Question Regarding RAM Usage

I leave my rig on all night(32bitVista)often with a DXtheme loaded,and with WB's,CFX,OD+,a widget or two and a screensaver  in use or in sleep mode.I haven't seen any increase in ram usage like you describe. What does taskmanager say is using all the ram on your system?

hi, thanks for responding!

well let's see...

the main culprits seem to be:  svchost.exe (196,900 K), firefox.exe (196,928 K) & explorer.exe (107,988 K)...

says 63 other processes running, the rest under 50,000 K...  should i list all of them, or send a screenshot or something?

svchost is a known RAM hog, the numbers for FF seem high,I show 45,500k in use right now with FF3 with few plug-ins.What version are you running? I use IE7 most of the time so I don't know if FF has any memory leak issues. Maybe someone who uses it often will have better info for you.

 Explorer is showing 75,000+   My total is 860 Mb's. I have 2045Mb installed showing in taskmanager so typically I use 35-45%

I have my rig down to 51 services, that is including DX,WB's,CFX,OD+ and IE7 as I type this. Do you have any that you don't need that can be disabled or set to manual?

I personally think the answer is in what do you have running in the background?  Like Wizard I use a lot of Stardock programs and usually ram usage stay somewhere around 35 to 40%.  I have 2GBs or ram on an XP Home 32 bit SP3 sys running a 2.6ghz P4 chip.

and if i remember correct vista 64 draws more ram then 32bit. Start going thru your services see if you can disable some that you dont use... and yes that number for FF is kinda high... but it ups with a lot of tabs open... explorer somethimes just goes amok on my system eating all memory it can find.... i then just kill it and start it again and all is fine. (happens when i have a explorer window open for a long time, not IE but windows explorer) When pressing ctrl+shift+esc(task manager) go to the services tab and see whats running in your svchost.

wow, i really appreciate your super-quick responses!  

you have all pretty much confirmed my suspicion that something else is leeching my memory or otherwise causing memory/reporting issues.  the only reason i posed the question here is because things were not reporting this weird escalating increase in RAM Usage before i installed all the Stardock software. & my typical RAM Usage was reporting at ~2%-10% just like my CPU Load (which is still reporting these levels), no matter what i was throwing at it.. But that's not to say I wasn't messing around with other stuff around the same time, heh...  So yea it could very well be any number of things that are totally unrelated to Stardock altogether.

Now my FF (v3.0.8 btw..) is reporting around 109,000 K with only 4 simple tabs going - before i think i had a couple media-related sites (online episodes, etc.) and other junk open.. but even at 109,000 K, that is only around 109MB, right?  which should be a drop in the hat for 6GB of decent DDR3 Memory...  ...

So yea if you can't really, or just don't wanna get into further advice about this minor mystery since its quite likely not related to Stardock stuff at all, that's cool..  but would greatly appreciate any further tips to help troubleshoot/isolate this sudden anomaly!  I am about to try some memory diagnostics, but seriously ive run MemTest86+ for nearly an entire day, Prime95 Blend Tests for the same length of time, and was not having these readings til recently.  There isnt that much stuff running on my computer constantly, mebbe WinAmp or an open MediaPlayer that stays idle while im afk... and aside from FF (v3.0.8), Windows Sidebar, Impulse, DesktopX, DeskScapes Animated Desktops, and other real light background things, there is really nothing else running while im experiencing this issue.  Do you think it could be a "memory leak"?

...As for svchost... there are 12 instances of svchost running concurrently, but that is normal right?  just the one that's being a RAM hog is what you're asking about, yea?  That one has:

wudfsvc                                 Windows Driver Foundation - User-Mode Driver Framework

WPDBusEnum                        Portable Device Enumerator Service

WdlSystemHost                      Diagnostic System Host

UxSms                                   Desktop Window Manager Session Manager

TrkWks                                  Distributed Link Tracking Client

Tablet Input Service                Tablet PC Input Service

SysMain                                 SuperFetch

PcaSvc                                   Program Compatibility System Service

NetMan                                  Network Connections

HID Serv                                Human Interface Device Access

EMDMgmt                               ReadyBoost

AudioEndptBldr                       Windows Audio Endpoint Builder

Other than that, I'l try looking into any possible services to disable or set to manual.  Seriously, thanks again for your help!!

I dunno if this will be helpful at all, but below is a link to screengrab showing all running processes in Task Manager:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/skullheadbonyhands/sets/72157616515406519/

I just sent you a PM with  a link to what I have running as well. You must have read my mind,lol.Great minds DO think alike.

Edit: Looking at what you have there,it looks like about the same numbers (73) I had on a standard Vista install,plus the apps I added. Narrowing it down will shorten your time from bootup to usable desktop like you won't beleive. It's worth the work to thin it out.

Wizard for Moderator!!!!  

Shhhh! Someone might hear you.

In TaskManager/ Performance: how much is cached and how much is free?

yrag is someone that can answer anything you need to know about computers.

 skullheadbonyhands, rule #one ,always listen to the duck!

~ 4630/6134

Free only says 15?

Open Administrative Tools/ Event Viewer/ Window Logs:  any errors/warnings on a reboot?

This is what I see. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/skullheadbonyhands/3430862554/sizes/l/

Sorry I'm not too savvy with this stuff so lemme know if i need to be looking further.

Click on Windows Logs in left pane and expand. Right click on Application- Clear Log- Clear. Do same for Security, System. Reboot.

Open each Window log and snap a shot/ post of Application, Security, System 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/skullheadbonyhands/3430924298/in/photostream/

Couple errors...

The APPLICATION Errors were all erlated to Nero, except this one: 

Event filter with query "SELECT * FROM __InstanceModificationEvent WITHIN 60 WHERE TargetInstance ISA "Win32_Processor" AND TargetInstance.LoadPercentage > 99" could not be reactivated in namespace "//./root/CIMV2" because of error 0x80041003. Events cannot be delivered through this filter until the problem is corrected.

The SYSTEM Errors were mostly:

Performance power management features on processor #N are disabled due to a firmware problem. Check with the computer manufacturer for updated firmware.

Then there was also:

A timeout was reached (30000 milliseconds) while waiting for the Roxio Hard Drive Watcher 9 service to connect.

&...

Unable to initialize the security package Kerberos for server side authentication.  The data field contains the error number.

The Kerberos error can be ignored. I can give you a fix if it annoys you.

As to the Filter error:

Unhide extensions. Open Note pad and paste:

strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _
& "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" _
& strComputer & "\root\subscription")


Set obj1 = objWMIService.Get("__EventFilter.Name='BVTFilter'")

set obj2set = obj1.Associators_("__FilterToConsumerBinding")

set obj3set = obj1.References_("__FilterToConsumerBinding")



For each obj2 in obj2set
                WScript.echo "Deleting the object"
                WScript.echo obj2.GetObjectText_
                obj2.Delete_
next

For each obj3 in obj3set
                WScript.echo "Deleting the object"
                WScript.echo obj3.GetObjectText_
                obj3.Delete_
next

WScript.echo "Deleting the object"
WScript.echo obj1.GetObjectText_
obj1.Delete_

Rename .txt ext to .vbs ext. Double click. Reboot

As to the Nero and Roxio startup errors, that's up to you as to what starts at boot.

Your memory is running as designed.

All and all, you don't have a problem, so stop looking for one. 

heh, nice!  much appreciated...

Yrag, may I ask what language that is?  Looks to be VBS, but is it the same language used in DesktopX scripting?    

Why are you worried about your RAM?  Vista is designed to optimize itself to use as much RAM as possible the longer it runs, etc.  The 64 bit version will always use up more than the 32, but you still seem to not actually be running any applications that even begin to take up large chunks of RAM.

Unless you suspect/see a memory leak, don't worry about RAM under Vista.  If you have 4gb or more, you're fine.  

Only graphic artist nuts like me need more. 

I'am running WB's, cursorXP, OD+, 3 yahoo widgets Merlin 3 games on the task bar and a shit load of stuff in the systray.  My cpu usage runs between 1-5% and my mem sits around 1/3 of my 4 gig.  Forgot to say a browser and Mirc opened also.