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trueblue1878

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Windows 7 memory issue.

Hi - Hoping this is an easy one for someone with more knowledge of windows7. I never got into 7 myself. I still think it is vista with a makeover.


Anyway, since I got the PC, the BIOS (atleast I think the BIOS) has reserved memory automatically for my PCI-E graphics card, which only has 256mb onboard.

I always noticed because I have never had more than 60% free (of my total 4gb DDR2)

I use Everest to monitor my free memory and other resources all the time.

Anyway, so it seemed that it reserved about 1.5gb of RAM for my card, and when my system needed that reserved RAM it took it.. which was OK I suppose.. it still bothered me that I could not set the amount myself, but there was no way to change this in my BIOS settings. So I tried to update my BIOS but it just will not flash.. I have been in touch with FoxConn about it and they can't even speak English. Or even know anything it seems.. so it is like talking to a wall.

I just gave up on that..

But recently, I notice that Windows is reserving around 3GB now, and leaving me with 1gb to run stuff.. but not only is it keeping more memory away from me, it is also NOT letting me break into it when I need it. I am getting low memory pop ups everyday now. But windows says my full 4gb is there and its saying +/- 3000mb is in use. But when I look at the list of process' - it just doesn't add up. And yes I have ticked "Show process's from all users".

On a fresh boot, my system is actually using about 500-700mb max. But in the resource monitor it says around 3GB is in use. 1gb free.

But it doesn't say WHAT is using that memory. Is there a way to find out?

And is there a way to stop Windows, or my BIOS, or whatever is doing this from stealing my memory?

Here is my motherboard : http://www.foxconnchannel.com/product/Motherboards/detail_spec.aspx?ID=en-us0000452

Cheers!
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Tony Giangreco
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Check you paging file config. It can either be set to allow windows to determine the paging file size of you can specifiy a static range.

You might also have an app with a memory leak. Open task manager and see what processes are taking the most ram and check each one. You can also get an free utility from sysinternals to get a report of what is happening.
The system cache will practically use all available memory but there's no need to worry about it. If some software requests memory, the cache manager will free memory for the software.

The cache itself is for making things happen faster. If something you or the system need frequently from the disk or network, it's much-much faster to read it from RAM than disk or network.
@TG-TIS mentioned about memory leaks. Best way to determine if a software is buggy or leaking memory, it will grow the number of handles during a long period. Usually a software uses up to a hundred handles but if we are getting steadily growing number, there's a bug in the software. In these cases we can see hundreds and hundreds of handles.
Avatar of joinaunion
Your saying your video card is a onboard one correct?
To run windows memory tool,
Open control panel then on the right click view by choose large icons then double click administrative tools,then double click windows memory diagnostic then choose restart now and check for problems.
Post back.

Just to note this is the instructions to flash your bios.You may have to disable jumper bios flash protection on your board for flash to be successful.
http://www.foxconnsupport.com/faq.aspx?faqid=F000000066
Could you post a screenshot of Task Manager - Performance tab? This will provide a better understanding of exactly what the situation is.
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trueblue1878

ASKER

hey guys sorry bout the delay.. xmas/new year you know how it is..

My graphics is not on board, I meant that I have 256mb if onboard graphics memory (meaning onboard the card itself) and the rest is shared from the RAM.

If it was a memory leak then wouldn't task manager show the problematic program as increasing in memory until it took it all up? But in my case task manager shows most of my memory as free yet it still hassles me about low memory and causes things to crash.

Here is a screenshot.. as you can see I am nowhere near using 4gb. (more like 1.5gb max) and I have no games active so my video card has no reason to be using the memory either.. But this is just the best example I could get for you.. there has been times when I have been using much less memory according to task manager and still got the errors.

Cheers
memory.JPG
here is one a few mins after this post of the perf tab..
memory2.JPG
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LMiller7
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Thanks it was indeed due to a custom pagefile size but I don't ever remember changing it so I never thought to check it.. It was set at 4-8gb so I don't know why it wasn't enough anyway but as soon as I set it back to default it took up around 6gb and the errors stopped!

Silly me for not thinking of this.. but I guess when its your own system you always tend to think the worst and look for the harder answers first!

Cheers!