High RAM Usage

[ddrees]

I'm having an issue where Rainmeter will progressively ramp up it's RAM usage until it becomes very slow (high latency) and eventually crashes. I've tried installing both the current stable and beta builds, but both have the same issue. I've tried installing, as well as uninstalling, various skins but have the issue even with the standard illustro skin. I have a relatively high end desktop build, so I don't think it's my hardware but I'm running out of ideas. I've attached a screenshot showing the RAM usage as high as 506.4MB.

I did try searching for similar threads but wasn't able to find any. Sorry if this is a repost, or commonly answered question.

[Mordasius]

That is indeed a massive amount of RAM to be used by Rainmeter. The only time I've had Rainmeter use anything close to 100MB was when using three or four skins with full-screen images on a 1920x1080 display.

One way to find out what is going on is to exit Rainmeter then rename your ..\Documents\Rainmeter\Skins folder to something like ..\Documents\Rainmeter\Problematic-Skins then reinstall Rainmeter (latest beta version). Check the memory usage then start copying folders from ..\Documents\Rainmeter\Problematic-Skins back to ..\Documents\Rainmeter\Skins one by one and check memory usage as each new skin is loaded. That way you should be able to identify if it is one of the skins that is causing the problem.

[jsmorley]

Yes, I would be very surprised indeed if the default installation of Rainmeter and only the illustro skins could cause this behavior. Certainly would be something we have never seen before.

It's much more likely that some 3rd-party skin, particularly some 3rd-party "addon" executable or plugin .dll, is the culprit.

[ddrees]

Yes, I would be very surprised indeed if the default installation of Rainmeter and only the illustro skins could cause this behavior. Certainly would be something we have never seen before.

It's much more likely that some 3rd-party skin, particularly some 3rd-party "addon" executable or plugin .dll, is the culprit.

I just uninstalled everything again, and illustro does not experience the memory ramp (sorry about that). However, I've tested several highly rated skins and they all seem to cause similar behavior. Anything I can do to figure out what exactly is doing this? Most recent skin to cause the issue is Desktop+++. I've attached a screen shot of the skin I have running. Rainmeter's memory usage within a couple minutes of opening the skin is at 32MB. After a few hours it'll be as high as 300-500MB.

[Mordasius]

I don't know about memory use, but Desktop+++ will certainly be using more CPU resources than necessary owing to the use of Update=0 or Update=1 in the [Rainmeter] section of most skins.

Perhaps one of the Devs can tell us whether or not the combination of Update=1 and UpdateRate=30000 in WebParser measures will gobble up memory over time.

[ddrees]

I don't know about memory use, but Desktop+++ will certainly be using more CPU resources than necessary owing to the use of Update=0 or Update=1 in the [Rainmeter] section of most skins.

Perhaps one of the Devs can tell us whether or not the combination of Update=1 and UpdateRate=30000 in WebParser measures will gobble up memory over time.

Would it help to change the non-essential skins (ie. time, background banner, etc) to something other than Update=0 since they don't need to update that frequently, or would that break something? I feel like if I could only leave the network and system monitors to update frequently, and reduce the others, it should provide some sort of lift to the overall usage.

[balala]

Right now I have a simple question: what means Update=0? Practicaly a skin using this update value, should be updated infinite times every second. It's clear that this is imposible, but then how often a such skin is updated? I learned a while ago what means Update=-1, but this new (for me, because I never used it!) update value is incomprehensible for me. Thanks.

[jsmorley]

Right now I have a simple question: what means Update=0? Practicaly a skin using this update value, should be updated infinite times every second. It's clear that this is imposible, but then how often a such skin is updated? I learned a while ago what means Update=-1, but this new (for me, because I never used it!) update value is incomprehensible for me. Thanks.

Update in [Rainmeter] controls how often in milliseconds the overall skin is updated. What Rainmeter will do on each Update of the skin is go through the skin, in order, and "update" all measures and meters, skipping any where UpdateDivider is set and not yet reached. Then the entire skin is redrawn on the screen.

Update=-1 is a special case, that tells Rainmeter to update the skin only once when loaded or refreshed, and never again. This is only going to be practical or useful in a skin like a launcher/dock or other skin that doesn't need to be "updated", as it is entirely "event-driven" by mouse actions.

Anyway, Update can be anything, but there are two considerations to keep in mind if you use a "low" Update value.

First, Rainmeter has to be able to complete the "update" of all measures and meters in the skin, and redraw the screen, within that amount of time defined by Update.

While computers in general, and Rainmeter in particular, are really "fast" and can do a lot in a short period of time, what we have found is that in a practical sense Rainmeter just isn't going to be able to "keep up", to get everything it needs to do in a single Update, if the value of Update is much less than 20 on the average skin, and probably higher on a complicated skin with a lot of measures and meters. If Rainmeter can't "keep up", it will just "skip" entire skin updates. This can cause some really undesirable behavior.

The lowest Update that will even work is Update=16. The timer function used in Rainmeter will automatically default to 16 if Update is set less than that.

Second, and just as important, the faster Rainmeter is updating the skin, the more CPU resources are used. Rainmeter is just working a lot "harder" to keep up with updating and redrawing everything that often. While Rainmeter in general is very CPU efficient, you can make Rainmeter into a real "CPU hog" if you have an Update value that is really low in a skin doing a lot of things.

Update should only be changed from the default Update=1000 if really needed, primarily to control some "animation" that you want in a skin. It should never be lower than about Update=20, and in almost all cases probably quite a bit larger. You can do a pretty nice animation with Update=100. If you do need to use a low Update, it is best whenever possible to have a separate skin, that is doing the "animation" or whatever needs to be "fast", and not have some big skin, doing all kinds of other things, set to Update=100 just because one small part of a bigger overall skin needs to be "fast". That is just going to "waste" CPU resources.

[ddrees]

I'm going to try changing everything to a higher Update frequency, especially the background skins. Currently everything is at Update=0, so my understanding is that's what is causing my instability. I'll report back with my results.

[jsmorley]

I'm going to try changing everything to a higher Update frequency, especially the background skins. Currently everything is at Update=0, so my understanding is that's what is causing my instability. I'll report back with my results.

Update=0 will not be obeyed, but will default to Update=16, the lowest possible value. Even Update=16 though is likely to cause most skins to behave erratically, and to just tear up your CPU.