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Standby memory not released, free memory at 0

Anonymous
2014-04-29T23:50:29+00:00

Hi all, new here, sorry in advance for any attack against the etiquette of this place,

I run a Dell laptop with 64-bit windows 7, 8Gb RAM, 2x 1Tb hard drives, and a 32Gb SSD configured to be used only as cache, an Intel i7 i7-3630QM 2.40GHz processor.

The system itself and background programs take about 1.5-2Gb of my RAM, and even with intensive programs running, I rarely have over 4Gb (half) of my memory in use. The issue is that ALL the rest is "standby" memory and doesn't get freed up, EVER, and my free memory is stuck at 0.

Here's a picture of what I'm talking about:

(please don't judge me out of the programs I'm running :p)

When i start a new program (even a tiny one), the computer will take a while (sometimes over a minute) to start it up. When it is running however, it runs very smoothly (even if it's very intensive, like a new video game with high graphics resolution).

Haven't touched msconfig, have downloaded all relevant drivers to their latest Win7-compatible version.

Does anyone have any idea how to solve this issue?

Thanks a lot

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-05-07T15:31:11+00:00

    I have the same problem with practically no free memory. I had 4G RAM and changed it to 8 - it just increased total of In Use and Standby with minor improvement of the program lunching speed. I also have (slightly improved) problem with when a program runs and moving the mouse, the cursor "hesitate" before moving. This was real jittery with 4G RAM. And it takes up to 5-10 min to shut the system and boot it up back. On my another laptop with 4G RAM and practically same software (except for games missing) and much less powerful processor, I always have appr. one third of the RAM Free and no problems whatsoever with very fast shutdown and bootups and no cursor "hesitation". Anybody's guess of what is going on and how to clean up the memory (or something else)?

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-04-30T02:24:08+00:00

    I do not believe the lack of free memory is your problem, if you have one.

    Windows tries to make sure there is no free memory.

    You have 5130MB available for use. Although it is cached with data that will allow faster running of software that, by experience, it knows you may run,  this memory is immediately available for new programs as well.

    All my systems show virtually 0 free memory and that is why I installed it, to be used.

    You can download as small utility called RAMMap from Microsoft to look at your RAM usage and it has an option to empty standby RAM.

     http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ff700229

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-05-09T11:26:40+00:00

    Hi,

    I would suggest you to run the Memory Diagnostics Tool and check if there are any memory problems.

    1. Type memory diagnostic on the start screen and click on Windows Memory Diagnostics.
    2. Click on Restart now and check for problems.

    You may try installing the latest BIOS and chipset drivers from the manufacturer’s website and see if it fixes the issue.

    Keep us posted on the status of the issue.

    Thanks for your comment,

    I restarted and ran diagnostics, but couldn't find any issue. As for the drivers, they are all up to date according to the manufacturers website. The BIOS is up to date as well.

    So far, I've used the software that Lead3 recommended (RAMMap) to clear my cache every once in a while.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-04-30T03:33:33+00:00

    Thanks for your answer.

    I tried downloading RAMMap and emptying standby memory. The loading time of programs is *drastically* reduced when I actually have some free memory (goes from a minute to 2-3 seconds), so I'm guessing the standby memory doesn't free up (or at least not enough/not fast enough) for other programs to load.

    Does anyone have an idea why that is, and what I can do to fix it?

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-05-08T21:46:53+00:00

    Hi,

    I would suggest you to run the Memory Diagnostics Tool and check if there are any memory problems.

    1. Type memory diagnostic on the start screen and click on Windows Memory Diagnostics.
    2. Click on Restart now and check for problems.

    You may try installing the latest BIOS and chipset drivers from the manufacturer’s website and see if it fixes the issue.

    Keep us posted on the status of the issue.

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    1 person found this answer helpful.
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