this may be a conflict with ISP software or the antivirus/security program that is running. You may wish to go back to our original conversation about this in the "Why are my Itunes running slow" thread from last week.


-Kev