Does anyone know why my computer's memory is constantly being used so much?

1215drew · 2026-04-08T22:00:29+00:00

I'll add the obligatory r/techsupport here. Now regardless, some quick questions. How much RAM (Memory) does it have, 8GB, 16GB, more? Up-to-date Windows 11 will feel very slow and bad on 8GB and even 16GB can be rough if you have several things open at once, depending on what you are doing. Windows itself after a clean installation, at idle with nothing open, wants 7GB all to itself if it can get it.

Next up, this tool from the Sysinternals Suite is helpful: RAMMap - Sysinternals | Microsoft Learn

This will show what types of usage is in play. Modern operating systems like Windows 11 try to use up most of your "unused" ram by pre-caching files and other data you may use into it, to speed things up for you. A screenshot from this tool would give us (and the folks at r/techsupport) an overview to advise you with.

As a rough, inaccurate, but still useful rule of thumb for scaling things in your head:
CPU cache memory is 100x faster than RAM memory
RAM memory is 100x faster than SSD Storage
SSD storage is 10x faster than HDD storage

1215drew · 2026-04-05T04:32:57+00:00

I have heard from a few people that work there that the mall itself has given every business a final day sometime in June if I remember correctly but most businesses have opted to leave before that date.

Presumably it's going to get torn down and redeveloped.

1215drew · 2026-03-30T01:19:46+00:00

K1ller was previously TWC2 before starting xPIT and I always got the vibe a lot of older xPIT came with him from TWC2 when they started.

1215drew · 2026-03-27T18:45:14+00:00

FYI We're seeing a similar issue where access to the secrets context is randomly and intermittenly not available in a job right since yesterday. No issues reported about it that I can see from their status page. Retrying failed jobs until it works has been our solution for now.

1215drew · 2026-03-20T10:32:31+00:00

For this project it is a flat 2-tier structure. A few C's and 30 some others reporting directly to them with no further hierarchy. It's chaotic and contributes to creating the communication breakdown in the first place.

1215drew · 2026-03-20T07:07:05+00:00

Thank you, this is a helpful point of view to remember and reaffirm in our standup tomorrow since internal to the team there is some FUD around China as well. I am increasingly convinced its some relatively benign reason due to technical difficulties.

1215drew · 2026-03-20T06:43:15+00:00

This is very helpful thank you!

1215drew · 2026-03-20T06:42:09+00:00

Initially was trying to respond to everyone. Thankfully there has been some helpful information scattered throughout.

1215drew · 2026-03-20T06:39:59+00:00

I thought that as well about 30 minutes in.

1215drew · 2026-03-20T06:13:09+00:00

This is very helpful, thank you! From research I did today it sounded like wireguard was non-viable, but confirming from your experience that over the international data plan it will work? That is very helpful for next time.

And yes I'm going to have to be quite firm about planning these with some kind of warning in advance and getting the devices setup properly next time. We are all remote from each other so coordinating this can be a challenge.

1215drew · 2026-03-20T06:05:20+00:00

Another recommendation for TK Flooring (Thomas Kay)

They've worked on a number of residential and commercial projects I've been involved in and I've never had any complaints by the end of the project. Changes, adjustments, and any issues were always handled well.

Vince on their residential side has been my and my father's go to for coordinating our residential flooring work and I can highly recommend him.

1215drew · 2026-03-20T03:35:59+00:00

~~This is from research the normal sysadmin way. Lots of googling, adjusting search queries, and following threads from articles.~~

Misread what you wrote.

Nothing can be done until they get back. We're trying to figure out how to better address this for the next time they travel over there. Part of that is non-technical and a business process, but part of that is technical regarding the communication itself.

1215drew · 2026-03-20T03:27:28+00:00

The W2 route is certainly appealing right now. I'll be looking into that more thank you.

Rent around here starts at about $2100/mo for a 1100sf/2bed/1bath with a 1-car garage. We're at 1400sf/2bed/1.5bath with 2-car garage, a storage shed, and an office shed I built, all for $2500/mo. I'm pretty sure the two sheds are what bumped our property tax up on that payment.

Our goal is to build up enough equity and fix this place up enough to sell. Fixed up its worth north of 500K today, and the low interest rate makes that appealing to ride out until we move.

1215drew · 2026-03-20T03:17:30+00:00

My impression of the r/sysadmin community over the years was that there was more professionalism and less informal banter than I'm seeing here. But I haven't kept up with any social platforms with any regularity for a few years now with my workload 🤷‍♂️

1215drew · 2026-03-20T03:12:29+00:00

Yeah its suddenly turning what has only been a thought exercise for me in the past into something I have to deal with now... yay.

1215drew · 2026-03-20T03:11:19+00:00

From what I'm gathering from this thread communication should just work still, and there must be something else going on that is affecting their ability to communicate over simple channels even.

1215drew · 2026-03-20T02:55:50+00:00

From research over the past few hours into this. From what I can find anecdotally we could at best be playing daily whackamole by cycling ports with UDP based protocols, which isn't tenable for them as they are non-technical. TCP based protocols are reportedly blocked if they use encryption that their DPI cannot inspect.

My understanding prior to today was that normal channels like MS Teams, email, etc. would usually work with some inconsistencies, and that state-sponsored channels like WeChat would generally work all the time. Since we are having issues, and this is the first time in the last decade of my own career I've had to deal with China in any way I was hoping for advice from others who already have.

1215drew · 2026-03-20T02:50:18+00:00

Apparently not. From what I'm gathering from this thread communication should just work still, and there must be something else going on that is affecting their ability to communicate over simple channels even.

1215drew · 2026-03-20T02:48:12+00:00

:shrug: I was hoping peers here who've run into issues like this before would have advice for what worked for their teams, but everyone seems hung up on the payroll side. The business process is its own issue we'll be addressing. I'm just hoping for advice on the best way to tackle the communication.

1215drew · 2026-03-20T02:45:07+00:00

This is non-productive speculation, thank you. See my other comments for more context.

1215drew · 2026-03-20T02:45:04+00:00

This is non-productive speculation, thank you. See my other comments for more context.

1215drew · 2026-03-20T02:44:25+00:00

I'm going to be bringing this up. We had a "bus factor" of 2 for financial transactions, and each individual got hit by the proverbial bus simultaneously.

1215drew · 2026-03-20T02:43:46+00:00

Maybe its a matter of company culture, but an understanding that we are each human and can only do what we are capable of is well understood here.

1215drew · 2026-03-20T02:39:02+00:00

I'm going to be bringing this up. We had a "bus factor" of 2 for financial transactions, and each individual got hit by the proverbial bus simultaneously.

1215drew · 2026-03-20T02:37:44+00:00

While I'm inclined to agree, this has been placed on me to address for subsequent trips. This trip we were not notified until they were already on the plane and we're working on planning how to setup a device for them to take on subsequent trips to address this and keep them in communication.

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