Keep running out of GDI resources (winxp)

R

Red Squirrel

[H]F Junkie
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Nov 29, 2009
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This is a problem that a reboot normally fixes, but it eventually comes back, and I hate rebooting when I'm in the middle of something and have like 30 windows open. The problem is, at some point I will run out of GDI resources, so buttons, menus, or even whole dialog boxes will not show up anymore. I usually notice if I try to open photoshop. I'll either get some error about being unable to open, or it will open but if I try to open the save dialog or something, it wont open.

I tried a fix which is changing a value in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\SubSystems\Windows but it did not do anything.

Anyone ever see this problem before and know of a good fix? I have plenty of ram left so I know that's not the problem.
 
I've noticed this issue with lower end vid cards & old drivers.

What's your system specs?
 
You could try to determine who is leaking the GDI handles. Process Explorer from microsoft can show you which process is holding a lot of GDI handles.

After you run it, view->select columns ->process memory -> gdi objects

If its a microsoft process (like explorer or ie) that has all the gdi handles, its probably a shell addin or something thats actually doing it.
 
I checked in task manager, and it's pretty much all spread out. explorer is using 743 though so not sure if that's normal or not, the FF is using 500, pidgin is using 385 then I get into a couple processes in the 200's then it's all 50 and under.

System specs are:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual (2.81Ghz)
3.5GB of ram
GeForce 8600 GT (dual monitor at 1280x1024)

Not super high end, but it should be able to handle more I would think.
 
Those counts are when its starting to fail? Seems roughly similar to mine. Although my explorer is closer to 400.

Numbers from when its working ok probably dont mean much.
 
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