Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

My PC is A7V266 w/1GHz Athlon. BIOS is 1002B. The problem probably isn't
with the MB, but you guys probably know the answer - so I'm asking my
question here. My graphics card is ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 9600 Pro. The
ATI multimedia programs like File Player, TV watcher etc., often freeze
during startup. Sometimes they get up and running but they freeze or crash
easily. I noticed there is a serious memory leak indicated by the MS
Windows System Monitor program. The leak starts when I start recording TV,
VCR or other source. Stopping recording does not recover any of the leaked
memory - rebooting is necessary. It leaks about 300 MB of my free memory in
less than 10 minutes. Of course, a crash eventually happens when memory is
down to nothing. The memory is 256MB of PC2100 and 256MB of PC2700. I
removed the PC2700 but got the same result with only the single SDRAM. I
have the latest VIA AGP driver installed. I have been tinkering with this
problem for about 18 months and have tried many things. Maybe I need to
tinker with memory settings in BIOS. I don't know. It could be a thousand
different things. I suspect the memory leak is probably caused by the same
thing causing instability and freezing.

Another wierd symptom: sometimes there are rather long delays after I click
something before the requested action starts happening. An example: I
click to make a DVD movie (in my PC) get displayed on my television set.
Nothing happens. Then after about 2 minutes the movie starts showing on the
television. That was probably due to memory being very low - but I wasn't
monitoring memory at that point so I don't know.

Your suggestions will be appreciated.

TIA. Bill S.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

The memory leak sounds like it is entirely an application software or
perhaps driver issue.
I would check for driver updates and application updates.
Consider using different software entirely.
Solve one problem at a time - work on one at a time.
A h/w or bios issue will not cause a program running inside an operating
system to ask for memory it does not later free. It could, but it would be
easier to win lotto.
Your system may have other issues, but the above sound like such major
issues, that a review would help after they are rectified.

Check for memory stability using memtest86 and system stability using
Prime95.

The program start issues could be for a multitude of reasons. If your system
tests as stable the memory leak problem could cause all sorts of other
issues.

Your BIOS does sound particularly old - if the memory test works out fine
(at least 2 full cycles with 0 errors) then consider upgrading it.

- Tim

"mr.athlon" <mr.correct@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:8ZmdndZgkqmRBH3fRVn-ig@comcast.com...
> My PC is A7V266 w/1GHz Athlon. BIOS is 1002B. The problem probably isn't
> with the MB, but you guys probably know the answer - so I'm asking my
> question here. My graphics card is ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 9600 Pro.
> The
> ATI multimedia programs like File Player, TV watcher etc., often freeze
> during startup. Sometimes they get up and running but they freeze or
> crash
> easily. I noticed there is a serious memory leak indicated by the MS
> Windows System Monitor program. The leak starts when I start recording
> TV,
> VCR or other source. Stopping recording does not recover any of the
> leaked
> memory - rebooting is necessary. It leaks about 300 MB of my free memory
> in
> less than 10 minutes. Of course, a crash eventually happens when memory
> is
> down to nothing. The memory is 256MB of PC2100 and 256MB of PC2700. I
> removed the PC2700 but got the same result with only the single SDRAM. I
> have the latest VIA AGP driver installed. I have been tinkering with this
> problem for about 18 months and have tried many things. Maybe I need to
> tinker with memory settings in BIOS. I don't know. It could be a
> thousand
> different things. I suspect the memory leak is probably caused by the
> same
> thing causing instability and freezing.
>
> Another wierd symptom: sometimes there are rather long delays after I
> click
> something before the requested action starts happening. An example: I
> click to make a DVD movie (in my PC) get displayed on my television set.
> Nothing happens. Then after about 2 minutes the movie starts showing on
> the
> television. That was probably due to memory being very low - but I wasn't
> monitoring memory at that point so I don't know.
>
> Your suggestions will be appreciated.
>
> TIA. Bill S.
>
>

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

Mercury wrote:

> Your BIOS does sound particularly old - if the memory test works out
> fine (at least 2 full cycles with 0 errors) then consider upgrading
> it.

Latest is to be found here:
ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/ [...] 66/A7V266/