Too much memory used

Smilence

Member
Hey guys, I need your help. I'm currently experiencing a problem with my laptop running Windows Vista Ultimate and having 2 Gigs of RAM. My system is running very slowly and is using TONS of memory (up to 97%) even if there are no programs running. Normally, it uses less than 50% memory. I started experiencing this problem after firefox (version 3) did an automatic update to firefox 3.X.x, i forgot the version.

After the automatic update, my system started to run very slowly,became very unresponsive, and used a lot of RAM. I thought the problem was caused by the firefox version I was using so I installed the latest version of firefox, version 3.5.2. After the Firefox update, the problem still occurs and my laptop is still using a lot of memory and running very slowly.

My system has very few programs that run on start-up and has been pretty fast since I bought it several months ago. This is first time that I experienced problems with it.

I did a virus scan and also scanned for malware but both scans didn't find anything. I then tried hijack this and came up with this log file. I hope you guys can help me fix this. Thanks in advance.
 

My Computer

Have a look in task manager to see what is the highest reading in the Memory(private working set) in the Processes tab
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo Thinkpad T400
    CPU
    Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo P8700 @ 2.53GHz
    Motherboard
    LENOVO 64734VM
    Memory
    2.00GB Single-Channel DDR3 @ 531MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel Mobile Intel 4 Series Express Chipset Family
    Sound Card
    Conexant 20561 SmartAudio HD
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15 inch
    Screen Resolution
    1280 x 800
    Hard Drives
    1x 180GB Intel 530 series SSD
    1 x 120GB Hitachi 5400rmp
    1 x 650GB Western Digital Elements 5400rpm
    1x 1Tb Western Digital Elements 5400rpm
    Internet Speed
    Medium for New Zealand
    Other Info
    Weakest part of my computer is the graphics chipset.
    Only ever used a laptop.
    Also use USB Freeview TV Card
    Lenovo Docking Station
    External Speakers
    Other bits a pieces as needed
Hi Smilence,

If you would like to see a clearer picture of what is using up your CPU, download and run Process Explorer Process Explorer which is quite a bit better than Task Manager and may help you fine tune your options (what and how much can be open at the same time) more easily and also help identify the processes more easily.

Also, there may be many things running in the background that may not be required but taking up valuable resources (maybe not big individually, but a lot collectively). I recommend you download Autoruns Autoruns for Windows and click on the Everything Tab and see what programs are running at startup and remove/uncheck any that you don't require - you can always easily add one back later if you find removing one proved to be inconvenient). Do this only for programs - do not do it for services (at least for now and not without guidance) - and if you don't know what something is, either find out what it is first or leave it alone until you do know (some changes especially if not to program can cause serious problems - so be SURE before you uncheck anything that you don't know for sure is a program that isn't needed or that you want and, again, uncheck nothing but programs at this point). Remember, many programs that run at startup are NOT required for the program itself to run if you want to use it but there to make it start faster or to automatically check for updates or other reasons that may not be necessary and can reduce the load on the CPU.

If you want, in Process Explorer go to File / Save As and save it as a .txt file and then attach the file to your next post and we'll see if we can identify what is running and what can be done to decrease the impact (if we recognize them ourselves). You can also do the same with Autoruns (make sure you choose a .txt file type) and that may also help us to help you.

I hope this helps.

Good luck!
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inc. MP061 Inspiron E1705
    CPU
    2.00 gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo 64 kilobyte primary memory
    Motherboard
    Board: Dell Inc. 0YD479 Bus Clock: 166 megahertz
    Memory
    2046 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM) [Di
    Sound Card
    SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Generic PnP Monitor (17.2"vis)
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200 pixels
    Hard Drives
    Hitachi HTS541616J9SA00 [Hard drive] (160.04 GB) -- drive 0, s/n SB2411SJGLLRMB, rev SB4OC74P, SMART Status: Healthy
    Case
    Chassis Serial Number: 5YK95C1
    Keyboard
    Standard PS/2 Keyboard
    Mouse
    Logitech HID-compliant Cordless Mouse
    Internet Speed
    1958 Kbps download ; 754.8 Kbps upload
    Other Info
    Optiarc DVD+-RW AD-5540A ATA Device [CD-ROM drive]

    Dell AIO Printer A940

    Conexant HDA D110 MDC V.92 Modem

    6TO4 Adapter
    Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated Controller
    Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter
    Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
    Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface

    Router Linksys / WRT54G -01
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