[lbcherokee]

I have 512MB of physical memory on my computer. At the moment, System Information says I have 100.38MB available. 30 minutes ago I had 170 Mb. Several minutes from now it may say 270MB. This happens all the time. I can check it when I first sign on and it's very low. I don't even have to do anything. I do a lot of graphics and photographic work on the computer. I've saved all my photos to CDs so they won't take up space and only open ones I want to work on. This does not seem to help.

[Advertisements]

Are you sure the memory use isn't changing instead of the amount of memory?

[emery]

Are you sure the memory use isn't changing instead of the amount of memory?

[lbcherokee]

Not sure what you mean. On System Info window, Available Physical Memory now says 125.0 MB. All I did was restart the computer and open MSN. The available memory amt changes constantly even when I am not doing any work at all. I don't understand what is going on. It seems to me that everytime I have to download a new XP patch or security fix, I use up more memory. There doesn't appear to be enough left to actually do any work. For the past 2 days I haven't been able to print out any graphic project.

[emery]

When you open task manager (ctrl+alt+del), are there lots of processes running under the processes tab?

[gerryf]

available system memory is not the same as total physical memory

Sysinfo is telling you that windows and apps are using the memory and that is all the physical memory you have left

[lbcherokee]

Yes - a whole lot

[emery]

how many? like more than 30? 40?

[lbcherokee]

55

[emery]

Thats's a little above avarage. Open up your task manager with your process list and start from the top by googling every .exe in your list and see if you can delete it. If you find a suspicious one, like one that might be a virus or trojan, I'll redirect you to another part of these forums where experts will help you get rid of the possible infections.

[lbcherokee]

That took awhile. I found a few I can apparently take out. A lot of them are part of my Verizon DSL and graphic programs. I found a lot that are part of Microsoft operating system but can also be Trojans. One is definitely listed as Spyware. Several are part of my Norton Antivirus system. I have Tuneup Utilities which I just added per a recommendation from one of your colleagues.

[emery]

Tune up is indeed a very good program. Do you have any antispyware scanners installed on your machine?

[lbcherokee]

I have Spyware Doctor. I think MSN supposedly has something included but I'm not sure what.

[emery]

Do you have MSN Plus! installed on your machine? run spyware doctor and your antivirus program and let me know if they find any malware/viruses.

[gerryf]

OK Emery, I've got to step in here....we do not do malware removal in this forum, but instead direct them to the malware forum if we suspect it.

Helps keep things tidy

If you suspect something, or if you want to see what processes are running, you can ask someone to ATTACH a hijackthis log to a post but always direct them to the malware forum if you see something, ok?

In fact, it might be a good idea if you do attach a hijackthis log right now,lbcherokee, just so we can get a better handle on what is running in there. Not all system slowdown issues are related to malware

[emery]

Gerry, if lbcherokee would have told me he found malware on his system, I would have sent him to the malware forum. I was not planning to solve his problem myself if it would be malware related.