Question [Solved] RAM Memory filling until crash. Possible memory leak.

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Carl1237

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Jun 25, 2019
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The problem:
I recently replaced my hard drive and installed a new copy of windows 10 from usb onto it. My computer slowly fills up over the course of an hour to an hour and a half in used memory until it runs out and crashes. The process that appears to be increasing in memory without decreasing is Svchost.

What I'm using:
Computer: Acer Aspire TC-705
OS: 64-bit Windows 10 Home
Bios Version/Date: American Megatrends Inc. P11-B4, 6/11/2015
Psu: EVGA 500W White
Gpu: Radeon RX 580 8GB
Hard drive: Seagate BarraCuda 2TB Internal Hard Drive HDD
*Nothing is overclocked

What I've tried:
I've attempted disabling Superfetch and Windows update with no results.
I've tried diagnosing a corrupt update as well as attempting to manually update windows.

SOLUTION
I had gone into safe mode and found that the issue didn't happen while in it which suggested that a program I had installed was likely to blame. Sure enough after uninstalling an "anti-malware and security" program that I must have installed unintentionally the problem disappeared entirely.
 
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What other software have you installed with this new OS install?

A 'memory leak' is not what it sounds like.
Not randomly increasing, but rather is is some application not releasing memory when it should.

You mention RAM, but don't list what RAM you have...😉
 
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Ive installed a whole slew of softwares that I had on the previous hard drive. I have Should have 16 GB of ram but my system says I have 12 GB. Something to do with it maybe?

USAFRet said:
What other software have you installed with this new OS install?

A 'memory leak' is not what it sounds like.
Not randomly increasing, but rather is is some application not releasing memory when it should.

You mention RAM, but don't list what RAM you have...😉
Click to expand...
USAFRet said:
What other software have you installed with this new OS install?

A 'memory leak' is not what it sounds like.
Not randomly increasing, but rather is is some application not releasing memory when it should.

You mention RAM, but don't list what RAM you have...😉
Click to expand...
 
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Im not sure but the RAM I currently have is what came with the original Acer Computer. Is there a way to check?

Also having lots of software running doesn't explain why the memory isn't clearing up.
 
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Carl1237 said:
Im not sure but the RAM I currently have is what came with the original Acer Computer. Is there a way to check?

Also having lots of software running doesn't explain why the memory isn't clearing up.
Click to expand...
Having things running IS what is consuming the RAM.
Discord, bitlord, multiple chrome tabs, etc, etc, etc.

If you were to do another clean install, and NOT install all that other stuff...this issue would not appear.
 
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That doesnt make any sense. Once a program gets done using memory it gives that memory back. If running programs were the cause of the problem then closing the programs would stop it but that isnt the case. Not only that but this isnt an issue of running out of RAM while running things this is an issue of the "In Use" memory filling up over time without being replaced. And again I have even fewer of the same programs now than I did on the previous hard drive and I didnt have this problem.
 
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I tried rebooting the computer in safe mode and leaving it to idle like I did on regular. When I came back there was no change in memory usage. Might mean whatever is causing the problem can't occur in safe mode.

Tried malwarebytes to no avail.

Went through my programs and removed anything that seemed suspect. I read on another thread that someone who had this problem believed it was due to a torrent. In any case I've uninstalled bitlord for now as well.
 
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After leaving the computer idle after removing the suspect programs its seems there has been no increase which is promising. This time I will leave the computer idle with a few usual programs (chrome, steam, etc.) open just to make sure they're not at fault somehow. The amount of idle RAM in general since deleting the programs seems to have decreased as well.
 
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It appears that there has been no change. This would suggest the problem is fixed. I will continue to monitor things for about a day and if I dont notice any change Ive likely solved the issue.

To elaborate on what I did since now it seems to have had an effect. While reinstalling programs on the new hard drive it appears that unintentional programs got into the mix from being packaged with the ones I was reinstalling. While I did uninstall Bitlord that didn't seem to have any immediate effect. I also uninstalled McAfee which was bundled with another install and Betternet which Ive gotten malware from before but neither had any Immediate effect. The final thing I uninstalled was an unusual "Anti-Malware" program that got on my computer from an unknown source. After going through an suspiciously complex process to remove it I finally noticed a change in the RAM usage and I suspect it was the cause of the problem. I had noticed it many times before and even noticed it would pop up and disappear sometimes when rebooting I just thought it was something bundled with windows or something like that.
 
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Yep.
You have to be very very very careful about what you're installing, and what other junkware comes with some of those packages.

A lot of the "free" applications are "free", only because someone else is paying them to bundle their crapware in it, and on to your system.
 
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