Been having some odd issues with my computer the last few days and I am out of ideas.

Windows 10 on a custom built PC. Over the last several days I have been having a issue with high memory usage and "low memory" errors with my screen saver being froze and not being able to do much of anything other than a hard reboot to get it usable again.

I don't seem to have any issues while I'm using it, I can spend hours on end gaming or doing anything else and all seems fine, but sitting idle for several hours or overnight with just the screen saver running, I will come back to a froze screen saver and a low memory error with memory usage at 80-90%, and twice now with only one of my two monitors working.

I have run antivirus, Avast free, and Malwarebytes several times and aside from one anomaly with the antivirus boot scan, everything comes up clean. I have not added or done anything new in several months so I know it's not.... shouldn't.... be anything virus or malware/spyware related. That and I've been doing things long enough to know better anyway.

So now after several days of scratching my head and googling being useless, I'm pretty much down to wiping everything and starting fresh. The part I am not looking forward to is having to reinstall all my "stuff" afterwards. I have a backup of everything important, but even with that it still takes me over a week screwing around getting everything back and set up and working again. Most of which revolves around getting my games working again with Steam and Vortex mods and such and getting my backup software configured properly again.

I even had the thought of trying a in place upgrade to Windows 11... custom Rufis install... as a possible way to lessen the headache, but I just can't talk myself into using 11.

For now I can just shut it off when I'm not using it, but the only issue with that would be with my backup software as it runs overnight on Sundays, but I can just run that manually for now.

Yeah I am not a happy camper at the moment lol

Yup, 2014 for me. I got so tired of dealing with Windoze, I reformatted that 1 year old Dell, and gave it away to the elderly neighbor across the street. I bought a Mac Mini, 2012 version, new, and was able to take it apart, upgrade the RAM to 16Gb myself, then add a dual SSD. Never had a single issue with that PC and when they came out with the M1 mini, I upgraded because my old one would no longer support their latest OS.

I’m buying the new M4 version this coming week or next for my studio. The $999 M4 (Pro is overkill) with 512Gb SSD and you get 24Gb of RAM. Very powerful PC, small/compact, and the same price as a damn phone. Mac shit just works.

Before the rest of the "I hate Microsoft" rats come out of the woodwork let me tell you what is happening.
First, it is not a Microsoft OS specific issue.
It is a memory "leak" issue caused by a particular software or device.
These are not always necessarily easy to diagnose, but can be by a systematic disabling start-up programs, reading the event viewer messages and correcting the affliction.
Generally it can be alleviated by a reboot or disabling start ups one by one until solved.
However, sometimes just reinstalling can be the quickest and least painful method to solve.
Good Luck.

I might suggest running something that Nicky (0-0) introduced me to years back - CrapCleaner (now known as CCleaner) before going full reinstall.

The free version https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/download does everything you would need. I'd suggest having it get rid of junk files, check registry for errors, and show you the programs that your Windows currently has been configured to run every time it boots.

With some luck, you may be able to get your system back on an even keel without needing to reinstall. Here's hoping.

I forgot about CCleaner, thanks.

As far as startup stuff goes, I don't really have much. Nothing has changed on that end in quite a while.

That's what is really bugging me is nothing has been changed recently as far as new downloads or installs. It literally to current issue overnight. Has been running with no issues at all as of Wednesday to issues When I got home Thursday night.

Looking through error logs and all I could find was a entry about virtual memory but looking at those settings, it is already set way above the recommended level for the 32 gigs of physical memory. I'm still playing with things as I really would like to figure this out, but for the moment anyway I'm still scratching my head.

Not fond of screen savers, any and none. Power off the screen and turn it back on when needed.

Edit your Start Up to your convenience, not MS or third parties. Pre-loading programs you will rarely use is a waste of resources and isn’t saving you any time.

Less is more.


Another programs i keep handy are Superantispyware (instead or first opinion before Mbytes) and Privazer. Both free and harmless as far as my personal experience.
I run CCleaner first thing when browsers misbehave, plus another bunch of things. Great software



0-0

^^^ Nicky is right about the screensavers, I have seen similar issues the OP stated and they revolve around video (graphics drives, programs or plugins).
FWIW, the CCleaner mentioned is good and there is a page that assists in the startups configuration.
Most won't go through the process to fix startups as it can be quite tedious, IT guys will as we are use to the routine.
It kind f makes reinstalling the lesser of evils aka work involved.

Thanks for the suggestions all.
On a new, more interesting note, as of Monday night into Tuesday and now Wednesday, everything seems to be working normally again.... and I'm still not 100% positive what the actual cause was or what I actually did or may have done to fix it tho lol

What I did as of Sunday was run sfc /scannow, which said it found and repaired three files, no idea which files... and also my VPN was no longer working for the last several days some reason and I spent easily a hour or so on chat with them trying to get it to reinstall and work again. It is reinstalled and working again

I don't know if whatever the scannow fixed was the issue or maybe the VPN doing something funky, or if whatever the problem was is what broke the VPN.... I have no idea.

But as of today everything seems to be back to normal and I am no longer contemplating the reinstall of Windows