Physical memory usage increases over time

Hi, I'm having this for quite some time now, physical memory usage goes up (especially when using firefox/bitcomet - both of which are the highest consumers of memory on my taskbar-around 200-500MB of RAM).
shutting them down will only free a small amount of the memory and the rest still counts as taken.
at first i thought it was a bitcomet only thing so i posted for help there:
Bitcomet hogging memory - Comet Forums
it looks like a memory leak since the process won't free the memory
i also read on google that using a processor with "NUMA" based memory design doesn't go well with windows 7 (which is the case here), therefore i tried to download an attached hotfix which apparently did not match my machine (Windows6.1-KB2155311-x64)
here are my specs:
cpu: intel i7 860
gpu: geforce 560 ti
8GB 1333MHZ of RAM
tons of free hd space

any ideas on how to proceed?
thank you for your time

Hello mryumyum and welcome to Seven Forums.

As you've indicated, if the PC has been in extended continuous use memory leaks can occur from some programs (usually badly written ones.) That means used memory is not released for reuse. Over time this can accumulate. If, after each reboot, your memory usage drops to the same level, I wouldn't worry. Rebooting more frequently might help if it's the result of a badly written program.

As a general rule, you should not have any available RAM (or at least very little). Available RAM is wasted RAM. You paid for all of it and shouldn't want to see any of it wasted. Windows 7 works hard to keep all your RAM working for you all the time, for example using it for cache if your apps don't need it, then taking it back again if your apps need it later. This is a good feature of Windows 7, not bad. You could run the Resource Monitor to see exactly how your RAM is being allocated.

Resource Monitor

Another possibility would be malware. Make sure your security software (including real-time protection) is present and up to date. Do a full scan of all drives for malware with your installed antimalware suite. You could then follow it up with free Malwarebytes for a second on-demand scan since no antimalware product is 100% effective 100% of the time.

You could also run the free Process Monitor to get a better idea of what's using your RAM. Don't even have to install it. You can run it from the live link at the bottom of the page (run process monitor now.)

Process Monitor

@marsmimar: Hi, thank you
one thing i forgot to mention is that when the memory in use goes over 80% give or take, things start moving slower (mouse, apps..), and my audio/video starts jamming irregularly, reboot can fix it, however, sometimes reboot is needed right after several hours of use which can get pretty uncomfortable
i doubt its a malware issue since i am using avg internet security 2012 for about a year now which is doing daily scans (it has an anti rootkit feature that handles malware)
i just started process monitor, can you give me a hint of what i am looking for? it won't say which ones are using a lot of memory

@whs: problem stated above, here's the screen shot:



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

thank you both for helping

Using Process Explorer is a bit more complicated than looking at Task Manager. So let me point you to an excellent tutorial prepared by one of our MSMVP Forum members. I believe that Process Explorer has been updated since the tutorial was written but it is still a great resource.

https://www.sevenforums.com/software/...-explorer.html

You might also find this article helpful.

How do I find out who's using all my memory?

here is a screen shot of process explorer straight after rebooting:


here is one while physical memory is around 90%:


some time after that it started shutting down apps (starting from bitcomet) automatically, showing errors on screen, changing to lower screen resolution and you get the idea
it becomes realy messed up unless i do not reboot every time it gets higher

doe's virtual memory means memory that is occupied by the app without it using it? if so it looks like all applications gradually use more and more of it (does not look like only one application is at fault)
i'd realy like to know whether this can be fixed without reinstalling windows again

What happens if you uninstall BitComet?

I have the same problem, but don't have bit comet. My computer runs fine at startup, but after a couple hours it slows to a crawl, spiking the physical memory up to over 95% even if I don't open any extra applications.
At startup, right after typing my password and the windows welcome screen comes on, I get a small, blank error window. In the header, it just says "error" and there is nothing in the window other than an "ok" button. I don't know if this is related at all.