Windows 10 computer with 8GB ram only using 4GB and then slowing down

[oldcarguy]

I have an HP laptop with Windows 10 PRO , 64  bit

 

it has 8GB ram , but only uses 4GB and then slows to a crawl ,

 

much of the ram is used by FireFox  which seems to be 32bit , ( I always have  too many windows + tabs open)

 

How do I get FireFox or any other program to use the extra 4GB memoey

 

it has a 256 SSD , can I use some of the SSD as a Virtual hard drive ?

 

Thanks for your ideas

[katana]

From Firefox's Menu Bar>Help>About Firefox .... will show you if you're using 32 or 64 bit Firefox.

If you really are using 32 bit, you'd be better off using 64 bit Firefox on a 64 bit operating system.

When you go to the Firefox website, it usually recognises your operating system and directs you to the correct 64 bit download.

That said, Firefox can be RAM-hungry, especially if using lots of Tabs, forcing you to restart it periodically.

 

5 minutes ago, oldcarguy said:

it has 8GB ram , but only uses 4GB

So only 4 GB of the installed 8GB are recognised by Win 10? Or 8GB are recognised?

[oldcarguy]

windows 10 sees the whole 8GB  , but only uses 4GB

[onthesoi]

On a hardware level,

If PC is slow its because you have a bottleneck somewhere,

The component causing the bottleneck will be running at full capacity, 100%

If only 50% of RAM is being used then it's not RAM.

Time to check other components!

 

How much cpu is being used in taskmanager?

[Jingthing]

I've had serious slow down problems on a low end Windows 10 laptop and found this free program a magical fix --

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/advanced_systemcare_10.html

I don't use the defrag though.

It includes a tool where you can free up RAM on the fly whenever you want called Performance Monitor.

Edited June 30, 2017 by Jingthing

[oldcarguy]

How much cpu is being used in taskmanager?  - 20%-30%

 

From task manager

 

memory 49%-50% 

3.5 GB used 3.4GB available

 committed 4.6gb/11.8GB

hardware reserved  1.1 GB

3.3 GB cached

 

351 MB  paged pool

124 MB  non-paged pool

 

 

[JamJar]

Back up your data and run a clean install of Windows 10 64bit

[onthesoi]

1 hour ago, oldcarguy said:

How much cpu is being used in taskmanager?  - 20%-30%

 

From task manager

 

memory 49%-50% 

3.5 GB used 3.4GB available

 committed 4.6gb/11.8GB

hardware reserved  1.1 GB

3.3 GB cached

 

351 MB  paged pool

124 MB  non-paged pool

 

 

When you say your pc is running slow what exactly do you mean, web pages taking ages to load or?

[oldcarguy]

takes a long time to load  or update ,

freezes when I am writing an email on gmail website , but not if I write it on a desktop text file and cut and past it over ,

 

I am sure its Firefox and all the windows + tabs I have open ,  but since I have 3GB more memory I am trying to figure out how Firefox can access that memory ,

 

I have only had this laptop for 3-4 months since new  , and with an SSD should be real fast......

[shady86]

Try link below. Most probably can fix your problem.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/978610/the-usable-memory-may-be-less-than-the-installed-memory-on-windows-7-b

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

[impulse]

I had a similar problem on an Acer Netbook and it turned out to be the CPU slowing itself down to 5-10% of maximum clock speed as if it was overheating.

 

I installed some CPU and HD temp monitoring software and it shows no temperature issues so I suspect it's a mainboard problem and the $300 computer isn't worth the time to track it down and fix it.  That's after spending too many hours on fruitless Google searching.

 

Strangely, it only happened when I was downloading a bunch from the interweb.  So that Netbook is relegated to a traveling video player.

 

FYI, I found the issue using Windows Resource Monitor and watched the CPU % Maximum Frequency graph. It would start dropping from 110% and the computer locked up when it got down below 20%.

 

Edit, BTW:  Had a Dell laptop at work do the same and it was actually overheating.  Cleaned the dust bunnies out of the fan and it worked fine.  The Acer Netbook has no fan.

 

Edited July 1, 2017 by impulse

[oldcarguy]

how do I find out what is in the " 3.3 GB cached "   and if its needed or I can delete it ?

 

that seems to be where much of the "missing" GB is hiding !

[RichCor]

Suggest you open TASK MANAGER (by right-clicking the TaskBar and selecting "Task Manager"

>> Open the PERFORMANCE (tab) and select MEMORY.

 

Then click on the "Open Resource Monitor" link at the bottom of the Task Manager window.

>> Open the MEMORY (tab)

 

This will show you how your physical memory is currently being utilized.

 

   

(click to enlarge)

 

...also, 'caching' usually refers to using fast memory (RAM) to store slow memory data (eg: Hard Drive data, or recently referenced OS or application code or data).  The operating system will utilize or release available RAM as needed. 

 

[dave_boo]

FWIW, on my Windows 8.1 gaming pc if I try to launch Steam games while utorrent is running Windows will freak out and close the game and Steam (Steam sitting there downloading is not a problem).  Closing utorrent fixes the 'out of memory' error.  Funny thing is that it peaks up to 4.6 GB (out of 8) when that happens.  It's just Windows being Windows I guess.

[dave_boo]

Addendum:

 

I reenabled the swap partition and set it to a min/max of 4 GB and my problem seems to be resolved. Perhaps the OP should look into that?

[RichCor]

On 7/1/2017 at 1:00 AM, oldcarguy said:

I have an HP laptop with Windows 10 PRO , 64  bit; it has 8GB ram , but only uses 4GB and then slows to a crawl ,

much of the ram is used by FireFox  which seems to be 32bit

...

How do I get FireFox or any other program to use the extra 4GB memoey

@oldcarguy:  Direct from Mozilla themselves:

 

Firefox 64-bit for Windows can take advantage of more memory

Notes on Firefox, MemShrink, JavaScript, and more

blog.mozilla.org  |  Nicholas Nethercote  |  Posted on July 22, 2016

 

By default, on Windows, Firefox is a 32-bit application. This means that it is limited to using at most 4 GiB of memory, even on machines that have more than 4 GiB of physical memory (RAM). In fact, depending on the OS configuration, the limit may be as low as 2 GiB.

 

...there is a solution to this problem available to anyone using a 64-bit version of Windows:
    use a 64-bit version of Firefox.

 

 

How to switch to a 64-bit Firefox on Windows

blog.mozilla.org | Nicholas Nethercote | Posted on July 29, 2016

 

I recently wrote about 64-bit Firefox builds on Windows, explaining why you might want to switch — it can reduce the likelihood of out-of-memory crashes — and also some caveats.

However, I didn’t explain how to switch, so I will do that now.

[oldcarguy]

9 hours ago, dave_boo said:

Addendum:

 

I reenabled the swap partition and set it to a min/max of 4 GB and my problem seems to be resolved. Perhaps the OP should look into that?

How would I do that ?

 

I will give it a try

 

 

[oldcarguy]

8 hours ago, RichCor said:

@oldcarguy:  Direct from Mozilla themselves:

 

Firefox 64-bit for Windows can take advantage of more memory

Notes on Firefox, MemShrink, JavaScript, and more

blog.mozilla.org  |  Nicholas Nethercote  |  Posted on July 22, 2016

 

By default, on Windows, Firefox is a 32-bit application. This means that it is limited to using at most 4 GiB of memory, even on machines that have more than 4 GiB of physical memory (RAM). In fact, depending on the OS configuration, the limit may be as low as 2 GiB.

 

...there is a solution to this problem available to anyone using a 64-bit version of Windows:
    use a 64-bit version of Firefox.

 

 

How to switch to a 64-bit Firefox on Windows

blog.mozilla.org | Nicholas Nethercote | Posted on July 29, 2016

 

I recently wrote about 64-bit Firefox builds on Windows, explaining why you might want to switch — it can reduce the likelihood of out-of-memory crashes — and also some caveats.

However, I didn’t explain how to switch, so I will do that now.

 

OHHH even better........I will chase down that post and do it , as long as I do not lose my bookmarks I will be a Happy Camper  :)

 

Happy 4th of July !

[dave_boo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkHjRKFUnNc

[oldcarguy]

Hi

 

I  changed Firefox to 64 bit and now it accesses all of the memory ,

 

before it would stop at 50% , now it goes higher , it is 81% right now and might go higher

 

Thanks for all your advise

Edited July 5, 2017 by oldcarguy