Another Win 7 64 memory use problem

[cgbick]

I've recently started having a problem with Windows 7 memory use and/or paging. My system has 8 GB RAM, running Win7 64 SP1 with the latest updates. After a boot up, my RAM use is about 2.4 GB (30%). Over the course of a day or so, it approaches 90%. When it gets that high, all my USB devices stop working and I lose networking. The only way out is to power down and reboot. Most of the increase in memory use happens when I'm not actively using the computer, e.g., overnight. Process Explorer shows I have 17 instances of svchost active, although they don't appear to use much CPU - don't know if this is relevant.

So I guess I have two questions: what's eating up the RAM, and why isn't paging working (I do have a 12 GB page file set up). BTW, my current RAM use is now at 47% after a reboot earlier this morning. The only thing I'm actively doing right now is this browser window. Background processes include Norton IS and Windows Live Mail.

 

[cgbick]

SF Diagnostic file

I've attached the SF diagnostic zip file.

 

[kronckew]

your video drivers are a bit old. they occasionally give memory problems like that. you might want to try the 314.22 version just released a couple of days ago. what browser are you using? hope you have not cleaned/optimized your registry or memory with advanced system optimizer 3. do you have both norton IS & comodo firewall or security running on the pc at the same time? not a good idea. (i have 15 assorted svchost processes. it's a generic catch all process for a lot of apps, drivers that need system access, saves the programmer a lot of programming to use it's functions rather than hard coding them in for each app.)

 

[cgbick]

Normally I use Firefox, also have IE and Chrome, but seldom use them. Comodo is only used for uninstallation. Norton IS is always running. I have used ASO 3 registry optimizer - is that a problem? I'll look at the video drivers.

 

[cgbick]

It was suggested that ASO may have caused registry problems, so I used 5 different registry scanners without making any repairs.

ASO3 scan - 17 issues
CCleaner scan - 8 issues
Glary Utilities scan - 39 issues
ASC Free scan - 268 issues
Registry Help Free scan - 1552 issues

Quite a range! Wonder who's closer to correct?

 

[Dsprague]

Chances are none of them are going to do anything but mess up your computer worse than it already is, registry cleaners know less about your computers registry than you do have a look at this:

http://www.sevenforums.com/performa...6-registry-cleaner-tests-why-not-use-one.html

Try running the system file checker:

SFC.EXE /SCANNOW
Go to Start and type in "cmd.exe" (without the quotes)
At the top of the search box, right click on the cmd.exe and select "Run as adminstrator"
In the black window that opens, type "SFC.EXE /SCANNOW" (without the quotes) and press Enter.
Let the program run and post back what it says when it's done.

 

[cgbick]

the sfc scan showed no problems.

 

[AddRAM]

I would get rid of Firefox and start using Chromium.

 

[nilank]

It was suggested that ASO may have caused registry problems, so I used 5 different registry scanners without making any repairs.

ASO3 scan - 17 issues
CCleaner scan - 8 issues
Glary Utilities scan - 39 issues
ASC Free scan - 268 issues
Registry Help Free scan - 1552 issues

Quite a range! Wonder who's closer to correct?

For God's sake, don't do this again.

 

[kronckew]

registry cleaners all partake of one-upmanship, they all try for more is better on finding so-called errors and deleted entries. more is not better. leaving the reg alone is the best. even if all those so-called 'errors' were valid, 'fixing' them would likely have no discernible benefit to performance.

as noted DO NOT USE A REGISTRY CLEANER/OPTIMIZER! ditto on so-called memory optimizers. at best they are useless and a waste of money, normally they use more resources than they save and at worst can slow down your pc and cause errors. microsoft spent years optimizing the memory handling routines, and the registry handling. the chances that a small set of independant programmers can develop a cleaner/optimizer that miraculously betters their efforts is slim to none. they were of some use in earlier pre-vista windows, but win7 (and 8) especially is best left alone without tweaking these. i'd go so far as to make sure you use the recommended settings for the page file rather than the manual.

some earlier versions of firefox did have memory leaks like you describe. current version has essentially eliminated that. also, so firefox extensions/plugins are known memory leakers. try disabling them all via the menu help-restart with addons disabled option in ff. if that solves it, re-enable all addons one by one until the problem returns. disable that addon, and continue. you may find more that one leaker. there may be updates or eqiuivalents to the bad ones that might work better.

i dislike chrome (and ie) myself. i use firefox 22.01a nightly x64 builds, as well as waterfox 18.01, an optimized x64 build of firefox code by a third party. the firefox nightlies occasionally break as they are 'alpha' builds, not even beta level yet, but they are reasonably stable. they also do not leak on my system.

as far as norton goes, see this linky for independent tests. i use one of the top ones in those results. i shall not mention which of the top two i use as i am a moderator on the user run support forum for it, and thus somewhat prejudiced.