Memory trouble (Leak? - Windows 10/i7/1080ti)

teleriel · 5 Feb 2018 at 11:52

Hi everyone,

A few months ago I bought a bundle on OCUK with i7 7700k, 32gb of DDR4, and 1080ti graphics. This was somewhat costly, so I'm a little irate at the amount of trouble I'm having with it which may extend to the RAM -

- Ever since installing windows (M2 SSD) it has had the tendency to gather fluff in the RAM usage, task manager shows me what's running but the total RAM usage doesn't add up to the % being used (See below image)

I also get the same issue if I change tab to the "users" tab in task manager - I'm the only active user, but at the same time it says I'm using 3gb of memory, where 3gb is 35% (It definitely isn't 35% of 32gb, obviously).

This amount increases over time, and the longer I leave the PC on the more pronounced it becomes. After 1 day, it goes from a rather usual 10% used to 30%, after 2 days from 30% to 40%, and so on. It increases all the way to 99% if left on long enough, which obviously stops it running anything productively (Though i notice a drastic slowdown at anything above 60% usage)

I noticed when running Speccy that the software couldn't figure out what type of RAM the PC is using, though I don't know if this is unusual. The RAM also seems to have a very slow clock speed compared to what I'm used to? But again, not sure if this is usual for DDR4.

I'd like some advice as to what to do - Do I need to try new RAM? Do I need to try something else? I've already had to send the computer back once for a different problem, and this one has persisted despite that (OCUK replaced many components after the other problem, but the RAM issue is still the same.. coincidence?)

Sorry for the long post, not really sure where to turn, hoping the forums will have some useful advice!

harvey.l12 · 5 Feb 2018 at 14:14

How much RAM does your BIOS say you have and have you set the XMP profiles for the RAM? within the BIOS.

Caracus2k · 13 Mar 2018 at 15:27

What you describe (which is consistent with a memory leak) is almost certainly the result of a software issue. Make sure all your programs are fully up to date (Chrome had a memory leak issue a while back) and maybe try selectively disabling programs to see if this resolves the issue otherwise.

Check the latest version of cpu-z to see whether it identifies your memory correctly

Your memory appears to be running a 2400Mhz (ddr is double data rate) with programs often quoting the un doubled figure (just under 1200 in you case)

Bugbait · 14 Mar 2018 at 11:12

Caracus2k said:
What you describe (which is consistent with a memory leak) is almost certainly the result of a software issue.

Totally agree with this. A hardware memory fault will manifest as the OS and/or application freezing, crashing or trapped errors. It's never subtle since the software assumes the hardware is working and won't know how to handle an fault with the memory. Hardware incompatibility with the RAM will display the same symptoms as a hardware fault.

DarkBahamut · 14 Mar 2018 at 22:03

This has been bumped a bit!

The real issue is almost certainly this statement:

teleriel said:
I'm the only active user

Which isn't true because your 'User' account doesn't run all the processes. Since 'SYSTEM' will be running many and they don't count under your user account usage, and some RAM usage isn't from processes at all (kernel memory, NTFS metadata, etc)

I'd put money on that system not having a memory leak. Just an oversight on understanding how task manager displays memory usage.

mrbazmondo · 15 Mar 2018 at 10:08

What happens if you close all the user programs? Does the user usage go down to something similar to the usage just after login?
I've experienced some badly written web pages that constantly leak memory before if you just leave them. One I noticed because the individual page was consuming 7G.
If you press shift-Esc in Chrome you'll see its task manager where you can which pages are using the most memory.

Pocah · 30 Mar 2018 at 21:17

This is not a hardware issue and not the fault of OCUK. It is certainly a problem with some of the software you are running ~ and that includes drivers. I would immediately go out and buy an intel network adapter and switch the Killer off in the BIOS. Killer are pretty much known for memory leaks.