My ExpressCache eats 1GB of memory, is it normal?

I have a laptop with a 8GB SSD drive for cache, but I have it disabled because it eats 1GB of memory. As far as I know it's supposed that ExpressCache should return that memory to the system when its needed, but that's not happening.

I just made a test by reducing my pagefile to 16MB and opening too many tabs on my Opera browser. I've also been checking the amount of memory used by ExpressCache with ECCmd.exe -info. After that, Opera just died and ExpressCache was using 1GB of memory all the time.

Windows complaining about low memory while ExpressCache is using 1GB

In the image you can see how Windows shows a low memory error while ExpressCache is using 1GB.

hard-drive-cache

Josu Goñi

Posted 2014-08-12T15:20:19.133

Reputation: 141

Please translate the error message for us into English – Ramhound – 2014-08-12T16:13:31.177

Oh its just a low memory error, but thanks, i'm going to edit. – Josu Goñi – 2014-08-12T22:58:12.143

Model of laptop? Version of ExpressCache? Might be helpful, depending on your version.

– Jason – 2014-08-13T01:26:35.130

The laptop is a Samsung NP700Z3C, and you can see the ExpressCache version on the image: 1.0.94. I'm seeing now a new version, I'm going to see if I can update it, but the Samsung utility doesn't show it: more crappy software :P – Josu Goñi – 2014-08-13T01:46:16.533

Answers

Yes, it's normal for Condusiv Technologies ExpressCache to use that much system memory.

In most cases, I'd recommend using Intel Smart Response Technology instead, but it requires a minimum of a 16GB SSD.

Another alternative is moving your hibernation file (hiberfil.sys) location to the SSD. This requires no software, and allows your laptop to go in and out of hibernation (aka "suspend to disk") very quickly. This is how a lot of Sandy Bridge-based Ultrabooks were configured by the manufacturer.

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Jason

Posted 2014-08-12T15:20:19.133

Reputation: 5 925

According to your link my ExpressCaché is not working properly: "Once the system requires additional memory for other tasks, the memory that ExpressCache is utilizing will be returned to the system pool for reallocation." – Josu Goñi – 2014-08-13T01:19:33.930

@JotaGe Yes, well obviously it's not working as advertised. I don't think Condusiv distributes updates, so it's up to your laptop manufacturer. – Jason – 2014-08-13T01:26:09.547

God I'm sick of crappy software :P

And using the SSD as hiberfil is not useful to me: I don't care a lot about shutdown time or startup time, and if I care, I suspend my computer. Also the key is combine HDD and SSD to achieve the best performance, the 8GB SSD is just 100MB/S, is not much faster than the HDD on secuencial reading.

I wonder if ReadyBoost would be useful.

BTW: Sorry about my English. – Josu Goñi – 2014-08-13T01:34:44.963

@JotaGe Just to clarify, hiberfil.sys is for hibernation (aka "suspend to disk"), not startup or shutdown. If you're only using sleep (aka "suspend to ram"), your battery life will suffer considerably. – Jason – 2014-08-13T04:19:42.967

Whew... what does it take to get an up-vote around here. :p – Jason – 2014-08-13T18:29:42.133

Well now you have it... Years latter... :) – Josu Goñi – 2016-06-12T11:03:36.833

Well it's been almost two years with no solution, I don't know if there is one but all this time I've been using the 8Gb SSD as pagefile (without ExpressCache) with no problem.

It makes the laptop faster and I think is the best use for the SSD if you don't turn off or reboot frecuently. I now have a full SSD and I still using the small one as pagefile.

I think it also helps with hibernation times too.

Josu Goñi

Posted 2014-08-12T15:20:19.133

Reputation: 141