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The Basics of Page Faults
10 June 08 06:00 AM

In our last post, we talked about Pages and Page Tables.  Today, we’re going to take a look at one of the most common problems when dealing with virtual memory – the Page Fault.  A page fault occurs when a program requests an address on a page Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 2 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, memory management, performance, troubleshooting

Pages and Page Tables – An Overview
06 June 08 06:00 AM

Over the course of our posts on Memory Management and Architecture , we have made several references to Page Tables and Page Table Entries (PTE’s). Today we’re going to dig into Pages and Page Tables. If you are new to Memory Management, or need a quick Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 2 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, performance

Using Special Pool to find out who is allocating a Pool Tag
15 April 08 06:00 AM

OK, a quick disclaimer right at the start.  The steps we discuss in this post assume that you are very comfortable with kernel debugging, and in particular live debugging.  This is a bit of a niche post, but it is a question that we get every Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 1 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, memory management, performance, debugging, troubleshooting

An Introduction to Pool Tags
11 April 08 06:00 AM

We’ve discussed several areas of Memory Management in our blog since we started. Today, we’re going to take a look at Pool Tags and how they can be used to identify the source of Pool Memory leaks. A pool tag is a four-byte character that is associated Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 0 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, memory management, performance, troubleshooting

MSIT, Terminal Services, Network Adapter Performance and Hyper-V
04 April 08 06:00 AM

Looking at the title, I know you’re thinking, “what do these four things have to do with one another?” The answer: not a great deal in fact. However, there are some very interesting posts and articles on these subjects that have been published recently Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 0 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, performance, terminal server, windows server 2008

Startup Programs on Windows Vista: Inside the Box
28 March 08 06:00 AM

In prior versions of Windows, especially if the installation had many applications installed over the years, it was not easy to run a program or navigate the system shortly after booting.  I remember fighting with my mouse or looking over at the Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 6 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, performance, two minute drill, vista

Lock Pages in Memory ... do you really need it?
25 March 08 06:00 AM

Back In October, we wrote a post regarding the Event ID 333 Errors and how to troubleshoot them .  At the end of that post, we mentioned the "Lock Pages in Memory" user right.  One of the things we mentioned was that if you have an Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 3 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, memory management, performance, windows server 2008, troubleshooting

WS2008: Memory Management, Dynamic Kernel Addressing, Memory Priorities and I/O Handling
07 February 08 06:00 AM

It's the end of the first week - seven days down and only  twenty more to go.  Today we will take a very brief look at some important enhancements to Memory Management, as well as talk about Dynamic Kernel Address Space, Memory Priorities and Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 1 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, memory management, performance, windows server 2008, troubleshooting

WS2008: Dynamic Link Library Loader and Address Space Load Randomization
06 February 08 06:00 AM

There's only three weeks to go till Launch Day.  Today, we're going to talk about the Dynamic Link Library (DLL) Loader and Address Space Load Randomization.  In Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, when talking about process and thread creation, Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 8 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, memory management, performance, security, vista, windows server 2008, troubleshooting

WS2008: Upgrade Paths, Resource Limits & Registry Values
01 February 08 06:00 AM

It's February 1, 2008. Only twenty-six more days until Windows Server 2008 is released to the world. With that in mind, we have twenty-six posts lined up between now and February 27 covering areas of Windows Server 2008 that contain both general information Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 10 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, memory management, performance, windows server 2008, troubleshooting

An Overview of Troubleshooting Memory Issues - Part Two
29 January 08 06:11 AM

In our last post, we looked at some common memory issues and how to troubleshoot them.  Today we're going to go over excessive paging and memory bottlenecks. We've talked about issues with the page file in several posts - something to bear in mind Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 4 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, memory management, performance, troubleshooting

An Overview of Troubleshooting Memory Issues
25 January 08 06:00 AM

We've talked quite a bit in the past about various memory management concepts - the use of the /3GB switch , Understanding Pool Resources , the x86 Virtual Address Space and so on.  The most common manifestation of memory issues is a memory shortage Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 4 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, memory management, performance, troubleshooting

What is IRQL and why is it important?
22 January 08 06:00 AM

When people first hear the term IRQL (pronounced Er-kel) their thoughts sometimes turn to the sitcom "Family Matters" and Jaleel White's alter ego, Steve Urkel.  However, we're not going to be taking a trip down Television's Memory Lane Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 2 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, memory management, performance, debugging

Do you know where your processor spends its time?
18 January 08 06:00 AM

Before we dive into this, a quick disclaimer:  this post is not going to get into Processor architecture, RISC, Registers or the ALU.  What we're going to talk about today is the two states in which a processor executes instructions and how Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 2 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, performance, troubleshooting

Understanding Crash Dump Files
08 January 08 06:00 AM

At the end of 2007 we talked about Bugchecks and why they happen .  Today we're going to talk about the Crash Dump files themselves - the different types of dumps, how the dumps themselves are generated and why you will need a correctly sized page Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 4 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, memory management, performance, debugging, troubleshooting