Thinkpads Forum

Recently on my T400, I've noticed the ram usage always above 90%. Running Vista Business, 2gig ram. Any idea of how to check what's using almost all of it up? Is there a way to "release" this? I'm not too savvy on this type of thing, so any advice is appreciated.

For starters Vista is a bit of a RAM hog. Windows 7 is a lot better with 2GB of RAM than Vista is. Think of 2GB as the minimum you can run Vista with (this has been my experience). So really you have 2 options: upgrade to Windows 7 or get more RAM.

Press ctrl-alt-del and go into Task Manager.
Select the tab "Processes", then click on the Mem Usage column till you have the highest number at the top.
That tells you which program 'eats' your memory.
Do the same for the CPU column.

Thanks for the replies. I don't see a Memory Usage column in Task Manager, but a Memory Private Working Set column. Going into View then Select Columns, the only "usage" is CPU. Which Memory should I be looking at?

Never used Vista, I assumed they would have at least the same info as in XP.
Maybe they (Vista) have advanced options in TM?

I am running Vista on my R500 as I type this. In Task Manager under processes, there is a column entitled 'Memory (Private Working Set)'. If you click twice on the top of the column it will sort memory usage the way RBS describes.

A lot of RAM usage in Vista can be due to Superfetch, as it tends to use all the RAM you give it to prefetch programs it thinks you may want to run.

You can disable this service (in services.msc), that is not to say your performance will increase. It may actually decrease if Superfetch was doing a good job.

Still I have it disabled (I prefer to control my own destiny, instead of letting the OS handle it. ). I run a machine with Vista Ultimate 64bit. RAM usage at startup is about 1GB, and rarely goes above 2GB (I am not a heavy multi-tasker).

The task manager performance tab has a graph of physical memory usage and also shows the total memory, the amount cached (superfetch?), etc.

Why not install Windows 7 ? Runs much smoother, even on older machines.

Unless you're offering a free copy, I'm keeping Vista for a little while longer. Besides, I've never had a real problem until recently. It seems since an update from either Microsoft or Lenovo this has been happening. I'm also experiencing hangups on startup or restarts. I'll log in with a pass or finger swipe and then it will just hang. The cursor will still move, but nothing happens until I restart by pressing the power button.

Any ideas what to check? This is becoming a nuisance and a headache as this is a heavily used laptop for work.

Thank you,

Anyone have other suggestions?

Thank you,

Where are you looking to get your free memory? are you looking at the cached or free section of task manager? on my t61 with 3gb ram, I normally am using ~1.5gb, and another ~1.5gb is cached, with only 200mb of free memory. This does not affect performance, and my system flies (and gets >5hrs battery life).

Good luck

I'm not sure, again I'm a novice. But what I do know is that the consumption never was this high before. Recently I've noticed that it's almost always around 90-95% used. That's not where it should be....right? I'm at a loss as to what to do.

kduniverse wrote:...Recently I've noticed that it's almost always around 90-95% used. That's not where it should be....right?

Are you using the 32-bit or the 64-bit version of Vista?

90%-95% sounds reasonable for a computer that has Superfetch enabled. Even if your notebook uses only 950 MByte of RAM, Superfetch will fill up the rest of the RAM with programs it thinks you might want to use. To find out how much memory the operating system and the applications, that are currently running, really use, look at the performance tab in task manager: in the "Physical memory (MB)" section, add "Free" and "Cached". Subtract that sum from "Total". As dr_st said, you can disable Superfetch. I have disabled it on my notebook, because i don't like to wait for the computer to load a lot of programs that in the end i might not even use.

Also, start Windows Update and check whether it offers any updates. It might be that you need to agree to installation of some updates. You could also run ThinkVantage System Update and look what updates it offers. If it offers a BIOS update, don't update BIOS at the same time as drivers or programs. If you're using the 64-bit version of Vista, don't update BIOS by using ThinkVantage System Update, in that case you need to use the bootable CD method. I have never used ThinkVantage System Update to update BIOS, i update it manually instead. If you want to use ThinkVantage System Update to update BIOS, do so at your own risk. Some people claim that ThinkVantage System Update ruined their ThinkPads when updating BIOS.

Using 32bit Vista Business. Superfetch was already disabled...

In the Physical memory section, adding free 139 and catched 542 gives me 681. Subtracting that from the total of 1943 is 1262. What does this mean exactly?

All updates in Windows and ThinkVantage systems are up to date.

On a side note, someone mentioned upgrading to Win7. I have Win7 Ultimate x64. Am I able to use the 64bit on a Core 2 Duo T400? Maybe bypassing Vista altogether is the way to go. Are there any tutorials on doing this available or suggested reading? If this is the way to go, and it's possible, then I'm ready. I've had so many issues with Vista and this T400, I'd love a change...


Thanks in advance.

kduniverse wrote:In the Physical memory section, adding free 139 and catched 542 gives me 681. Subtracting that from the total of 1943 is 1262. What does this mean exactly?

I suppose i was mistaken with that calculation. After posting, i checked what "cached" in task manager means. According to Microsoft, it refers to the amount of physical memory used for system resources.

My notebook has 2 MB RAM and 32-bit Vista Business. After a fresh boot, it uses 1.00 GB of memory. At that point, task manager declares 584 MB to be free and 619 MB to be cached. This installation is the result of installing the OS from the restore partition, so it includes the Lenovo preloads, such as various ThinkVantage applications. In order to reduce memory use, i disabled the optional tablet pc components in control panel. With a few programs running, this notebook uses up to 1.93 GB of memory.

If you're considering Windows 7 Ultimate, remember that Microsoft doesn't offer any extended support for that version, they will support it until January 2015. Windows Vista Business, on the other hand, will receive extended support until April 2017.

Does that mean no updates for security, etc after that date?

Will I be able to run that on my setup? Any tutorials suggested for doing this?

kduniverse wrote:Does that mean no updates for security, etc after that date?

That's Microsoft's intention now. Microsoft considers Windows 7 Ultimate to be a consumer product. These products are supported for five years after first release to market. They might change their policy and extend the support of Windows 7 Ultimate, but i doubt they will. And i wouldn't count on it.

kduniverse wrote:Will I be able to run that on my setup?

A Core 2 Duo T400 is capable of running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.

kduniverse wrote:Any tutorials suggested for doing this?

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-74108
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... =WIN7-HOME
The ThinkVantage Access Help user's guide might also have information on installing an operation system.

Thanks for your help, TTY. It's appreciated.

Other than backing up what I'd like to keep, is it necessary to keep a small partition for recovery, etc?

You should burn recovery media for the original operating system. You'll need them in order to restore the notebook to factory state if you want to sell the notebook later on. Start > all programs > ThinkVantage > Create recovery media. You should also back-up the install files for utilities such as the DVD-burning program. I seem to remember that the on-board user's guide Access Help has info on how to do this.

Already have recovery disks for vista, and no plans on selling. What do I need to do in order to install win7 though? I have additional partitions now, do I need to keep those? The service partition?

Looking through my disks, I noticed I don't have Vista recovery, only XP. I made a Start up disk for Vista, but can't figure out how to make the whole set like I have with Vista. Am I doing something wrong?