my memory pool is low? what does that mean?

[Real Rage]

im using viewer 2 beta. and a message pops up saying your memory pool is low... and some other things, i forget, but what does that mean? can anyone help?

[Rolig Loon]

This is very interesting.  We had a similar question a couple of days ago, and that was the first time anyone has reported seeing that error message.  Here's my response to the first person who asked.......

That is not a message from LL.  That's coming from your own computer.  Basically, it is telling you that you have been asking it to do too many things and its memory is getting overloaded.  I suspect that the message will go away if you reboot your computer and then don't try to do quite so many things at once when you start up again.  (It also may be that some program that you are running has a memory leak that causes it to use more and more memory over time.)

Someone else may have a different insight.  I do find it odd that we have now had two people ask this question this week, so maybe there is some SL component causing it.  You might try opening your Task Manager in Windows to see what's using a lot of CPU.  In particular, look to see if there's more than one (or maybe two) copies of slplugin.exe running at the same time.  That plugin is supposed to cancel when you log out of SL, but it sometimes doesn't.  If so, you could end up with extra copies in memory unnecessarily.  Stopp all but one.

[Peggy Paperdoll]

With two questions almost the same I would seem to be some issue with SL on some systems.  But I'm still not ready to point a finger at the SL software.......not yet anyway.  Computers running out of memory (unless the program that the system is running has a memory leak.....unlikely with so few complaints plus I've not noticed any memory building up in my system and I montitor memory usage often).  I'm thinking this is related to another couple questions relating to viewers flat refusing to load (no crash, no disconnectiong........just shut down as if you closed it during launch).  On both the threads I've jumped in on the users had HD graphics intregrated into the CPU chip (I believe the term most people are using for that type of graphics is "on chip" graphics).  On, in particular where I spent 2 or 3 days trying to help, I'm pretty much convinced it related to the auto-switching that the computers use to save battery life in laptops.........either the auto-switching is not working correctly or one of the video adapters has failed.  I'm pretty much in the belief that "auto-switching" has problems in certain situations.........and I can't find a way to disable one or the other to confirm it. 

 

The reason why I think it may be related is, if the computers who are getting this message (a Windows message, not a viewer message) also have the HD graphics and the computer may not have a discrete card installed so no switching can take place.  Those HD graphics have no video RAM.........it uses system ram for everything.  Since I believe on chip graphics is not quite ready for prim time I can see the HD graphics not releasing RAM properly (or even at all).  If someone has 2 or 3 gigs of RAM, on chip graphics, and no discrete card they could run out of memory pretty quickly.  A Windows machine is wanting 500 to 800 megs of RAM,  SL is wanting 300 to 500 megs of RAM, and the video is wanting who knows how much RAM.  between Windows and SL you are looking at up to 1.3 gigs RAM.  Typically your video will want about 512 megs to render the textures around you with a 128 meter draw distance.  That puts you are 1.8 gigs right off the bat (this is worse average case).  If your system has 2 gigs of RAM and the on chip video is not releasing the RAM for the system properly you'll crash pretty quickly.  If you have 3 gigs of RAM you'll crash later, but you will crash sooner or later.  I'm thinking this is the more likely case for these recent threads that are really out of the ordinary (even "odd-ball" in nature).

 

If people would post their system specs it sure would help to either make me a liar or a hero ( )  Saying it's a new computer does not help (actually that statement reinforces my suspicion since it's the new CPU's that have HD graphics).  Nor is "it's not my system because I only have this problem on SL").  Nor I updated everything.  No one can help without information..........all we can do is speculate (which is what I'm doing right now).

 

I do say a JIRA would be in order so that the LL devs can look into it.........but I don't think much is going to come of it.  I just don't see it as a SL viewer or server software problem.  Not yet anyway.

[Marigold Devin]

I won't hazard a guess, but will point you to a JIRA someone has started with a similar issue...

https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-26863

Also, I suggest you search google with "my memory pool is low" and see what comes up.  It's interesting reading.

Good luck - I hope if you find a solution, you will return and add more to your original post, keep us all up-to-date.

[Peggy Paperdoll]

I just noticed this sentence:

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im using viewer 2 beta. and a messagsaying your memory pool is lowe pops up

---------------------------------------------------

 

Try using a stable release of viewer 2 instead of a beta release.  Beta's often have issues that are fixed by the time the final release is put out for use.

[Innula Zenovka]

This jira seems to cover it: https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/STORM-1635

As far as I can make out, LL is aware of it, and a fix is ready for testing,  but, in the meantime, Peggy's advice to use a stable version of the viewer, as opposed to the beta, seems very sensible.

Though I notice the report in the jira says "Setting the newly introduced MemoryPrivatePoolEnabled debug setting to FALSE makes the problem go away," so that might be worth a try.

[Peggy Paperdoll]

I just read a bunch of the results from my Google search. You're right, it is interesting reading. Most of the problems seem to revolve around Win XP......which indicates this is not a new thing at all. But, it's also very obvious that the problem exists within the person's computer who is having the problem (as I and Rolig suspected). So my conclusion is still pretty much the same.........it's something with either virtual memory (less likely in my opinion) or system memory. I don't think Win 7 (or even Vista) are going to be ammuned to memory problems by certain types of applications (applications that rely on heavy memory usage.....SL is certainly one such program). Increasing the page file seems to be the consensus on how to "fix" it.........I have my doubt about that though. Increasing system memory would make more sense............but I did read that people were having problems and they had 8 to 12 gigs RAM (assuming they were running 64 bit Windows......otherwise they would be wasting anything over 3 gigs). So I don't know..........my thoughts about the new on chip video (the newest dramatic "feature" the CPU manufacturers are putting out) is somewhere in the mix. I'm not expert enough to make that a definite statement. Just the seemingly sudden influx of brain breaker problems cropping up lately.

 

The JIRA I don't think is going anywhere........though a vote for it might push it along quicker to find out for sure.

[Marigold Devin]

My head was so full of new information that I certainly didn't have to count sheep to help me sleep last night!

 

Interesting also to read Innula's answer in this thread, about there actually being a newly introduced debug setting (in the new viewer) connected to the memory pool. I don't like what that tells me, though. I mean, it would seem to suggest that SL is using a system's resources in a different way to before, and it could already be a bear to run on the average machine. A lot of the system specs in the info over on the google links were far higher than an average user's.

 

I've not seen any new comments coming through on the JIRA. And I do wonder how the OP of this thread is getting along.

[Rolig Loon]

As viewers evolve, it's inevitable that some older machines will always be left behind. We can hardly expect anything else. What's truly unfortunate, however, is that LL doesn't keep the Minimum and Recommended standards on its web site up to date. I suspect that many (most?) prospective residents never look at those, of course . Still, a newbie who comes to SL thinking that his/her computer meets Minimum Standards may find that the modern viewers won't let them even log in, much less have a pleasant experience in SL. At least long-time residents know what to expect and can make the decision to upgrade every once in a while, albeit with some grumbling.

[Marigold Devin]

Yes, absolutely true, Rolig. This computer has been virtually rebuilt since it was originally purchased, better graphics, more memory, upgraded power supply (printer, and other peripherals too). And LL really do need to work on keeping that system specs page (and the Wiki) up to date, but I guess that's a whole other issue (wry smile).