xp using most of my ram for no(good) reason

[WhiteWonder]

I guess this would go here...

OK, i have 256 ddr (running windows XP), and everything will run fine most of the time, like when i am playing a game or watching a movie, but when i leave my computer alone, i start hearing the harddrive, and like 245-250 megs of the ram being used, os then i go to processes and it says that explorer.exe (or iexplorer, can't rememebr which) is using ALOT of memory (the bulk of what is being used.

if i restart, the problem will be gone, untill it happes again

i'v done a netstat, and nothing was open, so i am fres out of ideas

anybody

 

[Jonitus]

No windows OS has been effective at managing memory. Windows always uses the swap file before the physical memory is used up, unlike linux, which will always use physical memory first.

Set your swap file size (paging file...Rightclick "MyComputer">Properties>Advanced>Memory Management) to a set size. It should be 1.5-2 times the amount of physical RAM in your system (384-512 MB). Use this value for the minimum and maximum. Reboot when prompted...and enjoy no more gnarly harddrive thrashing.

This should help your woes.