Windows 7 x64: 3900mb of 4gb RAM usage, even when (almost) nothing running

Question

As the title suggests, I am having a problem with memory usage.

I have had my computer (Vaio AW11Z/B laptop) for over a year now, and it was running perfectly until I guess a day or two ago. Now programs randomly crash, the mouse lags around the screen and the memory usage is going through the roof for no apparent reason.

I am having exactly the same problem as this guy: http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7performance/thread/1f716693-0a46-473e-9dc0-8c2b1a058443/. I think he explains it better.

Anyone had a similar issue? What's going on? I don't think it's a virus/adware thing.

Thanks very much for any help.

Answer 1

You need to check a number of things:

1. Run the Task Manager, switch to the "Processes" tab and check the "Show processes from all users". Then when you sort by CPU usage is there anything that stands out as anomalous? Do this with as little as possible running (no Explorer window or web browser etc.).

2. Run a virus/adware scan. You say you don't think it is one of these, but it pays to rule it out for definite.

3. Run a memory scan. This should show that everything is OK, but again it will rule out memory problems.

4. Think back - was there anything (no matter how trivial) that changed two or three days ago. If you installed anything, uninstall it and see if that helps. If you have a restore point from before the problems started roll back to that and see if that cures the problem.

If the problem still persists then I don't know what it could be, but you'll have a lot more information which you should add to the question so someone else might be able to help.

Answer 2

Check your Event Viewer and in the mean time, boot into safe mode w/ networking and run Malwayrebytes Antimalware (MBAM). After doing a full scan and removing anything it found, reboot into normal mode and run ComboFox.

I understand that you do not think you are infected with anything, but you really can't know until you run a scan. Save the logs and let us see them, both programs will generate one. The entire process usually takes just under an hour.

Please also let us know if you see anything suspicious in the Event Viewer.

Edit - do you proxy your web surfing? I.e. do you run a program to eliminate ads and malicious garbage from the internet while you surf? Often, this is done by running a local proxy server which could be caching large amounts of web data in memory.