Limewire steals all my memory
 

I didn't used to have this problem and all of a sudden when I have Limewire running I can't run iTunes, or Internet Explorer. They both barely function as if there is no memory left for them to operate. Any ideas? I keep updating to the newest Limewire and no go yet. I am running OS10.2.2, iTunes 3.1, IE5.2

You're leaving out one very important piece of information.

Mark
2.7.7/10.2.2, iMac G4/800, 1GB

I believe you mean the computer itself. Good point.
G4/400, 640mg. 2.7.7 (just tried 2.7.9-no better)

It always ran perfectly until just recently. Maybe the 10.2.2 update??

Does it happen after a fresh restart?

There's an application called Process Viewer in Applications/Utilities, it might be useful to run it and see how much memory is being swallowed by LimeWire (and your other applications). Try sorting by memory, then find an interesting process, select it, show "More Info" and take a look at the sizes shown in the "Statistics" tab.

From a fresh restart on my computer, LimeWire sits in 48MB (whoa!) resident on a computer with 1GB and 40MB on a computer with 384MB. Neither exhibit a large amount of paging.

It may not be memory-related at all, in fact. If you've got a large number of shared files that LimeWire needs to scan, your drive may be clanking away and your computer may seem sluggish - symptoms similar to those of excessive paging when memory is exhausted.

Mark
2.7.7/10.2.2

It's not RAM that Limewire is hogging, it's CPU cycles.

What I mean by that is the % of processor that's being used by Limewire. Right now, with Limewire in the background with no active searches, it's behaving itself at about 20%. (That's on a Yikes! (PCI graphics) 400 @ 450 Mhz.) As soon as I start 4 or 5 searches that percentage can grow to about 70% or 80% quite easily. That's not entirely Limewire's fault; part of the problem is the Java virtual machine which Limewire runs atop of.

I did have some problems with Limewire a while back where it would basically suck up all available CPU cycles and make my entire machine almost unusable. I haven't had any of those problems with OS X 10.2.2, Java VM 1.3.1, and Limewire 2.7.9.

Hope this helps....

I just upgraded my G4/400 to 1.4G of memory. I wanted to do that eventually anyway. It did NOT solve the limewire issue. Nothing else can be running or even launched while limewire is running. Like I said, I never had this problem before 10.2.2. Could something have changed with this update? I have an Powerbook 667, and a G4.867 and experiencing no problems with limewire.

I'm having a similar problem and I wonder if it isn't disk related -- I've suspected problems with the disk with other applications.

Running LimeWire 2.7.3 on a G4/400MHz with 512MB memory, OS 10.2.1.

Usually, with LimeWire running, I can run other applications including mail and/or browser without difficulty (except that communications are slowed, of course).

Other times, LimeWire so totally dominates the computer that I can't even launch other applications. I get a rotating colored "beach ball" for any operation. Even Forced Quit takes forever to launch and execute.

Executing LimeWire and restarting sometimes helps.

I brought up Process Viewer as Marcus suggested above and the results are very interesting.

Ours may indeed be a CPU problem, but NOT from LimeWire (at least not directly). Over the last ten minutes LimeWire has claimed between 20% - 40% or the CPU, my browser 5 - 25%, and Window Manager 30 - 70%!!!

Window Manager??

I've played around a bit running various applications together and singularly. If you see Window Manager at all, it's very briefly and at 5% CPU at most. Once LimeWire is loaded, Window Manager moves to the top of the CPU column and stays there.

Just now, I brought up a third large application (AppleWorks). Window Manager jumped up to 85%. It took nearly 5 minutes until I could exit AppleWorks and return to this post. Window Manager continued to sit at 82% for another minute or two, then returned to 31%.

I suspect we're seeing a LimeWire - OS X conflict. Maybe LimeWire defines its windows in a non-standard fashon.

Any ideas?

For some reason, one time yesterday I got Limewire to run smoothly with my other applications for about an hour! First time! Then all of a sudden the problem started in out of nowhere, spinning beachball forever on iTunes, internet etc. Finally once beachball stopped I closed Limewire and everything instantly started working perfectly again.

I am running the exact same programs on two other MACs, and not having this problem. (G4867, PB 667) I wonder if it is related to the G4/400 processor?

But why this time was it fine for an hour of extensive use? In that hour I was downloading extensively, playing iTunes and using the internet. Usually the problem starts immediately when limewire is launched.

You're singing my song:

This morning Limewire [actually Window Manager] so dominated my CPU that I had to use Forced Quit to kill all the other applications.

I went out for several hours, leaving LimeWire running, now the computer is behaving normally. LineWire has about 20% of the CPU; Window Manager is 5% or less.

Makes no sense.

Did I memtion I'm running 2.7.3