what is win xp doing?? accessing RAM while idle?

[Kev]

i don't understand this at all. i'm reading a book and i leave my computer on, and after 20 or 30 minutes of sitting there doing nothing, suddenly my computer starts going crazy with the RAM. It's not just a few flickers of activity, it's constant; and it doesn't stop until i come over and hit a button. but then it starts again 30 minutes later. what is going on here??

 

[mjquilly]

what are you watching that shows it "going crazy with the RAM"? ctrl+alt+delete->task manager->processes, sort by cpu. that will show you what is using the most cpu. when you say "not just a few flickers of activity", are you talking about the led on your case? that indicates hdd access, not memory. it sounds like it's caused by your system set to sleep/hibernate/whatever after 30 minutes of inactivity

 

[bacillus]

hmm, could be indexing files!

 

[Dreadogg]

it sounds like it's caused by your system set to sleep/hibernate/whatever after 30 minutes of inactivity

shot in the dark but if your partion that windows is on has the hibernation file on it and there is not enought space on that partion would that cause windows to eat ram?