Laptop using 50% memory usage while idle

[Potato69]

My laptop has been starting to use 50% of my memory. I have 6gb of ram, and it is using up around 2.8gb while it is idle. I have disabled all of the unnecessary startup programs and ran a virus/malware scan and nothing has come up. I have no extra programs running such as google chrome open while that happens. It used to only use up 20% of ram idle, but it suddenly just changed to using up 50. Not sure what the problem is! I am using windows 8.

 

[g-unit1111]

Need a bit more info to go on here - what laptop do you have, and what is the make / model of the RAM being used? Are you running on battery or plugged in? Do you have any power saving measures enabled on your laptop?

 

[tsnor]

Open task manager (alt-control-del will get your to it)
Goto performance TAB in task manager. The one with the CPU graphs
See the button for 'resource monitor' ? ... click it.
In resource monitor got memory tab
1, check the bar graph. Are you using the 2.8gb while idle still?
2. sort by clicking the 'working set' column.
3. google the process name for the processes with large working set sizes.
4. hunt down any unexpected memory hogs.
5. Let it sit for a while and see if any of the processing is GROWING its working set size. This could be a software bug called a 'memory leak'. If process keeps growing google process name and some keywords like 'worknig set size" adn "memory" and "memory leak"
GL.