wasn't sure where to put this thread but I need help. I recently built a new PC, I use it for gaming. I have 1GB of RAM as of yet but it always seems to be at around 36% usage when my PC is doing nothing (obviously increasing when I play games etc.) I also get a "Page fault in non paged area" problem. Is my RAM faulty? I'm going to order an extra gig soon anyway but will I be able to add to my 1GB or have to replace? thanks in advance. Dave
i wouldn't be concerned about your system using your memory (that's what it's there for[!]) but the BSODs are a cause for concern. grab yourself a copy of memtest86 (you should be able to run it off the Ultimate Boot CD) and run a few iterations of the tests. If that fails, it's either your memory that's faulty or the motherboard. but don't expect that to 'solve' your memory usage 'problem' - memory is there to be used and your system will happily load it's active applications there (even if idle) rather than page on and off the HDD (which will be hideiously slow).
For a better understanding of the page fault errors, try running a memory-testing program. Either try Memtest86, which is very powerful, or something like this little guy: http://hcidesign.com/memtest/, which isn't as full-featured or quite as accurate but runs within Windows. Let those programs run for as long as you can, hopefully on the order of 24 hours. If the RAM is running at stock speeds and working correctly, you shouldn't see any errors (incidentally, if it's not at stock speeds and you see errors, slow it down). If there are no errors in the memory test, it might be a driver problem but it's not a RAM issue. As for the 36% usage at idle, what's the problem? Did you buy all that shiny RAM so you could look at it? If you don't want the OS to fill it up you might as well leave it on your desk. I understand that you want the extra to be available and free for your games to use, not running your OS and background tasks, but thankfully modern operating systems are quite good at handling that. They'll put as much as they feel like in your RAM, which helps system performance and responsiveness, then as soon as something big like a game gets going they'll shuffle all the stuff you aren't using any more off to the page file and let you use as much RAM as you can for the game. EDIT: Beaten by five whole minutes. I lose.
fair enough, thanks for the help guys. I just thought that when left to do nothing RAM wouldn't be used up (like my old PC) but I was more concerned seeing as I've never seen a number lower than 36%. I will try a mem test when I have some time (damn A Levels)
I agree with the above answers, but one extra thing that can make a bit of difference is the programs loading on start-up, so use 'msconfig' or a Startup Manager to see if there are any you can safely disable. A lot of programs like Acrobat and Office install a pre-loader, which shaves a few milliseconds off load time but just slows boot time and wastes RAM if you don't use them every day.
Re the BSODs; what's the error message you get when it blue screens? What are the system specs? I had a problem when I first upgraded my XP2500 system in that I had terrible system stability when I was running the RAM at it's rated speed and the processor at the default FSB. The RAM was DDR 400 and the FSB was 333. The system couldn't handle it, so I had to de-rate the RAM to 333. Been rock steady since. Andy
If the bsods are performing physical memory dumps it is most likely going to be your ram, I had this with my new rig and my old one too.
