Severe Memory Issue

[Blackthorn]

I have no idea what's going on, but a problem has started occurring just today where my desktop performance will drop to unusable levels, often accompanied with an awful grinding noise from my PC. I opened task manager and noticed my RAM was repeatedly filling up, and then emptying again.

Can anyone tell me what's going on here? At first I suspected a virus, but a scan showed nothing. Sometimes I'll think it's fixed, with the problem disappearing for a while, up to an hour, but it always returns again.

 

[VirusType2]

Bug in a program? check google to see if anyone else has the problem

Uhh.. I don't think RAM makes any noise. It's probably your hard drive that is failing to cache, causing the RAM to fill up. The noise would be your hard drive.

Page file is easily corrupted. Try setting your page file to 0, then apply changes, restart the computer, then put the page file back how it was, [and restart again?]. This will clear the page file and it might fix the problem

 

[Vegeta897]

Christ, 58 processes...

 

[VirusType2]

I've got 48 on XP right now.

Also, Blackthorn, is this 64 bit? If so, you need more memory. You're going to to slow down your entire system and wear out your hard drive. Maybe this is what's already happened.

 

[Viperidae]

Also, Blackthorn, is this 64 bit? If so, you need more memory.

2 gigs is fine for 64 bit. Where did you hear that?

 

[VirusType2]

Really? 64 bit uses more memory, and I thought windows 7 was a hog (compared to XP.)

With 58 processes, he's got a lot of things going on - things that use memory. Simply open up Photoshop and the PS browser and he'll run out of memory.

I would think 3+GB would be recommended, but I guess you're right. The probably ship with Windows 7 and 2 GB. Then again, they also commonly sold XP with 265MB, which I can tell you is not enough to operate it efficiently. Tons of caching.

I'm going with 8 GB in my 64Bit Win7 though. I want it to have whatever it needs.

 

[Barney Fife]

No VirusType2, 64 utilizes memory better than 32 and can handle lot more capacity, that's with the exception of Vista.
You are right though: Memories do not make noises; a hard drive, fans, and, or PSU will.
If for some reason one may suspect memory, its good to test memory modules one by one, by using Memtest86, or Window's Memory Diagnostic (Free Download with a activated Vista, or Win7)
Also there are other things which will hog memory: A leaking and buggy software, Malware, Viruses, or a simply corrupted OS will also have the same characteristics.

Good Luck.

 

[VirusType2]

No VirusType2, 64 utilizes memory better than 32 and can handle lot more capacity, that's with the exception of Vista.
You are right though: Memories do not make noises; a hard drive, fans, and, or PSU will.

I don't think you read what I said. Yes, 64 bit can handle more memory. That's part of my point. I'm recommending more memory, clearing the cache, and closing unnecessary applications, if possible.

The fact remains:

"The main disadvantage of 64-bit architectures is that relative to 32-bit architectures, the same data occupies more space in memory. This increases the memory requirements of a given process and can have implications for efficient processor cache utilization."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64_bit

And Windows 7 may utilize memory better, I don't know. So I'll do a little checking for the sake of clarification:

Processor Cache and Memory

The results are a mixed bag with no real winner here in this test. Windows XP though appears to be the better performer but the results are very close for all of them.

Memory Bandwidth

And again we see that Windows Xp is the clear and balanced choice , but still the results are very close overall.

Memory Latency

We see that 7 and XP are almost equal, there’s really no difference between them, at least that you’d ever notice. Vista on the other hand doesn’t do too well here does it?

http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/information/windows-xp-vs-vista-vs-7/

However that's only one source, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Can you show me something that showcases how 'Windows 7 utilizes memory better'.

I believe that Windows 7 relies heavily on memory and caching, in order to make windows actually respond faster to user inputs than XP - maybe that is what you are referring to. Therefore, it is imperative to give it enough memory to do so.

 

[Viperidae]

I'm going with 8 GB in my 64Bit Win7 though. I want it to have whatever it needs.

No consumer build in the world needs or can even USE 8 gigs. You're fooling yourself.

 

[VirusType2]

Perhaps I won't need 8 GB for the foreseeable future. However, what if 5 GB would be useful?

To be clear, in order to save money, I'm starting out with 4GB, leaving 2 slots open for more RAM.

However, using dual channel memory, I'm going to need pairs of RAM sticks. Since a pair makes my current 4GB, then I will need another pair if I want to add additional memory.

I don't want to waste my 2 remaining slots by populating them with 1GB sticks when RAM is fairly cheap these days. (I paid about $17 per GB for my DDR3 4GB)

64 Bit

You can address much more than 4GB of memory, which is ideal for avid gamers, CAD, video editors and heavy multi-taskers. However, any 32 bit software you use will still be restricted to 4GB memory – you need a 64 bit CPU, OS and applications to take full advantage of the extra RAM

I use my computer for work and play at the same time. Even if I close down my audio player, my A/V, and other little applications, with 1GB of RAM, I sometimes don't have enough RAM to edit 1 image in Photoshop without running out of memory. I've had to use other image editors in these cases. It's very frustrating when the computer takes 10 minutes to crop or rotate when it doesn't have enough RAM.

So, to reiterate, I'm not recommending 8 GB of RAM to everyone. I'm recommending ... more than 2.

3 or 4GB, for Windows 7 Aero users.

Is more than 2 necessary for the basic operation of Windows 7? No, that's not what I'm implying. But generally speaking, adding more RAM is the cheapest and most significant performance upgrade available. And Windows 7 will definitely use it if you run intensive applications.

I think it's safe to say that it will improve the 'Windows Experience Index' up a few points.

 

[Viperidae]

I sometimes don't have enough RAM to edit 1 image in Photoshop without running out of memory. I've had to use other image editors in these cases. It's very frustrating when the computer takes 10 minutes to crop or rotate when it doesn't have enough RAM.

I highly suggest you stop using a Pentium 3 and a 16 gig harddrive in your workstation computer.

 

[VirusType2]

It's not the processor or the HDD. I've got many TB of HDD space. I can rotate images in a couple of seconds normally.

When PS CS3 runs out of RAM on my machine, it will freeze for several minutes, then crash, along with an 'out of memory' error notification.

 

[Blackthorn]

I use 32 bit, and I definitely have enough RAM, as this has never been a problem before in the 3 years I've had this computer. I've never seen the RAM fill up, only Crysis will get it nearly full, but never completely. I'll try the page file solution you suggested.

 

[VirusType2]

Do it, it's an easy troubleshooting option.

If your computer reboots or looses power unexpectedly during a Windows session (another words, not shutting down properly), the page file can become corrupted.

That's what I've read from 'experts'. This was regarding XP, but it makes sense that it could still be an issue.

If this doesn't fix your problem, I would suspect programs that you have running when it does it; close one app at a time while it's having the problem to see if it stops.

 

[Blackthorn]

The page file definitely has something to do with it. I've noticed in task manager that whenever one of these memory spikes occurs, it's accompanied with the page file use increasing massively, and then dropping right back down again when the memory use does. Resetting the page file hasn't fixed the problem, and I've set it to various different sizes. I've noticed a peculiarity though; task manager always shows the page file as being about 2000MB higher than what I set it to. Even when I cleared the page file totally and had it at zero, it still appeared to be accessing a page file of around 2000MB.

The grinding noises from the PC are becoming quite worrying too, and the problem only seem to be increasing.

 

[G-Dub]

It's not the processor or the HDD. I've got many TB of HDD space. I can rotate images in a couple of seconds normally.

When PS CS3 runs out of RAM on my machine, it will freeze for several minutes, then crash, along with an 'out of memory' error notification.

Do you have a scratch disk setup at all?

 

[Blackthorn]

I went through my active processes and disabled them one by one to find the culprit. Since disabling and uninstalling Java, everything seems fine. Hopefully this is now fixed.

 

[VirusType2]

Do you have a scratch disk setup at all?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scratch_disk

Oh, what's this? I never even noticed the Performance menu. Turns out, I only had 345 MB of RAM and <2 GB of HDD space reserved for it. I also lowered the history levels to remember and increased the cache. Thanks for the tip.

I went through my active processes and disabled them one by one to find the culprit. Since disabling and uninstalling Java, everything seems fine. Hopefully this is now fixed.

Great

 

[DreamThrall]

I've got 8GB RAM and it is AWESOME.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

"The main disadvantage of 64-bit architectures is that relative to 32-bit architectures, the same data occupies more space in memory. This increases the memory requirements of a given process and can have implications for efficient processor cache utilization."

Am I right in thinking its roughly double (Win7 x86 requires 1GB, whilst x64 requires 2GB)

Effectively the reason why you need more memory to run 64 bit apps

I've got 8GB RAM and it is AWESOME.

I was thinking doing this, but I have a DDR2 system, and I am eagerly waiting for Core i5/i7 to come down in price and, you guessed, I'll have to buy DDR3 for that upgrade