Windows 10: Large memory usage, but few processes running

I'm running Win 10 with 4GB RAM. Windows gets updated automatically. In Task Manager, the Performance tab shows CPU usage of 7% but memory usage of 85% (3.3/3.9 GB). The only apps I have running are Outlook (desktop version), Task Manager and Windows Explorer, which collectively use about 107 MB. Of the background processes, the largest one is Bitdefender Security Service, using 147 MB. That's a total of 254 MB - far from the 3.3 GB shown in the Performance tab.


There are a lot of other processes running using up a few MB each, in many cases less than 1 MB, but I don't think they total 3 GB. What could be using up so much RAM and slowing down my computer to a crawl?


Thank you.

:)

 

System and compressed memory high disk usage during file copy

Thank you Amarjeet_Paul.

I spent many more hours than I had hoped this past week reading and trying others' suggestions from this community on how to reduce high RAM usage due to ntoskrnl.exe. The "System and compressed memory" process remained the top consumer of RAM, using 500-900MB,
among all other processes running. I deemed it to be the likely culprit in making my computer use frustratingly sluggish. After completing your
third step, steps 1. & 2. provided no improvement in my case, the "System and compressed memory" process RAM usage has plummeted from the top of the Task Manager Process list to the bottom, running at a remarkable 0.1MB! That's a whole lot less than
1% of the targeted process' gluttony. You're hired! Ps. I'll be keeping an eye on the process' use as I get back to normal operations, and be back if it floats to high in the list. Or if the registry fix you suggested has compromised use in any way. Please
explain in simple terms what the insertion of your registry modification is doing.

Thanks again.

Geoff

 

Process Memory Usage shown in Task Manager

Hi Sid,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community and being a part of Windows 10.

I understand the inconvenience you are facing with CPU usage by the processes on your device. Do not worry we will help you with this issue.

These issues might occur due to applications or services running at the startup on the computer. Bad sectors on the hard drive or outdated and incompatible drivers might also cause such issues.

I suggest you to refer to the below post check if your issue matches with the same.

If so, I recommend you to try the troubleshooting steps suggested by Amarjeet Paul
and check if it helps.

System and compressed memory high disk usage during file
copy

Hope it helps. Get back to us with an updated status of this issue for further assistance.

 

Large amount of Paged Pool memory usage over time


I have been fighting with this for some time and I can't figure out what it is. Over time, my Paged Pool memory usage keeps climbing until eventually I have to reboot to clear it out. It is a tough problem to search for because most people seem to have a problem with non-paged pool memory and all of those problems get included in the search results.

I have 32GB of RAM and once the paged pool reaches around 18GB or so it starts to bog down and get sluggish. And when I say 18GB, I mean 18GB with nothing open. I have my typical tray stuff, which I have tried killing, but nothing releases the RAM. I have let it climb all the way to 32GB before, but then the computer becomes useless and took about a half hour or so to shut down.

When I run Rammap it shows that paged pool is huge, and in the process list there is a process called MemCompression that has an extremely large amount of RAM in use. Not the full size of the paged pool, but definitely really big.

There are several threads talking about using Poolmon to track down processes using lots of paged or non-paged pool memory, but the process on mine that is extremely large has a tag of Se, which is tough to search for in the strings because virtually every file has Se in it somewhere.

Right now I just rebooted again, so the usage is back to "normal" (if you consider 11GB memory in use normal for just having Chrome open) and my paged pool is around 2GB or so. It will increase again by this evening, so I will get some screen grabs of the Rammap and the process list. Any other screens I can grab that might help?