[Solved] Vista Idle RAM Issue
January 23rd, 2020
I’ve got a computer running E8500 processor, GeForce 9400 video card and 2GB of RAM running Windows Vista.
Until recently the system used to work fantasticly – memory usage when idle never went above 50%, but in the recent week I noticed a sharp increase of memory usage when the system is idle – topping at 90% of the RAM with absolutely nothing running! (see screenshot below)
I’ve checked the task manager for memory consuming processes, yet the biggest one was a svchost using up only 50 MB, and when calculating the sum of all visible running processes (yeah, I’m desperate) I got up only to about 800MB – can someone please help me figure out where the hell is the other 1000MB going to???
Note: When turning on the machine the RAM settles on 38% and is gradually for about 1-2 hours of activity to 90% – again, when idle.
Second Note: I’ve already tested the SuperFetch theory – didn’t make much of a difference when I turned that off – after restarting the system would still climb eventually to 90%…
Yet Another Note: I’ve also scanned my entire computer twice already for Viruses/Spyware – nothing found.
I think it’s normal.
I’m no expert, but according to this:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/features/superfetch.aspx
It says:
SuperFetch monitors which applications you use the most and preloads these into your system memory so they'll be ready when you need them.
and this:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/features/performance.aspx
It says:
Windows SuperFetch
A new memory management technology in Windows Vista, Windows SuperFetch, helps keep the computer consistently responsive to your programs by making better use of the computer's RAM. Windows SuperFetch prioritizes the programs you're currently using over background tasks and adapts to the way you work by tracking the programs you use most often and preloading these into memory. With SuperFetch, background tasks still run when the computer is idle. However, when the background task is finished, SuperFetch repopulates system memory with the data you were working with before the background task ran. Now, when you return to your desk, your programs will continue to run as efficiently as they did before you left.
So I guess, the more programs you use, the more RAM gets used and controlled by superfetch. The question is, are you experiencing any performance lag?
If it isn’t affecting the performance of your machine, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. I agree with .
Dammmmn it’s nice to have XP.
might be a recent update
you have no backround operations running ?
get Process Explorer http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx
and see if that tells you more about mem usage
Its because you have uneeded things running on background. Disable uneeded services and that should reduce your ram consumption. You only show its using 80% of your RAM but how much is that? Because if you have 1GB of RAM then thats OK. The problem with Vista is the superfetch thing, disable it. Its ~love~ and also Vista is poorly optimize. Upgrade to Windows 7 beta that is better than Vista.
Hi all – thanks for all the replies
– The problem is it does make the system very slugish to work with when this is happening.
I tried using process explorer, but it didn’t show where the unneeded memory is going to.
Also tried TuneUp process manager – the same.
Disabling the SuperFetch and restarting didn’t work I’m afraid – memory would eventually climb back to these heights again =\
Jeebus – I’ve got 2GB of RAM, and until recenetly it never went above the 50% ram usage when idle. Weird as it may sound Windows Vista actually runs faster on my hardware then XP – when I got this machine I’ve installed XP but I wasn’t satisfied with the speed so I tried a bunch of things including moving to Vista and surprisingly – it made things faster. I do wait to get my hands on a final version of 7 – that’s why I’m delaying my annual format.
I’ve just read somewhere that this is maybe due to a failing hard disk, could this be the issue?
I’m running now HD Tune to maybe get some truth out of this mess…
Update: unf’n believeable… N-O-D-3-2
Installed the new version a few weeks ago and I guess something’s wrong with it.
After the hard disk test came back OK I looked more into situations where the memory gets up – turns up when I’m grabbing a file from the internet NOD checks it – memory goes up, doesn’t go down. Just downgraded to 3.0.684 and thus far the system’s running for about 3-4 hours with the memory mark averaging on 48%.
Case Closed