Win 7 64 RAM filling up. Memory leak outside windows?

In the last week or so, I have to reboot my pc almost every day because the RAM usage gets up to 93% and I can't do anything, even launch taskmanager. When I've caught it before it was too full, I saw that almost nothing was listed as using RAM (system was at like 80MB). Essentially, RAM is "in use", but the use is not explained by taskmgr or perfmon.

I'm prepared to learn that it's a BIOS or mem controller issue, but it never happened in several years of XP and Vista on the same rig. Also I see I'm not the only one with the same issue on Win 7 64bit:

Win 7 64bit Ram Filling Up Problem - general-discussion - windows-7

Somebody tried to shut him down, but I have a feeling his complaint is as legit as mine. There's no excuse for Windows using all of the memory if it can't flush when you need it.

Ideas?

1) What antivirus are you using?

2) Use HWinfo and check if your RAM is being recognized properly.

3) Pause the POST and see if you RAM is listed

4) Type msinfo32.exe and see what is says about your RAM.

5) Run Memtest.

6) Use Process Explorer and Process Monitor to identify your apps memory usage.

Please read my entire post if you think my question warrants getting defensive on behalf of MS. MdM you seem to have the same issue I do, but unfortunately I only have 4GB. At the same time, it might not be the same, and my system just might keep filling up had I doubled my RAM.

Like I said, the bottom line is this. When the issue happens:
A. Windows Task Manager and Performance Monitor report something like 3.8GB physical memory "in use"
B. The current processes total no more than 250-500MB.
C. System response = slow as a dog

I'll try to get screenies next time since people seem to have a hard time believing it.

In response to specific questions:
Windows install is less than 2 weeks, ran AVG several days ago finding nothing. Have 250MB pf on primary and 6GB pf on second HDD. Incidentally, at the moment I have indexing limited to 3 folders of movies, no more than a thousand files. I run AVG free, and cpu use is <1%, no scan running, mem use at 2MB. Memory is listed perfectly in BIOS and HWinfo.

I did notice that the windows defrag was set to run automatically, but the schedule was 3 days ago, and even if it was running it would have appeared in Task Manager, but I disabled it for kicks.

Kill AVG and switch to Microsoft Security Essentials.

jemcgarvey said:

In the last week or so, I have to reboot my pc almost every day because the RAM usage gets up to 93% and I can't do anything, even launch taskmanager. When I've caught it before it was too full, I saw that almost nothing was listed as using RAM (system was at like 80MB). Essentially, RAM is "in use", but the use is not explained by taskmgr or perfmon.

I'm prepared to learn that it's a BIOS or mem controller issue, but it never happened in several years of XP and Vista on the same rig. Also I see I'm not the only one with the same issue on Win 7 64bit:

Win 7 64bit Ram Filling Up Problem - general-discussion - windows-7

Somebody tried to shut him down, but I have a feeling his complaint is as legit as mine. There's no excuse for Windows using all of the memory if it can't flush when you need it.

Ideas?

I had the same problem. I noticed that besides the RAM filling up over time all the way to 100% and LOCKUP, that the CPU cores were always doing something. This then became a clear indication to me that something else was running that may have a memory leak. I then brought up the running Services screen and watched for what services were getting almost constant regular share of CPU clock time. I located the problem service and found it to be in a constant "Starting..." state but never reaching a final "Started" status state. So I disabled the service and the problem was gone. Never had the problem since.

BTW...if you find yourself having a similar problem with some service of yours you never want to just set the problem program to "Manual". It needs to be set to "Disabled". The reason is that if the problem service is one that may be used by another service, the other service can actually invoke it if it is set to "Manual" and NOT "Disabled".

In other words "Manual" doesn't mean that the computer user has to actively "Start" the service in order for it to become invoked.

Interesting. I'll keep my eyes peeled for a "starting" service.

It's funny though, after numerous reinstalls (over the years) I've gotten to where I have a "perfect install"; I keep a log of every tweak and app that goes into setting up my windows, but every time it seems that when I'm completely set up, it has immediate performance issues and bugs like this.

I wonder if like too much software, or if I should use some sort of vm to contain my superfluous apps like Mp3tag and mediainfo, etc.

Here's a screenie on the way to full. If I don't reboot, it will eventually stop responding completely: