My RAM is being sucked dry - Any ideas?

swag72

swag72

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I am trying to use a piece of software for stacking images, but I am battling against memory at the moment. I run Vista and my PC has 3GB of DDR RAM. I have looked at task manager and I have for example 4 x iexplore.exe working (using between 6000KB and up to 80000KB) - Can I stop some of these?

I have done a system scan using Panda, AVG and Defender, all is working well according to the PC, just not according to me!! Does it clear the RAM if I switch of the PC as I do leave it on standby for long periods of time.
 
iexplore.exe is usually the process that relates to Internet Explorer. Might be worth closing all windows in your browser and make sure the iexplore.exe process disappear.
 
Click 'start' and in the command line box type msconfig,(not msinfo as I originally posted, idiot!) now click on the startup tab and see what you have running when windows boots. I usually find most ppls pcs are choked with uneccesary progs running in the background. Just untick what u don't need or google the entrys to see if they are required or unimportant. Sometimes this frees up a lot of resources not just memory.
 
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i think we need to get a better understanding of what exactly "ram being sucked dry" means.

can you do us screenshots of the performance tab and processes tab (after pressing "show processes from all users") and we can go from there.
 
What software are you using?
 
I tried to follow the above instructions but couldn't.. if you goto - start menu, all programs, system tools, accessories, then click on system information... then click startup.. and see whats running
 
technics100 said:
I tried to follow the above instructions but couldn't.. if you goto - start menu, all programs, system tools, accessories, then click on system information... then click startup.. and see whats running
Click to expand...

Me too but assumed it was because I was not on Vista.

Anyway, that Soluto software is the magic way to sort out startup undesirables.
 
simple..... ditch vista and go back to XP ;-)
 
neil_g said:
it was only a matter of time i guess..
Click to expand...

What you mean you didn't know that vista is th devil's seed and causes all computers to explode, opening a rift in the time/space continuum? I have personally stayed away even from vista- its Win 95 for me! :p
 
menthel said:
What you mean you didn't know that vista is th devil's seed and causes all computers to explode, opening a rift in the time/space continuum? I have personally stayed away even from vista- its Win 95 for me! :p
Click to expand...

i liked vista x64 post service pack.. i guess that makes me the spawn of satan.

:nuts:

but people have a very short memory, XP was certainly not perfect before service packing either.
 
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Sorry to all it was msconfig not msinfo OOPS :bang: I replied to the post on my iphone when I had just woken up. Note to self: get up and have a coffee before replying to posts. :gag:

BTW off topic but I just recently changed to windows 7 but still have my Vista set up as a dual boot backup on a second drive. I found Vista to be a very good OS and much more stable than any previous versions. To early to comment on 7 yet but so far it seems nice.
 
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I liked vista too, it worked and I never had any problems with it. I only went to W7 because I got the cheap pre-order deals for a full (ie non-OEM) version.

OP: are you having any difficulty running the software or is it just that you have noticed that the memory usage is high?
 
I have tried to do screen grabs in task manager, but its impossible as it comes to over 3 pages and 94 processes in total. Is this about right?
 
swag72 said:
I have tried to do screen grabs in task manager, but its impossible as it comes to over 3 pages and 94 processes in total. Is this about right?
Click to expand...
It's not abnormal.

If you click the top of the columns in task manager the list will sort by that column. you can see all the processes using the most RAM or CPU at the top that way.
 
Here's a screen grab showing the most memory usage. At the bottom it suggests to me I've not got a lot of physical memory - Is this right? If so what can I do?

task_man.jpg
 
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for starters youre running panda and avg anti-virus?

thats not good, have one or the other and not 2. theyll be interferring with each other. id bin both off and install avast personally, more lightweight than the others.

spybot is also a little resource hungry, id at least disable teatimer if not remove it completely and install malwarebytes and scan when required.
 
I've always found windows slows down over time. Windows 7 seems to be holding up better than previous versions but as I'm planning to change hard drive its going to be a fresh install and not restoring a backup.

If tweaking doesn't make a lot of difference then you might want to consider a full backup and a fresh start. A new hard drive is always a good time for it as you can remove the old one and not risk anything by doing a new install. hit any problems and you can just put the old drive back and be up and running as you were.
 
Hopefully these things will improve it!! Any more suggestions Neil? The thought of a reinstall frightens the life out of me I'm afraid!!!!
 
On a serious note, I would seriously consider buying or obtaining a copy of Windows 7.

You will be amazed at how much better your system will run during all tasks.

In the meantime, get shot of AVG and install Avast free version.
 
Ram being sucked dry? Check any local Welsh perverts and/or ewes...
 
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