help me! something is eating my ram!

[flynt169]

Ok so when I first installed windows 7, it ate up about 45% of my ram just being idle. (btw I installed it whenever it was first released, so its been installed for however long that is) Now I am having problems with my pc slowing down, and when I looked at task manager, the physical memory usage was 95%!! And I checked the processes tab and there wasnt even anything that was sucking up some huge amount of memory. So I ran virus scans from AVG, Nortin, and Avira. Nothing out of the ordinary, and my memory was still being sucked dry by something. I read that those programs that have a button to free up ram arent good for your computer, as it messes with the way memory works, and causes u problems in the long run? I didnt quite understand that statement, but I saw a few people had posted this in a forum about memory. Some one suggested RamMap instead and that it wouldnt do this. RamMap has an empty tab that lets me empty various caches (im guessing) and this does help, only temporarily. If I empty everything, the physical memory usage can go down to like 30% in task manager! but i dont believe this is too accurate because I dont notice any speed improvements, and shortly afterwards, the memory usage goes right back up to where it was. It has helped a little, though because it stays right around 75% (an improvement from 95%, but still way too much). So I dont have any viruses Im aware of, and no programs in the task manager say they are taking up a whole bunch of space, and I only have about 10 icons in the taskbar so why is my memory usage so high??

running windows 7 ultimate 64
amd athlon 64 x2 dual core 6000+ 3.0 ghz
2gb ddr2 ram @ 334.9 mhz

 

[richc46]

Give us a screen shot of task manager.
Take a memory test
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/topic/246994-guide-to-using-memtest86/
Download and scan with malwarebytes.
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

Finallly see if this helps find the problem
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

 

[A Guy]

Welcome to Seven Forums flynt169. Next time you have that high usage, grab some screen shots of the task manager processes and services tabs, see if we can spot something. A Guy

 

[Wishmaster]

Try Malwarebytes (free version) Excellent secondary malware app.



How many active processes do you have running?

The only thing I can suggest ATM is check what programs you have starting with Windows and disable any that are not really needed.
And by thati mean:
AntiVirus=Needed.
Things like Yahoo Messenger = not needed at start up.


As far as RAM use, 1Gb at idle is totally normal for 7 for the most part.

These apps to free up RAM and boost performance, I hate to say really are not worth the effort.
In fact, may make things slower & hinder performance in the long run.

 

[richc46]

In lieu of my original suggestion of task manger, you may want to use process explorer.
http://download.cnet.com/Process-Explorer/3000-2094_4-10223605.html

 

[josef613]

You don't have norton, avg, and Avira all installed at the same time, do you?
And yes, edit your startup programs and services (just make sure to check the hide all Microsoft services box)

 

[775 Mike]

Thanx.............

 

[oddpara]

I'm having the same\similar issue. It started a couple of days ago and i havent been able to find anything at all that helps. Ive installed a windows hotfix that was supposed to fix something semi-related and it did nothing. System is clean of viruses and junk, ive tried disabling all startup items with msconfig and it still does it. The resource monitor just shows massive amounts of memory being "In Use" with no process associated with any of it. Ive found 2 instances of people that fixed a problem similar to this by updating video drivers for nvidia users and to disable the catalyst AI for ati users. Ive updated drivers and disabled the AI as for me and it did not help either. From what ive found this problem seems to be on windows 7 64 bit systems almost every time, as it is with me. The hardware is good too, ive ran multiple tests on all of it with no issues anywhere. Ive spent hours and hours searching the internet to try and find a fix and havent come up with jack. Also to add, this started the day that i had 2 windows updates install and when i installed a second 5870 and started using crossfire. Ive removed both updates and the video card with no luck on fixing it so i think it was just coincidence though.

 

[oddpara]

Forgot to add. I have 6gb's of memory, at idle on a normal day i run around 25-35% usage. With this problem it will start at that after a fresh reboot and slowly use up every single byte of memory i have. It takes about 8 hours to fill all 6gb's and then nothing will clear it out short of hitting the reset button as the system is nearly unresponsive.

Here is a pic of the current usage, it will be at 95% in a couple of hours.

 

[McSeven]

If you use Malwarebytes (free version) make sure you run the update on the UPDATE tab.