Installing program uses all my RAM

[morpse]

I have Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit installed on my system, and I seem to have a problem where it will use all 4GB's of my RAM just to install a game/program. See, whenever I try to install a game or application (such as GTA IV, or Adobe Photoshop CS3) my RAM usage will slowly go up from around 1GB to 4GB at a rate similar to 1.01GB's, 1.02GB's, 1.03GB's, usually about .02GB's every one or two seconds (sometimes faster). It eventually gets to 4GB's slowing my computer down (practically freezing it) to where I can't open a single program, and I have to restart my computer after the program/game installs

I have the following pc, homebuild:
Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L
A-DATA 4GB DDR2 800MHz CL5
Intel Core2 Quad Q9550 2.83 GHz

Any help?

 

[GhislainG]

Which process is using the memory?

 

[morpse]

None;
it simply gets full and i cant explain how since the installing process is not larger than 20 mb of ram

 

[GhislainG]

If you display processes from all users and sort them by memory utilization, you'll see if one process' memory footprint keeps on increasing. Another possibility is a new process being started every few seconds. That's easy to detect since the number of processes will increase. A slightly more difficult problem to figure out is when a process starts and crashes without releasing its memory, but then you'd see the process starting and stopping, but memory utilization never decreasing.

 

[morpse]

Well this is kinda complicated
The process of the installer is not increasing, and there are no incoming new processes; and about the fact with the process starting crashing and not releasing its memory i don't think thats happening since the installer don't give any errors.
I will install something and post some pictures

 

[GhislainG]

It isn't that complex. Memory has to be used by the OS, the cache or applications. Posting pictures is an excellent idea. Just make sure that you display processes for all users.

 

[morpse]

Here it goes:
http://img141.imageshack.us/my.php?image=81337607bz5.jpg
http://img50.imageshack.us/my.php?image=74626491xa7.jpg
http://img141.imageshack.us/my.php?image=56001939qo5.jpg

Of course after the instalation i had to rebood to recover my ram.

 

[GhislainG]

List processes by Image Name and try to see which one starts and stops. One process most likely has a memory leak. While it's a tedious task, you can stop a few processes at a time before doing an install to determine which one causes the issue. I'd start with the anti-virus followed by anything else that isn't absolutely required.

 

[morpse]

I stopped all useless procesess and retried; there seems to be no process crashing since while the number of processes stops at lets say 52 and then phisical memory increases from 30% to 70-80%

 

[GhislainG]

Can you monitor system performance and take a few screen prints? I want to see what else changes if the number of processes doesn't change.

 

[morpse]

http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/4875/36095168dm3.jpg
http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/5938/19885928ku7.jpg
http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/5832/77195982al7.jpg
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/6984/30882444yz4.jpg
http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/4492/35228943jd1.jpg
Any ideas?

 

[gamerk316]

CAn't view images at work...

First off, when installing a program, a lot of RAM is used simply to unpack/uncompress files and copy them to their proper location. That being said, you should not need to reboot to recover your RAM.

Odds are, something else is eating up your RAM in the background.

 

[morpse]

Yes but of course whatever is eating the ram has to do with the installing because it never occured in any other situation.

 

[morpse]

This is not good..It happened to me now when burning a dvd :|

 

[GhislainG]

If you don't reboot the system, does memory utilization eventually go back to normal? I looked at your pictures and the page file utilization doesn't really increase, therefore you're not running out of physical memory. I also don't see anything wrong in Resources Monitor.

 

[morpse]

Well no, i waited like 20 mins once and the physical memory was still at 94%;
What do u mean with not running out of physical memory? when its on 94% load it takes 5 minutes to open a program

 

[GhislainG]

Stop all services that you don't need to determine which one is causing the issue. You could also boot in safe mode to see if the issue occurs.

If it takes 5 minutes to load a program and the CPU isn't busy, are you sure that your hard disk is working properly? Did you check the Event Viewer?

 

[morpse]

My hd is working pretty fine, well isn't it normal for a program to load very slow if all RAM is used? I tried with closing all services that i don't need and installing and the problem still occurs.
I will check the event viewer and i'll check if it happens in safe mode.

 

[morpse]

I think i got it lol
I figured that each time i was installing those games i had the .iso mounted with PowerIso, and like i said today it occured again when burning a dvd. Well the dvd was burned also with PowerIso so i noticed something might be wrong with this **** program and removed it, and guess what? Installing atm without any problems.
Thanks for your support guys! I am happy that i could solve this stupid problem.