constant high physical memory usage

hello everybody
im having a really nasty problem here
a few days ago i started experiencing slowdowns and sluggishness on my PC
even when nothing too resource hungry running
then i experienced a few crashes, in situations where there wasnt an apparent reason
so i checked resource monitor and was horrified to find my memory usage around 90%
and constant, with no processes running except the ones that start with windows

dont know if it has anything to do with this, but shortly before this problem started i had trouble with booting my PC from my system HD after installing a new HD
i got help in this forum and solved my problem
here is the thread if it has any connection
change system hard drive
although the problem didnt start right away after this, i cant think of anything else that changed

i would appreciate any help coming before my PC explodes :)
here's a screenshot of my Resource monitor and my processes in task manager

do you mean the 'services' tab in task manager?

here is screenshots of both processes (all users) and services tabs


edit - im aware 2GB is minimum, but iv managed with it just fine for a long time until now

well, i cant be sure what was my memory usage before the slowdowns began
it might have been the same, but when i searched for reasons for the problem i couldnt find anything wrong aside from constant 90% memory usage, which seemed high to me
this slowdowns and crashes prevent me from using any software on my PC, opening TM while firefox is running almost crashed the system

so if anyone has an idea what is wrong here, id like to hear it

p.s - i believe reinstalling windows would solve this, but im in period where i would like to avoid it, and dont the have the time to start reinstalling all the stuff i need for my studies (im an animation student) and i need my PC running for at least a month before i can start taking care of it

Hello zuth,

I didn't see this info, so I will just ask - You have recently scanned your system in SAFE MODE and you are sure it's clean?

I prefer MalwareBytes for this... but what ever you use to scan be sure it's up to date, and run it in SAFE MODE.

Stealth Technology allows viruses to run and appear to be valid Windows files... SAFE MODE is the only way to be sure...

You didn't mention this, so I had to ask! :)

Let us know...

Patrick

@Pierre50

hi :) did as you suggested, and it couldnt find any infections

@Hopalong X

did a cleanup too, cant hurt :) but i really believe the problem is much more serious than this

i really dont know whats wrong anymore