Your computer is low on memory. Also....

G

garry26

Gawd
Joined
Jan 8, 2003
Messages
641
I got this message for the first time ever yesterday.

Close programs to prevent information loss
Your computer is low on memory. Save your files and close these programs:
Firefox

Firefox had a new update yesterday as well. I hope this isn't the issue.

Also, when I Cntrl-Alt-Del and get Task Manager up, on Performance, CPU up time is still ticking at over 17hrs now. This is after Ive restarted, shut down, and even unplugged the pc and unhooked all wiring.
 
What does your system look like (specs-wise)?

How many programs were you running before you received the "low memory" message?
 
tiraides said:
What does your system look like (specs-wise)?

How many programs were you running before you received the "low memory" message?
Click to expand...
It's a 2yr old system with good specs.
Win8
i5 3450, 3.10GHz
8GB
AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series gpu

Programs running:
Chrome browser (1 instance)
Firefox (2 instances), 1 viewing a streamed movie-paused.

The popup message I got was:
Close Programs to prevent information loss (yellow triangle with ! mark)
Your computer is low on memory. Save your files and close these programs:
Firefox
Close program------Cancel
Windows will only close enough programs to restore needed memory
/end

The CPU uptime issue resolved on either another restart or shutdown. Though its odd it hadn't resolved itself when I shut off the pc & removed all wires to inspect it inside earlier.

I have not gotten the pop up again since I got it last. Which is 5.5hrs-6hrs. I had also gotten message last night.
 
Me and some of my friends have been having the same problem recently at the same time. We've been getting those memory errors for a while and it happens when playing some games, or using chrome/firefox on youtube for a long period of time. I have sneaking suspicion it could possibly be caused by a recent windows update because thats around the time it started happening. Using 8/12 gb ram on very different systems we all have the same problem. I'm using at most 2gb of memory running my basic programs but if i run chrome or firefox for a while browsing youtube my usage will shoot up to 70% and windows wants to start shutting off programs. If i ignore it i get a black screen
 
When I ignore, it shuts down FF. Friday or Thursday there was a Firefox update. Maybe it's that. IDK.

Another thing of note: On occasion, something will appear on my browser. It's happened on both Chrome and Firefox. It looks like lines or something. Like a program or screen is trying to partially appear. but it's only a little bit. When it happens and I scroll up/down, it will flicker in and out, but its only long horizontal line(s). Next time it happens I will have to take a screenshot.
 
next time it happens, open up task manager, click on show processes from all users, then click on memory and see which process is using all the memory.
I have had one process, I can't remember if it was an exe or dll file just suck up all of the available memory every now and then. I just end the process a few times and it is gone. happens every few months and I don't know the cause.
My OS is the original win 7 install from August 2009 and runs great, besides that small issue.
My main rig is also on 24/7 as it is also my storage server.
 
It happened again just now. Or rather, I noticed a few minutes ago. I did as Zepher suggested and even though the pop up message says to close Firefox, when I clicked on memory, it showed Google Chrome using over 700MB of memory.

I closed Chrome and canceled on the pop up. However, with 8GB of memory, shouldn't 700MB be fine? Also, Ive been using Chrome for over a month (I use it for a browser game) and had no issues. Regardless, my system is good enough that this shouldn't be an issue.

Edit:
I opened Chrome again and checked processes as it was open. Processes shows the memory usage steadily going up on the memory. It just keeps going up and up and up. It's like watching a speedometer.

Edit #2
After googling the issue it seems it is a Google Chrome issue. The posts I saw were fairly recent. Some in Sept & October of this year, but it still doesn't explain why Im having this issue now instead of as soon as I started using Chrome.
 
Last edited:
I found this on another forum. I was having the same problem with windows 8.1.

1. Click Start, click in the Start Search box, type gpedit.msc, and then press ENTER. MMC will start with the Local Group Policy Editor open.

2. In the navigation tree, expand Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, expand System, expand Troubleshooting and 3. Diagnostics, and click Windows Resource Exhaustion Detection and Resolution.

3. In the console pane, right-click Configure Scenario Execution Level, and then click Properties.

4. On the Setting tab, select Disabled, and then click OK.
 
700MB doesn't seem that bad, I sometimes see Firefox hitting 1.8GB on my main rig, it's at 1.1GB on my laptop right now.

The process that sucks up my memory is dllhost.exe. not sure what it is for exactly but it's on all of my machines and usually sits around 2.5MB.
 
svhost.exe can easily eat 3+gigs.

The only solution I've found is to reboot your rig every 3-4 days or quit watching netflix etc.
 
As some other posters have indicated, this error message seems to be triggering with heavy browser usage on newer versions of Windows (I have seen it a few times on different machines with 8.1) even when total RAM availability is above 40-50%. It appears to happen more when the system is left on for longer periods of time with a browser open. I have also seen this error message a few times on Windows Developer Preview. None of the times that I've checked RAM usage have shown more than half of RAM being used.
 
horrorshow said:
svhost.exe can easily eat 3+gigs.

The only solution I've found is to reboot your rig every 3-4 days or quit watching netflix etc.
Click to expand...

svchost is "service host". Svchost in and of itself does not use that much RAM. It is the services that are being run from it.
 
This problem you people are seeing sounds a lot like you may have some type of malware on your systems.

If that is not it, then it is a huge memory leak somewhere.
 
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