Why is my PF usage so high? HELP!!

[roccenstein]

For the last few days my computer has started running slowly, and I've been getting messages that my system is running low on virtual memory.  I have 3gb of ram and am running XP Pro with an Athlon 4600 dual core processor.  I ran the task manager and it stated that my PF usage was almost 5gb.  I have checked all the programs running in the background and have turned off any that were unnecessary.  Rebooting my PC usually fixes it, and lowers the PF usage to around 300-500mb, but after the PC has been running a while it goes back up again.  What could be causing this?  I ran a scan using Malwarebytes and came up with nothing, and AVG isn't reporting anything either.  I saw something on another site that suggested removing my RAM and re-installing it, but I don't see what good that would do.  Any suggestions!??!

[Kip]

To adjust your page file settings...

1) Press your Windows key and "Pause Break" on your keyboard at the same time.
2) Go to the "Advanced" tab.
3) Under the "Performance" section, click "Settings".
4) Go to the "Advanced" tab.
5) Under the "Virtual memory" section, click "Change".

You will then be able to change the size of the page file.  I recommend the "System managed size" option.  After you have adjusted the settings, click "Set".

[roccenstein]

I did that, but it still keeps creeping up.  When I just restarted my PC it was around 450mb, and about an hour later it was up to 1gb.

[Kip]

My page file is 1.5 GB right now so 1 GB does not seem to bad.

Have you checked which process is using the virtual memory in Task Manager?  To check, go to the "View" menu in Task Manager, click "Select Columns...", and check the box next to "Virtual Memory Size".

[roccenstein]

I did that and the highest users are 'services.exe' and 'svchost.exe', and 'PnkBstrA.exe', but the highest of those by far is the 'services.exe' one, which as I write this is at 576,660k.  I've looked up various stuff online regarding memory leaks, etc, but most every suggestion I find is outdated.  One suggested downloading a hotfix from Microsoft, but when I did that it said my version of Windows was more current than the hotfix I was trying to run.

[Kip]

Your "services.exe" seems high.  Mine is 25,428 K.

If you download Process Explorer, you can see which services are being run in the services.exe and svchost.exe entries by pointing at them.

[roccenstein]

OK, did that, and I have 9 separate 'Generic Host Process for Win32 Services'.  There are quite a lot of other things too, of course, but I'm thinking all of these duplicates could be the problem.  Any suggestions?

[Kip]

I have seven 'Generic Host Process for Win32 Services' entries.

If you point at each svchost.exe in the "Process" column, it will show you the names of the processes in a tooltip.

[roccenstein]

I think I may have found the problem, but I don't know how to fix it.  Punkbuster was using a ton of resources and my PF usage was up around 4gb, so I ended the punkbuster process (there were 2, PnkbsterA and PnkBsterB) and almost immediately my PF usage went back down to about 500-600mb.  The problem now is that punkbuster needs to be active to play some online games, so how can I get it to stop hogging resources?