RAM is maxing out without reason

[BurningHot]

This started last night when I was playing Tetris in Firefox. My RAM usage suddenly started to increase rapidly until it was at 95-99% (normally 40%). I opened up task manager and saw no particular application using more than the normal amount of RAM, but task manager as well as my desktop widget still says my RAM is maxed. After no more than 10 or 20 minutes, RAM usage would drop back to around normal. It would ramp up eventually when I go on my desktop.

I restarted my computer a couple of times and scanned with Malwarebytes (and later Avira) throughout all this, but the problem still persists.

These two images are what's happening right now.
task manager 1
task manager 2

I'm on Windows 7 HP 64bit
Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H
Athlon II x2 245
4G DDR2
Radeon HD 4850
2.5TB storage

Please help!

 

[DarkSable]

That's kinda strange. Is it just a display error, or is the computer running out of ram and using the page file excessively?

 

[jitpublisher]

And this is causing a problem, how? Windows has many background tasks running on various schedules, causing RAM usage to vary widely at any given time or observation. Unless you are experiences problems, or getting out of memory messages or errors of some type, this is no cause for alarm.

 

[BurningHot]

That's kinda strange. Is it just a display error, or is the computer running out of ram and using the page file excessively?

I'm not sure if my system is using the page file (not even sure what it is), but I don't think it's a graphical error since there is quite a bit of lag when this happens.

EDIT: Page file: 2430MB used, 5756MB available
.

And this is causing a problem, how? Windows has many background tasks running on various schedules, causing RAM usage to vary widely at any given time or observation. Unless you are experiences problems, or getting out of memory messages or errors of some type, this is no cause for alarm.

Well, yes, it isn't causing any errors (that I know of), but I would still like to know what's happening. It certainly isn't normal for my computer to be using 99% RAM at idle.

 

[jitpublisher]

"Win 7 is using all my available memory!" This is a common question, and a common "problem" that many Win 7 users come across. Windows 7 will set aside just about all available memory for cache, or superfetch, especially on a 4 gig machine. It is not a problem, as it will release it instantly if a running program requires it. If you cannot readily find a specific program that is running and taking it, and you are getting no error messages, then this is very likely what is going on. Just google around, you'll find articles that will explain it in detail. If it does bother you, just pop in another 4 gig with your version of Win 7 64 bit, and be happy!

 

[BurningHot]

I think the problem has been solved. I used RAMMap and saw that the movie I downloaded to my desktop last night somehow was occupying 3GB of RAM. I moved the file to somewhere else and restarted. So far, everything seems to be back to normal. RAM usage is down to reasonable levels, and the crippling lag is gone too. Navigating back to the directory where I now keep the movie again raises my RAM usage to 99%.

I still don't know why that movie was using so much RAM.

Pictures of RAMMap

 

[DarkSable]

Oh, yeah, it's not good to have large files on your desktop.