Extreme memory leak with no traces? (in need of serious help)

[ZhangKhaiEn]

When I say extreme, I mean EXTREME.

First, here are the related system specs:
- Laptop (Acer Aspire 5920G)
- Windows Vista Premium SP1
- Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 Ghz
- 2 GB DDR2 RAM

Here goes. When I start in normal mode (not any of the safe modes), the
memory starts out at around 1300 MB free. However, in the span of around 3 to
4 minutes, the available memory just starts to dwindle to 100 MB free, and
when it gets even less, the system hangs. I've tried opening the task manager
and seeing which processes eat up the said gigantic memory, and apparently
none was. The highest eater was my running Bitcomet which took up around
50MB, and the rest are just 10 and below.

This has never happened to me before, and just started occurring a few days
ago, when I suddenly started getting Windows dialog boxes when running a game
saying that I was low on memory and I could choose the option of clicking
"close program" to shut the game down (or cancel the box). At first I thought
it was just a new feature implemented by SP1 since I never got that box even
when running demanding games last year, but then I think about when I just
freshly installed SP1 and how it also didn't show up when I ran the said
demanding games.

I've tried killing everything in my system tray, and every program that is
running on the taskbar, but the memory decline still continues on. And that's
why right now, I am running (and posting this) on safe mode with networking
and everything is A-OK memory-wise. The memory usage as of writing is
comparable to my regular usage back when there was no memory leak, the
absence of various startup programs' usage of memory considered, of course.
So I guess it's not the basic Windows stuff that's causing this.

I have also tried running a virus scan on the critical areas of the computer
like the Windows and its system32 folder, the startup programs, the registry,
and the memory (I use Kaspersky, fully updated) but it shows no infections. I
also tried AVG, but the result is still nil. I am currently attempting a
computer-wide scan, and if that still fails, I might even have to try ending
processes (even though they show no sign of eating that 1GB+ of memory...)
and services one at a time to see what's wrong. This is driving me crazy.

Is anyone familiar with this issue? Any leads or help is greatly
appreciated! Many thanks in advance.

-Kaien

 

[hogwell]

Well, I can tell you that I have had the same symptoms...

I am running Vista Ultimate with all updates, but not SP1 yet. (I keep
seeing rumors on the web about delays, problems, etc.)

My 2GB Dell machine boots up and runs normally at about 40-60% RAM
used.

Then, mysteriously, sometimes in the middle of the night with nothing
extra (supposedly) running, memory usage grows until all 2GB is
exhausted and the system crashes. and in the morning it needs a hard
shutdown and reboot.

Also, when I'm able to catch it "in the act" before crashing, the
performance monitor shows no process or service using a large amount
of memory -as if this is a kernel or driver issue.

Also mysterious - sometimes this problem stops happening for weeks at
a time, then reappears on a regular basis (like in the past week!)

It's discouraging that you have applied SP1 and the problem occurs for
you also.

Let me know if you find a solution!

 

[hogwell]

I solved the problem now by disabling the Windows Search service using
control panel.

No overnight crashes for two weeks!

This component must have a huge vista memory leak.

I wonder if SP1 solves this bug?

 

[RubenD]

I have a P4 2.6 with vista and 1GB on vista home.
This system was decenst and fast on XP, but it's so slow on vista. Most of
the memory goes to iexplorer.
I went and bought a separeta video card with 256mb ddr3 to make it faster.

The funny thing is I get a overall index of 4.0 from vista and 5.9 from
graphics, which is supposed to be great and fast for everything.

I shut down all the graphics to speed it up, but still haven't got the
performance desired.

If anyone knows how to tweak vista please let me know.

Thanks !