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Author Topic: Really heavy memory use after startup W7x64  (Read 10034 times)

HPsauce

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Really heavy memory use after startup W7x64
« on: July 08, 2015, 09:03:36 AM »

Recently I upgraded a particular program I use regularly and the new version started to behave oddly, sometimes loading very slowly or even not at all.
Investigating I realised it was rather more of a memory hog than before, but I have 4GB ram and not much else running so was puzzled.

Checking further I have found that anything up to 3GB is in use after a fresh boot, sometimes for many minutes, even half an hour.
I've tried running Process Explorer to see if that sheds any light but am getting nowhere.

This morning was typical. Booted the PC, put the kettle on, made a cup of tea, hung out the washing and came to use the PC - seemed sluggish.  :(
Ran task manager and it showed almost exactly 3GB in use.  :o
Left it for a while, finished off my tea and came back a few minutes later, still the same.  ???

Decided to run Process Explorer and have a look, and within seconds memory use had dropped below 1GB.

Loaded up my usual background programs (not the big one) and it's 1.24GB. Added the biggy and its up to 2.2GB which is a big jump and explains why it doesn't like loading with 3GB already in use.

Any thought on what on earth could be doing this and where/how to look?
I use MSE for antivirus.

Edit: Just using the PC normally and memory use has now dropped to 1.67GB despite no change in programs in use.  ???
(though I think that's probably down to my "biggy" program offloading bits it doesn't need)
« Last Edit: July 08, 2015, 09:22:53 AM by HPsauce »
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Dray

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Re: Really heavy memory use after startup W7x64
« Reply #1 on: July 08, 2015, 10:31:34 AM »

I suggest you go into MSCONFIG and see what's in the startup tab, then uncheck anything in there that you don't need to start up - or disable everything.
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HPsauce

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Re: Really heavy memory use after startup W7x64
« Reply #2 on: July 08, 2015, 11:37:12 AM »

Been there, done that as they say.  :cool: To be honest there's very little in it anyway and it's all fairly trivial, sensible and required.
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Chrysalis

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Re: Really heavy memory use after startup W7x64
« Reply #3 on: July 08, 2015, 12:39:53 PM »

first test, disable superfetch, reboot and check it again.
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HPsauce

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Re: Really heavy memory use after startup W7x64
« Reply #4 on: July 08, 2015, 01:37:43 PM »

Thanks, interesting tip but it made no difference.
Again, headed up to around 3GB and stayed there, but when I launched Process Explorer it dropped to just above 1GB. Weird.  ???
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HPsauce

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Re: Really heavy memory use after startup W7x64
« Reply #5 on: July 08, 2015, 02:31:52 PM »

I managed to get Process Explorer running a bit earlier and can see that it's the System Cache that is large.
It's starting off around 2.5GB (of Physical Memory) then "eventually" reduces to about 1.1GB.

Not an area I know much about, but the performance settings are "standard", no tweaks at all.
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Chrysalis

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Re: Really heavy memory use after startup W7x64
« Reply #6 on: July 08, 2015, 03:10:54 PM »

look for software that might be scanning files on bootup.
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HPsauce

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Re: Really heavy memory use after startup W7x64
« Reply #7 on: July 08, 2015, 03:16:24 PM »

The only things I can think of are MSE and Windows Update, I don't run anything unusual that would do that.
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d2d4j

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Re: Really heavy memory use after startup W7x64
« Reply #8 on: July 08, 2015, 03:35:47 PM »

Hi

You could try this to see if it makes a difference

Run msconfig, services tab and untick windows driver foundation, save and restart

If it does not help, I would suggest revert back

Many thanks

John
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HPsauce

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Re: Really heavy memory use after startup W7x64
« Reply #9 on: July 08, 2015, 05:09:20 PM »

Thanks, but that makes no difference, nor does turning off Windows Update.  :'(
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HPsauce

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Re: Really heavy memory use after startup W7x64
« Reply #10 on: July 08, 2015, 07:53:10 PM »

OK, thanks for the suggestions, I think I've found the cause. I mentioned a "big" program (that isn't launched at startup) and its that, though I'm not quite sure how/why.

I got clues by using a tool I found that I hadn't seen before -  the Technet/Sysinternals tool RAMMap: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff700229.aspx

Running it suggested that "Mapped File" resources were very large, though I'm not quite sure what they are....
Looking on the File Details tab I could see a very large file associated with this particular program.
It was actually a Jet database and some 4GB in size, though I've no idea why as it would only ever hold a few hundred bytes of data.

So I totally removed the program and normal order was restored. The largest Mapped File is now the Windows Update datastore which isn't really a surprise.

I've never used the RAMMap tool before but it's obviously rather useful.

Quite why and how this database file is being loaded into memory at boot time I have no idea, but I'll reinstall and see if it's somewhat smaller and/or not loaded before the program is run.
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HPsauce

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Re: Really heavy memory use after startup W7x64
« Reply #11 on: July 08, 2015, 08:18:16 PM »

I'll reinstall and see if it's somewhat smaller and/or not loaded before the program is run.
After a reinstall the database is less than 4K bytes in size and all is well.  :cool:
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Chrysalis

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Re: Really heavy memory use after startup W7x64
« Reply #12 on: July 08, 2015, 11:55:08 PM »

thanks for sharing the cause. :)
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HPsauce

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Re: Really heavy memory use after startup W7x64
« Reply #13 on: July 09, 2015, 06:49:10 AM »

The diagnosis tool RAMMap was what I really think is useful.
I think the program at fault is probably doing what many others do and "pre-loading" something at startup (not sure how though), but it went wrong somehow and got too large.
Identifying it using RAMMap was the key step.

For some reason the common tools I use to look at memory (Task manager and Process Explorer) just didn't show enough to even get you started.
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kitz

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Re: Really heavy memory use after startup W7x64
« Reply #14 on: July 12, 2015, 12:14:29 PM »

Glad you got it sorted.    Thanks for the link to RAMMap which looks like an interesting and useful tool :)
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