High RAM usage (1gb+ at times) and lag problems

Dadashi_Hatake · 03-31-2009, 01:56 PM

Ok, I'm really P-Oed at my computer right now. It's been fine most of the time I've had it, then I was stupid enough to download a torrent of an album, got some viruses, etc... Cleared those all out, but my pc has never been quite the same since then. Now it's just making me furious.

Main problem is that the RAM physical usage is shooting though the roof in my opinion. The task manager shows 70 - 73 processes running. And I have no clue what most of them are. I use thing like Windows Live Messenger 09, Avast! Home Edition, and that's about it for actually using something upfront.

The only things I really notice about the RAM going crazy (what I suspect is the problem causing this) my keyboard input for... like... the repeat letter thing, is really slow. I have to like manually ht the backspace to erase typos, instead of just holding down the key. It's like this for all he keys, they repeat to slow. And I've checked the settings in control panel > keyboard> all fast, and I click "ok" (because I change nothing) and it goes fast again for a few minutes, then it lags again.

As I am here, I looked at the ram usage (the physical memory usage) it says 984.1 MB. I'm running on 2gb RAM, 2.5 GGhrtz processor, blah blah blah.... I'm new to this crap at posting stuff for help. Tell me what ya need to know, I'll post it. Please help me before I punch a hole through my monitor.

joeten · 03-31-2009, 02:26 PM

hi i would suggest you try the secuity forum first to check that nothing is lurking in the background so to speak NEW INSTRUCTIONS - Read This Before Posting For Malware Removal Help also dont use torrents if you have it get rid of it as you may find yourself in this situation time and again also i should mention that help for those using such things is usually zero this and many forums look on this as illegal activity and yes they do know about legal ones but the majority of are used for illegal stuff and there is no way to tell who is legal so normally no help this is my explanation of the rules please read them for clarification

Dadashi_Hatake · 03-31-2009, 02:54 PM

I don't use torrents anymore. The first one I ever used was for a motograter album, and I got a really bad virus, virut something something. Sorry about the whole torrent thing I wasn't really aware that it was illegal to do it like that. I didn't use anything like limewire or emule, etc... (Things I heard to be illegal) It was a download manager that allowed me to download the torrent file like a normal download.

That aside, am I supposed to download the scan things in that link you posted, then post the results in a topic, in that section? I just want my RAM usage to go down and my keyboard and etc to stop lagging.

Edit: The physical memory usage never seems to drop much. Right now it's at 991.3 MB, so it's actually went up from my first post, and I'm not doing anything different. It seems like it just keeps piling up and it's annoying me.

Shadowmeph · 03-31-2009, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joeten

hi i would suggest you try the secuity forum first to check that nothing is lurking in the background so to speak NEW INSTRUCTIONS - Read This Before Posting For Malware Removal Help also dont use torrents if you have it get rid of it as you may find yourself in this situation time and again also i should mention that help for those using such things is usually zero this and many forums look on this as illegal activity and yes they do know about legal ones but the majority of are used for illegal stuff and there is no way to tell who is legal so normally no help this is my explanation of the rules please read them for clarification

I totally agree but first I would disconnect myself from the net first then turn off my system restore , boot into safe mode and run my anti virus it will take forever but it would get rid of some of those nasties ( I would be worried about all the info that is leaving your Computer) after that is done I would do reboot turn the net back on then do what is suggested above. because to me 70 process's is insane I very rarely have more then 40 and the only reason I have that many is because I have allot of things running like torrents ( tv episodes) , Folding, about 10-15 tabbed pages on my internet browser and a few folders open lol

joeten · 03-31-2009, 03:55 PM

hi while i know what your saying shadowmeph it is not the accepted thing to turn of system restore i have seen it mentioned before and the mods get very agitated at the mention so i have to say do not do that and Dadashi follow the instructions and start your thread in security with the info try to be patient they can be very busy

Dadashi_Hatake · 03-31-2009, 04:13 PM

I posted the topic here: http://www.techsupportforum.com/secu...ml#post2055007

If anyone wants to help direct me what to do next, I'd appreciate it. I need detailed instructions to. Like "First, run..." "second, do..." please.

joeten · 03-31-2009, 04:30 PM

hi while your waiting you could look in taskmanager and see who is hogging the resources press ctrl-alt del and choose taskmanager then have a look in processes either write down the names of the ones hogging things or this http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/gen...screenshot.htm you may be able to upload it if needed

Dadashi_Hatake · 03-31-2009, 05:20 PM

I do believe I found a few problems by using the tools in the thread you directed me to. I posted the results there in the topic I created here: http://www.techsupportforum.com/secu...ml#post2055007

Hopefully someone can tell me what to do now.

**jcgriff2** · 03-31-2009, 09:58 PM

Hi -

Follow THESE instructions. Post resulting zip files.

The one file of interest is tasklist - it will show you apps & the memory that is used. Check it out. Also, perfmon should be of help.

Regards. . .

jcgriff2

.

Dadashi_Hatake · 04-03-2009, 11:13 PM

Sorry it took so long to reply. I was resolving the malware problem on my pc over in the malware section of the site, Ried helped me out all he could with that, now all that is left is this problem with my pc using too much RAM and causing lag while typing.

http://s240.photobucket.com/albums/f...ent=sample.flv

There's the sample of the lag. I just waited for the lag to start, then brought up notepad, then the settings panel (made a shortcut to it on my desktop. And I did not change anything before recording the video) used camstudio to record what I did. It worked for around 5 - 10 minutes then went to lagging again.

My pc never did this until about a week ago, then it all went downhill. The virus and rootkit, and the lagging. The malware is gone now, and now I'm left with this lag and excessive memory usage. (Earlier tonight the memory usage was at 87%, it has NEVER been that high. It was rare for it to even go above 40% when all was well, now it's hardly ever below 50%)

I'm sorry, but the .zip file for the full report would not upload. It failed multiple times, and it's only 2.3mb, so it's not over the size limit. I hope the one file from that zip will be ok for now... What next?

Dadashi_Hatake · 04-04-2009, 08:53 AM

Another little update: I used Glary Utilities, and used the ram optimizer. Dropped my ram down to 37% set the thing to auto optimize, for the most part it keeps it below 43% BUT, it does not stop the lag. Ried said the problem with the typing lag was too much ram usage and not enough ram. Now, how can it be that, when I've dropped down the usage back to where it used to be (or at least close) It's still not right... Something is just wrong with it somewhere... It's lagging right now and it's only using 39% RAM...

dai · 04-04-2009, 09:28 AM

for vista the min is 1g recommended is 2g
the ram is there to be used it is not a problem unless you run out of ram

Dadashi_Hatake · 04-04-2009, 09:34 AM

I have 2GB of ram, but something is using ALOT of it, and it never has, not until recently. About the time I got a virus and a rootkit. Got rid of them, but the lag and high usage is still there.

dai · 04-04-2009, 10:04 AM

in admin tools look under reliability and performance under ram and see what is using it

Dadashi_Hatake · 04-04-2009, 10:34 AM

Here's a snip of a few things running the highest usage right now. The files I posted for Jcgriff2 (who I hope replies soon) showed all the processes running at the time of the thing I ran. (whatever his instructions were. I couldn't upload the full zip file, so I uploaded the one file of interest he mentioned.)

Ried · 04-04-2009, 11:03 AM

Hi Dadashi,

I'd like to grab you back for a minute or so. Even though the final gmer scan came up clean, I've found another tool I'd like you to run to double check for the presence of that rootkit we removed.

I've re-opened your thread.

Ried · 04-04-2009, 05:55 PM

dai, jcgriff - I've checked again for presence of the rootkit, and I have verified that it is indeed gone.

Back to you...

Dadashi_Hatake · 04-04-2009, 06:05 PM

*copies my post from my other thread*

"Update: I went and found a memory optimizer that works better than the one in Glary Utilities. It's here: http://www.memoryimprovemaster.com/ It seems to be working quite well. I did a little test and used IE, Opera and FireFox all at one, and it didn't go above 40%

I have it set to fast free (an option in the program) every minute, so it keeps the RAM usage low. Hopefully that's an ok thing to do. It seems to be working fine now. No lag while typing. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay for repeating letters xD"

So... Am I just supposed to go with this newly working setup and ignore the fact that it lags without it?

Zappaboss · 04-05-2009, 04:45 AM

Dadashi, People from Ohio are always overtaxed in income and cpu usage. Blame it on our Governor Strickland! All kidding aside, I was sniffin' your performance report and see recovery drive d is almost full (11% free) but should not be a problem and I think built in to os is some kind of an alarm. I think windows is suppose to drop old shadow copies so it never fills up---can someone give me info on this? Dadashi, do you do disk clean ups? System tools/disk clean up..? Just curious but I wouldn't touch drive d. This is not your problem anyway and I just wanted more info.
You may make trying to find your problem harder by using a so called ram optimizers and until we hit on your problem I think I'd disable it. These programs don't work. They make practical sense but not logical sense. Do a search on google "Do memory optimizers work?" and read away. You want your box fixed not band-aided.
This only happens when your online correct? You have 3 browsers, does this happen if you run IE7 with no add ons--Click start/programs/accessories/sytem tools/click Internet Explorer (no add ons) ?
When it is lagging (online) have you opened Task Manager/Processes/click Show Processes from all Users button? What are the cpu values there when this is happening, you should be able to scoll down the list and see the likely offender. Where are the complete files jcgriff2 asked for from autoruns?

Dadashi_Hatake · 04-05-2009, 08:06 AM

First to the files. They wouldn't upload in a zip file all together. So I uploaded the one that showed the running processes.

And it happens even if I'm not using a browser. I can just be sitting here on the net, using Windows Live Messenger and it'll start lagging. The weird thing was, before I installed this memory optimizer, firefox would be running and have like 40mb - 60mb usage in the task manager, close to that for a few other things. BUT, with the optimizer running, it only uses about 5mb - 20mb. (just tested it now, turned it off like you said, started this post, then looked at task manager, firefox was at 44mb. I turned on the optimizer and let it free the memory and firefox dropped down to 5mb)

And to the disk cleanup thing. I ran ONE about a week ago. But, I usually use CCleaner and just let it delete the index.dat files from IE, the temp files from windows, Chdsk file fragments, memory dumps.

AND, when this thing lagged, and the RAM usage was high, he cpu never shot up and went crazy. Just the RAM. It's like it never lowered itself. It just kept piling up and letting things build up. With this RAM optimizer, it's like it flushes the RAM out. Not sure how to say that, but that just seems like the best way to put it lol...

03-31-2009, 01:56 PM	#1 (permalink)
Dadashi_Hatake Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Ohio (U.S.A) Posts: 121 OS: Vista SP1	High RAM usage (1gb+ at times) and lag problems Ok, I'm really P-Oed at my computer right now. It's been fine most of the time I've had it, then I was stupid enough to download a torrent of an album, got some viruses, etc... Cleared those all out, but my pc has never been quite the same since then. Now it's just making me furious. Main problem is that the RAM physical usage is shooting though the roof in my opinion. The task manager shows 70 - 73 processes running. And I have no clue what most of them are. I use thing like Windows Live Messenger 09, Avast! Home Edition, and that's about it for actually using something upfront. The only things I really notice about the RAM going crazy (what I suspect is the problem causing this) my keyboard input for... like... the repeat letter thing, is really slow. I have to like manually ht the backspace to erase typos, instead of just holding down the key. It's like this for all he keys, they repeat to slow. And I've checked the settings in control panel > keyboard> all fast, and I click "ok" (because I change nothing) and it goes fast again for a few minutes, then it lags again. As I am here, I looked at the ram usage (the physical memory usage) it says 984.1 MB. I'm running on 2gb RAM, 2.5 GGhrtz processor, blah blah blah.... I'm new to this crap at posting stuff for help. Tell me what ya need to know, I'll post it. Please help me before I punch a hole through my monitor.

03-31-2009, 02:26 PM	#2 (permalink)
joeten Tech Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 3,185 OS: vista	Re: High RAM usage (1gb+ at times) and lag problems hi i would suggest you try the secuity forum first to check that nothing is lurking in the background so to speak NEW INSTRUCTIONS - Read This Before Posting For Malware Removal Help also dont use torrents if you have it get rid of it as you may find yourself in this situation time and again also i should mention that help for those using such things is usually zero this and many forums look on this as illegal activity and yes they do know about legal ones but the majority of are used for illegal stuff and there is no way to tell who is legal so normally no help this is my explanation of the rules please read them for clarification

03-31-2009, 02:54 PM	#3 (permalink)
Dadashi_Hatake Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Ohio (U.S.A) Posts: 121 OS: Vista SP1	Re: High RAM usage (1gb+ at times) and lag problems I don't use torrents anymore. The first one I ever used was for a motograter album, and I got a really bad virus, virut something something. Sorry about the whole torrent thing I wasn't really aware that it was illegal to do it like that. I didn't use anything like limewire or emule, etc... (Things I heard to be illegal) It was a download manager that allowed me to download the torrent file like a normal download. That aside, am I supposed to download the scan things in that link you posted, then post the results in a topic, in that section? I just want my RAM usage to go down and my keyboard and etc to stop lagging. Edit: The physical memory usage never seems to drop much. Right now it's at 991.3 MB, so it's actually went up from my first post, and I'm not doing anything different. It seems like it just keeps piling up and it's annoying me. Last edited by Dadashi_Hatake; 03-31-2009 at 03:00 PM.

03-31-2009, 03:55 PM	#5 (permalink)
joeten Tech Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 3,185 OS: vista	Re: High RAM usage (1gb+ at times) and lag problems hi while i know what your saying shadowmeph it is not the accepted thing to turn of system restore i have seen it mentioned before and the mods get very agitated at the mention so i have to say do not do that and Dadashi follow the instructions and start your thread in security with the info try to be patient they can be very busy

03-31-2009, 04:13 PM	#6 (permalink)
Dadashi_Hatake Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Ohio (U.S.A) Posts: 121 OS: Vista SP1	Re: High RAM usage (1gb+ at times) and lag problems I posted the topic here: http://www.techsupportforum.com/secu...ml#post2055007 If anyone wants to help direct me what to do next, I'd appreciate it. I need detailed instructions to. Like "First, run..." "second, do..." please.

03-31-2009, 04:30 PM	#7 (permalink)
joeten Tech Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 3,185 OS: vista	Re: High RAM usage (1gb+ at times) and lag problems hi while your waiting you could look in taskmanager and see who is hogging the resources press ctrl-alt del and choose taskmanager then have a look in processes either write down the names of the ones hogging things or this http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/gen...screenshot.htm you may be able to upload it if needed

03-31-2009, 05:20 PM	#8 (permalink)
Dadashi_Hatake Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Ohio (U.S.A) Posts: 121 OS: Vista SP1	Re: High RAM usage (1gb+ at times) and lag problems I do believe I found a few problems by using the tools in the thread you directed me to. I posted the results there in the topic I created here: http://www.techsupportforum.com/secu...ml#post2055007 Hopefully someone can tell me what to do now.

03-31-2009, 09:58 PM	#9 (permalink)
jcgriff2 Moderator, Microsoft Supp Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: The Great State of New Jersey - away from the gross corruption of the Riverside County, CA, SO office. SHAMEFUL ! Posts: 10,123 OS: Windows 7, Vista Ultimate My System	Re: High RAM usage (1gb+ at times) and lag problems Hi - Follow THESE instructions. Post resulting zip files. The one file of interest is tasklist - it will show you apps & the memory that is used. Check it out. Also, perfmon should be of help. Regards. . . jcgriff2 . __________________ . . . . . . . . BSOD Posting Instructions B Expecting a reply and waiting > 36 hours ? Send a PM to me containing a link to your thread Glad to be home in the Great State of New Jersey ! !

04-04-2009, 08:53 AM	#11 (permalink)
Dadashi_Hatake Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Ohio (U.S.A) Posts: 121 OS: Vista SP1	Re: High RAM usage (1gb+ at times) and lag problems Another little update: I used Glary Utilities, and used the ram optimizer. Dropped my ram down to 37% set the thing to auto optimize, for the most part it keeps it below 43% BUT, it does not stop the lag. Ried said the problem with the typing lag was too much ram usage and not enough ram. Now, how can it be that, when I've dropped down the usage back to where it used to be (or at least close) It's still not right... Something is just wrong with it somewhere... It's lagging right now and it's only using 39% RAM...

04-04-2009, 09:28 AM	#12 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 56,637 OS: win 7 32x 64x rtm	Re: High RAM usage (1gb+ at times) and lag problems for vista the min is 1g recommended is 2g the ram is there to be used it is not a problem unless you run out of ram __________________

04-04-2009, 09:34 AM	#13 (permalink)
Dadashi_Hatake Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Ohio (U.S.A) Posts: 121 OS: Vista SP1	Re: High RAM usage (1gb+ at times) and lag problems I have 2GB of ram, but something is using ALOT of it, and it never has, not until recently. About the time I got a virus and a rootkit. Got rid of them, but the lag and high usage is still there.

04-04-2009, 10:04 AM	#14 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 56,637 OS: win 7 32x 64x rtm	Re: High RAM usage (1gb+ at times) and lag problems in admin tools look under reliability and performance under ram and see what is using it __________________

04-04-2009, 11:03 AM	#16 (permalink)
Ried Assistant Manager, TSF Academy; Moderator/Analyst Security Team Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Ohio Posts: 26,977 OS: WinXP and Vista	Re: High RAM usage (1gb+ at times) and lag problems Hi Dadashi, I'd like to grab you back for a minute or so. Even though the final gmer scan came up clean, I've found another tool I'd like you to run to double check for the presence of that rootkit we removed. I've re-opened your thread. __________________ Member of ASAP since 2005 Member of UNITE since 2006 "It is one life whether we spend it laughing or weeping." "Take the time to laugh--it is the music of the soul."

04-04-2009, 05:55 PM	#17 (permalink)
Ried Assistant Manager, TSF Academy; Moderator/Analyst Security Team Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Ohio Posts: 26,977 OS: WinXP and Vista	Re: High RAM usage (1gb+ at times) and lag problems dai, jcgriff - I've checked again for presence of the rootkit, and I have verified that it is indeed gone. Back to you... __________________ Member of ASAP since 2005 Member of UNITE since 2006 "It is one life whether we spend it laughing or weeping." "Take the time to laugh--it is the music of the soul."

04-04-2009, 06:05 PM	#18 (permalink)
Dadashi_Hatake Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Ohio (U.S.A) Posts: 121 OS: Vista SP1	Re: High RAM usage (1gb+ at times) and lag problems copies my post from my other thread "Update: I went and found a memory optimizer that works better than the one in Glary Utilities. It's here: http://www.memoryimprovemaster.com/ It seems to be working quite well. I did a little test and used IE, Opera and FireFox all at one, and it didn't go above 40% I have it set to fast free (an option in the program) every minute, so it keeps the RAM usage low. Hopefully that's an ok thing to do. It seems to be working fine now. No lag while typing. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay for repeating letters xD" So... Am I just supposed to go with this newly working setup and ignore the fact that it lags without it?

04-05-2009, 04:45 AM	#19 (permalink)
Zappaboss Registered User Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Cleveland, Ohio Posts: 243 OS: Vista Home Basic SP2	Re: High RAM usage (1gb+ at times) and lag problems Dadashi, People from Ohio are always overtaxed in income and cpu usage. Blame it on our Governor Strickland! All kidding aside, I was sniffin' your performance report and see recovery drive d is almost full (11% free) but should not be a problem and I think built in to os is some kind of an alarm. I think windows is suppose to drop old shadow copies so it never fills up---can someone give me info on this? Dadashi, do you do disk clean ups? System tools/disk clean up..? Just curious but I wouldn't touch drive d. This is not your problem anyway and I just wanted more info. You may make trying to find your problem harder by using a so called ram optimizers and until we hit on your problem I think I'd disable it. These programs don't work. They make practical sense but not logical sense. Do a search on google "Do memory optimizers work?" and read away. You want your box fixed not band-aided. This only happens when your online correct? You have 3 browsers, does this happen if you run IE7 with no add ons--Click start/programs/accessories/sytem tools/click Internet Explorer (no add ons) ? When it is lagging (online) have you opened Task Manager/Processes/click Show Processes from all Users button? What are the cpu values there when this is happening, you should be able to scoll down the list and see the likely offender. Where are the complete files jcgriff2 asked for from autoruns?

04-05-2009, 08:06 AM	#20 (permalink)
Dadashi_Hatake Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Ohio (U.S.A) Posts: 121 OS: Vista SP1	Re: High RAM usage (1gb+ at times) and lag problems First to the files. They wouldn't upload in a zip file all together. So I uploaded the one that showed the running processes. And it happens even if I'm not using a browser. I can just be sitting here on the net, using Windows Live Messenger and it'll start lagging. The weird thing was, before I installed this memory optimizer, firefox would be running and have like 40mb - 60mb usage in the task manager, close to that for a few other things. BUT, with the optimizer running, it only uses about 5mb - 20mb. (just tested it now, turned it off like you said, started this post, then looked at task manager, firefox was at 44mb. I turned on the optimizer and let it free the memory and firefox dropped down to 5mb) And to the disk cleanup thing. I ran ONE about a week ago. But, I usually use CCleaner and just let it delete the index.dat files from IE, the temp files from windows, Chdsk file fragments, memory dumps. AND, when this thing lagged, and the RAM usage was high, he cpu never shot up and went crazy. Just the RAM. It's like it never lowered itself. It just kept piling up and letting things build up. With this RAM optimizer, it's like it flushes the RAM out. Not sure how to say that, but that just seems like the best way to put it lol...