Computer using all RAM doing nothing

[cheapshots]

hey guys,

recently ive noticed mostly at nights, ive been watching movies or playing games (bf2r) that my computer starts stuttering or jerking, lagging etc. so i ctrl-alt-del and go into task manager and im using roughly 3.8gb of 4gb avaliable.. now this cant be right.. when i restart my computer the next morning its fine (cant be bothered to restart late at night)

ATM it happened again, was watching a movie and it happened.. i have gmail,facebook,and this open in chrome, itunes playing music and task manager open and im using 3.5gb of ram. ive tried closing as much as i could in the processes list but to no avail...

its like something hidden is just eating it up. getting kind of annoying. its just not right using 87% of my RAM on just this..

any help would be great.

im running 2x2gb gskill f3-12800cl9d-4gbnq ddr3 1600mhz. also got 2500k and asrock p67 extreme 4 mobo.

it shouldnt be faulty ram, maybe its a virus or something?

 

[duxducis]

that's about right i just checked my on windows 7
3.6GB in use prety much doing nothing
(800mb firefox, 150mb skype, 100mb sidebar, 400mb plug in container witch is hulu, netflix, and then about 15 other processes 30-50mb each)
that's normal for today PC
check task manager and >processes sort them by memory, (click check show from all users)

try CCleaner and Ad-Aware, run cleaner also can go to "tools" tab and see what wants to auto start and disable them. then run Ad-Aware to scan for bad stuff

 

[nikorr]

Run #1 and than #2 to be sure u don't have any pest @ Simple and free guide to removing malware

 

[cheapshots]

ok ill try that when i wake up tomorrow

just an update, i restarted comp and took a reading and left it open. started at like 1.3gb used and slowly creeps up. roughly at 3gb now. so in 2 hours of watching movies its used 1.7gb and still rising...

 

[nikorr]

Is your tomorrow going to be my today? : ) Kidding...

 

[nikorr]

Good luck!

 

[cheapshots]

hehe maybe like 7 hrs if i wake up that early

ill turrning comp on and playing some bf to get some ram usage early on, but i dunno

 

[unksol]

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/02/behind-the-windows-7-memory-usage-scaremongering.ars

 

[daship]

Im @ idle right now using 3.25G its normal. Buy more ram its dirt cheap.

 

[cheapshots]

ok ill make some breakfast and do this stuff

i read that link, but than if its write caching and will free it up when needed, its bull haha

because bf will go stuttery and movies will jerk.

though shouldnt early on my ram be filled if its caching? but it starts at like 1.5gb and rises slowly?

played some bf, using 2.7gb so ill test it later on in the day as well

 

[photonboy]

4GB is plenty. There's a problem and it needs to be solved.

Test your RAM by booting to Memtest from memtest.org (may need to change the boot order so CD or USB is before the hard drive).

This problem sounds like it might solve itself, but it could also be difficult to fix this way.

You can open Task Manager (CTRL-ALT-DEL) and monitor which processes are using your CPU. One of these may be causing problems. May even be MALWARE of some kind.

For now, try:
1. run Memtest (if errors see below)
2. update your motherboard BIOS
3. Remove any questionable software.
4. Update and run your Antivirus. Also download and run Spybot Search and Destroy and possibly Malwarebytes free.
5. Reinstall your main chipset driver for the motherboard.

*If it was me I'd probably remove the drive and install a fresh copy of Windows 7 to confirm no hardware issues. Some issues can be a pain to fix due to registry corruption or whatever.

If you have to restore Windows 7, use an IMAGE program like Acronis True Image (Western Digital and Seagate have free versions of this program that work great). For this:

1. Create, and keep an IMAGE of your Windows drive after you have ACTIVATED (not before) Windows, installed your motherboard and other drivers, and completed all Microsoft updates. NEVER DELETE THIS BACKUP AS YOU KNOW IT IS ROCK SOLID.

2. Create occasional backup images every month or so in case or data corruption or physical drive failure so you can RESTORE easily.

3. Use the free version of Syncbackse or similar to create an automated backup to a second hard drive if possible and make a backup of critical files and folder (like "My Documents"). I have this done automatically EVERY DAY.

4. If you download e-mail, set your SERVER settings to NOT delete instantly. Keep e-mail for two weeks (so you can recover some of your e-mail if it's now gone).

***
A lot of basic stuff that may not help I know directly but I think there's a chance you may need to reinstall Windows 7. I'm here if you need further help.

 

[cheapshots]

ok i do memtest later.

not sure if ive fixed it, ill have to wait..

updated my bios to 2.10 and a problem now. hard enough to type this.


every like 7 seconds its like the mouse has clicked off the text box. so if im in chrome it say clicks onto desktop so it stops writing and i have to click back in the text bubble... kinda annoying

EDIT: ok i noticed the werfault kept popping up and dissapearing. i googled it and turn it off and that seemed to fix the problem

will report more on memory situation when i can