Two weird issues: memory leaks and WiFi/USB glitches

I'm running Windows 10 on my PC

1. Memory Issues
About a week ago, things started acting up. My programs—like Chrome or Handbrake—suddenly start crashing because they're supposedly using way too much memory.
The weird part? Neither of those apps is actually hitting the 16GB limit I have installed.
If I jump into Task Manager and check the "Performance" tab, it shows my memory usage at 15.9/16 GB. But here’s the kicker: even when I close absolutely everything, the usage stays stuck around 12/16 GB.
Naturally, when I look over at the "Processes" tab, there isn't a single process listed that accounts for that much usage.
How is that even possible?
A quick restart fixes it temporarily, but we all know it's just a waiting game until it happens again.

2. WiFi and USB Connectivity
Whenever I disconnect from the internet, my USB WiFi adapter cuts out too. To be more specific, it seems like my entire USB controller just stops working altogether. I've tested this with a single thumb drive and two external hard drives across every available port.
My only fix is a reboot, but even then, the system hangs on the "Restarting..." screen, forcing me to just hit the physical reset button on the case.

I ran Malwarebytes (with the "scan for rootkits" option enabled), but it didn't find a thing.

1. What’s the deal with your virtual memory, and why did you go ahead and disable it?

2. Which WiFi adapter are we even talking about here?

fadedorca66 said:1. What’s the deal with your virtual memory, and why did you go ahead and disable it?

2. Which WiFi adapter are we even talking about here?

1. You mean the pagefile? Yeah, I disabled it after this whole mess started last week. I kept seeing a "Resource-Exhaustion-Detector Warning" popping up in the Event Viewer. One of the fixes suggested in an online thread I found was to kill the pagefile, so I gave it a shot. Everything seemed fine after that—until today. I just checked the Event Viewer again, and there it is: another "Resource-Exhaustion-Detector Warning." It claims programs are being shut down because of massive memory usage, but get this—the Event Viewer is reporting maybe 3 GB of usage, and I have 16 GB installed! How does that even make sense?

2. It's a TP-Link Archer T4U. I've had it for years and it usually works like a charm—connecting and disconnecting perfectly fine.

So, my USB ports just completely died on me out of nowhere without me disconnecting anything first.
It’s actually pretty weird because the USB 2.0 ports kept working fine—my mouse and keyboard were totally responsive—but the second I unplugged them and tried to plug them back in, they just went dead too.

After everything stopped working, I went ahead and updated the BIOS, so we'll see if that does the trick. But honestly, I'm not even sure how much that'll help. I mean, the old BIOS version worked perfectly fine since 2018, right? It shouldn't just suddenly start acting up for no reason, should it?

Yeah, I wouldn't disable the page file. It's probably better to just let the OS handle it automatically, or maybe just set a fixed size if you really want to.

As for those USB issues—that sounds pretty weird. 🤔 Are we talking about the ports on the case itself, or the ones directly on the motherboard?

fadedorca66 said:Yeah, I wouldn't disable the page file. It's probably better to just let the OS handle it automatically, or maybe just set a fixed size if you really want to.

As for those USB issues—that sounds pretty weird. 🤔 Are we talking about the ports on the case itself, or the ones directly on the motherboard?

On the motherboard
Everything seems fine for now, at least after I ran that BIOS update last night.

Quick update:
The memory issues are still hanging around, and I even tried updating the drivers—but no luck there.
On the bright side, that whole WiFi/USB headache finally cleared up after I flashed the BIOS.

Steven Fox37 said:Quick update:
The memory issues are still hanging around, and I even tried updating the drivers—but no luck there.
On the bright side, that whole WiFi/USB headache finally cleared up after I flashed the BIOS.

It seems like everyone is just spinning their wheels here. To figure out if those USB ports are actually dead, you should probably just go into the BIOS and swap keyboard ports to test them. Or, maybe try booting from a USB stick containing something like MiniTool Partition Wizard. The key is to make sure the USB ports work before Windows even starts loading. That’s how you rule out a hardware failure.

As for the memory leak, just open Task Manager. It should show you exactly which process is hogging all the RAM—it'll be right there at the top of the list under memory usage. Just Google the process name to see what it's actually tied to or which specific software is causing the drain. That’s usually the easiest way to track it down.

I just caught the first post. If nothing is showing up in the processes list, then we're looking at a mystery. If you're running 16GB (two 8GB sticks), maybe try running on just one stick at a time? Test them individually to see if one is faulty.