MIDI Life Crisis wrote:Frodo,
Yet another shot in the dark here: how many user accounts are there on your system? I generally keep two (1 for the wife) and both have full admin access. What made me ask is: I was wondering if you switched users, would the RAM release back to the system? Not that this would be a solution as much as a diagnostic to see if it is something in hardware or software.
I had two accounts at one point, but I've wiped my drive a number of times over the past few weeks and since the last wipe I've not had a reason to add back a second account.
However, in addition to this shutting down issue-- and speaking more directly (or indirectly) to your point of user accounts, the notion of logging off and back in serves more or less the same purpose of switching user accounts. It's effective sometimes, but there's no substitute for a reboot.
MIDI Life Crisis wrote:
I scoured VersionTracker for some kind of program that releases RAM. SpeedFreak
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/23412
prioritizes the front application in the processor. It might be worth a try if you're crashing due to background apps trying to grab your RAM.
Now, that just gives me a hardy case of the "Weeeeeeeeell, Doggies"! Thank you so much for this link. I now owe you a KEG of beer!!
I actually was in the middle of scouring the net for something like this late last night when a good friend of mine (another U-nation member) called saying the HE'S having major computer issues! So, we were troubleshooting his system well past midnight.
MIDI Life Crisis wrote:
Maybe not... It sure would be nice to have a similar program to do the same thing with RAM. Oh wait, that's called an Operating System...
Imagine that--- an OS that actually lives up to its name. What a concept!
Phil O wrote:...Finale on the other hand crashes daily. The catch - it only crashes when I'm using Garritan Instruments for playback, and once Finale starts crashing, the only solution is to re-boot. Sometimes it won't even launch unless I re-boot. I've used just the notation portion of Finale for hours at a time with no crashes. My gut feeling is that this is a memory problem and it's related to VIs. I don't know if it's that VIs just use more memory or if it's the way in which VIs use memory. But the crashes definitely coincide with VI use.
Spot on, Phil.
1. After doing the last Memtest, which rendered the same results as previous Memstests, I worked with DP on the MacPro again for the first time in several days.... this time with the new habit of saving and restarting any time I took a break (or 2-3 hours, whichever came first). There were NO crashes or kernel panics whatsoever. I'd also reset my PRAM again. Dunno if this can be done too often (?), but it may have helped.
The only problem here that remains is that I can't use V-Racks or switch from one sequence to the other within a project without getting a crash, so Chunks, Songs, and Sequences are out of the question. Don't know when I'll need them or for how long I can avoid using them. Hmm.
I don't even like how I feel as I'm about to type this next sentence, but it may be necessary to spend a bit more time with Logic as an X-factor in this Mac/DP evaluation. This could turn ugly in hurry...
2. I spent a good part of this afternoon on my G4 laptop with GPO and Finale. Funny-- I don't even think about saving and restarting and have always done it every so often, maybe because it *was* a G4 laptop and not a G5 or MacPro tower. Things do indeed get clogged over time and RAM has to be flushed. But I got quite a bit of work done, thankfully.
I don't know how some people can get away with leaving their machines on in perpetuity. I've never been able to do that with any Mac I've ever had.
