A memory mystery involving Avast: can you solve it?

[lukor]

Hi, isn't the extra memory consumed by the file cache? That would be very wise thing from Vista to do.

Sadly, when only 35% of you memory is in use, you are wasting 65% of you ram, which is in your case about 5.2 GB. What a waste!!! I wish my OS would be able to use ALL the memory I buy (at least for file cache), since after all I have bought it for the OS, not just as a filler in the empty space of my computer box.

[Texas-Hansen]

Hi, isn't the extra memory consumed by the file cache? That would be very wise thing from Vista to do.

Sadly, when only 35% of you memory is in use, you are wasting 65% of you ram, which is in your case about 5.2 GB. What a waste!!! I wish my OS would be able to use ALL the memory I buy (at least for file cache), since after all I have bought it for the OS, not just as a filler in the empty space of my computer box.

No.  While I agree with the concept of what your saying...if you have open memory, use it.  In fact, Vista does that...it's the Superfetch feature, which over time watches what programs you use the most and stores key start-up parts in the unsued memory.  Caches those programs in the memory not being used so when you call up that program it loads faster than it would if it had to pull it from the harddrive.  If, for some reason, a program you open needs more available memory to run, Vista flushes part of the cached memory to give you more on the front end.

The situation I have that forms the basis of this thread is not the Superfetch or cached memory but the fact that when Avast is done scanning its not releasing all the memory it used even though it's done and closed.  It's the memory that's in actual use by the system that I'm concerned about, and when Avast runs a scan I can see my memory in use jump up more than 1 gb (caused by the Avast scan because that's the only thing I can see that is occuring at that moment, and I have tried it multiple times at different times of the day with the same results) and when Avast closes, that memory usuage does not go down as it should.  It just hangs in there.  Not a big deal at all given the amount of RAM I have installed but it's clearly not functioning as it should.  When a program closes, the memory it consumed and was using should be released.  Imagine if all programs acted like what I'm seeing with the Avast scan and memory, eventually the failure to release that memory would cause more and more memory to be used up as you opened new programs throughout the day to the point eventually that you have no more memory and are receiving insufficient memory errors despite actually having 8 gb of memory and currently running programs needing only a fraction of it. 

In any event, I'm still perplexed by this behavior between Avast and Vista 64 bit.

[lukor]

Hmm, aha, however, you should be able to see the process which appears to be consuming the memory in the task list? Are you? From the screenshot you've posted it does not seem to be ashserv.exe -- which is the "Avast! antivirus" service responsible for scanning and possibly eating memory for avast.

[Texas-Hansen]

Hmm, aha, however, you should be able to see the process which appears to be consuming the memory in the task list? Are you? From the screenshot you've posted it does not seem to be ashserv.exe -- which is the "Avast! antivirus" service responsible for scanning and possibly eating memory for avast.

Agreed.  That's what is making this whole thing a mystery to me.   I can't see in the processes where Avast is still assigned that amount of memory but the whole things occurs only when and after running an Avast scan.  Very odd.  My guess is that Avast uses some windows service in running the scan and that windows service is hanging onto that memory.  But, if that guess is correct, I can't figure out which one. 

[lukor]

I still don't know how then did you determine the amount of memory taken? Just from the number bellow ? (18% versus 35%) ? How do you know what exactly is counted into this number, file cache, prefetch, etc.

[Texas-Hansen]

I still don't know how then did you determine the amount of memory taken? Just from the number bellow ? (18% versus 35%) ? How do you know what exactly is counted into this number, file cache, prefetch, etc.

I monitored the amount of memory in use from 3 sources and all were close (within mb of each other likely caused by opening of certain windows to see the numbers).  I have on the Vista sidebar a performance monitor 'gadget' that shows in real time the amount of memory in use and the amount free -- shows both a number in mb/gb and as a percentage.  I also verified it against the percentage shown by task manager and doing the match based upon percentages.  I also checked it against what was shown somewhere in system properties (can't remember right now where and I'm sitting at my work desktop, which is XP).  This last one is the most important one as it shows precisely how much RAM is in actual use at the moment, how much is 'cached' by Superfetch, and how much is still left truly free (that 3rd one is almost always a real small number in mb as superfetch likes to fill up the cache).  So, it checks out by 3 separate sources. 

[igor]

Those "3 sources" most likely use the same system info function (or performance key, or wherever the info is stored) - so they're probably identical.
How about the usual file cache?