allocate heap space shell startup failure

[Brian Wilson]

I have a Windows XP (SP3+updates) machine (DELL XPS, 3.2 GHz, 4Gb) running 
McAfee AV and Smart Ram from Advanced System Care by IOBIT.com.    I've 
attached my cygcheck output.

Sometimes (about 50% of the time) when I try to start the Cygwin shell (bash), 
by double clicking the Cygwin icon, I get an error like the attached error 
file.  I recently updated to Cygwin 1.7.2 but was experiencing the heap space 
allocation error in earlier versions as well.  A lot of times my installs get 
hung trying to run the update-info.dir.sh script and I believe this error is 
the cause (or at least related).  Even though it looks like the bash shell 
prompt is displayed, any command I try just results in more heap space error 
messages.

I've tried running "regtool -i set /HKLM/Software/Cygnus\ 
Solutions/Cygwin/heap_chunk_in_mb 2048" and the error persisted (see 
http://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2005-11/msg00413.html).  I ran the command 
again with the value 4096; but still no joy.  I turned off the Smart RAM and 
tried starting several (18) shells in a row with one allocate heap space 
error.  I have noticed if I open a lot of shells then close them, if I try to 
open a lot of shells right away I get fewer failures.  I waited about 5-10 
minutes and tried to open 8 more shells (still with Smart RAM off) and go 2 allocate heap space errors.

Is there a larger (or smaller) value I should use for the regedit command, or 
something else I should be doing to avoid or prevent this issue?  Any advice 
would be appreciated.

Sincerely,

Brian S. Wilson
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