Memory leak? And other issues.

[SantaPotato]

I use a program that can be considered CPU intensive. My laptop tends to heat up quite a bit after a while, but cools down later. [a] I'd like to know if excessive heat is a problem or not.

Another thing that happens is that the program's memory usage doesnt remain constant. Task Manager shows it slowly and gradually rising. Sporadically things start to bog down. Thats when task manager shows CPU usage at 100%.

This remains for a couple minutes and then suddenly plummets down to around 60% and all is fine. This cycle repeats itself for the duration that the program is running on my computer. What does this mean, and how do I fix it?

Im running a Dell 600m 1.6ghz Pentium M with 512mb Ram with Windows SP2.

I tried defragmenting, full avg scan, hijackthis, ewido-scan, full adaware scan and no ebola.

I also have a saved screenshot I'd like to upload but it wont let me. It isnt p-rn, really. ;)

[extofer]

Is this a program you or someone you know creted?? do you have the sourcec code??

Software that take a lot of memory or processing time is due to the activity involved in the operations of the program. The Memory is taken up by the application taking as much available RAM to save variables, arrays of data, and other critical items in your application. The processing is simple, it's processing a lot... This could damage your computer, this is how viruses work. They bog down memory and processing, but if you think it IS odd, then definatly you might have something in your system that is doing this, but if you know it's the program you are running, you might try distributed processing... tell me more.

[SantaPotato]

Is this a program you or someone you know creted?? do you have the sourcec code??

Software that take a lot of memory or processing time is due to the activity involved in the operations of the program. The Memory is taken up by the application taking as much available RAM to save variables, arrays of data, and other critical items in your application. The processing is simple, it's processing a lot... This could damage your computer, this is how viruses work. They bog down memory and processing, but if you think it IS odd, then definatly you might have something in your system that is doing this, but if you know it's the program you are running, you might try distributed processing... tell me more.

The program: Tribes Vengeance Multiplayer Demo.

The system processor requirements read: 1.0 GHz Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD® Athlon™ processor or equivalent; 256 MB RAM

This never used to happen before. Its a recent occurence and only happens with this program. I tend to think its the program's fault, but Im concerned about the hardware- will this deal any damage?

Cheers

Josh

[DMR]

Games can definitely stress a system, especially if the system's specs are at or near the recommended minimum for the game. While the computer may not melt in your lap tomorrow, prolonged cycles of wide temperature variations will reduce the life of almost all electronic components to some degree.