Computer Memory Getting Loaded

[Capt Joe]

No, I don't think it is too many 'Adult Beverages', although even though sometimes these confounded machines do give thoughts to a lot of them to make you forget how frustrating they can be at times.

 

Well, it seems like my i3, Windows 7 with 8 Gig of RAM and a 750 Gig hard drive computer has developed an appetite for RAM memory.

 

Whenever I boot or restart my computer and I check the Physical Memory, it shows around 36 or 38% used. Then, after a bit of use, mostly surfing the net, etc., we will get a pop-up saying the memory is getting low and Microsoft needs to close IE. I do check the memory used in Task Manager>Performance and it shows up to 80+% used... and usually there is only one or two browser windows open and the Windows Live Mail. If I start closing them and checking the memory in Task Manager, there is only a small % improvement in the memory until the LAST open window is closed... and that might only be a Google search window (blank). Then the used memory will show as having something around the high 30 up to 50% used.

 

Just wondering what might be causing the memory usage and how to go about seeking out a solution. Back a few months ago when I was using this computer exclusively (I have recently purchased a new Toshiba Win 10 with a i7 for my use and my wife will inherit this computer), I might have 8 or 10 IE browser windows open, the mail program and possible a couple of photo gallery's open and a word processing document all open and not get the Low Memory message.

 

So, any thoughts, hints, suggestions, etc.? Any questions about the existing hardware/software, operation, etc.? I realize I might not have explained the above in terms that were totally understandable so fire away. I just want to get this thing figured out so as my wife transitions over to this computer it will be a trouble free experience.

 

Thanks... and Standing By,

 

Capt Joe

[wildmandmc]

often times its a spyware/virus issue that can cause this.

google adware cleaner, click on link from bleeping computer.com on that page select download from bleeping computer, self installs.

accept, then click scan, when finish, click clean, click ok on prompts pc will then reboot. upon reboot, you get a text file showing what is/has been removed, then you should see a big difference. in performance

[homelesshartshorns]

I discovered something the other day. I was backing up my computer files to a flash drive and after saving all my desk top items I deleted everything off my desk top, at the same time I had the pie chart open for the Disk Clean Up. Walla I gained a quarter of my pie back!!!!!

[TreyandSusan]

There are a number of possible issues that could be causing this but here is at least one thing that will help (also briefly mentioned above).

Choose start button
Type in Disk Cleanup and choose
Select the drive you want to clean (usually C:)
Allow the utility to scan the drive for files you may remove. (may take a few minutes)
The biggest one is often the temporary files which may restore XGB

Check the files to remove and then remove.

If your hard drive is approaching a full state then
1. fragmentation is probably higher
2. Both of these will cause the virtual memory (paging file) to have to work harder and cause slow downs.

The paging file (Pagefile.sys) is a hidden file on your computer's hard disk that Windows uses as if it were random access memory (RAM). The paging file and physical memory make up virtual memory.

Cleaning the drive will help with these issues.

Defragging after this is also a good maintenance item.

For additional tweaks to the paging file/virtual memory consider this.
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Make sure you are up to date on all Windows updates - just a good practice

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Could also be this - can be dangerous to play with the registry if you do not know what you are doing.

before doing anything like this it may be good to set a system restore point.

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It could be a malware thing as mentioned above

make sure Microsoft Security Essentials is running, updated and do a scan

malwarebytes

Spypbot Search & Destroy

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Consider using a different browser - Chrome or Firefox

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Could be another issue but these will help to clean up system and may solve issue

[docj]

The OP is talking about RAM utilization, not hard disk usage. I don't know much about Internet Explorer RAM usage, but Chrome can use an enormous amount of it. My laptop has 16GB of RAM and at the moment 80% of it is being used even though the only major applications that are open are Chrome and Outlook 365. I currently have nine Chrome tabs open and there appears to be several GB of RAM being used by them.

 

I guess the question is "who cares?" We used to worry about RAM utilization when we had computers running with <1GB. These days, there is plenty of RAM available and having it means that your browser doesn't have to write stuff to disk when you go from tab to tab like it used to have to do. IMHO you can't analyze the operation of a modern system by comparing it to how things used to work.

 

Since the OP says he is getting "low memory" warnings; it is likely that he has one or more programs running that "leak memory." This is a common problem with browsers. Programs that leak memory do not "give it back" properly when the program is closed. Often the only way to restore the memory is to reboot or to use Task Manager (or an equivalent program) to force processes to close. If Internet Explorer is leaking memory, then get a different browser.

[Mark and Dale Bruss]

 

The OP is talking about RAM utilization, not hard disk usage.

Actually Trey is correct. To Windows, having problems finding suitable swap disk space is reported as a memory shortage problem.

[Capt Joe]

WOW!!!

 

Lot's of good info here. Too late and too tired to do anything with this tonight.... been a looong week. I'll run through these possible solutions in the next day or so and report back with results.

 

Any more thoughts or such will be appreciated also.

 

Thanks Again,

Capt Joe

[docj]

Actually Trey is correct. To Windows, having problems finding suitable swap disk space is reported as a memory shortage problem.

 

With him having a 750GB hard drive it boggles the mind to think that Windows is having problems finding disk space. I have tons of stored photos on my HDD and have only managed to use ~25% of a 1TB HDD. I would think something is really amiss if that much HDD space was being locked up for swapping.

 

And don't lose sight of the fact that the OP cited Task Manager with respect to memory usage. Task Manager reports on RAM usage; I don't think it shows anything about the HDD other than the current I/O rate and its percentage of the maximum data rate.