In the Task Manager, under the "Processes" tab, you can get more detailed memory info by turning them on in Edit->Select Columns... You can get swap activity among other things. Oops, assuming you are on Windows. Which platform are you on.
If there is a heavy GUI, then there could be a problem with a lot of communication between the pd and pd-gui processes. Also, this message is really long. It's best to include a short summary at the top, then the lengthy details later. More people will read the message then. .hc On Apr 28, 2008, at 6:31 AM, matteo sisti sette wrote: > Hi, > > I have (as usual) an enormous patch... "enormous" in terms of quantity > of abstractions, levels of nesting, and quantity of objects in each > abstraction. > > Everything is carefully built in order not to waste CPU. All audio > processing objects are swicthed on/off when needed, so that when > everything is idle it is consuming 0% cpu; usually only few of the > many existing objects are actually playing, so that I never get more > than 20-30% cpu usage (on a 2.00GHz dual core, that is approx. 40-60% > of a single 2GHz CPU), and only rarely that much. > Also, I always avoid generating huge "message trees" that may cause > audio dropouts. > > The patch occupies about 90Mb in RAM; when all the "samples" (audio > files) are loaded, it occupies about 216Mb RAM. > > Now, all this used to work perfectly on machine A, and still works > perfectly on machine B, where it has been tested under considerable > "stress" and has been used on-stage a few times without a single > issue. > > Machine A and B are almost identical (two laptops from the same > vendor), Intel Core Duo 2GHz with windows XP, the only difference is > machine A has 1Gb RAM while B has 2Gb RAM. They both have shitty > integrated soundcards, and I have tested both with an external MOTU > Ultralite Firewire with the same results. > > Now, since recently, on machine A the following happens: > > I open the patch and it initially works, but as soon as I minimize the > patch window and maximize it again (or do a "show desktop" and then > focus back on the window, or anything like that), it starts doing > audio dropouts: a LOT of dropouts per second, and then it NEVER stops > doing dropouts!!!! even if I don't move the window any more, and even > when the patch is consuming less than 1% cpu (only playing the 500hz > sinewave I use to hear audio dropouts). > > This happens even if I never load the samples (that is I don't resize > any table and the patch doesn't occupy more than 90Mb. > > I have reproduced it even after reducing the patch to less than half > its size and removing all tables; however, the quantity of dropouts > seems to lower as the patch gets smaller, and when I leave only very > few objects in the patch I get no dropouts. > > That's why I suspect it is somewhat related to memory usage. > > This laptop doesn't have a led indicating disk read/write activity > (can you believe it? I'd like to see the face of the guy who designed > a laptop and DECIDED that a disk activity led is unnecessary) so I > cannot tell whether the system is swapping memory to/from disk when I > hear dropouts; however I don't think it can be swapping indefinitely > for several minutes while I'm doing nothing..... I can see some memory > information in window's Task Manager but it's not very illuminating... > > It may be reasonable to expect a few dropouts when you minimize and > maximize a window full of GUI when the same patch is producing the > sound, but the drop outs should stop after you stop playing around > with windows and even touching the mouse and keyboard!! > Also, it still happens after removing ALL gui things from the patch. > > Is it possible that 1Gb of RAM is just too small for running such a > patch? Note that the patch only occupies around 90Mb in memory. > > Also, It did work without dropouts in this same machine up to little > time ago, and I don't know what can have changed in my system. I had a > few troyans, but I got rid of all them. > > > Any ideas? I'm stuck..... > > Thanks in advance > m. > > -- > Matteo Sisti Sette > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www.matteosistisette.com > > _______________________________________________ > PD-list@iem.at mailing list > UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/ > listinfo/pd-list ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---- kill your television _______________________________________________ PD-list@iem.at mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list