Vista using lots of RAM

On Sun, 30 Nov 2008 18:26:11 +0000, pjp wrote:

>
> Hi everyone,
> For some reason my pc (vista home premuim) sometimes seemingly randomly
> uses 98% of it's RAM and so functions extreemly slowly. I have a 2.66Ghz
> processor and 2Gb of RAM but it still sometimes wants 1.9Gb of the RAM.
> It happens seemingly randomly.
> Does anyone know what process/service could be demanding all the RAM
> and how to turn it off - (if it's safe to do so).



Vista, like other versions of Windows, is designed to use all, or
nearly all, your RAM all the time. If your apps don't need it, Windows
will try to find another use for it (such as using it for cache), then
give it back when the apps need it again.

Despite what some people apparently think, this is good, not bad.
Unused RAM is wasted RAM. You paid for it all, and shouldn't want to
see any of it sitting around idle and wasted.

If the computer is functioning slowly, this is not the reason.
 >> Stay informed about: Vista using lots of RAM 

"Ken Blake, MVP" wrote in message

> Vista, like other versions of Windows, is designed to use all, or
> nearly all, your RAM all the time.

Shouldn't that be "Vista, UNlike other versions of Windows...."?
 >> Stay informed about: Vista using lots of RAM 

On Sun, 30 Nov 2008 17:11:17 -0500, "Bob Campbell" wrote in message

> > Vista, like other versions of Windows, is designed to use all, or
> > nearly all, your RAM all the time.
>
> Shouldn't that be "Vista, UNlike other versions of Windows...."?


No.
 >> Stay informed about: Vista using lots of RAM 

"Ken Blake, MVP" wrote in message

> On Sun, 30 Nov 2008 17:11:17 -0500, "Bob Campbell" wrote:
>
>> "Ken Blake, MVP" wrote in message
>
>> > Vista, like other versions of Windows, is designed to use all, or
>> > nearly all, your RAM all the time.
>>
>> Shouldn't that be "Vista, UNlike other versions of Windows...."?
>
>
> No.

Then you don't know what you are talking about. XP, 2000, Server 2003
etc. do NOT use RAM the way Vista does.
 >> Stay informed about: Vista using lots of RAM 

I'm using the Sophos antivirus program - haven't been alerted to
anything in the system yet.
I have a CPU resources meter on my sidebar and most of the time around
50% of the RAM is in use and the pc is quick. When it says ~98% of the
RAM is in use, is this all in cache- because if it is shouldn't it run
faster, or is something else using it?
Thanks,
 >> Stay informed about: Vista using lots of RAM 

Your CPU resources are quite different from RAM. May I suggest you launch
Task Manager and look at the performance tab. You will undoubtedly see the
difference between CPU cycles and RAM. You can then go to the processes tab
where you can set a cpu column if it is not already there and see what
processes are using your CPU cycles. If you are doing several tasks, you
will find that you are way underpowered on Vista. I had a 3800 and had to
upgrade to a 5000 to get decent performance multi-tasking, but you can see
what is using your cycles and you can stop the process on that page if you
want to.

"pjp" wrote in message

>
> I'm using the Sophos antivirus program - haven't been alerted to
> anything in the system yet.
> I have a CPU resources meter on my sidebar and most of the time around
> 50% of the RAM is in use and the pc is quick. When it says ~98% of the
> RAM is in use, is this all in cache- because if it is shouldn't it run
> faster, or is something else using it?
> Thanks,
>
>
> --
> pjp
 >> Stay informed about: Vista using lots of RAM 

"pjp" wrote in message

>
> I'm using the Sophos antivirus program - haven't been alerted to
> anything in the system yet.
> I have a CPU resources meter on my sidebar and most of the time around
> 50% of the RAM is in use and the pc is quick. When it says ~98% of the
> RAM is in use, is this all in cache- because if it is shouldn't it run
> faster, or is something else using it?
> Thanks,
>
>
> --
> pjp


Sophos is not enough on its own.. download and run Malwarebytes too.. run it
in safe mode first, then again when you reboot out of safe mode..
 >> Stay informed about: Vista using lots of RAM 

On Sun, 30 Nov 2008 18:26:11 +0000, pjp wrote:

>
>Hi everyone,
>For some reason my pc (vista home premuim) sometimes seemingly randomly
>uses 98% of it's RAM and so functions extreemly slowly. I have a 2.66Ghz
>processor and 2Gb of RAM but it still sometimes wants 1.9Gb of the RAM.
>It happens seemingly randomly.
>Does anyone know what process/service could be demanding all the RAM
>and how to turn it off - (if it's safe to do so).
>Many thanks.

Type ctrl-shift-esc to bring up the task manager and select the processes
tab. You can click on the memory column to sort by memory usage and
see which process is eating all the RAM.
 >> Stay informed about: Vista using lots of RAM 

>
> Then you don't know what you are talking about. XP, 2000, Server 2003
> etc. do NOT use RAM the way Vista does.

Agreed. Vista "uses" more RAM than XP, for sure. And it's not just because
it needs a bigger memory footprint - the algorithms were deliberately
changed to keep (and load) much more stuff in RAM. See the various
Microsoft White Papers for full details - they are explicit that this is new
in Vista.

SteveT
 >> Stay informed about: Vista using lots of RAM 

Thanks for all the advice so far...
When looking at the pc's resources meters, only the RAM is sometimes in
constant use and even with both processor cores running at around 5-10%
the pc still manages to function slowly.
It seems to be from the task manager that the desktop windows manager
(dwe.exe) is taking up the majority of the RAM.
Could it be that a windows automatically runs a sheduled task and this
uses the RAM, but how might I know what that is and how to turn it off?
Are there any decent RAM managing programs that might be worth getting?
Thanks,
 >> Stay informed about: Vista using lots of RAM 

dwm is the Vista desktop manager.

"pjp" wrote in message

>
> Thanks for all the advice so far...
> When looking at the pc's resources meters, only the RAM is sometimes in
> constant use and even with both processor cores running at around 5-10%
> the pc still manages to function slowly.
> It seems to be from the task manager that the desktop windows manager
> (dwe.exe) is taking up the majority of the RAM.
> Could it be that a windows automatically runs a sheduled task and this
> uses the RAM, but how might I know what that is and how to turn it off?
> Are there any decent RAM managing programs that might be worth getting?
> Thanks,
>
>
> --
> pjp
 >> Stay informed about: Vista using lots of RAM 

"Steve Thackery" wrote in message

> >
>> Then you don't know what you are talking about. XP, 2000, Server 2003
>> etc. do NOT use RAM the way Vista does.
>
> Agreed. Vista "uses" more RAM than XP, for sure. And it's not just
> because it needs a bigger memory footprint - the algorithms were
> deliberately changed to keep (and load) much more stuff in RAM. See the
> various Microsoft White Papers for full details - they are explicit that
> this is new in Vista.

Yeah, this is well-known stuff. Superfetch.

Apparently, the requirements to become an "MVP" are getting lower.
 >> Stay informed about: Vista using lots of RAM 

On Sun, 30 Nov 2008 19:13:53 -0500, "Bob Campbell" wrote in message

> > On Sun, 30 Nov 2008 17:11:17 -0500, "Bob Campbell" wrote:
> >
> >> "Ken Blake, MVP" wrote in message
> >
> >> > Vista, like other versions of Windows, is designed to use all, or
> >> > nearly all, your RAM all the time.
> >>
> >> Shouldn't that be "Vista, UNlike other versions of Windows...."?
> >
> >
> > No.
>
> Then you don't know what you are talking about. XP, 2000, Server 2003
> etc. do NOT use RAM the way Vista does.


Nevertheless, they are all designed to use all, or nearly all, your
RAM all the time.
 >> Stay informed about: Vista using lots of RAM