Process Explorer, shows the break down of sub process, showing memory usage of each one, helping you find what actually accounts for more of the overall memory usage of the process.

If in any case you are not aware of a particular sub process, google it to see if its a spyware and fix it.

Click on the image for full screen view. To get an interface like what you see in this image, in the Process Explorer, go View > Select Columns>Process memory tab. Check “Working set size”. Click OK. This will now show RAM/memory usage. Then, in main window, look for “System” process. Expand it, so sub processes are shown.

As you can see from the image above, the problem lies with the svchost.exe while i was expecting AVG module, avgwdsvc.exe to be the culprit. In that case, uninstalling AVG and reinstalling the latest version seldom helps. Looking for an alternative such as Avast or even better a paid one such as Kaspersky helps.

After examining, it seems that svchost should be a process on its own and in some cases it gets nested under system when sub process of svchost accessing that of system.

Researching more, shows that avdwdsvc.exe which is known as AVG Watchdog, a service that monitors other AVG components, to be examined. As expected the problem lies here. Seems like there is a memory leak, ie. more memory usage.

To fix this disable AVG watch dog service. To do that, go Start Button > Run > type services.msc. Find the service ‘AVG8 Watch Dog’, right click on it, click disable. Exit and reboot. By then the problem must be solved if not uninstall AVG.

To prevent high memory usage of processes, its must to have a reliable Registry Optimizer Tool, in addition to a firewall, antispyware and antivirus program. This is because, after a spyware fix, its must to clean its remnant, to avoid invalid registry entries slowing down your PC.

What are the causes of system freeze?

1. A PC is set to perform within a norm and if the computing exceeds that norm, system freezes occurs. Even with regular system update of programs and hardware device drivers, if your computing exceeds beyond what your PC is set to handle, the system freeze occurs. That is the main cause of a system freeze!
2. Another cause is that when a user installs programs or hardware device drivers that are incompatible.
3. Likewise if a software package is high ended but installed in a computer with smaller computing capacity. That is another reason.
4. When temporary folder is full that its bloats up and over uses the disk space. Temporary folder is where all the temporary files needed by running software are saved in. For ex. The internet browser saves all its files downloaded from the internet in the temporary folder.
5. Hard disk bad sectors as a result of overhaul. When a program or file that is located in the bad sector of the hard disk is loaded up, the system freezes up on you.
6. The page file, which saves all the files as a cache, when bloats up.
7. When a system registry is cluttered and disorganized with too many invalid or wrong and unwanted items, it bloats up. A cluttered registry prevents easy access of file settings and thus a system hangs up as a result of executing these bad entries to get to the right one.

The Remedy – How to prevent system freezes:

1. Before installing a software package of hardware device drive make sure it’s compatible with your computer.
2. Don’t install the programs that did not meet your system requirements.
3. Use Disk cleanup tool to cleanup temporary folder periodically.
4. Use Disk defragmenter tool to reorganize files into healthy sectors thereby fixing the bad sectors in the hard disk.
5. Adjust your page file size to what system recommends.
6. Invest in a Registry Optimizer Tool and do periodic registry house keeping!

1. The first step is to clean and defragment your hard disk. Go to Start menu > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools, run Disk cleanup and then Disk Defragment. This should clean up all the unwanted files and fragment your disk into healthy disk sectors by killing all the bad sectors on your hard disk.
2. Make sure to update and schedule your Antivirus and Antispyware to run regularly, atleast 2 times a week!
3. Likewise, invest in a registry cleaner. Update and schedule scan periodically atleast once a day. This will keep the windows registry clean and compact.

If any of the above methods did not work out, we have to find the source of the problem that causes the system freezes. Let’s talk about that now…

There are 3 main causes that a system freezes,

1. Too many start up programs.
2. Monitor display problems.
3. Device driver conflicts.

The remedy,

1. Too many start up programs:

You might have observed that when you install a new program like yahoo messenger or lime wire, it automatically is set to startup during every PC startup. Too many programs running during the startup overload your computer. Keep it less than 10 – 15. You can choose which program you want to run during a PC startup by going to Start menu > Run > Type ‘msconfig’ without quotes. Navigate to startup tab and uncheck the programs that you don’t want to run on PC startup.

2. Monitor display problems:

This is when your monitor shows a black screen or “signal out of range” message immediately upon PC startup. This is because your display resolution is set too much than what your monitor can handle. The remedy is to reboot your computer, then keep pressing F8, and in the boot menu, choose safe mode startup. Once the desktop is ready, right click anywhere on the screen and click Properties > Settings Tab. Change the monitor resolution to lower enough for it to work. You can sense it, if you don’t get any warning that it won’t work. If you don’t get that message you are good to go!  Generally 1280 by 800 pixels is ok! If you don’t have that 1024 by 768 pixels is good enough. Click apply and reboot again!

3. Device driver conflicts:

Sometimes your computer may not have the right device driver for its hardware. It might have an incompatible driver or completely outdated one. In that case, the fixing steps are, right click My Computer > Properties > Hardware Tab > Device Manager Button. If you see “yellow triangle with an exclamation mark on it” that means the device is not properly working – it doesn’t have a driver or the existing driver is corrupted. In that you need to put in the CD rom that came with the hardware and right click the fault device and install or update it. If you lost the CD rom, you can look for the appropriate device driver on the internet. Install that, and then your PC will be fine back again!