Because my life wasn't hard enough

[cleolinda]

Okay. We had a thunderstorm yesterday that, despite being mild by all appearances, knocked out the neighborhood's power for four hours and killed our internet until about an hour ago. In the meantime, my computer itself has been flipping out for the last week or so--it keeps crashing (once or twice a day; I've been logging off and/or shutting it down two or three times a day in an attempt to avoid this, whereas I used to leave the computer on all the time) and saying that it doesn't have "sufficient quota" to do anything, which, given that I have 38% of a 150 GB hard drive free with the RAM necessary to run it, I don't know how that's possible. It's like there's something running in the background, maybe, that's sucking up all the resources, but we don't know what it is. I thought maybe it was the wifi itself, because the day of installation was exactly the day the problems started, but the Charter people are disavowing any knowledge or possibility of such a problem. I've run virus scans and not found any. Something is slowing the computer down and eating up resources, but I can't figure out what. And it's so bad now that it won't even let me log onto the computer (not the internet, the computer) under my own user profile--it's making me use the default user profile with no desktop wallpaper, no preferences, no bells and whistles.

The Charter people are suggesting that I reformat my hard drive (sigh), and if I do that, I have a friend I'm going to get over here to do that, because that's not something I'm fooling with by myself. The computer itself suggested that I "disable BIOS shadowing and caching," which does sound like it would free up the mystical "quota," but I can't figure out how to do that, either.

So if you don't hear from me for a while--or get any linkspam--you'll know it's gotten worse.


Oh, and trailer_spot has the Twilight clip up.


ETA: Okay. Commenters are suggesting that the wifi software that the Charter guy came over and installed has caused a memory leak, which is sounding right to me, because the problems started the same day, I've never had these problems before, I didn't go anywhere weird or dangerous on the internet to pick up a virus, and I have two overlapping antivirus programs running. Here's my question: how do I stop the memory leak or debug the Charter software?

Comments

[elbales]

It sounds to my non-programmer ear like you have a memory leak. (That means that something is asking the OS for more RAM to do a task and then not handing it back when the task is done.) I mean, I could be totally wrong, but that's the first thing that came to mind. Can you use the default user profile to hit Google and do a search on problems like yours?

As for the origin of the problem, if it happened the exact same day as the wifi installation, I'd say the Charter people are full of it. What happens if you shut off/uninstall whatever software you set up to go wireless? Reformatting your hard drive is what you do after you've tried everything else. They're probably just reading from their My First Tech Support Call manuals, which tell them to jump straight from the quick and easy stuff to the drastic with no time in between, because time is money and they don't want to give you any of theirs if they can help it.

Finally, do you have the most up-to-date virus software? People Creepy losers make new ones all the time. Have you looked for spyware? How about a zombie program? Spammers love to find undefended computers connected straight to the internet without a firewall (do you have a firewall set up?) and grab control of them just enough to start using them to send scaaaaads of spam.

Good luck. Computer problems suck big time.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

As for the origin of the problem, if it happened the exact same day as the wifi installation, I'd say the Charter people are full of it.

THANK YOU.

It sounds to my non-programmer ear like you have a memory leak.

This is sounding like a good possibility. I scan for spyware at least once a day and haven't found anything--how would I search for a zombie program?

[corkdorkdan.livejournal.com]

Leave a trail of braaaaaaaains...

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my programmer ears are agreeing with both points. I don't know the best programs to look for zombies on a PC, so sadly I can't help much beyond nodding that this is a likely possibility.

If Charter installed some software, it could have a memory leak too. Memory leaks are just bugs, not malware.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Charter brought over a CD (which I kept) of software they installed. This is starting to sound like the most logical answer--something they installed caused a memory leak. But I don't know how to confirm that or what to do about it--I've already run error tests on the whole computer.

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Figure out what software was installed by the CD. Look for any log files created by the installer, and also check any documentation on the CD that might simply list it. Then check for updates online and install any. If that fails, uninstall everything from Charter. You'll want to have another computer with working internet on hand for that, and a means to transfer files physically back and forth, like a flash drive. Then download the latest versions of everything that was on the CD and install them on your machine and hope it works.

[lizoraveriam.livejournal.com]

My computer was doing the same shady stuff, and my dad (a computer program, so the freeware is the legit, non-virus laden stuff) sent me three links to sort it out:

Treesize Free - lets you know the size of the contents of a directory
http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml
This is most useful for just seeing where everything is and what it's doing.

cCleaner - remove unnecessary files from your computer
http://www.ccleaner.com/

Process Explorer - shows all the programs and services that are running
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

I think this last one might be the most useful to you since if there's some creeper program messing with your computer it'll show up on here.

Hope any of those help. Computers being messed up for absolutely no discernible reason is never fun

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Oh, sweet--I'm downloading that last one for sure, because it really sounds like it could help pinpoint what the problem is. I like the idea of cCleaner, but the last time I used a program like that, it pulled off two "unnecessary" files that ended up necessitating the complete reinstallation of Microsoft Word. So I'm a little jumpy about deleting things now.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I use CCleaner personally, and have never had a problem with it.

But I'm also totally comfortable reinstalling anything I need to, at any time. So it's not exactly the same situation.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Okay, I don't know exactly what cCleaner took off--nothing on the list looked unusual; it was mostly leftover cruft from programs I've uninstalled over the last couple of years--but my computer's already running better, and I was able to get back on my own user profile. Things seem to be running better, too. The test will be if I have another crash tonight, but I guess I'll keep the computer running until I have one, just to see how long it takes. In other words: thank you, that was an awesome suggestion.

(I also ran Process Explorer, but I can't figure out how to read it quite yet.)

[lizoraveriam.livejournal.com]

I'm glad it worked :). Yeah, Process Explorer is useful but it looks like a drug trip gone wrong until you get used to it. But hey, even a little bit of improved computer is better than none :)

[moogle62.livejournal.com]

This may be completely unhelpful, but my old computer recently had a similar sounding problem (kept shutting down for no reason, wouldn't let me log on to a personalised area, forced me to use the default one yet there was still plenty of disc space).

I got it to work again genuinely just by deleting my temporary internet files. I don't know what was in there, or even if, I don't know, by doing that I triggered some other crazy computer-type thing, but that made it all work again. (I have no idea what the matter with it was. That computer never liked me till the day it blew up).

I hope it all gets sorted out soon for you! The interim period between my old computer dying and getting this one hurt me.

[naienko.livejournal.com]

simple recommendation from an IT geek: go to control panel -- add and remove software -- look for anything named the same as the software on the charter disk -- uninstall it. Then: google windows wifi and investigate windows' native wifi capabilities. I have always found it to be true that windows' wifi management far exceed anything a cable company wants you to install.

[lyrainverse.livejournal.com]

Don't ever believe Charter. They are run by the Devil Himself. I wish I had some advice on how to get them to fix their mistake, but the only reason they stopped sending us collection letters for money we didn't owe them was because my roommate worked for a state senator and threatened to report them to the Dept. of Consumer Protection. Though they don't know who you work for, so you could just lie!

Memory leak?

[fxchip.livejournal.com]

If you want to confirm it, the Process Manager (ctrl-alt-del) usually will tell you how much memory something is using. If your Charter wifi program is using anywhere above 30 MB (which will read something like 30,720 KB), there's something wrong unless it uses a shitload of images... and even then. And if it never drops below the number it's currently at, you've got a memory leak.

Re: Memory leak?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

It says Firefox is using 80mb+ (and all I've got open is this and email)--could that be the wifi?

Re: Memory leak?

[fxchip.livejournal.com]

That's just Firefox being Firefox...

Re: Memory leak?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Ah. Well, there's nothing else running that's even as high as 30 mb...

Re: Memory leak?

[pygmymetal.livejournal.com]

What version of FFox are you running? My laptop would exhibit the same behavior, FF would all of a sudden have a ginormous amount of memory and I'd have to kill it. When did you last update?

Re: Memory leak?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hmm... recently? Whenever the latest update came out?

[melchar.livejournal.com]

Serendipitously, the LJ community techsupport has some folks going off on Charter today. [Makes me glad that even though I have cr@ppy dial-up, that my isp does not act like that.]

Best of luck getting your problem fixed!

[theonlykow.livejournal.com]

If people have experience with your software having a memory leak, it's probably that - either a patch from the company / some random, smart reverse engineers will fix it, or some kind of third-party WiFi software. That'd depend on your Wifi card / adapter.

It could, however, also be a hardware issue. Has it been particularly hot in the area recently, or has your computer been hot, or has there been a chance of any kind of small physical damage? You might want to try ripping open the box and giving it a good clean out, checking for loose parts and whatnot. Computers that have old parts, especially boards, can tend to give those kinds of errors solely because the pieces aren't connecting right anymore, or the drives won't read, or any number of minute physical problems that can manifest themselves in weird ways on the computer, since most consume hardware won't be able to detect a small defect in your hard drive's laser or anything like that; specific enough to help? Never!

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

I don't actually know what a "memory leak" is, but now I'm picturing your computer as an inflatable-type thing that is very slowly hissing out little puddles of memory. Oh dear!

Anyway, best of luck with it!!

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

A memory leak can be compared to the buildup of clutter in any occupied living or working space. Programs are supposed to clean up their own mess, but sometimes they don't, and the piles get bigger and bigger...

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

You know, it's interesting you should put it that way--after I used cCleaner and got rid of a bunch of clutter left behind by uninstalled programs, I immediately saw an improvement. I was thinking of it more like a zombie program running in the background, but if it turns out that's all I needed to do, I'll take it.

[discogravy.livejournal.com]

cruft left behind by poorly written programs wouldn't affect your use of RAM (a zombie program eating up memory would though). ill-programmed..uh..programs that left behind cruft might make your disks read/write slower (since they'd have to hop around to empty disk space since the cruft is taking up a lot of other disk space it perhaps shouldn't. Consider running a disk defragmentation now that you've gotten rid of old stuff that was taking up room for no reason. (although disk defrags are not really very necessary on most current systems, once in a long while is still a good idea).

To debug the charter software (ie, conclusively prove that's the problem or not) the easy way: disable it or remove it. If the problem goes away, reinstall/re-enable. If the problem comes back, you've got hard proof and can call them up.

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see. My computer's been slow recently, too. I may try this cCleaner thing...

[theendofallthat.livejournal.com]

I presume you run ad-aware, but if you don't, spyware was the cause of many of my woes when my old PC would have memory troubles. I consider myself a fairly vigilant internetter, but still had a few malware programs that installed themselves and went to town. virus programs don't always catch them.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I run Ad-Aware and Yahoo's Anti-Spy daily, and I have Spyware Blaster as a pre-emptive block as well. And then I have AVG and Norton on top of that.

[sfmarty.livejournal.com]

Take all of your shortcuts off of your desktop. They eat a huge amount of resources. Won't affect the actual programs at all. ESPECIALLY the WIFI shortcut.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Huh, really? I try to keep them down to, like, two columns so I can see my desktop anyway--what if I keep a folder on my desktop to put extraneous program shortcuts in? Is that better, or just more of the same?

[discogravy.livejournal.com]

Better. On most modern computers the amount of cpu/ram that windows spends redrawing things on the desktop is negligible but if your system is already wonky, it could be way more noticeable.

[discogravy.livejournal.com]

since you mentioned twilight, http://www.penny-arcade.com/2008/6/2/ perhaps there's more summer reading in store for you!