Random memory usage glitch?

Hey everyone. This happened a few times to me recently and I just can't figure out what is causing it.

I'll be playing a game or whatever, and it starts to lag. I exit the game and try to figure out what's going on. Finally, I see that my memory usage is like 80% or higher. I have 8 GB of RAM and nothing open, yet it still says I'm using all my RAM. I even go into task manager and close a few things that may be running or whatever, and still no change. It says it's using a ton of RAM and I don't see anything open at all.

It usually goes away if I restart. I scanned for viruses and didn't find anything. Is this just some weird glitch that happens sometimes or what? Any way to fix it without restarting? (I don't like restarting because sometimes my audio goes away).

Thanks.

A game you're running is using 6+gb of RAM??! Which game?

You need to look under the "processes" tab in Task Manager and see which process is using it. I'm guessing you just looked at the applications.

Also check if there's is something that says 'view processes for all users' (or something like that) when you see the task manager processes list.

Originally Posted by Drithius
A game you're running is using 6+gb of RAM??! Which game?

It's happened twice while playing The Last Remnant. But even when I close the game, the memory is still sky-high.

Originally Posted by JDR13
You need to look under the "processes" tab in Task Manager and see which process is using it. I'm guessing you just looked at the applications.

I looked under Processes and the highest memory usage was 50,000 kb or whatever. Nowhere near close to maximum memory usage, yet the percentage at the bottom still said 90%.

Originally Posted by wolfing
Also check if there's is something that says 'view processes for all users' (or something like that) when you see the task manager processes list.

Tried that, none of the processes add up to the amount of memory my computer claims it is using.

It's just some weird glitch I guess.

What number are you looking at? I'm saying it because there is a number that is misleading. Under Windows 7 task manager, go to 'performance'. You'll see 'Available' and 'Free'. The important one is 'Available', not 'Free'. Also there is a button called 'Resource Manager' there where you can see better what process is using what (in this case, the 'Memory' tab).

Windows 7 is not like windows XP, it'll utilize your ram if it is availaible for all sort of things, so it could be that 90% of your ram is used even if you're running close to nothing.

Do you have any disk indexing or such that might start after awhile? that could cause such a slow downs…

Originally Posted by Fluent
Hey everyone. This happened a few times to me recently and I just can't figure out what is causing it.

I'll be playing a game or whatever, and it starts to lag. I exit the game and try to figure out what's going on. Finally, I see that my memory usage is like 80% or higher. I have 8 GB of RAM and nothing open, yet it still says I'm using all my RAM. I even go into task manager and close a few things that may be running or whatever, and still no change. It says it's using a ton of RAM and I don't see anything open at all.

It usually goes away if I restart. I scanned for viruses and didn't find anything. Is this just some weird glitch that happens sometimes or what? Any way to fix it without restarting? (I don't like restarting because sometimes my audio goes away).

Thanks.

It doesn't have to be about memory - as the OS will use your memory for a variety of things if it determines you don't need it. So, unless it's a game that specifically needs more memory - it's not necessarily related to that.

As for Task Manager, make sure you've enabled processes from ALL users - or you won't be getting the big picture. This option is visible at the bottom of Task Manager, at least for some Windows versions. *EDIT* I see that was mentioned already.

There's a variety of things the OS does that can cause performance issues.

If you have any kind of anti-virus installed with real-time protection, that can be a big performance hog, especially if you've set it to scan archived files and what not. I always disable real-time protection and, instead, just run regular scans. That's my way, however.

Disable indexing unless you're using it. Indexing is great if you tend to search for files a lot, but I never do unless I'm at work. I know where my files are located - so I rarely need to search for them. Indexing is usually only a problem when you first install windows, though - since new files get indexed pretty fast.

Superfetch is a modern Windows "innovation" - which will use a significant portion of memory to cache often used files - and will make your frequently used programs boot much faster. It's supposed to help performance, though, not hinder it. But it's also a Microsoft thing, so caution is advised. I would try disabling it.

I'm not sure if it's even still possible - but you could have scheduled a defragmention of your harddrive - which could possibly happen at a specific time. If you don't let it finish, maybe it starts around the same time every day?

You could be playing the same game which has a memory leak - in which case memory IS an issue - and you could try disabling virtual memory. If you do that, your harddrive won't be used - and the game will simply crash instead. That would be a way of testing for excessive memory use. However, if Task Manager isn't reporting this for the game process - it seems unlikely.

Sometimes, the System Restore feature can create a "restore point" at inconvenient times - though I'm not sure if that still happens.

Windows Update could be downloading and installing some updates without telling you - and you could simply disable this feature to make sure.

You could have scheduled regular virus scans with your anti-virus software, like Windows Defender?

Those are typical causes off the top of my head.

Memory leak happens with badly optimized software. Since we're talking about a port from consoles, it is possible that the game is mismanaging RAM.

The only cure if developer didn't patch it officially, is OS restart.