Page File / Commit Charge

[azza_1992]

Hello,

I've noticed when my computer (Intel Q6600, 2GB DDR2 1066 RAM, 8600GT) is running idle, with only Norton Internet Security 2009 running in the background, the PF Usage is 1.1 to 1.2GB. Also, under Physical Memory in Task Manager, I have only 795MB of my 2GB of RAM remaining. My Commit Charge Total is 1.17GB.

Is this wrong. The page file seems overly excessive and the RAM usage is very very high considering there is ~200MB worth of processes running in the processes tab.

Also, when my computer is starting up a process called ccSvcHst.exe is using about 800MB of RAM but I assume this is normal. Also, at any one time there are 2 ccSvcHst.exe's running and 7 svchost.exe's running. What is going on here.

Could someone please shed some light on the above problems as I am worried that there is something seriously wrong with my computer.

Thanks

 

[Baez]

For Windows XP that is excessively high however in Vista that amount is about right.

 

[azza_1992]

Yes I am running XP.

As it is clearly a problem, what do you propose I do to fix it? Is it possible some of my RAM has failed? (It's only 3 months old)

 

[Baez]

No your RAM isn't failing as you said it shows 2GB still. At the bottom of your task manager window how many processes does it say are running?

 

[azza_1992]

42 processes. Page File usage hit 1.54GB just then.

EDIT: Here's some screen dumps. The dimensions and extra CPU use can be accounted for by Paint Shop Pro 7's capture mode which I was using to capture the screenshots. As soon as I got out of capture mode, CPU usage returned to 0-2%.

This one has ccSvcHst.exe using extra memory compared to the 3rd picture.

 

[KSoD]

Best advice. Start to google what some of those processes are. I see Apple stuff, Google Update, psp.exe, QTTask, OmniPage, along with many other things. That is why you are seeing such a hich useage of RAM. You have a lot of stuff running.

Close out some tasks tht you are not using and then you will see the Free RAM Rise.

 

[azza_1992]

Will do, but the Memory usages don't add up.

In that last picture, the total of all of the Mem Usages is 107MB. This is far short of the 1364MB it says the computer is using.

At the moment the page file is 1.65GB, and the available Physical Memory is 1.32GB, even though less than 200MB is being used in the processes tab.

EDIT: I went into MsConfig and stopped all of those unnecessary processes from starting at startup. I restarted my computer and now my PF usage is only 250MB when idling. This sounds much more reasonable.

EDIT: I believe Norton Internet Security is the culprit. When it is disabled on start up the page file and memory usage remains reasonable. When it is enabled on start up the page file gradually climbs to the 1.5GB with ccSvcHst.exe using over 1.2GB of RAM. Back to good old AVG for me.

 

[Baez]

You shouldn't really use Norton in the first place. Takes far too many resources and doesn't protect very well even then. Glad you got it fixed.

 

[azza_1992]

I've always hated Norton but I guess I fell for all the hype about their 2009 suite. All the review sites seem to be raving about how small its system footprint is...