On  1 Mar 98 at 5:35, Arnie Robuck wrote:

> There was some talk about "memory drain" some time ago on the list. Can
> someone out there explain what this is. Does it occur while the computer is
> being used or is it something that occurs only when the computer is idle. ?

  The actual term is "memory leak", and it's a variety of software
bug.  Basically, the program asks the OS for some memory, but forgets
to give it back when it is done with it.  In theory, this should not
generally be an important problem in 32-bit and larger environments,
but there are some cases where the memory is allocated from small
sets of memory that are adequate for normal operation, but can become
exhausted when programs don't play by the rules.  [The OS is
software; it isn't necessarily better about this than any other huge
application.]

> When returning to the computer from, say an overnight idle period, the
> machine seems to working fine except I get one or two GPF's almost every
> morning. After a quick reboot of the computer, I can go all day using the
> system without a single GPF or any other problem for that matter.

  I used to see problems like this if I left IE running, even if I
wasn't doing anything with it.

  There's a utility for NT and 95 called "APK Memory Compacting
Engine", which you should be able to find at common shareware
download sites.  I found that it fixed the problem for me, apparently
by finding such forgotten chunks of memory and returning them to the
OS.

David G