6 month old pc...memory is constantly depleting

How would I check for this?

I have a major issue: My pc is only 6 months old. And no matter what I do, or don't do for that matter, my memory is constantly depleting.

I've attached some screen shots to show you as much as I can, (reading different forum threads I seen these various questions asked, so I figured I would try to provide the answer to the question, and hopefully find a resolution.

http://imageshack.us/a/img26/9198/screenshot206t.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img16/7500/screenshot204j.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img688/3668/screenshot205q.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img10/1587/screenshot207g.jpg


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I really hope someone can help me.

Kind Regard
Dazed

 

Re: Windows 7 memory usage

What do you mean by that?

 

Re: Windows 7 memory usage

I have an Asus Laptop, (all information is shown in previous post with pictures).

My problem is I can't seem to retain or regain physical memory.

Does not matter how much I use the computer or if it's sitting idle the memory just depletes. I had turned my pc on and got called into work, forgot to shut it down and ran out the door. NOTHING was opened on my pc, but when I got home I had 2MB free memory. When I had booted up, I had over 2gig (this was one of the rare occasions the cached memory had dumped and was about 50MB at start up.

Searching the forums here I had seen where someone had suggested to someone else that their motherboard may need a BIOSupdate. I dont' know how to check that.

I have 4gig of RAM, about 2.3gig is always sucked up with the "available" and 1gig or more is almost always cached, from a cold boot, unless I reboot at minimum 3 times. then it goes down to about 500 - 600 MB.

Cached always pulls from the "Free" memory and the Available memory is NEVER released.

I've also set up a flash drive to try to help resolve this problem, (4gig of it is dedicated to RAM and it doesn't seem to pull from their either).

I'm at a complete loss as to what the problem is or what I can do to relieve this. I have GeekSquad support, and they had full remote access to my pc for over an hour and the guy kept telling me this is not an issue that the pc should run just fine regardless of free memory, and that he has no idea why I'm so upset about it.

I tried to explain to him when my free memory depletes my computer lags from hell...

 

Greetings, DaZeD19, and welcome to MajorGeeks...

Please verify your ASUS model number - I can see that it is a K73 series, but I need to know the exact number.

 

when I look at the specs it says

K73SD/K73E/K73SV Series.

I even tried to go to the Asus website to the downloads section but for some reason I can't seem to get their autoassistant to load.... ~Really getting annoyed!~

 

I cannot recommend a BIOS update unless I have the exact model number for your machine. Look at any labels that may be on the underside of the machine. You might also find a product serial number - if so, we might be able to determine a model number from that...

Meanwhile: have you tried booting into Safe Mode and seeing if your memory leak disappears? Please try that, let us know the results.

 

AH HA! K73E is shown as the Model number on the bottom. Thanks for that suggestion.

I will go to safemode now and see. (hopefully it will let me go there, gotta remember how to do it)

 

Pressing F8 at the start up, BEFORE the windows logo appears (still during the black screen and before even the Asus logo appears) and it will NOT give me the option to go to safe mode.

I even checked with the "windows help" to make sure F8 is what I was supposed to be pressing at start and it said the same thing.

I dunno what else to do... :'(

 

Good job: K73 it is, then...

As far as Safe Mode: reboot the machine, and tap the <F8> key a few times before Windows loads. You should then be presented with several options - choose Safe Mode (or Safe Mode w/Networking). Let the machine start, and put it through a few paces (you'll be limited, but this is just a test). Then check your memory (while still in Safe Mode) and see if there are any noticeable symptoms changes.

 

I have tapped the F8 (pressed and released) during the start up before the windows logo appeared, I have pressed and held the F8 through the start up... no matter what I have done it still goes to "windows is starting" or what ever.. it starts "normally"

 

Sorry - our posts crossed...

Another method of accessing Safe Mode is to run <msconfig>. In the System Configuration utility, select the 'Boot' tab, select 'Safe boot', click 'Ok' and reboot (once we've finished testing in Safe Mode, you'll reverse this process).

What I'm trying to determine is if there is/are some 3rd-party program(s) causing your memory leak, or if this is indeed a Windows and/or BIOS problem.

 

Gonna try the MSconfig option. Wishing luck for us both and you to not gain a bunch of gray hairs trying to help me

 

Oh, I ain't worried about gray hairs - this is fun stuff...

 

ok, I'm in safemode. seems I have 2.6g of free memory at the moment. and only 213 cached. neither of which is growing/depleting... I will try and run some program that I know can be a bit demanding.

 

Ok, this is really strange. logged into a video game and my cached did go up to 232, but my available went to 3.2g almost 3.3g and my free went up to 3g. I only have 4g RAM... o,0

Also my cpu usage% and memory meters went down. (memory because of the allocated memory it grabbed from wherever.)

But they are maintaining these levels...

 

The whole point of this exercise is this: I am very much not willing to recommend a BIOS update unless as a last resort - bad, failed or interrupted firmware update operations can render a machine useless.

There seems to be a difference in symptoms when you boot into Safe Mode, which leads me to believe that something else (such as a 3rd-party program) is causing your memory leak. You might try booting normally and installing something like Startup CPL, a small program that installs as a Control Panel applet and is very useful for trimming your Startup list. With that tool you should be able to selectively disable startup programs until you find the culprit(s).

 

ok, I will try this. errmmm is it free?

 

Yep. :major

 

About to start pulling my hair out...

http://imageshack.us/a/img11/9881/screenshot209c.jpg

 

Edit: Ok, I got it to install, but, I have no idea how to open it to make possible changes :/

It wont let me install... I have 3 boxes that opened:

1. Startup Control Panel Setup.
I clicked 'install'
this window changed to show "Setup is updating your system ..."
2. Copying files.
Startup.cpl
To C:\Windows\system32
and it has an action bar that would normally turn green as it does what its' supposed to do
3. Copy Error (gives options to [Retry] [Cancel]
Setup cannot copy the file Startup.cpl.
Ensure tht the location specified below is correct or change it and insert "Startup Control Panel, Setup Disk #1 in the drive you specify.

then gives this
Copy files from:
C:\Users\Tracy\AppData\Local\Temp\$INFTool.Tmp [browse...]

I've clicked retry a few times but always the same information pops up
hmm tried to post a picture of it but for some reason it won't post.

 

So, restarting my pc every 2 - 4 hrs while I'm using it is supposed to be 'efficient' by their standards... Errmmm someone needs to give them a shot of espresso to wake them up so they can see this is NOT efficient. When I have "Free" memory, my laptop runs nice and smooth, when it is depleted, (under 1000 I begin to lag, 500 or less I begin to freeze) This is NOT efficient to me.

 

Re: Windows 7 memory usage

Did you ever check what process is actually eating your memory (Task Manager | Processes tab) ?

 

Re: Windows 7 memory usage

When I have any browser open that appears to suck up A LOT of it, but as I said before.

If I don't shut down before I go to work or something, even from a fresh cold boot, and leaving NOTHING open, by the time I get home from work, about 9 hrs later, I have 2 free memory left (often times it's at 0).

Currently, Ive been running my computer for 4 hours, and it's down to 55 free memory.

 

And where is the rest of it? Some process must be using it.

 

^ this.

Windows uses spare RAM to cache data that you may use later; if you do need to use the data pre- cached, it's much faster loading than pulling it from the drive. If Windows needs to dump the pre- cached data because you start a program that uses data that's not cached already, the unloading is almost instantaneous.

It looks like Windows is correctly displaying the amount of RAM you have installed, there's no need to update the BIOS.

 

Can't add link to explanatory article for some reason...