Computer losing memory

[Guest]

I have 960MB of memory on my computer and normally I have plenty of memory
available but lately my computer has been using so much memory I have had to
reboot after about 12 hours. When I have checked performance in Task Manager
the virtual memory graph is right at the top. When I start my computer the
memory available is about 700MB but during the day this goes down to about
30MB. I then find that things like my anti virus are not working properly and
that I am unable to open anything up. Can anyone help? Many thanks.

 

[Earl Grey]

Hi Allan:

From the Processes tab in Task Manager you can easily see what
processes are using memory.

Earl Grey

 

[Guest]

The thing is though nothing is showing as using alot of memory.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I have 960MB of memory on my computer and normally I have plenty
of memory available but lately my computer has been using so much
memory I have had to reboot after about 12 hours. When I have
checked performance in Task Manager the virtual memory graph is
right at the top. When I start my computer the memory available
is about 700MB but during the day this goes down to about 30MB. I
then find that things like my anti virus are not working properly
and that I am unable to open anything up. Can anyone help? Many
thanks.

From the Processes tab in Task Manager you can easily see what
processes are using memory.

The thing is though nothing is showing as using alot of memory.

"Show Processes from All Users" is checked?

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Allan

For further information about Process Explorer see here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/SystemInformation/ProcessExplorer.mspx

To ascertain which service is causing the problem select the process
producing the high CPU usage, right click, select Properties,
Services. Note there are the full names and
some explanation of what each service does.

You will find further information on Services here:
http://majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=12

To trace the particular Service involved you need to turn off each
service in turn and then restore it noting what effect it has on CPU
usage. However, you need to take care and watch what other Services
are dependent on that service. When you click on the Dependencies tab
allow it a little time to display the information.

Are you running any old 16 bit programmes on your computer i.e written
for Windows 3.1 or Windows 95?

What are your anti-virus and anti-spyware arrangements?

You may find it helpful to know exactly how much of your pagefile is
being used. Use page file monitor to observe what is the peak usage.
Start it to run immediately after start-up and look at the log at the
end of the session.The log is Pagefile log.txt. If you right click on
the file in Windows Explorer and select Send to, Desktop (Create
Shortcut). The same applies to XP_PageFileMon.exe.

A small utility to monitor pagefile usage:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

Note programs using undo features particularly those associated with
graphics and photo editing require large amounts of memory so if you
use this type of programme check these first observing how the page
usage increases when they start and whether the usage decreases when
you close the programme.


--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
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