Question about Windows 10 and virtual memory.

[Bcl092]

I'm just wondering, My laptop has 4 gigs of RAM. Without running many programs the usage is very high. Would changing the virtual memory to 2 gigs help?

 

[Weboh]

Not much. With virtual memory, your computer uses your hard disk in place of RAM. Your hard disk (or even solid state drive) is slower to access than RAM is, so the computer would slow down when it reaches high RAM usage. Also, there's a limit to how much virtual memory Windows can use, and I don't think you can use that much. You'd be better off going into task manager and killing any programs you don't need running.

 

[Bcl092]

Not much. With virtual memory, your computer uses your hard disk in place of RAM. Your hard disk (or even solid state drive) is slower to access than RAM is, so the computer would slow down when it reaches high RAM usage. Also, there's a limit to how much virtual memory Windows can use, and I don't think you can use that much. You'd be better off going into task manager and killing any programs you don't need running.

Thank you, I have researched multiple answers.

 

[Weboh]

Great! If you have the answer, you should mark this thread as solved to save someone else the trouble of giving you an answer you don't need.

 

[Bcl092]

Great! If you have the answer, you should mark this thread as solved to save someone else the trouble of giving you an answer you don't need.

Well no, it isn't solved so more answers would be appreciated. If it helps, I have a Lenovo G50. Core i3 4gigs of RAM and windows 10. I disabled the show me tips about windows notifications.

 

[Weboh]

Ah. It's a good thing you didn't leave it at your last comment or you might not get answers. Can you show me a screenshot of the processes tab in Task Manager so I can know if this is a way to solve your problem?

 

[Bcl092]

Ah. It's a good thing you didn't leave it at your last comment or you might not get answers. Can you show me a screenshot of the processes tab in Task Manager so I can know if this is a way to solve your problem?

I hate to ask without sounding stupid. How do I do that, I know to press the Prtsrc.

 

[Weboh]

How to take a screenshot or how to access task manager? To access Task Manager, press ctrl+shift+esc. Then click on the More Details button on the bottom. Then scroll down in that list until you get to the "Background Processes" sections, and take a screenshot of that entire section.

To take a screenshot, press Prtsrc and then open Paint and press ctrl+v. Then save that picture and upload it here.

 

[Bcl092]

Sorry, I meant how do I upload the shot?

 

[Weboh]

First, upload the picture to another site like twitpic or imgr. Then post a reply, press control+P, and paste the link to that picture in the box that comes up.

 

[Bcl092]

Sorry I took forever.

http/postimg.org/image/jqylk3vf7/

The memory tends to run in the 70% range even without running anything.

 

[Weboh]

I need to see more of it than that. I do see a couple programs you probably don't need running, but it wouldn't free up all that much memory. All of the programs that are in the screenshot only use about 0.1 MB (or at least claim to).

But to start, you might want to prevent Contextant Audio Message Service from starting with your computer (unless you really want to see messages about your speakers. Not sure what that would entail, but it sounds useless). I did some Googling, and it seems both that and Lenovo.Modern.IMController are prone to problems like yours on Windows 10.

If you don't want to use an Elan SmartPad, you can uninstall ETD Intelligent from System Settings/Control Panel which will get rid of Elan Service too. Also, Windows Update sometimes uses tons of RAM to install updates, so you can tell it to download updates but let you choose when to install them if it turns out that is causing problems. Lastly, you might want to use a browser besides Chrome, since that's notoriously RAM hungry and will use tons of RAM just by having blank tabs open.

That's all for now. Waiting to see if any of the above helped and/or for your next screenshot.

 

[Bcl092]

Thank you. Uninstalling chrome in addition to stopping unneeded processes put my back to 30% range. I'll have to get use to Firefox.

 

[Weboh]

Great! You'll probably have to do more than stop the process though, as unless the program was uninstalled, it'll start again the next time you reboot. You'll have to disable them from the Startup tab.