Hi everybody,
My system specs:
Model: Dell Inspiron 510m laptop
OS: Microsoft Windows XP SP2
Processor: Intel Pentium M 1.60 GGz
RAM: 1.59 GHz, 512 MB
Single Hard Drive: 33.7 GB, 16.0 GB free
OK, here's my problem. Over the last few weeks I've been experiencing a really strange problem which has never occured before. When I look in Task Manager, the kernel memory usage is steadily increasing, even when I'm not doing anything but staring at it.
Of course, when I open programs and run them, the kernel memory usage increases even faster. At bootup, the total would be around 40 MB, paged 25 MB, and nonpaged 15 MB. But, as time goes by, this will change with the total and paged areas steadily increasing, but the nonpaged figure remaining pretty constant (13 -15 MB range).
When the total reaches around 180 MB, with paged about 165 MB, the system will begin to behave buggy. The screen would not load everything as it should, and everything will eventually hang. I sometimes get a prompt stating that the disk doesn't have enough space and to close some programs.
While the kernel memory is increasing, the available RAM steadily decreases. At bootup, the system will have around 260 MB free, but by the time the error occurs, free RAM would have dropped to around 50 - 60 MB.
I've never experienced this before, and assumed it was due to a buggy Windows update. But, I've done the latest updates, and the problem remains.
Sometimes, this buggy behaviour will occur within an hour of heavy computer usage. It takes longer if usage is not heavy, but being a helper in the security forum requires me to have multiple IE pages open, with a number of other diagnostic programs running as well.
Any suggestions?
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