I received a new HP OmniBook 3 with 16 GB of RAM and have been trying to play Minecraft and run an emulator for Tomodachi Life. Minecraft warns that there may not be enough free memory, showing about 3.2 GB available out of 15.9 GB, even though I have only allocated 4 GB to the game. The emulator has also crashed, although that could be an emulation issue.
Windows 11 is reportedly using around 13.2–13.6 GB of memory shortly after startup or while browsing, but only about half of that appears to be explained by the apps listed in Task Manager. I also expected some of the usage to be cached or standby memory, but only around 1.4 GB is identified that way. What could be consuming the rest of the RAM, and how can I determine whether there is a memory problem?
1 Answer
First, restart the laptop and check Task Manager before opening many programs. If memory usage is still around 13–14 GB immediately after a restart, sort the Processes tab by Memory and also check the Performance > Memory section. Look for hardware-reserved memory, memory compression, background utilities, or a program with a leak. If the listed processes do not come close to the total, Resource Monitor or Microsoft RAMMap can show where the memory is going. A normal Windows installation should not usually leave only about 3 GB free on a new 16 GB system while idle.
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