what could be using almost all of my ram? 1

[cupid11213]

Hi guy's i wanted to see if you all can help me with a little issue i have.

I built a computer about 1 1/2 months ago these are the specs: pc-chips k7 socket 462 M863 motherboard with 512 ddr 333mhz RAM, 80 gb Hard drive, nec A3530 dvd burner,LG cd burner.

I have installed windows xp sp2,and lots of programs, basically all of the adobe products, photoshop cs2,after effects, go live, acrobat 7 pro, and so on.

When i start up the computer it shows that i only have 177mb RAM free. Is this around what it should be?

I do have McAfee viruscan running at all times and spysweeper.

I don't think it should take almost all my ram at start up. I have checked it for viruses and spyware, adware ,dialers and so on, it's completely clean. It doesn't seem to run very slow but, i am left wondering why i am using almost all of my ram with no programs except those mentioned at start up.

thanks for any helps guys, any post are welcome...

Some people make things happen, some people watch things happen, while others wonder what happened.

 

[erikhertzel]

Go to the task manager and see the processes tab and see what processes are using the Memory up. Should show you what is using what and that should give you some direction as to what is hogging the Memory.

Best regards.

Erik

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Open the Task Manager and take a look at the Mem Usage of the processes that are running.

[Cheers]

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

sigh ... doncha hate when that happens.

[Cheers]

 

[cupid11213]

LOL, thanks guy's i did that and basically alot of processes that belong to spysweeper and Mcafee, do you guys know how much will just windows it self use? also would installing more programs cause you to have less available ram? cause i had only 112mb RAM free then removed all of macromedia products and then had 177 mb free. why would this happen?

what antivirus do you guys recommend


thanks guys

Some people make things happen, some people watch things happen, while others wonder what happened.

 

[krenkey]

Havng installed programs does not use the available memory it uses hard drisk space. the only time the system RAM is used is when a program is running either in the forefront or running in the background. This is what you want to do. go into taskmanager and hot the processes tab, then look at the mem usage box for each of the "running processes" and that will tell you where youre mem usage is going. if you like you can copy the processes with the highest amount of mem usage and post them here. Programs like anrivirus or spyware removers typically run in the background and can be mem hogs everything that is running on youre task bar is using memory.

 

[cupid11213]

thanks will do that as soon as i get home and post the whole log in here. Im do see that mcAfee does have several processes running such as, virusguard,automatic updates, and so on, but i don't have the whole suite, just the viruscan. well i'll keep you guy's posted be back later on tonight, thanks guy's...


Luis

Some people make things happen, some people watch things happen, while others wonder what happened.

 

[linney]

Some RAM articles.

RAM, Virtual Memory, PageFile and all that stuff.

http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/WindowsGeneralWeb/RAMVirtualMemoryPageFileEtc.htm

http://www.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;555223&SD=tech

Rules of RAM
thread779-950354

Pagefile optimization.

http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

http://www.petri.co.il/pagefile_optimization.htm

Heap: Pleasures and Pains

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dngenlib/html/heap3.asp?frame=true

Importing Bitmaps: Determining Size and Memory Requirements

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/132271/en-us?FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

HOW TO: Set Performance Options (Q308417)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q308/4/17.asp

Computer Speed and Performance May Decrease (Q310419)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q310/4/19.asp

 

[cupid11213]

thanks linney.... will look into it.

Some people make things happen, some people watch things happen, while others wonder what happened.

 

[Frank4d]

The M863 motherboard has 64MB onboard graphics, so you're starting with 448MB RAM.

McAfee is a memory hog, even more so if you have multiple logon accounts on the PC (McAfee loads itself for each user logged on). AVG from

http://www.grisoft.com

and NOD32 from

http://nod32.com

are both excellent alternatives.

 

[cupid11213]

frank thank you very much for your post, yeas i do have another account for my wife but she really does not use it anyways i will delete it tonight. I will most likely switch to another one also (think i will use avg since i have in the past)

You are correct the mother board does have a 64MB onboard graphics, i have it set to use 32MB only though for the time being till i add the other 512MB ram (short on cash these day's hehehe)so i am actually starting now with 480MB.

QUESTION after removing her account and leaving only mine, i believe you can check on the task manager to see how many users you have, well if i only have one on there, how many is it supposed to show on the task manager? does yours show administrator or something like that? just curious

(i think i seen something like that on mine, but i am not sure so i'll verify tonight and post my findings)

thanks guy's

Luis


Some people make things happen, some people watch things happen, while others wonder what happened.

 

[Frank4d]

I made an account for myself and don't use the real Administrator account. So Taskmanager only shows my Freedom antivirus running on my account.

When I had McAfee it ran under System, and then again for each user that was logged on. Thats a lot of RAM on an a family computer with four users.

 

[cupid11213]

i removed my wife's user acount from xp and it sped up my computer some what. I will remove mcAfee and try avg and let you know how it goes. Also when i look on the task manager i only see my account on there, my mistake i thought i had seen somethig else there.

Some people make things happen, some people watch things happen, while others wonder what happened.