Memory issues

[pilot.masman]

This is the view i get on my task manager when i noticed i was getting some sort of memory leak. Notice no single application or switch process is owning up to being the hog.

other apps open on boot:

Steam
MSN
AVG
Galaxy temp monitor
CoreTemp
Teamspeak
Hamachi

This picture was taken on a restart and having only just opened up VLC player... and then closed it.

I was thinking it could be Malware but no signals as of yet from any of the systems on my computer, even after running a full system scan.



Kind of makes it a little difficult to do anything other than play solitaire every 5 minutes between spikes.

[pilot.masman]

Upon further investigation it seems to spike not when i open VLC, but when i enter a folder on one of my hard drives with quite allot of files on it. its never done this before.

leaving the explorer windows open looking at the files causes it to continually spike whereas just opening another folder elsewhere on the hard drive in explorer does nothing.

[dbcunnz]

Have you looked in the task manager processes to see what is using it?

[IslandBoy77]

A thought: uninstall AVG (whose detection is pretty lousy anyway), restart, download & install Avast, do a boot-time scan. Do NOT install Google Chrome during avast install, and you don't need to "participate in the community". If you don't have Spybot, you'll need to install that (download from www.filehippo.com) but with following customisation:
- Select Components: Security Center integration ONLY
- Select Additional Tasks: Desktop icon (if required) and SDHelper ONLY

After install, just "Next" thru the Wizard until Step 7, then click Start Using the Program. You'll need to do an update and then an immunize, and then a scan. Note: It pays to go into the Spybot program folder, sort the entries by type, then give each of the Application file types Admin privilege levels before you do the update, immunization & a scan.

The Hamachi indicates that you might be using a VPN of some sort - is that deliberate - and necessary at startup? Incorrectly configured VPNs are a guarantee of virual-type infection. Also, do you really need TeamSpeak, Steam & MSN auto-starting? Lots of hungry apps, esp for internet-related activities. I always ask myself regarding auto-start progs: Do I really use this often enough to justify the drain of it starting EVERY time I boot?

Hope that helps!

[pilot.masman]

QUOTE (dbcunnz @ Nov 19 2010, 07:50 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Have you looked in the task manager processes to see what is using it?

yup, i just went a bit further, into resource monitor, which is pretty much the same.

QUOTE (IslandBoy77 @ Nov 19 2010, 07:51 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

A thought: uninstall AVG (whose detection is pretty lousy anyway), restart, download & install Avast, do a boot-time scan. Do NOT install Google Chrome during avast install, and you don't need to "participate in the community". If you don't have Spybot, you'll need to install that (download from www.filehippo.com) but with following customisation:
- Select Components: Security Center integration ONLY
- Select Additional Tasks: Desktop icon (if required) and SDHelper ONLY

After install, just "Next" thru the Wizard until Step 7, then click Start Using the Program. You'll need to do an update and then an immunize, and then a scan. Note: It pays to go into the Spybot program folder, sort the entries by name, then give each of the Application file types Admin privilege levels before you do the update, immunization & a scan.

(i agree with you about avg, i have a NOD32 licence i just dont use it at the moment.) Ill install Avast and spybot and get back to you

thanks for the help

ps already have chrome installed, wouldnt matter

[pilot.masman]

QUOTE (IslandBoy77 @ Nov 19 2010, 07:51 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The Hamachi indicates that you might be using a VPN of some sort - is that deliberate - and necessary at startup? Incorrectly configured VPNs are a guarantee of virual-type infection. Also, do you really need TeamSpeak, Steam & MSN auto-starting? Lots of hungry apps, esp for internet-related activities. I always ask myself regarding auto-start progs: Do I really use this often enough to justify the drain of it starting EVERY time I boot?

Doing the immunization now. didnt notice this part of what you said previously. yeah i use Steam and MSN pretty much as soon as the pc is booted. i didnt mean to imply teamspeak is on auto, i wouldnt do that .

The only programs starting through MSCONFIG appart from the AMD optimizers and cr@p are these

Hamachi
Steam
MSN
Virtual CloneDrive
XtremeTuner HD

as you say, i do ask myself is starting this on boot justifiable. id say once a week (if ive been installing programs) i go into msconfig and the startup folders and check whats set to start.

Yes i use Hamachi for a VPN, the only network i use is one with just a few friends in it (who i know all use AV etc). adding to the fact that windows file sharing is all turned off, we use DC hubs for that.




BTW, just tried doing a boot time scan and apparently its unavailable on 64 bit OS's

[IslandBoy77]

QUOTE (pilot.masman @ Nov 19 2010, 08:25 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

BTW, just tried doing a boot time scan and apparently its unavailable on 64 bit OS's

Ok - they obviously haven't got that sorted yet. I asked them about it a few month's ago, and they said it would be sorted "soon". I guess that means "sometime when we get to it"...

In that case, you'll just have to do a standard scan. I've got the full Serviceman's edition of Avast (not cheap...) and that has no probs doing 64-bit boot scans as it has it's own mini-OS to boot from.

Also, you might find CCleaner has a much easier to use startup manager than Windows - it's the one I use (or the Spybot one when Advanced is switched on)

[Ian Warren]

I no this aint going to help , but ya got to see the graph on my brain case Memory issues

[pilot.masman]

QUOTE (Ian Warren @ Nov 19 2010, 09:44 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I no this aint going to help , but ya got to see the graph on my brain case Memory issues

lol


yea i use ccleaner.

an update,i ran scans with all programs and nothing.

[IslandBoy77]

Hmmm - interesting. Time to look into other things. First, check all the Processes that are running - there are a few that you can safely turn off (the sodding windows search for a start) - one that definitely causes some probs is the .NET framework 4: I always STOP that process then switch it to Manual.

As a test, you could set all your non-critical startups to Off using CCleaner, do a restart, and see how that goes

[GlennAV8R]

QUOTE (pilot.masman @ Nov 19 2010, 07:55 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

(i agree with you about avg, i have a NOD32 licence i just dont use it at the moment.) Ill install Avast and spybot and get back to you

Have you looked at using Microsoft Security Essentials for your antivirus/spyware detection, I find it fantasitc and best of all it is free.

[pilot.masman]

QUOTE (GlennAV8R @ Nov 20 2010, 03:31 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Have you looked at using Microsoft Security Essentials for your antivirus/spyware detection, I find it fantasitc and best of all it is free.

ive tried that, its pretty good.

yea the problem has seemed to quieten down now, ill keep an eye out for the issue. gave my pc a good clean, went through sorting and deleting.

[pilot.masman]

just started happening again, no common causes that i can see other than possibly renaming files on that drive again.

yesterday i started renaming a few files but it gave me the "file is open in explorer" error and it starts spiking again. thought id leave it so i shut down for the night. turned the PC back on today and didnt even have to do anything, just starts spiking again

any ideas? i was thinking either corrupt file or virus in one of them. although avast has run a full scan on that drive

EDIT: figured out that it is spiking as soon as i select any 1 of 3 files, to do anything with them. not quite sure how i can delete them. ive tried unlocker, ive tried a safe mode boot and ive tried just straight deleting it, they all give that message above

[IslandBoy77]

Might be time to cut your losses, back up your data, and do the reformat...