Purging Ram

[Dr.Beeker]

ok title says it all, been to long since i purged memory and I have forgotten the combination at start up to use. Sorry if this is the wrong forum, been a long time reader but only just got around the signing up :S

thanks guys for answering a stupid question I cant even find :S

 

[islandman]

I'd like to know this also!

 

[Father Jack]

Wouldn't mind knowing myself.

FJ

 

[killmoms]

You mean clearing the settings stored in PRAM/NVRAM? That'd be Opt+Cmd+P+R, wait for the second chime to end, then let go.

Why would you want to do this, btw? This isn't really necessary unless you're having problems.

 

[flyfish29]

You mean clearing the settings stored in PRAM/NVRAM? That'd be Opt+Cmd+P+R, wait for the second chime to end, then let go.

Why would you want to do this, btw? This isn't really necessary unless you're having problems.

Thanks for the info- I couldn't; remember either...not trying to hijack the thread but...what kind of problems would resetting it solve?

My wife's iBook has in the last 6-8 months been moving very slowly- I have run MacJanitor, repaired permissions, restarted and taken away unused dashboard items, reduced items saved on desktop, etc. I have tried to look at activity monitor but haven't noticed anything out the ordinary. I know she needs more ram, but it used to run much faster it seems.

 

[Dr.Beeker]

for me doing that also purges quite a few stuffs that shouldnt be using the memory still, also from time to time the camera sticks on on my macbook the way u fix it is to purge the ram, but sometimes it just fixes it self over time so havent vbothered recently, thanks for info

 

[daneoni]

I assume you're talking about RAM purging. I usually run cron scripts and find this 'zeroes' the ram to default.

Can be run by launching terminal and typing "sudo periodic daily weekly monthly" (excluding quotes).

 

[killmoms]

for me doing that also purges quite a few stuffs that shouldnt be using the memory still, also from time to time the camera sticks on on my macbook the way u fix it is to purge the ram, but sometimes it just fixes it self over time so havent vbothered recently, thanks for info

If you're just talking about your normal RAM (aka system memory), rebooting does the same thing. It's volatile. As soon as you reboot, everything's gone.

 

[JosesoJ]

useful purge

Hi guys I was wondering the same thing I would like to be able to purge ram and this is why:

Im a music composer so I use lots of ram to make my music in softwares like ableton live but lets say I want to check a composition Im working on but im not sure wich one it is so I open files up to find the one im looking for the problem comes when the computer load the file then it uses ram and if the project was heavy then my mac becomes very slow and then when I try to finally work in my project I need to reboot to free the ram otherwise never runs properly because the ram got stuck with the previous info ( the info of the files I opened before I found the one I was looking for) so I would like to know if it`s posible to free the ram without rebooting because is time consuming !!!!!! lol

thanks for any help.

 

[iThinkergoiMac]

To clear the RAM while the computer is running, open up the Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal) and type

purge

and hit return. Your Mac will become VERY slow for a little bit as it purges the RAM, and you'll be all set.

However, once you close the documents that RAM should be freed. It may be a flaw in the program you're using if it's not, but either way the above command should take care of it.

 

[wafi]

To clear the RAM while the computer is running, open up the Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal) and type

purge

and hit return. Your Mac will become VERY slow for a little bit as it purges the RAM, and you'll be all set.

However, once you close the documents that RAM should be freed. It may be a flaw in the program you're using if it's not, but either way the above command should take care of it.

I got "-bash: purge: command not found"

I read that I need Xcode to be installed on my Mac, is there any way to do it without installing Xcode?

 

[iThinkergoiMac]

I have no idea. XCode can be installed from your OS install disk, you don't need to go purchase it from the Mac App Store.

 

[sirozzy]

Hi everyone,

'purge' command comes in when you install onyx for your macos. It does exatly clear your ram. It's true that it works exactly the same way like reboot but you don't need to reboot. It holds the system for like 10-15sec but thats fine.

 

[pythagoreios07]

Hi guys I was wondering the same thing I would like to be able to purge ram and this is why:

Im a music composer so I use lots of ram to make my music in softwares like ableton live but lets say I want to check a composition Im working on but im not sure wich one it is so I open files up to find the one im looking for the problem comes when the computer load the file then it uses ram and if the project was heavy then my mac becomes very slow and then when I try to finally work in my project I need to reboot to free the ram otherwise never runs properly because the ram got stuck with the previous info ( the info of the files I opened before I found the one I was looking for) so I would like to know if it`s posible to free the ram without rebooting because is time consuming !!!!!! lol

thanks for any help.

I put 12 Gb ram 2 days ago. I have installed the free ram booster with tells me how much memory is free. I noticed that about an hour ago my free memory reached 600MB an I almost got mad. Then i downloaded a software called atMonitor which gives you a detailed account of cpu, memory etc. When you turn on this application on the top of your screen you see the ram usage. You click on it, a menu appears and then you click on PURGE. AND THEN MY FRIEND ram returns to normal.. Everything cleans up I really hope that my piece of advice was helpful.

 

[GGJstudios]

I have installed the free ram booster with tells me how much memory is free.

Activity Monitor, which came with your Mac, will show you the status of your RAM. You don't need a 3rd party app for that.

I noticed that about an hour ago my free memory reached 600MB an I almost got mad.

There's no reason to get mad. Nothing is wrong with your memory usage. You simply don't understand memory management in Mac OS X.

Then i downloaded a software called atMonitor which gives you a detailed account of cpu, memory etc.

Again, Activity Monitor already does that, and it's included on every Mac.

You click on it, a menu appears and then you click on PURGE.

You don't need to purge RAM, and you're not improving performance by doing so. In fact, if anything, you're hurting your performance.

ram returns to normal..

It was normal before you messed with it.

I really hope that my piece of advice was helpful.

It wasn't. What you're doing will not help performance and may hurt it.

Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor

 

[Barley426]

GGJ,

This is a common reply sternly given to many people who encounter this problem, (its actually quite common in the apple community as a whole as a response to other problems/quirks of the system) that is, to say there is no problem.

This is incorrect. Many people, myself included have encountered a problem wherein a particular program or group of programs will hold large amounts of RAM inactive. This symptom is not alleviated by anything besides a memory purge or a complete restart. Closing all programs, waiting, relaunching finder, etc don't help. The inactive memory stays very low and the computer's processing slows to a halt. Opening or operating any other program (especially memory hungry ones) is slow or impossible.

I (and others) have encountered this problem most often with virtual machines such as parallels.

In short, immediately after restarting or purging memory, the system functions well again. Opening and running any program is quick and smooth, and inactive memory is confirmed to be low. The previous state of inactive memory being several gigs (and not decreasing over any length of time regardless of programs) and after purge/restart being back to normal (only a few MB an fluctuating with programs & time) may not be the causative diagnostic, but it undeniably is a symptom, however unrelated to the actual root cause. If the observation is highly correlated with the problem it is a useful symptom.

You may not have experienced this problem before, but it is frustrating and vast amounts of personal searching has yielded three answers, only two of which actually fix the problem. These are memory purge and restarting. The answer that does not help takes many forms: "there is no a problem," "you don't understand how OSX RAM works," or "It'll fix itself."

I see your comments and have been directed to your link before, but the bottom line is it doesn't fix the problem, (which contrary to your assertions) are very real. I understand that OSX is good at handling memory, but there is clearly a glitch that is present that is only remedied as stated above.

In the spirit of an analogy. The alternator on my car fails. The tow-truck guy (you) doesn't perform any diagnosis but tells me there is no problem, replacing the alternator wont help because in a normally running car the alternator works fine. I just don't understand how alternators work. You then drive off. My problem is not resolved and I am only left more frustrated.

Not the best analogy and I apologize for the long post but I hope you may be able to see where I and others are coming from. By all means if you have an actual solution to this besides "there is no problem" I (and others) would love you for it.

For clarification I have a mid 2010 macbook pro with the problem persistant from snow-leopard and Lion.

http://www.electrictoolbox.com/purge-free-inactive-memory-mac-osx/

 

[killmoms]

This is incorrect. Many people, myself included have encountered a problem wherein a particular program or group of programs will hold large amounts of RAM inactive. This symptom is not alleviated by anything besides a memory purge or a complete restart. Closing all programs, waiting, relaunching finder, etc don't help. The inactive memory stays very low and the computer's processing slows to a halt. Opening or operating any other program (especially memory hungry ones) is slow or impossible.

I (and others) have encountered this problem most often with virtual machines such as parallels.

All I’m saying is that I’ve run 2 virtual machines (VMWare Fusion) at the same time that eat 6GB of RAM each, and I’ve let After Effects consume as much as 17GB during renders, and I’ve never had a situation in which I’ve had to purge memory or where inactive memory “stays very low” and the computer’s processing “slows to a halt.” I’ve had periods of uptime on that Mac Pro for as long as a month or so without needing to purge RAM or even reboot. And all of this on the latest version of Lion.

 

[Barley426]

Ah yes I didn't address this reply, also quite common.

It's great that it hasn't happened to you, but it doesn't change the fact that it does happen to others.

Your situation, however similar sounding, is inevitably somewhat different from others. For instance, I'm on a mbp with parallels, two immediate differences, and I'm sure there are many more. Which one makes me have the problem and you not? I don't know.

Again, your insistence that it doesn't happen to you does nothing to ameliorate the problems experienced by others. I'm in no way saying this is a universal problem, it's clearly not, but it does occur. I also don't quite know the precise mechanism behind it, I do know however, what (at least in the short term) does fix the problem.

It may not be the perfect solution overall, but until a better solution is presented, it's all that some of us can do to keep our machines operating sufficiently. Denying it is problem, and asserting we are ignorant, doesn't help us. Which was my intention in posting in the first place.

 

[killmoms]

My suspicion is that purging RAM is merely a bandaid that temporarily relieves the underlying problem, which could be bad hardware of one sort or another. If there were a software problem that led to such drastically improper RAM management in Lion, it would be apparent to all users of Lion, not just a few.

I’m not saying you’re not having a problem, I’m just saying that purging RAM probably isn’t an actual fix, or a pointer to what’s actually wrong.