[SOLVED] Extremely high memory usage for no reason

[FireDistinguisher]

I know this isn't some "WiNdOwS UsEs UnUsEd rAm WhEn It'S NoT bEiNg UsEd" thing, because when I start running resource-intensive programs, I run into problems that I wouldn't otherwise be having if my computer wasn't idling at 9GB/16GB usage with almost nothing running. I've given up googling this.

PC Specs:

OS: Windows 10 Pro
Processor: I7-9770K
Memory: Ripjaws V 16GB 2x8GB DDR4 3600 Hz
Motherboard: MSI Z390 GAMING PRO CARBON
Graphics Card: Gigabyte AORUS GTX 1080 Ti

This was taken when Chrome was closed.

These were taken when Chrome was open.

I disabled everything listed on startup and restarted my computer. Here are the results:

Did a clean boot, ran rammap, appears to have gone down from 9ish to almost 7 GB of ram used. Does windows 10 use almost 7 GB of ram by itself? Seems pretty weird that we're also still not seeing the programs add up to what it's saying is the active memory usage.

 

[Colif]

does the ram amount go down if you do a restart?
Does it slowly increase over the day?
Could be a driver memory leak, means it asks for memory but never releases it after, and keeps asking for more. You can run out of memory this way while still having ram

what are specs of the PC?
Tried updating drivers? Sure, its a little blind as we don't know what one might be cause.

Download Process explorer and run it as admin (it comes from Microsoft so its safe)

the default view is tree structure meaning like your task manager screen, it will show what processes are under each service, but unlike task manager, it shows the ram usage of each part so you can see what is eating your ram

Private bytes = actual ram usage
Working set = Ram + page file usage

This page shows what all the colours and headings mean, link at bottom of it shows how to use it to find problems. You can right click headers and run an av scan from within the program.

it may show more than windows is.

there is also a program called Poolmon you can use to find memory hogs

 

[FireDistinguisher]

does the ram amount go down if you do a restart?
Does it slowly increase over the day?
Could be a driver memory leak, means it asks for memory but never releases it after, and keeps asking for more. You can run out of memory this way while still having ram

what are specs of the PC?
Tried updating drivers? Sure, its a little blind as we don't know what one might be cause.

Download Process explorer and run it as admin (it comes from Microsoft so its safe)

the default view is tree structure meaning like your task manager screen, it will show what processes are under each service, but unlike task manager, it shows the ram usage of each part so you can see what is eating your ram

Private bytes = actual ram usage
Working set = Ram + page file usage

This page shows what all the colours and headings mean, link at bottom of it shows how to use it to find problems. You can right click headers and run an av scan from within the program.

it may show more than windows is.

there is also a program called Poolmon you can use to find memory hogs

Surprisingly, no, ram amount does not appear to go down after restart.
I've had my computer running for probably over a week, so I sincerely doubt it is a memory leak, as the time it was on should've been plenty of time for a process causing a memory leak to increase the memory consumption well over what it would be after a restart.
I've updated the post with specs and new pics of task manager and RAMMAP post restart.
I'm having a hard time figuring out how to find poolmon though.

 

[Colif]

Its not a driver then if it is always like it, and doesn't slowly grow over time.

Since rammap itself appears as 2nd highest user there, I suspect its not helping. I mean, i doubt it uses much ram so it might mean the actual cause isn't showing

Poolmon - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/devtest/poolmon
understanding it is another story, this might help

tried running AV scans?

odd to me that rammap shows 16.7gb of ram, how does that work. You only have 16gb of ram.

You have essentially done this already with closing all startup programs but - Could Try a clean boot and see if it changes anything - make sure to read instructions and make sure NOT to disable any microsoft services or windows won't load right - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

if clean boot fixes it, it shows its likely a startup program. You should, over a number of startups. restart the programs you stopped to isolate the one that is to blame.

I don't recall my usage when i had 16gb but I know it wasn't 9gb at idle, maybe 5gb with chrome running. With just desktop i could hit 4gb
Win 10 grows into whatever space its given so now i idle on 6.6gb with 32gb of ram.

 

[FireDistinguisher]

Its not a driver then if it is always like it, and doesn't slowly grow over time.

Since rammap itself appears as 2nd highest user there, I suspect its not helping. I mean, i doubt it uses much ram so it might mean the actual cause isn't showing

Poolmon - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/devtest/poolmon
understanding it is another story, this might help

tried running AV scans?

odd to me that rammap shows 16.7gb of ram, how does that work. You only have 16gb of ram.

You have essentially done this already with closing all startup programs but - Could Try a clean boot and see if it changes anything - make sure to read instructions and make sure NOT to disable any microsoft services or windows won't load right - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

if clean boot fixes it, it shows its likely a startup program. You should, over a number of startups. restart the programs you stopped to isolate the one that is to blame.

I don't recall my usage when i had 16gb but I know it wasn't 9gb at idle, maybe 5gb with chrome running. With just desktop i could hit 4gb
Win 10 grows into whatever space its given so now i idle on 6.6gb with 32gb of ram.

Updated op with screenshot of rammap post clean boot. I also did an av scan with windows defender and nothing came up.

 

[Colif]

One question. Restart - are you using the restart command in windows power or just turning PC off and starting it again. It might seem to be same thing but in win 10 it isn't. WIn 10 has a mode called Fast startup that puts PC into a hybrid hibernate on shutdown. In this state it saves all open drivers + a copy of the kernel into either the hiber.sys file or ram at shutdown and when PC is started again, it reloads it all again. The only time a PC with fast startup on is actually turned off is during the restart operation.

you can turn it off here - https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4189-turn-off-fast-startup-windows-10-a.html
I don't have it on as if you are on NVME it won't speed boot up at all. Its more for people on hdd.

with fast startup on, it would be remembering the drivers amount at boot. just a thought.

Did a clean boot, ran rammap, appears to have gone down from 9ish to almost 7 GB of ram used. Does windows 10 use almost 7 GB of ram by itself? Seems pretty weird that we're also still not seeing the programs add up to what it's saying is the active memory usage.

No, it shouldn't use 7gb of ram by itself.
Driver locked is too big. If I run it on my PC the total for drivers is only 23,760k, not 4gb

Task manager doesn't track driver usage, it only shows your usage. You aren't the only user on the PC, windows uses a few to do all the actions you ask it to. So System and TrustedInstaller are but 2 of the "users" on your pc as well as you. WIndows wouldn't work without them.

So it seems to me you have too many drivers or something. SInce its constant its not a leak.

Can you download and run Driverview - http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/driverview.html

All it does is looks at drivers installed; it won't install any

When you run it, go into view tab and set it to hide all Microsoft drivers, will make list shorter.

I normally use this to identify old drivers but in this case its just to see what is running that seems out of place.

you can take a screenshot and share if you will.

the program doesn't show memory usage but it at least shows what 3rd party drivers are there.
I doubt the cause is a windows default driver - one way to test would be to run program in safe mode.


Could try running Malwarebytes (https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download/) or Bit defender free (https://www.bitdefender.com.au/solutions/free.html) and run them as a 2nd opinion scan to Defender.

 

[Colif]

in rammap, go to the File details tab and sort the size by biggest by clicking on the header. Drivers do show in here.

 

[FireDistinguisher]

Turned off fast boot. No change there. Hmm still not seeing everything add up even with the drivers showing.

 

[FireDistinguisher]

Looks like it picked up a few things in my recycling bin. I couldn't figure out which executables those even were, and I didn't think to screenshot my recycling bin before I pressed quarantine and the files disappeared. Regardless, I doubt this was related, and the memory issue hasn't changed.

 

[Colif]

I was hoping one of the files would be huge but those aren't any bigger than what I see. I assume the Driver locked was still on 4gb when you looked at that page?

Have you ever run any VM Software? it seems driver locked areas are common with Virtual machines not releasing all the ram after they are closed.
https://superuser.com/questions/1121714/driver-locked-memory-on-a-non-virtual-machine - see if this helps

 

[geofelt]

What is the problem?
Windows will keep unused code in ram in anticipation of fast reuse.
That is a good thing.
It will always keep some ram available.
You will have a problem when ram is truly over comitted.
It will show up in the task manager memory tab as a high hard fault page rate.
Normally, with 16gb, I would expect that to be zero.

 

[FireDistinguisher]

I was hoping one of the files would be huge but those aren't any bigger than what I see. I assume the Driver locked was still on 4gb when you looked at that page?

Have you ever run any VM Software? it seems driver locked areas are common with Virtual machines not releasing all the ram after they are closed.
https://superuser.com/questions/1121714/driver-locked-memory-on-a-non-virtual-machine - see if this helps

Yes, I have used Hyper-V somewhat recently. I opened the manager and noticed that the service starts every time I turn on my computer. I assigned it 3892 MB when I created it. I stopped the service, but memory usage doesn't change.

I couldn't figure out how to turn on autologon, because my regedit doesn't have the entry "DefaultUserName" in the location specified here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/324737/how-to-turn-on-automatic-logon-in-windows
and it didn't have a single entry labeled "DefaultPassword", so I created a new admin user on my computer with no password so that Windows Assessment could login without my intervention and I ran the custom job that thread you posted said to do. Apparently, that wasn't good enough.

 

[FireDistinguisher]

Okay, I obviously need to do more reading before I use Hyper-V. Apparently "stop service" is not the same as "shut down", because I pressed that one, and suddenly 4 GB of ram got freed up. That maaay have been the entire problem. Let me do a few things before confirming.

 

[FireDistinguisher]

Yeeeep, I'm brain damaged Thanks for all the help Colif. Shutting down the Hyper-V service definitely fixed it.

Clean boot
I
V

 

[Colif]

that looks better. Glad we got it worked out