My computer is acting funny, can't figure it out.

pin_head_47 · #1 07-05-2010, 12:36 PM

This has been something that has affected my computer for quite some time now, it's more of an annoyance than anything and I can work around it, but my wife has been nagging me about it so I better do something.

Anyways, my hard drive will randomly and ever so slowly fill up over time, until I get that annoying "low disk space" warning pop-up in the bottom corner. Other than that, my computer is running fine, and I can't surf the internet when I get that point. The weird thing is that I can get rid of it by simply restarting my comp, and then everything goes back to normal. It takes a day or two to fill up like that but seems to go faster when I use it alot. All I really use our comp for is web surfing and listening to music, so it hasn't been a big issue, but again, it's just annoying.

I've got AVG anti-virus and I've run several different spyware programs (ad-aware, malwarebytes, spybot, etc.) and I feel pretty safe to say that it's not a virus at this point. I heard somewhere that it could be a memory leak but wouldn't really know what that is, or how to take care of it. I know there's a ton of tech-savvy guys on here, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

vene-nemesis · #2 07-05-2010, 12:40 PM

Get CCleaner, you might be filling it with cookies and temps, specially if youre streaming video from the net (IE: pron).

pin_head_47 · #3 07-05-2010, 12:54 PM

Already got that, run it regularly out of routine. Doesn't seem to make a difference, we're talking about something like 15-20 gigs worth of hard drive space filling up for no reason, whether I'm using the computer or not.

Thunderscreech · #4 07-05-2010, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pin_head_47

Already got that, run it regularly out of routine. Doesn't seem to make a difference, we're talking about something like 15-20 gigs worth of hard drive space filling up for no reason, whether I'm using the computer or not.

Try Disk Cleanup and then Defragment.

CrispyDelicious · #5 07-05-2010, 01:06 PM

You should probably stop downloading so much porn.

pin_head_47 · #6 07-05-2010, 01:06 PM

I've done those in the past as well, it's just odd that when I reboot it, all that filled up space just magically disappears, then slowly starts filling back up again. I think I've tried just about every cleaner that you can use, but that's not the stuff that's filling it up.

pin_head_47 · #7 07-05-2010, 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrispyDelicious

You should probably stop downloading so much porn.

I sense some tongue-in-cheek here, but unless my computer is watching porn by itself when I'm not there (what would that even look like? I don't want to know) it's not an issue of temp files or anything like that taking up the space.

Any of you tech guys know the term "memory leak"? I've heard it used to describe something like that but never fully understood what it means.

megadan · #8 07-05-2010, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pin_head_47

Any of you tech guys know the term "memory leak"? I've heard it used to describe something like that but never fully understood what it means.

A memory leak won't affect HD space, just RAM, and that's easily resolved when your computer is rebooted.

More likely the missing HD space is temp internet files, system logs, or a virus.

pin_head_47 · #9 07-05-2010, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by megadan

A memory leak won't affect HD space, just RAM, and that's easily resolved when your computer is rebooted.

More likely the missing HD space is temp internet files, system logs, or a virus.

Alright, never knew that memory leaks were RAM related, good to know. Always nice to be able to eliminate a possibility, although my problem DOES go away every time I reboot; it just likes to come back.

I'm currently running another virus scan, so we'll see what happens there. Out of the things you suggested, could any of them occur while the computer is sitting at idle, and not in use at all?

standupright · #10 07-05-2010, 01:50 PM

can you download hijackthis, run it and post the results? http://download.cnet.com/Trend-Micro...html?tag=mncol

also could you take a screen shot of all of your running processes (via task manager)?

standupright · #11 07-05-2010, 01:56 PM

also AVG is known to create large .dat files that delete and recreate upon reboot. might want to give that a look also.

jp58 · #12 07-05-2010, 02:18 PM

By disk space do you mean RAM or hard drive space. Windows warns for both.

pin_head_47 · #13 07-05-2010, 02:34 PM

Hard drive space. I can go to the C drive under My Computer and it will be completely maxed out; after rebooting, it's only half full.

See that? Half full? I'm even being optimistic about things yet.

sloasdaylight · #14 07-05-2010, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pin_head_47

I sense some tongue-in-cheek here, but unless my computer is watching porn by itself when I'm not there (what would that even look like? I don't want to know) it's not an issue of temp files or anything like that taking up the space.

Any of you tech guys know the term "memory leak"? I've heard it used to describe something like that but never fully understood what it means.

now you do.

MIJ-VI · #15 07-05-2010, 03:58 PM

It seems that others are having this problem too.

Hard drive mysteriously fills.
http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&so...=Google+Search

standupright · #16 07-05-2010, 04:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sloasdaylight

now you do.

that was helpful

Thunderscreech · #17 07-05-2010, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pin_head_47

I've done those in the past as well, it's just odd that when I reboot it, all that filled up space just magically disappears, then slowly starts filling back up again. I think I've tried just about every cleaner that you can use, but that's not the stuff that's filling it up.

Check your virtual memory. it might be too high. check your Task Manager and see what programs are using lots of space.

sloasdaylight · #18 07-05-2010, 04:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by standupright

that was helpful

Really?

standupright · #19 07-05-2010, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sloasdaylight

Really?

no

pin_head_47 · #20 07-05-2010, 09:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sloasdaylight

now you do.

Actually, that just reminds me of that scene in the Matrix, "I don't even see the code anymore, to me it's all just blonde, brunette, redhead..."

I'm working on re-downloading HijackThis, I haven't used it in quite some time and I was never an expert how to, anyways. But for those curious, here are some screenshots of my computer's c drive, one just before shutting down, and the next from immediately after rebooting. As you can see, it's about a 4 GB difference.