Windows 7: Is My Ram Usage Normal?

Hi Folks, I'm new to windows 7 and new to the forums here. I upgraded my old HP Dv-1000 (running XP pro, a 1.8gh and 2g ram) to my new rig here a HP dv6-1355dx with 64 bit win 7 home premium, 4Gb DDR3, dual core @2.2ghz.

I know a little about computers, but not a whole lot, my question is this, the new laptop seems to use quite a bit of ram, even at idle (40-50%).

For security I'm running Norton Internet Security 2010

Is this normal for the specified laptop? Here are some imaged from task manager and resource manager.









Any help would be great! thanks!

Robb

Welcome Robbgt!

I'd say that is certainly within the range of reasonable. Your RAM usage is on the high side I'd say, but not unreasonable.

Many factors could contribute to this, including what anti-virus you are using, and whatever all is running in the background.

I notice the sidebar is using the 3rd most memory. If you don't use it, that may be something to get rid of.

Hope this helps,
~JK

Thank you for your prompt response! I'm running NIS 2010 for virus protection, I'm sure that must use some juice.

Just for giggles i disconnected the USB Hub i have connected (Printer, External HDD and Wireless keyboard reliever) and ram usage dropped from 46% to about 35%... I'm guessing something connected to the HUB may be using ram? The external is just for file storage, no apps or page filing or anything

Robb

Since you seem to have pinned it down more, why not do a bit of testing? There are only a few possibilities, shouldn't take long to find which device is taking up the RAM.

I'm just guessing it is the wireless keyboard, but don't go on that.

Sounds good! Thank you for your help sir! I'll post the results once I've figured out what has been eating all this ram!

As a rule of thumb you could say: the more RAM that's being used, the better the performance - because RAM beats any other storage media in performance. With that being said, there can be unusual situations, but your's is not one of them. As an academic exercise it is interesting to explore the users of RAM, but at the end of the day, there is not much you can do about it one way ot the other.
Now that you have all that RAM (and I assumed it is all payed for), you might as well let the system use it. There is no need for "saving" it for better days. And don't fall for all those "tweaks". You will only shoot yourself into the foot.

whs, you make a very good point. I never thought of it that way. I just wanted to be sure that my computer wasn't using excessive ram at idle, so that when I really need it for hungry apps, such as Auto CAD 2010, I will have it available when it's needed. Am I looking at this the right way? I guess I'm not completely understanding how a computer utilizes RAM then. I apologies I'm learning as I go here.

Thank you for the help!

Robb

If you are using windows 7, most probably the reason can be because of pinning the programs to the Taskbar.... It uses the actual file to load rather than using the shortcut.

Stecy22, Yes I have Word, Windows Live mail, and Firefox pinned. I usually only have mail and Firefox open though. I guess that would explain some of it then. I do like the convenience of having pinned programs.

Robb

As a little study tour, do the following:

1. Start Task Manager > Performance Tab
2. Click on Performance Monitor (bottom right), Memory tab
3. On the bottom half you see a bar in color for the different RAM uses - hover over it and it will give you some clues about the RAM (only the grey and the green parts are really in use - the rest is "available", the orange awaits to be written out)
4. Have a look at the upper part of the page where it says " Hard Faults" - you probably only see "Hard F". If that row is all zeros or small numbers, you are in good shape. That means you have no page faults and run at maximum speed.