Need Help With Heavy Memory Usage

[Schmactor]

Whenever my computer is running slow and I check the Task Manager, it seems that the CPU is hardly getting used at all, but the amount of memory being used by some applications is off the charts (between 20,000 and 50,000K per program). Is this normal? When I was using a Mac, it seemed it was the CPU that always got bogged down, but on my PC the CPU percentage never gets above 15 even when a ton of programs are running. Again, is this normal or is something amiss?

[-pops-]

Do you keep your computer permanently in a state of readiness, that is always plugged into the mains (or connected to the battery, if a laptop)?

If so, switch the machine off for an hour or so to allow all the electronics to discharge and try it again.

My thinking is that Windows is not releasing memory when you change or close a program so, what should be available to others is being hogged by non-used programs. (That may not be a technically correct explanation but, try out the suggestion and see if it works).

I had a problem with a computer, which I seldom switched off, a few weeks ago that became slower and slower until I carried out what I have suggested and it is now as good as new.

[cozofdeath]

The amounts of memory being taken are not really that high depending on how many and what is using the resources. A browser, malware scanners, games and multimedia applications can take 250K, 512K or even more. It actually sounds typical to me without knowing more about it. It could be something else slowing you down as well. Does this happen when you do something specific like access a drive (cd,dvd,floppy,usb) or when accessing certain files or programs?