Computer problem.

[masscity]

Need help from you computer gurus. I've had a desktop computer since 1997 and should know more than I do. I have nothing stored on my C-drive, but as soon as I open a browser or my email it will go up to 100% usage. With just my task manager open, my memory will show 11 gb of usage.

I had windows defender and ran it on my whole computer, then only C-drive and it would stop at about 95% and quit.

I disabled windows defender and downloaded TotalAV, I ran it on the whole computer and then C-drive, it worked, but found nothing.

This use to happen once in a while for a short period, but not like this.

I don't know, but I'm thinking that my C-drive is just failing on me.

Thanks for any help.

 

[drssg]

Are you saying that you've had THIS computer since 1997? If so, that's amazing.

I'd say it's fairly normal for any older computer to start chugging away just from regular system updates. I would let it stay powered on for a while, and see if it eventually settles down.

The drive could be ready to fail, but if you don't store anything critical on it, then I don't see much risk.

 

[LittleBill21]

you need to check SMART, the raid indication is a slight concern, what kind of computer is this, are you actually running raid? why is disk 1 an ssd, but not 0 where the os lives?

if its a ssd, need to check wear as well

run this

CrystalDiskMark

About CrystalDiskMark CrystalDiskMark is a simple disk benchmark software. Download Standard Edition Aoi Edition Shizuku Edition System Requirements OS Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10/11Windows Server 2003/2008/2012/2016/2019/2022/2025 Architecture x86/x64/ARM64 Key Features Important Notice -> FAQ U...

crystalmark.info

 

[Roadworthy]

If you've had that computer since 1997 I have serious doubts it is able to run Windows 11 and it should not have been able to complete the "upgrade". For that matter I'm not sure Dell was even making computers in 1997 and unless you've added the SSD more recently it's really confusing as there was no SSD in 1997.

 

[scootr]

Dude, buy a new computer every 20 years.
Technology has made significant advancements

 

[LittleBill21]

wish i could down vote people, he said he's "USED" computers since 97, the computer in the OP if anyone cared to read, is clearly not from 1997

 

[duffer]

To me, it sounds like you might have a corrupt file(s) in your windows opps system, or even malware.

Try these:

1. in the search field (task bar) for windows, type: cmd
2. then type: sfc /scannow

Then try:

1. chkdsk /r
2. restart your PC.
3. It will perform check disk, and repair issues, but will take a little while.

After that's done:

1. download Bleachbit software (free)
2. Clean Your System and Free Disk Space | BleachBit
3. Run Bleachbit daily to keep unnecessary files from cloggy up PC

If none of those help...you may have a bigger problem, like Malware.
I use this to keep Malware out: Official Site | Malwarebytes: Antivirus, Anti-Malware & Privacy

Good luck, and let us know if you get it working properly.

 

[scootr]

wish i could down vote people, he said he's "USED" computers since 97, the computer in the OP if anyone cared to read, is clearly not from 1997

My bad, Speed reading as charged, ...

 

[alexpops]

How many browser windows do you keep open? Is your e-mail web-mail? I'm guessing you are writing to a swap disk (to extend ram) and you are running out of space/incorrectly configured/corrupted portions of the HDD. 1st step would be to do a disk cleanup as outlined above. Next (if it were me) replace the Hdd C drive with SSD & do a clean install of windows. If you are up to it, upgrade the RAM to the max your system will take (but you may need to upgrade from Windows Home to a better version to fully access it).

 

[kenmbz]

Check if OneDrive is enabled and has run out of the space MS gives you in the cloud and could cause this issue. (little cloud icon on taskbar).

This system has a hard disk and an SSD, HD for OS and SSD for data.
Maybe HD is running out of space?

Take a look at disk space to see if at least 10% free on C: and D: (or in this case the RAID combined drive, not sure how file explorer will show this.

Can you screenshot from File Explorer and show "This PC" highlighted, which will give disk space.

According to the first screen you installed this OS version on 1/25, so could just be doing a massive update, those can be pretty intrusive and take a while.

 

[LittleBill21]

How many browser windows do you keep open? Is your e-mail web-mail? I'm guessing you are writing to a swap disk (to extend ram) and you are running out of space/incorrectly configured/corrupted portions of the HDD. 1st step would be to do a disk cleanup as outlined above. Next (if it were me) replace the Hdd C drive with SSD & do a clean install of windows. If you are up to it, upgrade the RAM to the max your system will take (but you may need to upgrade from Windows Home to a better version to fully access it).

no normal user needs more then 32gb of ram, i open 50+ on my system and never break 15, he's at 35%, your just wasting his money

 

[alexpops]

I'm running a terrible Dell system with 64 gb of ram & Windows Pro. I am always at 50% ram useage with a few browser windows open & Outlook. goes way up if I actually want to do something real on the system. My main computers for work are all workstations or servers with significantly more ram, raid SSDs and raid HDD for backup/archiving. the programmers are lazy and don't write code like they used to ... 1MM lines of code is considered acceptable where 1000 lines could get the job done since RAM is cheap compared to 40 years ago.

 

[LittleBill21]

I'm running a terrible Dell system with 64 gb of ram & Windows Pro. I am always at 50% ram useage with a few browser windows open & Outlook. goes way up if I actually want to do something real on the system. My main computers for work are all workstations or servers with significantly more ram, raid SSDs and raid HDD for backup/archiving. the programmers are lazy and don't write code like they used to ... 1MM lines of code is considered acceptable where 1000 lines could get the job done since RAM is cheap compared to 40 years ago.

then format it and start over, unless your hitting the page file, caching is normal,

not sure your point about servers, those are designed for different workloads.

 

[kenmbz]

I'm running a terrible Dell system with 64 gb of ram & Windows Pro. I am always at 50% ram useage with a few browser windows open & Outlook. goes way up if I actually want to do something real on the system. My main computers for work are all workstations or servers with significantly more ram, raid SSDs and raid HDD for backup/archiving. the programmers are lazy and don't write code like they used to ... 1MM lines of code is considered acceptable where 1000 lines could get the job done since RAM is cheap compared to 40 years ago.

Running low on free disk space will load up Ram.

I run 2 computers with 16GB, including my one for work, using large spreadsheets, Teams, Outlook and lots of open browser windows.

I do find some web sites have memory leaks (TBN is one of them on Firefox). So I do restart Firefox every few days on my home laptop

Something is wrong with your Dell build Alex. One of my machines is Dell (2020), the other Lenovo (2022).

Also don't forget Real Raid uses more memory as a buffer.

I believe the OPs machine uses Hybrid Raid for speed. HD and SSD are really just separate partitions acting as OS and Data split, not much memory overhead.

 

[masscity]

Yes you're right, it would be tough putting 32 gb of ram, 64 bit operating system and windows 11 on a 1997 Dell desktop.

My first desktop was a 1997 Dell 286 processer (ram, don't remember) and 40 mb hard drive. This is probably my 6th or 7th

desktop computer. This desktop computer is a 3 year old Dell.

I do not store anything on my hard drive, I use thumb drives. The reason I have 32 gb of ram is that I might have anywhere

from 20 to 60 windows open at any one time. In some instances I have used up to 25 gb of ram.

I am not downloading any apps, not running any apps. C-drive is just nuts. Of course it's slow as hell, like not having

enough ram.

I ran check disk from C-drive properties-check disk, no problems. I ran every option on my TotalAV and nothing.

Now with this problem, in the one picture I only have the task manager open, but it is using 11 gb of ram. Normally when I

turn on my computer and have one window open and the task manager it will show about 5.7 gb of ram used.

In the other picture where C-drive is 100% utilized I only had the task manager and one browser open.

I think my next step is to replace my hard drive with a new Dell drive.

Thanks.

 

[etpm]

Years ago I had a similar problem, albeit on an older machine. The computer got real slow and my C drive was shown as full, though I knew it wasn't nearly full. After backing everything up I formatted the C drive. After the format it showed virtually empty, as it should. After saving one text file it was full again. A new hard drive fixed the problem.
Eric

 

[Oaktree]

Something that hasn't been mentioned yet is that one of the hidden system files (page swap file) has kind of gone into runaway mode. Have seen it happen a few times with Win 7, not sure about newer versions. Try running spacesniffer...it will show you the size of every file on the drive, maybe that'll shine some light on this.

 

[BravoXray]

One screen shows the CPU is an Intel Core i9-10900 with 32 GB of RAM. that was not built in 1999.

 

[masscity]

Ok problem solved. Went to buy a new hard drive from Dell, he said why not talk to Dell techs first. No cost to talk to them, but for a diagnosis it's $99.00.

It took two techs and some time, but they figured it out. I had a new hard drive installed a couple of years ago by a contracted company working for Dell.

He installed my hard drive backwards, It looks like windows was installed on C-drive (512 gb) and storage was D-drive (2 tb), but they were installed in the wrong positions.

D-drive was in the first position and C-drive was in the second position. Look at the thumb on post #15.

You Gurus will know why that's a problem.

Edit: I just looked at my D-drive (2 tb) 2nd position and it's empty. The contractor tech must have installed windows on D-drive (2 tb) too, which is why the computer would still operate, but very slow at times.

All I know is that my computer is completely normal and nothing is slowing it down anymore.

 

[Oaktree]

He installed my hard drive backwards, It looks like windows was installed on C-drive (512 gb) and storage was D-drive (2 tb), but they were installed in the wrong positions.

D-drive was in the first position and C-drive was in the second position. Look at the thumb on post #15.

You Gurus will know why that's a problem.

So which drive had the OS on it, C or D? Both are labeled as the OS drive in the screenshot you posted.
I've never had an issue with which drive was in what physical position, can't say I've ever installed the OS on D so I don't know how that would work.