Re: Paul: Win10 Laptop Using Hard Disk As Memory!

On Friday, December 3, 2021 at 1:34:20 PM UTC-5, Paul wrote:
> On 12/3/2021 9:26 AM, Chris K-Man wrote: 
> > Hi Paul, Hope you are safe during the pandemic. 
> > 
> > As stated above, My 2015 HP laptop, Windows 10 Home Edition, 
> > originally with 4GB RAM and doubled by me, is still paging to the 
> > hard drive, and using onlyup to 3.5 GB of the 7.4 now visible and 
> > available. 
> > 
> > I reduced the Page File in settings to only 100mB or some such, 
> > but this behavior is continuing. 
> > 
> > What else can I check? 
> >
> Well, the machines are full of fun behaviors. 
> 
> I'm on Win7 right now (since my Typing Machine died 
> about a month ago), and I see a weird behavior. And I 
> don't know what I've added to do it. 
> 
> Steps for mine: 
> 
> 1) Boot machine. 
> 2) Machine uses too much RAM for an idle computer. 
> 3) Command Prompt (you don't have to be administrator) 
> 
> testlimit64.exe -d 1 -c 8500 # The number on the end, is slightly more 
> # than the "real" amount of available RAM. 
> 
> Doing that, "squeezes" the machine. You press control-C 
> to stop that program, and it releases the RAM. But the 
> machine does not "soak up" the released RAM. There is a 
> "permanent change" to behavior. 
> 
> Now, if I don't do step 3, it might take 20 seconds for 
> Firefox to start, 10 seconds for Thunderbird to start. 
> 
> If I apply the memory squeezing line, the machine launches 
> programs "almost as fast as a real computer". It's sad really. 
> 
> ******* 
> 
> I used to think this might be some kind of SuperFetch behavior, 
> but I can't be sure. And the behavior was not there, when I 
> first started using this particular Windows 7 C: again. 
> 
> In your case, I would start by checking whether the memory 
> is registering or not. Programs like CPUZ, all they can do, is 
> report which DIMMs are readable on the SPD bus. If the CPU socket 
> was making bad contact, the BIOS testing procedure for RAM, 
> may have automatically disqualified a stick or stick(s) of RAM. 
> 
> If I try Start : Run : msinfo32.exe, I see: 
> 
> Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 64.0 GB 
> Available Physical Memory 7.73 GB 
> 
> and that's because my RAMDisk is running. If I switch off the RAMdisk 
> 
> Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 64.0 GB 
> Available Physical Memory 61.3 GB 
> 
> which means 2.7GB is being used, partly for the USENET client. 
> If I apply memory pressure, I get it to 
> 
> Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 64.0 GB 
> Available Physical Memory 61.5 GB 
> 
> and I find that SVCHOST 672 (housing SysMain) is using 
> 750MB of RAM. And SysMain happens to be SuperFetch. SuperFetch 
> is known for both memory gluttony, as well as occasionally 
> railing a CPU core. A moment ago, SuperFetch was up to 1GB. 
> Perhaps part of the reason, is a disk drive with 15 partitions 
> or so is connected. But SuperFetch should mostly be worried about 
> C: and not other partitions. 
> 
> Summary: Start : Run : msinfo32.exe 
> and look for clues. Is the 8GB of 
> RAM really registered ??? Sometimes, there 
> is a reason for this. 
> 
> And even though msinfo32 has info, when it comes 
> to mobo and chipset detail, you still need CPUZ 
> 
> https://www.cpuid.com/downloads/cpu-z/cpu-z_1.98-en.zip 
> 
> Paul
____________

Hello, and thanks for the information.

Here is what's listed, RE: RAM, verbatim:

"Installed Physical Memory(RAM)   8.0
Total Physical Memory                     7.89GB
Available Physical Memory             5.31GB
Total Virtual Memory                       5.24GB
Page File Space                               100MB*

*The latter reflects what I've set the initial Page File space down to.  Maximum 
is 600MB.

So the machine is seeing all the RAM, and accounting for what is being used right now.

It is running much better today since today I remembered to restart the machine after 
adjusting Page parameters.  Paging only a little, just after arrival at my desktop, compared
to what it was doing before: Pegging my HDD to 100%!