Question

Suddenly AOL software uses half GB of memory on COMPAQ XP Machine

Asked by: alanlsilverman

My customer has a Compaq Presario SR2010NX 1.8 Ghz processor with 1GB RAM running WinXP Home SP2 and AOL 9.0 Security Edition. Last Thursday suddenly everything slowed down.  I got it on Monday and saw that aolsoftware.exe which starts automatically was using 448MB of RAM.  

At first I didnt see it, because when I ran the task manager under performance I could see the available memory going very low, but looking at processes it didnt show aolsoftware using almost a half a gig of memory.   Total memory  available memory should = memory in use by all processes.  Some of the time it did and some it didnt.  

The first thing I did was swap out the memory but that didnt make any difference.  Then I saw that aolsoftware.exe was the problem so first I cleared out the cache but that didnt alter it.  Then I upgraded to AOL 9.5. I thought for sure that would do it but the problem migrated with it.  

I dont think its a virus or malware, I ran a scan with malware bytes and installed AVAST as his new anti-virus, and a bootscan found nothing. The customer himself did a restore to before Thursday but that didnt do anything either.  Im also upgrading him to SP3 but I dont expect that to alter anything.

Thanks,
Al

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Asked On
2009-10-20 at 16:02:09ID24828891
Topics

AOL Web Browser

,

Windows XP Operating System

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
4

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Answers

 

by: MagicFarmerPosted on 2009-10-20 at 16:13:38ID: 25619573

What other programs /add-ons is AOL adding to your startup?  I would check your msconfig and see how many AOL references are preloading, and uncheck all of them.  

 

by: alanlsilvermanPosted on 2009-10-20 at 16:27:16ID: 25619633

I'm also thinking of just upping the memory to 2GB (2 x 1GB) to get around the problem. It originally took pc2-4200 ddr2-533 memory. Crucial has DDR2 PC2-5300 memory for that machine.  Right now I don't have any pc2 4200 or 5300 on hand but I do have two 1GB sticks of corsair pc2-6400 800mhz memory.  Usually DDR-2 memory is downward compatible at least one level, so the PC2-5300 would be no worry.  Is there any chance that going up to 800mhz memory on this machine would cause problems?
Thanks,
Al

 

by: BurtAndersonPosted on 2009-10-21 at 07:53:50ID: 25624556

Upping the memory would be a good start, but there's still an underlying problem that wasn't there before. As you acknowledged, this is sidestepping the issue rather than solving it. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but like throwing your vegetables under the sofa, they may start to stink later.

Usually, programs blowing up in memory is a sign that some element of the program is corrupt, especially if it didn't use that much before. Upgrading to AOL 9.5 may or may not have solved the issue. Common files may not be overwritten - like a .dll. If you completely uninstall (rather than restore), then completely reinstall the program, then you should be able to eliminate a corrupt .dll as the culprit. That's where I'd put my money.

Another thing to look for is Acrobat Reader. That program likes to background load at launch so that it's ready to be used when required, rather than loading when needed. That's not a problem when you have a lot of RAM, but at 1GB it could be part of the issue. It's just something to keep an eye on; I'm wondering if AOL may be loading Acrobat.

 

by: alanlsilvermanPosted on 2009-10-21 at 09:09:08ID: 25625411

Thanks to both of you for your ideas.
The problem was the AOL spyware protector.  
I saw that two instances of aolsoftware.exe were loading, one at startup and one shortly thereafter.  The second loaded after AOLSPScheduler.exe, aol spyware protector loaded.
It was the second instance of aolsoftware.exe that was sucking up all the RAM.  In fact it even sucked up the entire 2GB of RAM after that was installed.  It would probably resolve with an uninstall/reinstall of the spyware protector but I just uninstall it, as I hate all AOL bloatware.
Thanks again,
Al

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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