90% Memory Load at Idle, svchost, normal working set?

[tjubert]

Hi all,

My spec:

http://tinypic.com/r/20f5jlf/6

I have a problem which I think is memory related. My PC has no problem running demanding programs like games, but as soon as I try to multitask I have massive slow down. My memory usage at idle is often around 90%, with large bits of memory used up by various svchost processes, plus a bunch of others (around 60 in total). When I boot in safe mode it idles at around 1.2GB.

http://tinypic.com/r/vggp1/6

Looking at MS Resource Monitor, the working set for all of the listed processes adds up to under 1GB. I don't know loads about memory - should working set add up to the total used? If so there's about 2GB unavailable memory unaccounted for somewhere.

http://tinypic.com/r/rbfle0/6

I've run virus software, including malware bytes, avg and avast; they picked up a few things, but nothing that solved my problems.

I was thinking about trying this: http://www.xp-smoker.com/refreshpc.html but any thoughts from you guys would be really appreciated.

Will provide any further details requested.

Many thanks,

Tom

 

[Rockdpm]

try getting another stick of ram, 4GB is starting to no be enough anymore for some things.. If no then my best guess would be.... Bad sector in ram?

 

[papagym]

First off how much memory do you have installed on your computer? From your post I think you are using Windows XP so you can't have very much memory. You still should be able to multi task if you do not have a lot of junk programs installed and running on it.

What I mean by junk is any programs to do some kind of utility work that you've added on to your PC. This does not mean a virus type program (but you only need one of them). These programs may be used to repair the registry, or fix computer errors, or PC doctors. If you have all these things running all the time they will eat up all the useful memory.

Another thing is look and see how many programs you have running at startup. Fix them so they only run when they are needed.
I hope this helps. Jim

 

[dalaran]

What's your ram usage like in the performance tab of the resource manager? Windows 7 does some caching with unused memory so seeing high memory usage is often normal. The important information is : Physical Memory -> Available as long as this is not too close to 0 you should be fine

I'd recommend using Process Explorer to have a better idea of what's using your memory or processing powers it has much more information available: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653

What kind of multitasking are you doing? From your screenshots it's really hard to tell what your bottleneck is, the only way memory is going to be a problem is if you use it all (in this case available memory would be at 0, meaning the hard disk would be used for swapping)

Otherwise this is also worth reading
http://tweaks.com/windows/39199/how-to-detect-what-process-is-thrashing-your-hard-drive/

 

[Hawkeye22]

I see at least 8 icons in your system tray. Try reducing the number of startup programs you are running. To find out what all is running in each svchost, open a command prompt (possibly as admin) and type in:

tasklist /svc

and you should see what's running in each svchost. You can match the process id number with that in the resource monitor to see how much ram it's using.

 

[Guest]

look at all the stuff you have in you icon notifications VLC, wireless, a bunch of stuff.

with out all that i run around 2-2.5 gig used. add in firefox and the one scvhost added to another .5 gigs and yeah thats close 3 gigs.

4 gigs anymore is the min. get another 4.

 

[dalaran]

I missed your screenshot with the ressource monitor the first time,
You still have around 1 Gb available (Free + standby) I'm really not so sure your problem is memory related

Standby = Cached memory, it's used by windows to improve performance but it will be freed whenever an application needs it.

 

[Guest]

test

1 2 3

is this on? :lol: