Memory Leak: Insufficient System Resources

1. Memory leaks are without question deficiencies in the OS, so it's a Microsoft software problem

Almost certainly No.

It would be very rare for system software to be responsible for a memory leak in a released product. Almost always it will be due to an application, driver, or malware. Even when the leak is in a process belonging to the OS the cause is usually external.

A memory leak will not necessarily fill all of RAM. The leak is actually in the process private virtual address space, not RAM. This may produce high RAM usage but that is just a side effect. In fact, the process with the memory leak may not even have high RAM usage. Explaining that is not simple and I won't even try.

DSprague: I performed a "Clean Startup" as recommended in your posting. It showed four arbitrary (non-Windows) applications being started, which I disabled. Unfortunately it didn't help. Upon restart the same issues reappeared: the blinking hour-glass and the steadily rising memory utilization seen under Windows Task Manager.

I believe those two issues are related. Some program -- dare I say "iexplore.exe?" -- is starting and terminating again and again but the OS does not reclaim its memory upon termination.

--rlsj

Do you run any Registry cleaners, PC Optimization programs, tune-up utilities, etc?
Many people use those tools with Win 7 the same way they used them in prior versions of Windows.
With Win 7 these tools can often do more harm than good.

Dsprague said:

so what your saying is you are running outdated programs that were designed for an 11 year old operating system and expecting them to operate at optimal conditions on an operating system that they were never designed to run on? ... [I]f you were aware that these programs were causing instability within the opperating system whay would you not :

...

B. downgrade to an operating system that they were designed to run on

...

D. come here to complain about a problem you obviously have no faith in our technical ability to help you solve then lash out at our users when they try to help you

"to operate at optimal conditions?" I do expect them to run at least one day! I am not aware that "these programs" are causing instability. Quite the contrary!

Your Point B is well taken.

As far as I could tell -- admittedly without reading every response to every similar thread -- this forum has been unable to solve this problem. And if you think my comments constitute "lashing out," then you obviously have never followed the Usenet discussion groups.

My motive in coming here was to register my dissatisfaction and furnish details in case someone at Microsoft is paying attention. It is useless and expensive to the claimant to approach Microsoft itself.

--rlsj

DavidW7ncus said:

Do you run any Registry cleaners, PC Optimization programs, tune-up utilities, etc? ...

In a word, no. I have never found one of those programs to be valuable other than to the people who sell them.

As I reported earlier, I disabled all the arbitrary startup programs. The failure still occurred, even though only Microsoft software was running.

--rlsj

With 4GB of RAM, and a 32-bit operating system, the physical memory is divided into 2GB for Kernel Mode and 2GB for User Mode, although the User-Mode address space can be expanded to 3GB.

Windows 7 isn't the cause of a memory leak.

Run Driver Verifier to scan for any corrupted drivers which may be causing problems, this program works by running various stress tests on drivers, in order to produce a BSOD which will locate the driver; run for least 24 hours:

• Driver Verifier - Enable and Disable

   Information

Additional Help - Using Driver Verifier to identify issues with Drivers

rlsj said:

I upgraded to Windows-7 from -XP about a month ago, applied all available updates and thought it the right move until recently.

That sounds like it was working ok, until recently.
Do you know what you changed or did just before the problem started?
Do you have a Backup Image or Restore Point from before the problem started?
Have you checked for malware as suggested?

rlsj said:

3. The program, iexplore.exe, keeps thrashing in and out every few seconds.

Do you even have Internet Explorer running at the time, seeing as that is what that process is. If not then as others have said, you need to start looking at something other than Windows as the problem. Even if it is, it is still likely coming from something else.

The OP obviously knows more than everyone here on this site, all of the engineers at Microsoft, and everyone on the planet. Obviously, all of the millions of people who run Windows 7 every day must be wrong, and the OP is right. Why can't you see that?