Crashes all the time

TheKeir

TheKeir

Bright Spark
Recently my computer (which I got about 14 months ago from here) has been acting peculiarly.

I say peculiarly... what I mean is that my applications crash all the time; whether it's Steam, my browser, a word document or Windows Explorer.
Even when I have the bare minimum of applications running, Task Manager claims that 97% of my RAM is being used, yet when I count up the memory from the processes, it only reaches around 1.5GB total (I have 4GB RAM).

What could be the issue? Is it possible that my RAM has become defunct or something?

Many thanks
 
Grimezy

Grimezy

Prolific Poster
Have you opened your case and checked that everything is seated properly? The ram is normally the number 1 suspect for coming loose which could explain it.

What warranty options did you select when you bought it? If popping the ram back in doesn't work you should still be able to have it fixed in your warranty :)
 
TheKeir

TheKeir

Bright Spark
I haven't looked inside it to check the RAM, no - I'll do so tonight, then. Thanks for the advice.

And I bought the Silver warranty (1 year).
 
vanthus

vanthus

Member Resting in Peace
With 4GB of RAM you shouldn't be hitting 97% with the bare minimum of applications running,try running windows own memory diagnostic utility,to do this open the Control Panel (All Items View) select "Administrative Tools", then select "Windows Memory Diagnostic"
Or Open the Start menu, In the Start Menu search box, type mdsched and press Enter.
If this is showing anything amiss try one ram stick at a time to confirm if one might be the issue.
Alternatively run memtest,this performs a more thorough test,
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105647-ram-test-memtest86.html
This tutorial recommends running 7 passes,this can take a long time,personally I would only run it for 1 full pass 2 at most,but thats up to you.
 
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TheKeir

TheKeir

Bright Spark
vanthus said:
With 4GB of RAM you shouldn't be hitting 97% with the bare minimum of applications running,try running windows own memory diagnostic utility,to do this open the Control Panel (All Items View) select "Administrative Tools", then select "Windows Memory Diagnostic"
Or Open the Start menu, In the Start Menu search box, type mdsched and press Enter.
If this is showing anything amiss try one ram stick at a time to confirm if one might be the issue.
Alternatively run memtest,this performs a more thorough test,
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105647-ram-test-memtest86.html
This tutorial recommends running 7 passes,this can take a long time,personally I would only run it for 1 full pass 2 at most,but thats up to you.
Click to expand...
I've just finished the Windows Memory Diagnostic, and nothing was detected as being wrong.
I'll run memtest, though I suspect it'll be the same result.

Will keep you updated. Thanks for the help.
 
TheKeir

TheKeir

Bright Spark
I'm a bit confused as to what I need to do with memtest. I've installed the program on the USB stick and it asks me to "boot" it. How on earth is one supposed to boot a memory stick?!
 
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vanthus

vanthus

Member Resting in Peace
TheKeir said:
I'm a bit confused as to what I need to do with memtest. I've installed the program on the USB stick and it asks me to "boot" it. How on earth is one supposed to boot a memory stick?!
Click to expand...
You need to set USB as first boot in bios,if you don't have that option you will need to put the program on a CD/DVD.
 
TheKeir

TheKeir

Bright Spark
Memtest has finished, and has returned no errors. It says all 4GB are there and are fine.

Any advice now?
 
vanthus

vanthus

Member Resting in Peace
Couple of things to try.
In system configuration(type msconfig in search box),tick selective startup/click on startup tab/untick everything except antivirus program,or any other program you think you need running in the background.
Failing that have a look in event viewer,It's normal to have a lot of warnings & errors so best look at the event viewer immediately after the problem occurs,then check if anything is logged for that particular time.
Go to control panel(All control panel items)/performance information and tools/click advanced tools on the left hand side/view performance details in event log.
this will take you to diagnostics-performance & boot /shut down events,It may or may not give a clue to the problem,but worth a try.
If nothing obvious showing there,at the top of the tree on the left hand side,click on custom views/administrative events.
You might get more information that points to something by selecting details/Friendly & XML view,in the event viewer.you could also try selecting "event log online"at the bottom of the page.
 
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