Processes taking up crazy amount of memory

judas · #1 (**permalink**) 11-08-2007, 05:21 PM

Hello. Recently I have noticed a disturbing trend where processes in windows task manager take up a rediculous amount of memory(k) than what they used to. Here are some examples.

armyops.exe/ cpu 50/ mem usage 619,016 K (used to be around 300,000K
iexplore.exe/ cpu 0/ mem usage 106,120 K
svchost.exe/ cpu0/ mem usage 75,704K
ventrilo.exe/ cpu0/ mem usage 49,708K (used to be around 8,000K
nod32krn.exe/ cpu0/ mem usage 48,188K (used to be around 20,000K
mirc.exe/ cpu 0/ mem usage 25,600 K (used to be around 2,000K
pnkbstrB.exe/ cpu 0/ mem usage 29,492 K
pnkbstrA.exe/ cpu0/ mem usage 27,994 K
ctfmon.exe/ cpu 0/ mem usage 24,288 K

When I restart my computer they go back to the normal amount of memory usage. Also there are programs that no matter what I do will always start up even when I stop them in msconfig(ex cftmon.exe, ctxfispi.exe, qttask.exe etc.)

Any help in fixing these problems would be appreciated.

Digerati · #2 (**permalink**) 11-08-2007, 06:10 PM

cftmon.exe, ctxfispi.exe, qttask.exe are all legitimate, belonging to MS Office, Sound Blaster, and Quick Time respectively. So do you still not want them?

First thing you need to do so we know your system is not infested with malware is to do a complete malware scan. Run through Cleaning Out Malware if you do not already have a complete arsenal of anti-malware applications.

judas · #3 (**permalink**) 11-08-2007, 06:32 PM

Im going to run that a couple of scans now and get back to you on that. The reason why I want to remove some of the things like quicktime and soundblaster from starting up is because on another help board, for a game called americas army, they advised me to remove some processes and my game might run smoother.

Digerati · #4 (**permalink**) 11-08-2007, 07:48 PM

Quote:

The reason why I want to remove some of the things like quicktime and soundblaster from starting up is because on another help board, for a game called americas army, they advised me to remove some processes and my game might run smoother.

And that's true, but I think your bigger problem is that your other programs are all consuming so much - something is wrong there and certainly malware could be it.

For that svchost, is that 75K for all 4 or 5 instances, or is that for just one of them?

judas · #5 (**permalink**) 12-08-2007, 01:07 AM

I did a scan with afv and found some viruses and deleted them in safe mode. That svchost is for just one of them. I think it used to be where all 4 of them didnt even equal 75,000k. In fact, I just restarted my pc and here are the 4 svchost as they are on a restart:

5,064k(system)
4,708k (network service)
18,788k(system)
3,732k(network service)

After playing americas army for a while though, these processes start to go crazy. I do a scan with nod32 but almost never find anything. I wonder if I have it set up wrong it is very difficult understand all the settings.

If you want I can post the avg log. My kaspersky scan found more things than my avg log did, but I cant delete them because you have to pay to delete those.

Digerati · #6 (**permalink**) 12-08-2007, 04:06 AM

You might want to try Kaspersky Online Scanner or one of the other on-line scanners.

What happens if you don't run America's Army? Do the processes then start eating up memory?

judas · #7 (**permalink**) 12-08-2007, 04:16 AM

I did use the Kaspersky online scanner. I can only find the things I cant delete them as you have to be a paying customer. I can show a log of that if you want. I also have a hi jack this log as well if you want to take a look at that.

Also the processes only seem to eat up memory after I play americas army for a little bit. In fact my troubles only seem to have started when a new punkbuster update came out. I am not sure on that but I think it was around then. I have had my computer on all day and the processes memory usage has been nominal across the board.

If you want I can also post my system information as well. I have a very good computer, 2 gig of memory and a 2.4 core 2 duo. The only thing that is below par is my g card which is a 7600gt. I recently purchased an 8800 series nvidia card but I dont think the g card has to do with my memory usuage being so high.

Digerati · #8 (**permalink**) 12-08-2007, 06:06 PM

I did not know the Kaspersky online wanted you to pay.

Nevertheless, it does provide a report which we should be able to use to fix any issues it found using other tools, if needed.

Did you try either of the other online AV scanners?

Since your computer works fine as long as you don't call up AA, and since all other scans are fine, I don't think this is a malware problem anymore. You can post a HJT log in the Spyware Forum (NOT here) if you like, but I don't expect anything significant to show up. This appears to be an AA/punkbuster issue right now. I would probably consider rolling back that punkbuster update and see if the problem goes away.

There's nothing sub-par with the 7600GT btw.

judas · #9 (**permalink**) 12-08-2007, 08:16 PM

Yeah I dont have any significant viruses it seems. I dont know if it is exactly punkbuster though because I turned off punkbuster on the server I use and was still getting the freezing and warping. Also the memory usage for processes keeps spiking to high levels. Is it normal for processes to take up a lot more memory when running a game?

Digerati · #10 (**permalink**) 12-08-2007, 08:31 PM

Well, any "virus" is significant - I was referring to other forums of malware, in particular, spyware.

Quote:

Also the memory usage for processes keeps spiking to high levels. Is it normal for processes to take up a lot more memory when running a game?

For some, but I cannot see it for all those you listed, such as iexplorer, mirc and some of the others.

I don't know what the problem is!

Perhaps someone else reading. In the meantime, I would still roll back to the old version and give it a try. Simply not running it does not mean that other changes it made are not in effect.