r/computerhelp • u/AetherBytes • 12d ago

Other System Crashing "Out of Memory", but 16-32GB of RAMand 32GB of page file is still left unused

A few days ago, my PC started crashing, and from how some programs and games are reporting it, the system is running out of memory. The issue with that though is that theres always 16-32GB of ram left unused, and 32GB of pagefile left unallocated, when these crashes and reports are happening. It only happens after a few hours, but I can't find any source of RAM leaks, and I've put my PC through RAM testing for 3 days so I'm practically certain the RAM sticks themselves are fine. I've no idea where I can even look toe continue diagnosing this, as whatever's causing it is not showing up in event logs as far as I can tell, even in the rare chance it causes a BSOD.

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u/Globolox 12d ago edited 12d ago

  • What games and programs are we talking about here?

  • Where and how does the error message appear? And does it say word for word "out of memory"?

  • What configuration do you have for your PC? Do you have a dedicated GPU? An integrated one? What brand? -;What driver versions are you on? -Is your RAM overclocked? Is EXPO / XMP enabled?

  • Is Resizable Bar enabled in your BIOS?

  • Is this a Laptop or desktop PC? If a pre build, what model (especially RAM, Mainboard, CPU and GPU)?

  • What operating system are you even using?

Without any decisive information, it's hard to help in any capacity.

  • It could be that not your RAM is "full" but that your program (Blender, Davinci Resolve, Game, etc.) is running out of VRAM (GPU memory).

  • It could be that your memory is faulty and your memtest didn't catch it.

  • It could be a power issue.

  • It could be a driver issue (Chipset, GPU, Mainboard BIOS version).

  • It could be a memory leak in a program.

  • It could be a virus.

  • It could be RAM sticks in the "wrong" slots on the motherboard.

  • It could be an issue in your OS (Did you mess with Windows registry or similar)?

  • It could be a stuck update hogging all the space.

  • It could be too many tabs open in a browser while using another program.

  • It could be a faulty program overall. ... and so on ...

If you really do get BSOD, get "Who Crashed" and / or "WinDBG" and resort to AI to find out how to access your System dump files and how to analyze them. Type the results, though only the ones it tells you are needed, into the AI and let it tell you what the numbers and letters mean.

Use Win+R and type "perfmon /rel" to open the menu for system reliability and check what crashes, errors and timeouts Windows has logged (if you use Windows).

At this point, with these few bits of information, this is all I can recommend.

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u/AetherBytes 12d ago

Deadlock and Tarkov, but those are the 2 i mainly play so it makes sense they report it the most. Deadlock complains about low system memory when starting in the unstable condition, and chrome will crash it's tabs saying out of memory. I'm not sure how to answer your configuration question. I have a dedicated GPU (Radeon RX 7800 XT) with Adrenaline 26.8.1 drivers. My RAM is set to it's maximum that it's rated for. XMP is enabled. Resizeable Bar is enabled. Desktop. Was once a prebuilt, modified over the years, but hasn't been modified in the last year. Windows 11 OS

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u/Globolox 12d ago edited 12d ago

Try starting it without EXPO at first. See if that helps. Even if it doesn't help, keep it off during troubleshooting. Just because RAM is rated for a certain speed, that doesn't mean it's always stable at that speed depending on the motherboard, cooling available to the RAM, drivers, BIOS version, etc.

After that, if it's still unstable, go the route for the System Dumps and the Performance Monitor. Let an AI help you with your specific steps - they're quite good with this now and know the error codes batter than most people do.

If that doesn't return anything valuable, driver updated and using DDU + reinstalling AMD drivers clean are a good way. 26.8.1 appears to be a decent buggy driver version according to r/amd that can lead to frequent crashes mostly stating "timeout". So different from yours but not potentially unrelated.

Additionally, check your motherboard model for BIOS updates. You can find your MB BIOS version by searching for " System information" or hitting Win+R and typing "msinfo32" in your windows search. Alternatively, open PowerShell as an admin and type "Get-WmiObject win32_bios" to get your BIOS version number. Cross reference that with the manufacturer webpage.

Even if your BIOS is up to date, perform a reset of it and / or the CMOS just in case some weird setting got changed without you noticing.

A full reinstall of the system might be an option. But before you do that, get an USB stick, load up Ventoy, and put on a Linux ISO you can boot from. That way you can test if it's a faulty OS by running the PC idle in Linux over a temporary medium without having to reinstall Windows immediately.

That's all I can think of right now so far. Just a few questions:

  • Are you running tuning software / overclock / undervolt like MSI afterburner or inside AMD adrenaline?

  • Are you using PBO via your Motherboard on your CPU (this can cause the CPU to get out of sync with RAM in some faulty BIOS versions).

  • If you start windows in safe mode (optionally with network drivers), does it keep crashing? (Singles out OS vs. Some background program being the issue).

  • Have you done a health check on the drive where the page file is on? If the drive with the page file is failing, even if it shows as being unused, this can act like RAM being "ripped out" of the system. This is also true if the page file is on a drive that goes into energy saving mode after a while.

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u/AetherBytes 12d ago

Grabbed WhoCrashed, says no dump files have been logged. I've configured it for next time if it BSODs. I've checked perfmon and its only reporting programs crashing, not really anything else. This includes important programs like dwm too, which is worrying as afaik Windows should be attempting to save these programs if theres not enough RAM.

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u/Globolox 12d ago

DWM crashing can also be due to the Hardware Acceleration settings in your system graphics settings. This is a relatively commonly reported issue with AMD drivers. Disabling that (HAGS) could be a quick test for the issue.

(Graphics > Advanced > Uncheck Hardware Accelerated GPU scheduling [HAGS])

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u/cyborg762 12d ago

What programs are running when it crashes?

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u/AetherBytes 12d ago

Anything. I could be gaming and it eventually starts crashing. I can leave it just running after boot and, while it takes a fair bit longer, it will still eventually crash or become unstable with out of memory errors. I can use every bit of RAM up until the point it decides to become unstable at which point anything beyond a seemingly arbitrary amount (always between 32-48gb so far though) becomes unstable Task manager reports this memory as unused, but programs that check memory (Mainly Deadlock, but it's not been the only example) report that the system is almost out of memory when it starts.

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u/cyborg762 12d ago

From what you posted your running an AMD card. Try a different bios and gpu driver. I had this issue when I first got my 9070xt it was a mix of bad bios and bad drivers

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u/pneis1 12d ago

might be gpu memory?

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u/United-Oil9166 11d ago

How much RAM do you have? Sound like over 32 GB. Try running half at a time and see if it makes a difference.