Question RAM slowly filling up without any obvious reason

[angelphenix]

Hey guys, I'm new here and kinda desperate after a full day of research on google.
I was wondering if anybody knows why my RAM just fills up with time without any obvious reason ?
Yesterday I played, worked, etc, and at the end of the day, my RAM was at 86% use. When I went on the task manager to check what was using it (Process tab), the program that used the most of it was something like 300Mo and everything else was 200, 70 or less. I have 16 Gb RAM.
When I restarted my computer everything went down again and it was at 17%. Several hours later it went up to 28%, again, without any reason and with nothing showed in the task manager Just like now. Apart from Discord, nothing's running on my computer (apart from the usual softwares) and it should be around 18%, but it's 37%.
I launched a MalwareByte analyze, that didn't find much.
Same for CCleaner.
I analyzed the computer with ESET NOD32 Antivirus too but nothing came up.
I've found topics about such things talked about "Killer Suite", something related to Ethernet but I don't seem to have that on my computer (I'm not sure though, since i'm not a computer savy myself).

So I ran out of ideas or posts to check on the web and came here to see if anybody knew what to do. Thanks for the help in advance, and sorry about my english !

 

[Gerald6049]

have you check task manager, then show processes from all users ? usually windows update (scvhost) will take amount of ram.

 

[cherry blossoms]

Posting your hardware list might help others to assist you if its a known driver/memory leak issue.

 

[angelphenix]

Hello, and thank you for your answers.
I sadly have no idea how to show "all processes" like you said. In my task manager, there's not the option anymore as I can only click on "less details / more details" so I think all processes are already shown if i'm not mistaken ?

As for the hardware my computer has, here is the list :

Mobo : MSI B450-A PRO (MS-7B86)
CPU : AMD Ryzen 5 2600
Drives : HDD & SSD (WDC WD20EZRZ-00Z5HB0) & (CT500MX500SSD1)
GPU : Radeon RX 580 Series
RAM :2x G-Skill Ripjaws DDR4 PC4-25600 - F4-3200C16D-16GVKB (more concise name just like found on the web : G.Skill RipJaws 5 Series black 16Go (2x 8Go) DDR4 3200 MHz CL16

There you go !
I've also seen someone else talk about a problem quite similar on this website and somebody adviced to use 'Hitman Pro", so I downloaded it, used it and it didn't find anything, sadly.

 

[Gerald6049]

Hello, and thank you for your answers.
I sadly have no idea how to show "all processes" like you said. In my task manager, there's not the option anymore as I can only click on "less details / more details" so I think all processes are already shown if i'm not mistaken ?

As for the hardware my computer has, here is the list :

Mobo : MSI B450-A PRO (MS-7B86)
CPU : AMD Ryzen 5 2600
Drives : HDD & SSD (WDC WD20EZRZ-00Z5HB0) & (CT500MX500SSD1)
GPU : Radeon RX 580 Series
RAM :2x G-Skill Ripjaws DDR4 PC4-25600 - F4-3200C16D-16GVKB (more concise name just like found on the web : G.Skill RipJaws 5 Series black 16Go (2x 8Go) DDR4 3200 MHz CL16

There you go !
I've also seen someone else talk about a problem quite similar on this website and somebody adviced to use 'Hitman Pro", so I downloaded it, used it and it didn't find anything, sadly.

Just open task manager, then see the detail tab. Do you see the scvhost.exe running and use a lot of ram ?

 

[angelphenix]

I'm seeing svchost using a bit of RAM, not a lot. There's quite a lot of processes, indeed, but I have 16Go of max memory and it might not even use like 200Mo total, that's it.
On my total RAM, with 80% of it being used, it should show me something like, programs using 3, 4, even 5 Go of RAM while the MAXIMUM that's being used in the shown list is 400-500Mo which is Google Chrome.

It means that something (not shown in the task manager, at least not descriptively) is using/keeping that RAM to itself, since it has the right % displayed but nothing is shown in the list below it.

I understand that a lot of processes that all take 10Mo of RAM can add up to quite a lot, but it clearly doesn't add up to even 1 or 2Go of it. Nothing even close to filling up my ram to 80-90%

 

[Gerald6049]

If you can't find anything related to your strange RAM usage, just do re-installing windows. I don't really like to suggest this, but this surely will clear your problem.

 

[angelphenix]

I'm considering it but would like to investigate a bit more "if I can". I have quite a lot of things on this computer and don't have the hardware to transfer everything right now so I might need some days to pick up what I need and re-install windows. In the meantime, I would just like to see if anyone can find where it's coming from so I don't get it again

 

[Gerald6049]

Try to check your setting, my computer - properties - advanced - on "performance" choose "settings"- advanced - then "adjust best performace" to "programs".

 

[angelphenix]

Hello Gerald. Thank you for your help, sadly best performances is already ticked for programs already !

Oh, and something else I just realized : Whenever I shutdown the whole computer and turn it on the next day, apparently the RAM doesn't "reset". I turned it on this morning and it was already at 50% of its max RAM (instead of 17-18%).
While, if I reboot the computer instead of shutting it down, it restarts to 17-18% like it should normally be

I've screenshotted four things from Task Manager / Resource Monitor / RAMMAP if anybody's interested in checking it :
Imgur Album with screenshots

 

[Gerald6049]

I think I realized something. Could you check on task manager, on "performance" tab, select "memory" then you can find " Non-paged pool".

you can compare it when get the issue (high ram usage) and after you restarted.

 

[angelphenix]

Hello again Gerald. Sorry for the late reply, I had to wait for the ram to fill up to take two separate screenshots. Here they are : Imgur album
I don't really know how to read it though so I'm counting on you to tell me if there's a problem or if anything obvious is apparent on the screenshots !

 

[AngelJin]

From personal experience one stick died and i had 8ram task manager show 16 and 85% usage.So try reseat ur ram and clean ur slots and check if the problem persists.

 

[angelphenix]

Hello AngelJin. I don't think that is the case, as i'm having a high percentage of usage (60+%) only after a full day or two of not stopping the computer. Whenever I reboot it so it starts clean, I'm at 16% usage with the right amount of RAM getting used as you can see on the last screenshots I provided

 

[AngelJin]

Well then maybe u have chrome extensions that use ur ram.

 

[AngelJin]

Also check this post https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/physical-memory-usage-way-too-high.3235851/ .

 

[Gerald6049]

Hello again Gerald. Sorry for the late reply, I had to wait for the ram to fill up to take two separate screenshots. Here they are : Imgur album
I don't really know how to read it though so I'm counting on you to tell me if there's a problem or if anything obvious is apparent on the screenshots !

I have see your screenshoots. So I get it, the Memory Cache !! They are actually the windows feature, to speedup your PC. They will only unused RAM. Actually that's good for you system. They will gone when you restarted the windows. I find this old thread, for your reference : https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/all-my-ram-getting-cached.2557498/

 

[cherry blossoms]

To further test, recommend starting your computer up in a clean boot environment, which will dump all 3rd party programs:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

If behavior still persists, possibly a driver related leak.


Add programs back one at a time and run your system, looking for signs of leaking.

Yeah, Chrome is a pig on resources.

Using "all in one" utility center or internet traffic shaping software?

 

[angelphenix]

Is that memory cache actually a good thing ? Because I was minding my own business, and out of nowhere, my computer started to lag like crazy because I was at 95% RAM. I'm fine with some sort of "cache" but not if the memory isn't freed after some time

I'm not using any "all in one" or internet traffic shaping software, no, and even without chrome it's kind of a problem.
I could do it that way, but it would take me weeks, if not months to test each and every programs as, even without the clean boot environment, it takes two to three days for my memory to be filled up