[SOLVED] Crashing and memory issues with PC that is only 6 months old

[realghostbuster]

Hi there,

I've been having crashing and memory issues over the last month or so with my computer that is only over 6 months old. I've attached a few screenshots here of the kinds of pop up messages that I get when using certain applications: https://ibb.co/4SRTWWM

When I first had gotten the computer I experienced no issues with running a crazy amount of tabs in Google Chrome or having multiple applications running at the same time. However over the last month I get these weird pop up messages when using certain applications every now and again and randomly Chrome will freeze and the screen will go black. Sometimes I have to restart my computer. I've updated my graphic cards driver and the problem still persists.

Also I've been having this weird issue with the mouse cursor on the screen sort of stops and starts now and again almost as if it's getting stuck. It got so annoying that I replaced my mouse with a new one about 3 weeks ago and the problem still exists unfortunately.


My specs are as follows:
Ryzen 3700x
16GB Ram
ASUS TUF Gaming X570-Plus
RTX 2070 Super

I'm a bit worried that I've gotten some sort of virus that takes up a lot of my RAM or something. I have a significant amount of RAM so I don't understand why this is happening to my PC all of a sudden.

Any helpful information would be much appreciated!

Kind regards

 

[realghostbuster]

Not when dealing with needles and haystacks it isn’t. Your data should all be backed up and safe so reinstalling only takes about 10 minutes. You are wasting your time on a problem you’re probably never going to find

This sounds like some serious kind of malware or virus that isn’t being detected and that’s the only safe thing to do in my opinion

The fact that you messed with virtual memory and it didn’t have any affect alone tells me that you’re never going to find this. You should never have to mess with virtual memory windows is smart enough to handle it in all cases these days

When you say I "messed with the virtual memory" do you mean when I changed the memory back from 32000mb? I remember months ago I changed it to that very high number because someone recommended me to do so in order to make a particular video game work. That's why it was so high in the first place...

 

[SkyNetRising]

Your ram modules - are they from same kit or did you buy them separately?

Reinstall will not help, if there is some hardware issue.

 

[realghostbuster]

Your ram modules - are they from same kit or did you buy them separately?

Reinstall will not help, if there is some hardware issue.

Yes they are. They are "Corsair CMK16GX4M2B3200C16 Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4 "

Shown here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0143UM4TC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Did you do any registry hacks while you were changing virtual memory or anything like that?

 

[realghostbuster]

Did you do any registry hacks while you were changing virtual memory or anything like that?

I don't think so. I'm not sure what registry hacks are.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Registry hack is when you open the registry and change the values of the keys. It’s nice to know that you haven’t monkeying with it because sometimes when it’s done improperly it can cause major issues. I still think you have some nasty form of malware running around

 

[realghostbuster]

Registry hack is when you open the registry and change the values of the keys. It’s nice to know that you haven’t monkeying with it because sometimes when it’s done improperly it can cause major issues. I still think you have some nasty form of malware running around

I've never done anything regarding registry hacks. Is it possible I may have downloaded a game and that changed the registry in some way?

 

[Deleted member 14196]

It certainly is possible that any installer that you may have run could’ve made modifications to the registry and they often do. Was everything working fine until one day after you installed something it didn’t work anymore?

 

[dorsai]

I would just set virtual memory to default...let Windows handle it. Also you have it locked down to just the C drive...are your applications trying to write to one of the other disks ? Some applications will not function correctly with custom page file settings.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

All I can say is the last time I’ve seen errors like that it was a virus

 

[realghostbuster]

It certainly is possible that any installer that you may have run could’ve made modifications to the registry and they often do. Was everything working fine until one day after you installed something it didn’t work anymore?

The memory related pop up messages started to occur around the time I downloaded a game from a website. I've used the website before and I've never had any issues though.

I could very well have downloaded a virus when downloading this game. I've heard of certain kinds of malware that use a host's RAM in order to mine for Bitcoins or something like that?

 

[realghostbuster]

I would just set virtual memory to default...let Windows handle it. Also you have it locked down to just the C drive...are your applications trying to write to one of the other disks ? Some applications will not function correctly with custom page file settings.

What do you mean when you say "you have it locked down to just the C drive"?

 

[Deleted member 14196]

That game you download it from the website probably infected your machine and you are infected and the best way to recover is a wipe and install

 

[SkyNetRising]

I would just set virtual memory to default...let Windows handle it.

Nah. Windows is dumb.
Automatic settings make pagefile unnecessary large. This impacts performance in a negative way.

 

[realghostbuster]

That game you download it from the website probably infected your machine and you are infected and the best way to recover is a wipe and install

What's the least finicky way to wipe and install Windows? I installed Windows on this PC(which I built myself) by downloading the installer onto a USB key so I know how to install through this method.

But what's the best way to wipe my SSD boot drive? I hardly need to wipe the other two storage drives that I have?

Are you sure there isn't something other than MalwareBytes that I could use to identify the problem?

 

[dorsai]

Nah. Windows is dumb.
Automatic settings make pagefile unnecessary large. This impacts performance in a negative way.

While normally I would agree I have seen programs and even some games throw up an out of memory error when using custom page file sizes. It's probably sloppy coding on the application side but it does happen.

 

[dorsai]

What's the least finicky way to wipe and install Windows? I installed Windows on this PC(which I built myself) by downloading the installer onto a USB key so I know how to install through this method.

But what's the best way to wipe my SSD boot drive? I hardly need to wipe the other two storage drives that I have?

Are you sure there isn't something other than MalwareBytes that I could use to identify the problem?

Before you do wipe your SSD it would be worth you time to use an offline virus scanner or two that can look at everything including the boot sector of the drive...a virus can hide anywhere even in system ram between reboots. Bitdefender is a solid anti-virus...Microsoft's default is decent these days too.

The most drastic method and really the only way to be 100% sure a virus is gone is to format a drive and power down (unplug from the wall) the system for 5 min...unfortunately all other attached hard drives and USB drives that have been used on the system are also suspect.

It's better to spend the time with a couple of different virus scanners and do a thorough offline scan with a complete power disconnect between tests to see if you come up with anything.

 

[realghostbuster]

Before you do wipe your SSD it would be worth you time to use an offline virus scanner or two that can look at everything including the boot sector of the drive...a virus can hide anywhere even in system ram between reboots. Bitdefender is a solid anti-virus...Microsoft's default is decent these days too.

The most drastic method and really the only way to be 100% sure a virus is gone is to format a drive and power down (unplug from the wall) the system for 5 min...unfortunately all other attached hard drives and USB drives that have been used on the system are also suspect.

It's better to spend the time with a couple of different virus scanners and do a thorough offline scan with a complete power disconnect between tests to see if you come up with anything.

Would the virus be that sophisticated that it could hide itself from virus scanners? I thought those programs can find any virus...

 

[realghostbuster]

I've uploaded a video on Youtube that shows me opening and closing the task manager. As you can see when I initially open the manager the CPU usage is unusually high and then it quickly goes back to normal:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B44VHBlDBzU


I'm just wondering if this is normal? It just seems a bit weird that it would be very high at first and then quickly plummet to a much lower level whenever I would open the task manager.....I'm wondering would it be another suggestion that I have a virus on my computer.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Do the off-line scans at suggested and see if you can find anything

 

[realghostbuster]

Do the off-line scans at suggested and see if you can find anything

I just finished running a Bitdefender scan and no threat were found. Here is a screenshot: https://ibb.co/gJFHS72

I ran MalwareBytes also and nothing was found either.

Can you recommend any other offline virus protection software that I can download for free that would help with my specific issue?

 

[rgd1101]

that a lot of tabs.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

No, but others can. I just use built in windows defender.

from all the time spent here you could have backed up and verified your data, and nuked the boot drive and started over. remember to have power only the drive you want to boot from while installing windows. you can connect the other drives after you clean install and verify that it boots and windows runs.

if it still does it after a wipe and install, then you have hardware issues.

Had you had a backup plan in place before you installed that game this would not have happened.
What is your backup situation at home? | Tom's Hardware Forum

 

[realghostbuster]

No, but others can. I just use built in windows defender.

from all the time spent here you could have backed up and verified your data, and nuked the boot drive and started over. remember to have power only the drive you want to boot from while installing windows. you can connect the other drives after you clean install and verify that it boots and windows runs.

if it still does it after a wipe and install, then you have hardware issues.

Had you had a backup plan in place before you installed that game this would not have happened.
What is your backup situation at home? | Tom's Hardware Forum

Reinstalling Windows on my boot drive is really extreme to me. I'd have to reinstall all of the apps that I use. It would take ages to get back to where I am at the moment.

 

[realghostbuster]

that a lot of tabs.

Surely my system can handle these many tabs?
It's a Ryzen 3700x with 16GB of ram.

I've had way more tabs open in the past when I first got this PC and I never had any issues with freezing etc..