[SOLVED] HALP!! My system uses too much RAM

[Bill_killernic]

Without chrome running and only a couple of background apps (bitdefender,Steam,Viber,Netlimiter) my system uses up 7.3GB or more of ram and the paged pool is 1.8GB!!!! How come? Do I have a memory leakage of some sort? is there a way to find out what causes it? or how to solve it or atleast mitigate it?

 

[Ralston18]

Take a close look at Task Manager and what all is being launched at startup.

The more being run the more likely there will some conflict or bug consuming and not releasing RAM.

Simplify by disabling identifiable apps, services, and processes being launched at startup.

Research any apps etc. that you do not recognize - could be some corrupt, buggy, or poorly designed software has slipped in.

It also appears that you are running multiple AV apps. Likely counterproductive.

Resource Monitor and Process Explorer may also help identify some specific cause(s).

Once you have the system "simplified" then you can begin adding apps back one at a time (if desired) and determine if the RAM problem reoccurs with respect to some particular app. Or combination of apps.

You must be methodical and careful. Things may appear okay at first but the problem may not reappear until after a restart. Change only one thing at a time and keep notes so you can reverse a change that did not help or made things worse.

 

[Colif]

What are specs of the PC? What motherboard do you have?

Likely you have a driver memory leak.

What is showing as using most ram in Resource monitor? (to access it, go to Task manager/performance and click link at bottom of page). Go to the memory tab and sort by private or working set and show the processes using most memory

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

try turning off Fast startup and see if it gives you ram back at startup - https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4189-turn-off-fast-startup-windows-10-a.html (its only a work around, not an actual proper fix)

multiple AV? I only see bitdefender running?

 

[Bill_killernic]

Take a close look at Task Manager and what all is being launched at startup.

The more being run the more likely there will some conflict or bug consuming and not releasing RAM.

Simplify by disabling identifiable apps, services, and processes being launched at startup.

Research any apps etc. that you do not recognize - could be some corrupt, buggy, or poorly designed software has slipped in.

It also appears that you are running multiple AV apps. Likely counterproductive.

Resource Monitor and Process Explorer may also help identify some specific cause(s).

Once you have the system "simplified" then you can begin adding apps back one at a time (if desired) and determine if the RAM problem reoccurs with respect to some particular app. Or combination of apps.

You must be methodical and careful. Things may appear okay at first but the problem may not reappear until after a restart. Change only one thing at a time and keep notes so you can reverse a change that did not help or made things worse.

Well I need a little more help than that, that's why I made this post in the first place and added the screenshots, I can not distinguish any "weird" apps or apps that should not run and the ones I dont know what exactly they do they seem to be system/windows apps. So could you give some insight on where to start?

As restarts this is the memory usage of every restart. My starting apps are the ones seen on my first screenshot except viber (which I usually manually start after a restart at some point)

So bitdefender,Intel GPU control panel thingy, Intel rapid storage technology, BT devices, windows security and Steam.

As for multiple AVs I think you mean antiviruses? I only run the bitdefender suit oh and the build in windows security

As for the resource manager I will post a screenshot to my reply to @Colif so that I post it only once.

What are specs of the PC? What motherboard do you have?

Likely you have a driver memory leak.

What is showing as using most ram in Resource monitor? (to access it, go to Task manager/performance and click link at bottom of page). Go to the memory tab and sort by private or working set and show the processes using most memory

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

try turning off Fast startup and see if it gives you ram back at startup - https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4189-turn-off-fast-startup-windows-10-a.html (its only a work around, not an actual proper fix)

multiple AV? I only see bitdefender running?

It's a laptop Acer predator helios 300 17" (2018 or 2019)
But I run windows 10 64bit pro (it had home)
CPU: Intel Core i7-8750H CPU
MoBo: CFL Sienna_CFS (U3E1)
RAM: 16GB (2*8) HyperX Impact DDR4, 2666 MHz CL15 SODIMM XMP - HX426S15IB2/8
GPU: Full Fledged GTX 1060 6GB
Windows is installed in an NVMe disk 238GB INTEL SSDPEKKW256G8 (RAID (SSD))
And I also have as a secondary disk a hybrid 2TB one with 8GB of SSD storage Seagate ST2000LX001-1RG174

As for resmanager this is a screenshot of top consuming ram apps in respect of working set

And this is in respect of Commit

 

[Ketchup79]

Hit the CPU tab, above the memory tab, in your first post, and tell us what your uptime is. Windows 10 will keep recently used programs in memory, even though they don't show up on the Memory tab, since they aren't actively running apps. The more memory you have, the more you will see this occur. If you ever come to need that memory, it will quickly drop to the page file. If the page file runs out of space, the oldest entries will be dropped out of there.

 

[Ralston18]

And as for "where to start" just work your way down through Task Manager looking at each listed item.

If you know what it is and needed then leave in startup.

If you do not know what it is then research and if discovered as not necessary then disable it.

The more that is being run then the more likelihood of a conflict that is causing a RAM problem. Especially if the processes etc. are doing various things to monitor the system.

I see, for example, what may be some memory compression tool: if so, that would be a likely suspect if it is buggy, now corrupted, or otherwise poorly designed.

 

[Colif]

Hit the CPU tab, above the memory tab, in your first post, and tell us what your uptime is. Windows 10 will keep recently used programs in memory, even though they don't show up on the Memory tab, since they aren't actively running apps. The more memory you have, the more you will see this occur. If you ever come to need that memory, it will quickly drop to the page file. If the page file runs out of space, the oldest entries will be dropped out of there.

this is why i suggested turning off fast startup. With it off, the PC is actually off when you shut it down.

is the usage the same in a clean boot?
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.

 

[Ketchup79]

this is why i suggested turning off fast startup. With it off, the PC is actually off when you shut it down.

is the usage the same in a clean boot?
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.

To be fair, letting Windows keep the most-used programs in RAM isn't a terrible idea. Now, when you are maxing out your RAM and games start to suffer, you might want to start looking into RAM usage issues.

 

[Colif]

Fast startup being off doesn't stop memory compression, it might just let windows start from a fresh memory slate at startup if the problem is a driver requesting ram and not releasing it. That is the common cause of a memory leak.

Win 10 memory compression is not a function I was suggesting doing anything too, its one of the better features of WIn 10.

You are right that its better to fix problem than to work around it but until we can identify cause, its a work around that might give more ram back to user for a while.

All the drivers on Acer site are 2017 , wonder what you have running.
Can you go here and download Driverview - all it does is shows the names of drivers currently installed - http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/driverview.html
If you run it, go to the View menu and set it to hide all MIcrosoft drivers, will make listing much shorter
can you give us a screenshot from (and including) driver name to (and including) Creation date - then I can see what drivers might be possible causes.


BD should replace most of Defender functions, I assume you have the firewall as well? (I have total security) and some parts of defender still run (Smartscreen) on my PC.