What is hogging my RAM?

[LitNothin]

I'm 90% sure this is related to repeatedly letting/putting my PC to sleep and I think fast boot(?).

Between shutdowns and sleep cycles the RAM usage creeps up slowly until it reaches the 32GB point and starts lagging and whatnot, the RAM usage doesn't really go down after shut-downs. This occurs over a few days.
If any of you know, I'd like to know:
a) Why this happens.
b) What I can do to keep the RAM from creeping up.

c) Why task manager/resource viewer doesn't tell me what is hogging up the RAM.

A little extra info:
- This has been happening since before the last windows update and in fact since I got this PC tbh(early June).
- Windows 11.

- Restarts bring the RAM back down

 

Edited September 11, 2023 by LitNothin
Clarity

[venomtail]

Sure you're PC's clean? No viruses, no trojans? Sounds a lot like them eating up all the resources.

[191x7]

Have you checked your RAM with Passmark Memtest86?

 

Checked your Windows with sfc /scannow?

[Tegneren]

This sounds like some kind of malware

 

27 minutes ago, LitNothin said:

the RAM usage doesn't really go down after shut-downs

This is probably because you have fast startup enabled. Its on by default and it stores some data from RAM onto the hard drive when shutting down and then loads it when booting up again. 

When you do a restart it dumps all that is loaded in the RAM, that way you starts with a "fresh" boot when restarting in stead of shutting down.

To disable "fast startup" remove checkmark where shown

[DigitalGoat]

Another cause could be a memory leak from an app/ driver/ service, basically a routine that is repeatedly called at a set period, so monitoring for inputs for example, but instead of clearing the memory used for the function when finished the routine just keeps adding more memory each time it is called. Over time this will use up all available memory. This is an overly simplified example.

The only solutions to this issue would be an update for the 3rd party software, driver or to stop using the software as it is a programming error.

 

You could track down the culprit by stopping all 3rd party software from starting with Windows, maybe disabling through the startup tab of Taskmanager or the Services tab, then re enable items one at a time for testing.

 

Windows components have been know to have meory leaks at times, I believe the last one was Explorer in build 21h1, so making sure Windows is upto date could also help as could running SFC with the /scannow switch to check & fix Windows component errors if any exist.

[adm0n]

I'd first check if you can just see which task it is that takes up all the RAM in the details section. Usually anything software related should show up there. It might still be a memory leak, software like iCUE is notorious for having problems like that. But usually that gets fixed at some point.

Your operating system also caches a lot of files in RAM (shown by the "Cached" category under the memory tab). That would also not show up in the processes tab. But this isn't your problem.

 

As far as I'm aware drivers can also reserve some RAM, which won't show up in the details or processes tab. For example your GPU could reserve up to 16 GB of ram. So you could also have a bad driver.

 

If you actually want to get rid of it and not just suppress the symptoms, I'd try any of these steps

• Use something like RAMMap to check what is using the ram
• Open no program / close everything that auto starts and repeatedly put your PC into sleep and wake it again. Check if the problems exists.
• Do the same as in the previous step, but in safe mode (without any drivers loaded)
• reinstall windows (because that actually fixes most problems most of the time)

[OldFord76]

maybe the ram monster was hungry 

[LitNothin]

On 9/11/2023 at 8:50 PM, Tegneren said:

This sounds like some kind of malware

 

This is probably because you have fast startup enabled. Its on by default and it stores some data from RAM onto the hard drive when shutting down and then loads it when booting up again. 

When you do a restart it dumps all that is loaded in the RAM, that way you starts with a "fresh" boot when restarting in stead of shutting down.

To disable "fast startup" remove checkmark where shown

 

I have now turned off Fast Startup. I will follow up in a couple days and lyk if the memory continues to jump up.