Memeory usage too high

TheNog

Folks,
hope ye can help me here. I'm running Windows Vista on a Toshiba U300 and I keep getting alerts about the memory usage being too high. I increased the memory to 1519mb but doesn't help. i did notice that the desktop windows manager has the highest using about 40k

please help cos i don't have a clue

kaiser sauze

Are you talking about virtual memory (pagefile) or RAM?

Ru

I don’t know if it's related, or completely dissimilar, but...

I recently upgraded to Vista Ultimate x64. Everything was running great until i added an extra 4gigs of RAM giving me 8gigs total.

I used the same RAM but my PC is now randomly stalling; whether playing a game, or just music. Is there something i need to do with the OS or is it more likely i got a faulty DIMM ??

I suppose i could remove one of the chips, and then the other consecutively but just in case i missed something completely obvious....

kaizersoze

Ru wrote: »

I don’t know if it's related, or completely dissimilar, but...

I recently upgraded to Vista Ultimate x64. Everything was running great until i added an extra 4gigs of RAM giving me 8gigs total.

I used the same RAM but my PC is now randomly stalling; whether playing a game, or just music. Is there something i need to do with the OS or is it more likely i got a faulty DIMM ??

I suppose i could remove one of the chips, and then the other consecutively but just in case i missed something completely obvious....

Can you motherboard support 8gigs of RAM? Is the new RAM the same as the old?

TheNog

kaiser sauze wrote: »

Are you talking about virtual memory (pagefile) or RAM?

it says physical memory

Overheal

Ctrl + Alt + Del and run the Task manager.

In the processes tab click Show Processes From All Users

Now sort the list by memory useage and show us what you get

TheNog

how can i copy an image of task manager into a reply?

Voodu Child

TheNog wrote: »

how can i copy an image of task manager into a reply?

Press 'print screen' to take a screengrab. Open paint and press Ctrl+V (or select 'Paste' from the menu). Then just crop the image if necessary and save it. You can either attach the image to the post, or upload it somewhere and provide a link.

Overheal

Attaching can pe done in the advanced reply page, or you can upload the photo somewhere like http://www.photobucket.com

TheNog

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TheNog

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i know that firefox is way too high but why is it like this?

kaizersoze

82 processes running is way too high. Ideally should be less than 40.
Turn off any programs that are loading at startup (except anti-virus).

TheNog

okay here is the entire list of programs running. how do I prevent unncessary programs starting at start up? and which ones do I turn off?


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Voodu Child

Can you post a screen grab of the 'Performance' tab ?

Overheal

Process count might be irrelevant. I have 70 myself and Im only at 55% ram. Which for vista is well within norms, ram-wise.

Okay what raises suspicion with me here is that the processes dont seem to be the cause of your problem. In fact even in my own machine process really only account for half a GB of RAM. The numbers aren't adding up.

TheNog

ah crap is that bad?


performance.jpg

Voodu Child

You've only got 1Gb of ram showing (1013). You say you've upgrade to 1.5Gb, but something's obviously gone awry.

Vista and whatever applications you're running are using 803Mb, which is quite normal, but that means you've only got 200 spare. And those 200 are being used by Superfetch, which is why you're constantly running out of memory, and probably also why your disk is being thrashed.

1Gb definitely isn't enough to smoothly run Vista, unless you've done some optimization.

TheNog

it appears that I only increased the paging file from 1013 to 1512. see hereperformance options.jpg

Voodu Child

Leave the pagefile on automatic, unless you're an advanced user.

But that's not the problem above - going by windows task manager, it appears you've only got 1Gb of ram on your system. So that's something you should look into.

TheNog

voodoo_child wrote: »

Leave the pagefile on automatic, unless you're an advanced user.

But that's not the problem above - going by windows task manager, it appears you've only got 1Gb of ram on your system. So that's something you should look into.

what would the best size ram for me to get?

I only use the microsoft office, net and download films etc

Voodu Child

Okay....I see the problem.

You say you've increased the memory to 1.5Gb, which i took to mean you physically increased the ram. You haven't done that though right, you've just been talking about changing the pagefile size?

Okay, yeah, forget about the pagefile, leave that on automatic. If you've only physically got 1Gb ram, then there's your problem. I would consider 1.5 a minimum for Vista, and 2Gb to be a nice comfort zone for most people.

Depending on your budget, I would buy two sticks of 1Gb ram. Its actually not too expensive these days. check your notebook manual or literature to see exactly what type you need.

Overheal

under normal parameters the pagefile will be twice the size of your physical ram. if you have 1gb ram you will have 2gb pagefile size. if you have 2gb ram you'll have a 4gb pagefile.

I also endorse upgrading your RAM. its quite cheap. Get 2x1GB sticks as voodoo says by going to your manufacturer to see exactly what type you require.

In the meantime try disabling Vista's Aero interface which you appear to have enabled. This will give you a small performance boost, but is no comparison to the improvement you'll get from buying more RAM.

To disable the Aero enhancements, right click on the desktop and click Personalization > Window Color and Appearance > Open Classic appearance properties for more color options. From there change your theme from Windows Vista Aero to Windows Vista Basic.

TheNog

thanks for your help guys. i appreciate it
thenog