# 95% of 8GB ram was used with no programs using much of it!



## Where is my ram (Jan 30, 2017)

This problem started yesterday. I suddenly noticed that my computer became very slow and worked like a snail.

RAM is usually steady at 50% to 60% when I'm simply browsing with chrome, but suddenly it started using 90% or more, even if no program is up and in use.
It has now been a short while and it has calmed down to allow me to use chrome, but I don't understand what I see in task manager.

In one screenshot you can see the amount of RAM is used in MB. In another screenshot you can see the percentage of ram these values take. I have also added screenshots of Performance and Users from Task Manager. Are these values normal for 8GB RAM?

I simply want to solve my high Memory usage and will listen to what you have to say.


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## Where is my ram (Jan 30, 2017)

This is how it currently looks if I don't have anything but the task manager up.


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## Corday (Mar 3, 2010)

Do you have more than 1 AV active?


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## Where is my ram (Jan 30, 2017)

I must admit that I'm not sure what you mean.
I forgot to mention that this is a laptop.
If my assumptions from a quick search is correct it has something to do with the HDMI input or monitor.


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## Where is my ram (Jan 30, 2017)

I forgot that this might be useful. My specs.


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## Corday (Mar 3, 2010)

I was asking if you've deactivated Windows Defender if you've installed another Anti Virus.


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## Where is my ram (Jan 30, 2017)

Could that be it? I use AVG free and have not used Windows Defender at all as far as I can remember. However it does say a search was done 7/24/2016 that I have no memory of. It says it's on and up to date. Last update was 1st of January. I know you should not have two antivirus software active at the same time, but I guess I overlooked Defender. What do you recommend I do?


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## Corday (Mar 3, 2010)

Disable Defender.


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## LMiller7 (Jun 21, 2010)

The cause of the high memory usage is the non paged pool. At 6 GB it is many times what a reasonable value would be. Typically it would be less than the paged pool. Usually this is caused by a driver issue. Unfortunately this can be difficult to diagnose. Malware could also do this. The results of having more than one active AV product are unpredictable, but often unpleasant.


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## Where is my ram (Jan 30, 2017)

I think I know the problem now. I had not seed Windows Defender when I had clicked "show hidden icons" button before. I would like to say that the date i mentioned for the Windows Defender update was wrong. It was the 30th of January. I started having problems on sunday just past midnight, so this matches. 
I think that Windows Defender somehow reactivated even though I have AVG.(I read that windows defender almost always deactivates if you install a third party antivirus program)

I will attempt to deactivate it, but I would also note that I uninstalled AVG before Windows Defender was mentioned, because it took a good portion of memory. At the time I did not bother removing AVG Zen, but I think I will do that temporarily if I see no changes. 

I would also like to ask about the USER screenshot in my first post. It says 320.7 MB of memory is being used while the PERFORMANCE screenshot hints at 7.3 GB of memory being used. Is this simply me misunderstanding things?(I apologize for not making Task Manager bigger)

I will get back to you after deactivation.


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## Where is my ram (Jan 30, 2017)

I now have no Antivirus program active and I have restarted my PC to see if there was any change. There is none. It still hogs 92% with only this one folder in Chrome. 
I don't understand the contradictory percents here in memory. I see the normal percent I'm used to being used, but there are a 36% gap between the two values.

Thanks for all help so far.


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## Corday (Mar 3, 2010)

I would stick with Windows Defender and get rid of AVG. Run Windows built in Memory Test or: MemTest86 - Offical Site of the x86 Memory Testing Tool just to be sure all sticks are working.


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## Where is my ram (Jan 30, 2017)

It still has an an abnormally low amount of memory available, but I will try the MemTest later. I don't have a USB at hand at the moment and I'm busy with work through the rest of the week. I will try to remember to return here afterwards. Until then I won't respond.


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## Bill_Bright (Dec 17, 2004)

> RAM is usually steady at 50% to 60% when I'm simply browsing with chrome


Even that is high.

As LMiller7 noted, the clue is in your non-paged pool. That typically is a few 100MB. 

Sadly, none of your screen shots help because they too only show a few 100MBs. You need to sort on those Memory columns to make sure the biggest consumers are up top. 

Since all 8GB of your RAM is being recognized, I see no reason to run a memtester. It won't hurt, but we can see all the RAM is there. 

FTR, when you install a 3rd party security program, Windows Defender "should" and typically does disable itself. I agree to just use Windows Defender. While AVG is a capable security program, it has been known to hog resources for many. I use Windows Defender on all my systems, then Malwarebytes as a supplemental scanner just to make sure WD (or me) didn't let something slip by. Since I started using WD (actually MSE with W7), Malwarebytes has never found anything. 

I don't see where you rebooted. This could be a simple issue of a hung process that could be fixed by a simple reboot. At the very least, you need to reboot and immediately see how much RAM is being consumed.


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## Where is my ram (Jan 30, 2017)

I can't start up task manager fast enough to see how much memory is being used. The whole computer startup is slower in fact. Even before I get to type in my password. I have a habit of turning off my computer at the end of the day, so I have rebooted it often since I started having problems.
When I look at my screenshots of Processes in Task Manager, I can see that the memory column is sorted from biggest to smallest memory users. Was that what you were asking or am I misunderstanding something?

And thank you all for taking your time with this.

As far as I understand I need to find out what unlisted/non-paged processes that hogs my memory.
I don't know exactly where to go from here, but I'll be looking into "non-paged pool" to get a better understanding of what I'm working with.


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## Bill_Bright (Dec 17, 2004)

> I can see that the memory column is sorted from biggest to smallest memory users. Was that what you were asking or am I misunderstanding something?


Yes, that is what I meant but if you notice, the biggest consumer is using just 68MB - you are not showing anything that would eat up the 6GB.


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## Where is my ram (Jan 30, 2017)

I have now found a SOLUTION.
At least a temporary one.

I followed this video, but I will admit that it looks too simple for it to be the root of the problem.

"Fix "huge memory leak" in Windows 10 and 8 [ Non-paged pool using high memory ]"





At the part where he changes a value from 2 to 4, I had to change it from a 1 to 4. 

In the screenshot you will see how Performance looks in Task Manager right now.


If any of you believe that these values should not have been changed then please tell me.

Other than that I would like to thank you all for putting up with me.ray:


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