Massive Memory Consumption on Build

[tltaylor76]

When building a web based install, InstallAware starts using massive amounts of memory when the compression phase begins. In fact, it got so high that it actually reset my computer once.

I am including the SQL Server Application Runtime and I beleive this is where the trouble has been each time.

I have 2 GB of RAM and have seen the miae.exe process get over 380 MB. It does flush memory and start over between each media block I beleive.

Any suggestions on how to prevent such major memory consumption when building?

[Gizm0]

I actually never had such behavior from InstallAWARE. It does need some good memory to work fast when compressing (which compressor doesn't?), but it never did a reset from my computer which is actually not the case. If your memory is corrupted or sth like that, then it's not InstallAWARE's fault.

In any case, if RAM is fulled, windows use more swap and they just slow down.. Imagine everytime that your memory get's filled, your pc does a restart.It doesn't make sense.

If you want to reduce the memory consumption, reduce the Compression level to a lower one, this might help you a little bit.

[tltaylor76]

I did finally get it to build but I had to make sure that pretty much everything else was shut down. And just for the record, I did reproduce the behavior. If IA exceeds the available physical RAM and begins to swap during the compression phase, this is where it is resetting my machine.

I plan to test this on another computer as well.

[Gizm0]

I'll try to reproduce the error also. If you manage to do it on another pc, let us know so we'll inform Michael to escalate it on the RnD team.

[MichaelNesmith]

2 gigs of RAM should be plenty to do compression at full strength. I would say that it could be a hardware problem, with a bad memory chip - causing a hard reset when hitting a particular address in the RAM. As long as you have 512 MB physical memory free at any time, the compression at max settings should work.

And lowering compression just one notch down from max will require a lot less memory (and alas, reduce compression).

Note - 32 MB of physical memory is sufficient to extract any IA package on end-user machines, so these considerations apply only when building!

[tltaylor76]

I would say that it could be a hardware problem, with a bad memory chip - causing a hard reset when hitting a particular address in the RAM.

This would probably be my response too However, I think that if this were the case I would have a lot of other issues as well. ANy time I have seen memory corruption it manifests itself in more than just one place.

Note - 32 MB of physical memory is sufficient to extract any IA package on end-user machines, so these considerations apply only when building!

Yes, I was aware of this, which is really good. You guys have done a good job and I know that it is frustrating working the forum because people are generally just telling you their problems. You really do have a good product and I am pleased with the results that I have had.

[Gizm0]

I would say that it could be a hardware problem, with a bad memory chip - causing a hard reset when hitting a particular address in the RAM.

This would probably be my response too However, I think that if this were the case I would have a lot of other issues as well. ANy time I have seen memory corruption it manifests itself in more than just one place.

To be honest, i've faced so much things, that i can't safely say you're correct or you're wrong.. Just run a quick memory test tool (MS has one) to find out if you really have a prob.. It might be even an Mobo problem..