Vista keeps using up more and more ram?!

Discussion in 'Computer Games and General Discussion' started by da_head, May 26, 2009.

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  1. da_head
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    da_head A dying dream..

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    before when doing normal tasks (such as surfing the web and using msn), my comp would use around 1.4gb of ram. but nowadays, its been slowly climbing and climbing, and it uses almost 2gb now! the fan seems to run high for menial tasks, and things seem a bit more sluggish. i haven't made any major software/hardware changes recently, and i'm pretty sure it isn't a virus (though it might be), and i checked task manager, and there doesn't appear to be anything in particular that's whoring out the ram. restarting the computer sets it back to usual for a bit, but then it climbs back up later. any thoughts? thanks in advance.
     
    #1 May 26, 2009
  2. Skyline969

    Skyline969 MENUdo Afficionado

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    How long after you restart your computer does it start to climb again? Also, try using msconfig (click start, type msconfig, hit enter) to disable a few things from starting up with your computer. You wouldn't believe how many things start up that don't need to.

    Also, it wouldn't hurt to run a full system scan. Avast's boot-time scan is one of the best decisions as it scans your computer before Windows loads, making some viruses that hide themselves become vulnerable.
     
    #2 May 26, 2009
  3. iritegood

    iritegood GBAtemp Advanced Fan

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    Open up the task manager (ctrl+alt+del) and check your processes. You can order the processes by the amount of RAM they are using. See which ones are using up your resources the most. The program is usually identifiable by the name, but if not, a simple google search will show you what's hogging the RAM.
     
    #3 May 26, 2009
  4. da_head
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    da_head A dying dream..

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    @skyline969: i'll check later how long it takes to climb. i am familiar with msconfig, and as soon as i got vista, i quickly proceeded to rape fix it by disabling a lot of shit, so that's not the issue at hand. luckily, i have avast pro, and i'll try the boot-time scan as you suggested.

    @iritegood: i said i already checked task manager...
     
    #4 May 26, 2009
  5. Skyline969

    Skyline969 MENUdo Afficionado

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    You know how to schedule the boot-time scan, yeah? Open the avast main window, click the little eject-looking button, click Schedule Boot-Time Scan, and hit Schedule. Bam. Reboot your computer and let it go. Don't do what my brother did and forget to plug in your computer if it's a laptop. I'm kinda glad Dell gave him a Recovery partition. [​IMG]
     
    #5 May 26, 2009
  6. da_head
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    da_head A dying dream..

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    plug it in? did it lose power mid-scan or something?
    (yes i have a laptop)
     
    #6 May 26, 2009
  7. cornaljoe

    cornaljoe GBAtemp Advanced Fan

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    It's a so called "feature" of Vista. If you have alot (3GB or more), it copies data to the ram for faster access. This feature also puts less stress on your harddrive. I didn't like it either but I've gotten used to it. I have 4GB and my PC is using 2.4GB of it.
     
    #7 May 26, 2009
  8. da_head
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    da_head A dying dream..

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    @cornaljoe: really? how come it just started doing this recently? and how come my other friends with vista aren't experiencing this? :S

    EDIT: fuck. apparently the boot scan doesn't work with x64 systems [​IMG]
     
    #8 May 26, 2009
  9. Skyline969

    Skyline969 MENUdo Afficionado

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    Yeah, he lost power. Stupid bastard didn't realize his power bar wasn't switched on. [​IMG]

    And your system is x64? Damn... well, running a deep system scan (high sensitivity, scan in archive files too) will spot out most of the viruses.
     
    #9 May 26, 2009
  10. Joe88

    Joe88 [λ]

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    it cache's commonly used programs like firefox for example to the ram for faster loading
     
    #10 May 26, 2009
  11. Skyline969

    Skyline969 MENUdo Afficionado

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    da_head, how large is your laptop's pagefile? Bump that baby up to 6-10 gigs or so. Maybe that'll help.
     
    #11 May 26, 2009
  12. da_head
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    da_head A dying dream..

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    i already have it set to 8gb. should i increase it?
     
    #12 May 26, 2009
  13. Skyline969

    Skyline969 MENUdo Afficionado

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    Nah, 8 gigs should be plenty. Hm... well, just get back to me on how long it takes before your laptop slows to a crawl and we'll figure something out from there.

    Another thought, what CPU does your laptop have?
     
    #13 May 26, 2009
  14. playallday

    playallday Group: GBAtemp Ghost

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    He has a 2.00GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5800.
     
    #14 May 26, 2009
  15. da_head
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    da_head A dying dream..

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    yep that's correct. currently its using 2.11 gb of ram, and things get a bit choppy sumtimes (like typing this for instance) and i've noticed when streaming videos the video freezes every 20 secs or so for an instant.
     
    #15 May 26, 2009
  16. da_head
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    da_head A dying dream..

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    wow wtf! its now using 2.4gb of ram! and the computer is pretty sluggish >.>

    i have 4gbs in total btw

    EDIT: yeah i just restarted it, and its back at 1.4gb (normal-ish) range.
     
    #16 May 27, 2009
  17. Skyline969

    Skyline969 MENUdo Afficionado

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    Looks like a reboot is all you need. However, that could get annoying to do all the time.

    As a plus, I'm using Windows 7 and my laptop is using less than a gig of RAM. I currently have open a download accelerator, Firefox, Windows Media Player, Ares (a smaller version of Limewire), Windows Live Mail, AND Windows Live Messenger, along with my antivirus. I love Windows 7! [​IMG]
     
    #17 May 27, 2009
  18. Joe88

    Joe88 [λ]

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    my vista ultimate is using about 950MB right now
    FF, ATI CCC, Zone Alarm Security Suite, Windows Defender, uTorrent, Peer Gurdian 2, HD Audio Manager, PowerISO
     
    #18 May 27, 2009
  19. DeMoN

    DeMoN GBAtemp Guru

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    For me, it's always this damn svchost.exe that uses up the most RAM, up to 150k. You might be in a similar situation, but you can't disable it.
    The other thing is Firefox. Sometimes I open up so many tabs and that increasingly takes up a lot of RAM too.
     
    #19 May 27, 2009
  20. da_head
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    da_head A dying dream..

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    it mite be firefox, it is a ram whore afterall. and yeah i do have windows 7 ultimate RC on this rig, but haven't had time to move all my shit over. guess i'll do that soon and ditch this shit for good.

    last time i tried out windows 7, it was using like 700mb of ram with aero enabled =D sexyyy
     
    #20 May 27, 2009
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