HD exploring causes 1.1 GB lost memory?

[KnickNut3]

Hello. A very weird thing started happening to me last night. As soon as I start exploring my hard drive, my computer goes nuts. My 350MB free RAM of my 512MB almost immediately goes to 0, and my paging file is suddenly using 764MB worth. When I haven't even selected anything yet, my computer randomly uses 1.1GB of RAM for no apparent reason. My computer grinds away at seemingly nothing, and I have to wait a minute for it to stop and get my memory back, only to lose it again.

I've defragged and rebooted several times. I've run other basic tests and I've checked Windows Task Manager, and I haven't found anything. I haven't had the opportunity to see if this happens when I run certain other programs, but doing the internet right now causes me no trouble.

Any suggestions? I can't explore my hard drive any more with all these difficulties. Thanks for the help.

 

[Y23KC]

Which Windows version are you using? You could try to do a repair by installing windows over your current setup so it replaces all the windows files with the originals and keeps all your current data. Or else you could do a clean install. Otherwise, this is definately strange.

 

[KnickNut3]

Windows XP. Yeah, it seems very strange. I haven't installed anything new, either.

 

[Slappy00]

Do you have your...dammnit i forgot what it was called.... thingie that windows uses when you runout memory physical memory...err uhh... virtual memory /me slaps forehead... turned off, or low due to your ungodly amount of ram?


(for curiosity)
has this ever happened before you installed your ram (how much you have total btw?)
are all your dimm or rimm slots full?
what mobo you have?


I would check your virutla memory settings or maybe get some third party software if you dont already, like partition magic to maybe adjust the partition or move your partition to another area of your drive...

formatting should be the last option: when you start looking for a cat to punt out of frustration.

 

[KnickNut3]

Abit KT7A-RAID

Two 256MB sticks of PC133 Crucial RAM. One DIMM slot free.

I've had virtual memory turned off, and I've had a paging file of about another 512 MB (I sometimes do video encoding, etc.). Never made much of a difference. I've never had this problem before. I just turned off virtual memory, and also tried putting it on let Windows handle, but hasn't helped yet.

I'm currently doing a Norton Antivirus scan and a Housecall virus scan. This is the first time I'm hoping that I have a virus. Will be an easier fix than otherwise.

I doubt editing partitions would help.

Something weird - I was using FlashFXP for a couple FTPs, and I noticed it's easy for me to explore my HD through FlashFXP. Sounds then like it's either a problem with the Explorer program file or a virus... will update.

 

[Y23KC]

You know, it may be virus. I had the same problem on a Windows 98 machine at work that ended up destroying all the data. I hooked it up to another machine and there were all kinds of virus's on it. Let us know what happens.

 

[KnickNut3]

Virus scan came up empty. Both Norton and Housecall.

Some friends think it might be a Klez virus? Doesn't sound likely, though, since I never open attachments I cannot identify.

Thanks for the continued help.

 

[KnickNut3]

Update:

Virus scan came up clean, as did the Klez search/fix in safe mode that someone suggested I do.

I attempted (before the last search) to access my drive, and I was actually successful for a few minutes. It was after about 5 minutes of moving around, the same problem then produced itself again. I'm very confused.

 

[Y23KC]

This is very strange. Maybe try installing some new drivers for the ide controller or uninstalling and reinstalling the ones you have. Did you try any of the xp tweaks to make your computer "faster"? Sometimes those tweaks can do more harm than good.