80% RAM Usage … Why?
January 10, 2010 Featured, Technology
Shortly after the release of Windows 7, I upgraded my Acer AspireOne netbook and have enjoyed the incredibly beautiful Operating System without too many headaches. This seems to have changed since the new year, though, as I’m starting to get a number of Blue Screens of Death whenever the network is transferring large files.
Typically when Windows gives us a BSoD (Blue Screen of Death) during a network operation, it means that the network driver has some problems. In my case, I’m using an Atheros AR5007EG. The installed driver is dated October 5th, 2009, and it’s the most recent one I’ve been able to find. I’ve tried older versions from the Atheros site, as well as the working Windows XP driver with disasterous results … Blue Screens 10 minutes after a reboot with no sustained network activity. Alas, as this driver comes directly from Microsoft, it is probably the best one for this particular wireless network card.
So what else could it be?
Other times when I’ve received BSoD’s in Windows XP, it was because the system either over-heated, had a bad video driver, or hit a bad sector of memory. I’ve checked the heat, and the system seems to be running cooler than it did in WinXP. The video shouldn’t really be a problem as I’m able to watch full screen DivX-encoded movies that border on 3 hours without so much as a hiccup. So could I have had some bad RAM right from the factory?
After running some memory tests on the machine, everything passed with flying colors. There is one rather big difference between Windows XP and Windows 7 when it comes to memory usage, though: Win7 is a pig.
Very rarely would Windows XP consume more than 740 MB RAM. Even then, I would need to have several rather large Word and Excel files open in addition to Outlook, Opera would need a dozen tabs with graphic-intensive sites, Visual Studio 2005 would need to be running an emulator, and Adobe Air would be sucking up resources for a Twitter client. All at the same time, on a netbook. That will use 740 MB RAM.
How about Windows 7? Well … after a fresh restart, I’m sitting at 844 MB in use … with no applications open.
We all know that Microsoft’s newer pieces of software consume resources like it’s going out of style, but is this excessive amount of consumed memory normal? No wonder I run into trouble with Outlook 2007 and a host of other applications when I’m trying to do silly stuff like actual work.
I’ve been using tools like O&O’s CleverCache for years to help manage system resources better, but they seem to be ill equipped to work with such meager hardware. Perhaps Windows 7 Ultimate is too much for such a puny system, but no other version of Windows will let me switch the language to something readable!
If Windows 7 had been troublesome right from the get-go, this would be less of a problem for me. I would have just put the OS on my wife’s computer and called it day. However, the darn thing worked just great for months before becoming about as reliable as WinXP before the first Service Pack was released.
I’m not sure if I should try to re-install the OS or go back to XP until it’s time to upgrade computers again….
Has anyone else had a similar problem with Windows 7 on a netbook? I love the new OS, but I hate the drastically reduced performance and reliability (and excessive resource consumption, of course).
Comments (2)
I’m still using windows XP on my work and home desktop work horses. Might finally make the upgrade wot windows 7 this year, hopefully with not much headache.
After finally getting that desktop system re-built, I thought you’d leave it be for a year or so … or at least until you got tired of it
I’m sure you won’t have this kind of problem. That said, the more RAM you can stuff into your systems, the better.