Hi, I have Toshiba Satellite U500 with 4GB RAM on my machine, and I am running Windows Vista home premium 64bit service pack 2. When I start my laptop it uses about 1.5GB. The memory usage will than start raising in about 0.5GB a day, even if I do not start any process manually (of course there are many services running on startup). I tried to isolate the problematic process using the task manager, but I couldn't. After several days, the Task Manager is showing memory usage of about 3.7GB, but when I look on the processes tab, the memory (Working Set) column will sum up to about 1.1GB. The Commit Size memory sum up to an even lower number. Any idea what is killing my memory or how I can find it?
I can not locate the process killing my memory through the task manager
- Thread starter zeze23
- Start date
Hello Zeze, and welcome to Vista Forums.
You can look in Resource Monitor under the "Memory" bar to get a better idea of what is using up your RAM. However, this is perfectly normal. A feature called Superfetch will preload data to RAM that it thinks and predicts that you will need soon to have it ready in the faster memory instantly instead of loading it from the slower hard drive on demand.
Hope this helps,
Shawn
You can look in Resource Monitor under the "Memory" bar to get a better idea of what is using up your RAM. However, this is perfectly normal. A feature called Superfetch will preload data to RAM that it thinks and predicts that you will need soon to have it ready in the faster memory instantly instead of loading it from the slower hard drive on demand.
Hope this helps,
Shawn
My Computers
System One System Two
-
- Operating System
- Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
- Manufacturer/Model
- Custom
- CPU
- Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
- Motherboard
- ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
- Memory
- 64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
- Graphics card(s)
- ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
- Sound Card
- Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
- Monitor(s) Displays
- 2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
- Screen Resolution
- 2560x1440
- Hard Drives
- 1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2, 4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2, 8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
- PSU
- Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
- Case
- Thermaltake Core P3
- Cooling
- Corsair Hydro H115i
- Mouse
- Logitech MX Master 3
- Keyboard
- Logitech wireless K800
- Internet Speed
- 1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
- Other Info
- Logitech Z625 speaker system, Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam, HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn, APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI, Galaxy S23 Plus phone
-
- Operating System
- Windows 10 Pro
- Manufacturer/Model
- HP Envy Y0F94AV
- CPU
- i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
- Memory
- 16 GB DDR4-2133
- Sound Card
- Conexant ISST Audio
- Monitor(s) Displays
- 17.3" UHD IPS touch
- Screen Resolution
- 3480 x 2160
- Hard Drives
- 512 GB M.2 SSD
Hi Brink and thanks for the quick reply and quick answer :-) The resource monitor looks very hand, but unfortunately on my case it didn't help, as it showed the same information on the processes the Processes tab showed. I think you're right about the cache, as the memory usage is not "recorded" anywhere. The problem is that when my machine gets close to the 3.8GB is start working so slow, it's hardly usable. Is there any way to disable the Superfetch cache, to see if this is indeed the problem? Again many thanks for the help, you're a life saver!
My Computer
You can disable Superfetch in Services. I also suggest you reboot. That will set it back to more normal.
But the system slowdown should not have anything to do with caching. All the cached RAM is marked as "available" when needed. There must be another reason for your slowdown.
But the system slowdown should not have anything to do with caching. All the cached RAM is marked as "available" when needed. There must be another reason for your slowdown.
My Computer
System One
-
- Manufacturer/Model
- Dell
- CPU
- Q6600
- Memory
- 4GB
- Monitor(s) Displays
- HP w2207h
- Hard Drives
- 2x250GB HDDs 1x60GB OCZ SSD 6 external disks 60 to 640GBs
- Other Info
- Also 1xHP desktop, 1xHP laptop, 1xGateway laptop
It only happens when the memory is getting close to 3.8GB. If it would have been usable, I'd check the page faults and see it's indeed the memory, though I'm quite sure it is. If it's not the cache, any idea what it might be?
My Computer
Checking the # of hard faults is a good idea. Without some more digging it is hard to say what the cause could be. When the problem occurs, it would help if you took a snip of task manager (the lower part with the numbers) and posted that here.
I would also suggest you check with Process Explorer ( Process Explorer ) which processes bring your system to a creep. Click on "CPU" so that all the CPU eaters appear on top. Then right click on the processes that consume the CPU and go to Properties. That will give you further detail. If it is a svchost.exe, hovering over the process already gives you some more info.
I would also suggest you check with Process Explorer ( Process Explorer ) which processes bring your system to a creep. Click on "CPU" so that all the CPU eaters appear on top. Then right click on the processes that consume the CPU and go to Properties. That will give you further detail. If it is a svchost.exe, hovering over the process already gives you some more info.
My Computer
System One
-
- Manufacturer/Model
- Dell
- CPU
- Q6600
- Memory
- 4GB
- Monitor(s) Displays
- HP w2207h
- Hard Drives
- 2x250GB HDDs 1x60GB OCZ SSD 6 external disks 60 to 640GBs
- Other Info
- Also 1xHP desktop, 1xHP laptop, 1xGateway laptop
Francis James
New Member
this will not fix your problem but it will help,add virtual memory,i have 6 gigs of RAM now,the default was 2 gigs
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/132201-virtual-memory-paging-file-change.html
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/132201-virtual-memory-paging-file-change.html
My Computer
Thanks for your help. Next time it happens I'll check out the page faults, and CPU, though I'm 100% possitive this is a memory issue. BTW, I was using WebShots screen saver and after hearing about superfetch, I wonder if it's the combination of the two causing the problem (superfetch starting to upload 500-600 images of 2-3MB each to the memory). Anhyone using Pixasa, Webshots or any other image rotating screensaver successfully?
My Computer
Page faults were 50-100 faults/sec, this is definitely memory. I disabled superfetch, let's see if there is any improvement... :-|
My Computer
With that amount of RAM you should have no page faults at all - or very few. On this system where I am on right now (3GB of RAM), I have zero page faults. But Superfetch should not be at fault. All the cached memory is marked as "available" and should be useable when needed.
It would help if you posted a snip of task manager > Processes tab > click on "Memory" so that the heavy hitters are on top.
Also, what are your numbers in task manager > Performance tab behind "Commit(MB)", just above the Resource Manager button. Maybe your page file setting is wrong.
It would help if you posted a snip of task manager > Processes tab > click on "Memory" so that the heavy hitters are on top.
Also, what are your numbers in task manager > Performance tab behind "Commit(MB)", just above the Resource Manager button. Maybe your page file setting is wrong.
My Computer
System One
-
- Manufacturer/Model
- Dell
- CPU
- Q6600
- Memory
- 4GB
- Monitor(s) Displays
- HP w2207h
- Hard Drives
- 2x250GB HDDs 1x60GB OCZ SSD 6 external disks 60 to 640GBs
- Other Info
- Also 1xHP desktop, 1xHP laptop, 1xGateway laptop
My Computer
Sorry, I gave you the Win7 terminology - I am talking about the last 2 numbers on the bottom right in Task manager > performance tab. I think they are called "page file" in Vista.
My Computer
System One
-
- Manufacturer/Model
- Dell
- CPU
- Q6600
- Memory
- 4GB
- Monitor(s) Displays
- HP w2207h
- Hard Drives
- 2x250GB HDDs 1x60GB OCZ SSD 6 external disks 60 to 640GBs
- Other Info
- Also 1xHP desktop, 1xHP laptop, 1xGateway laptop
My Computer
mmm... there is another thing that is weird on my laptop - many times when I press Ctrl-C instead of the text being copied, an entire screenshot is copied.
Could be my memory is filled with screenshots?
How can I look at all what is saved on the clipboard?
Could be my memory is filled with screenshots?
How can I look at all what is saved on the clipboard?
My Computer
Forget about it, it happens even if I do not work with my laptop - I restarted as my last thing last night and when I came this morning memory usage increased.
Any ideas, or should I go for formatting it... :-(