recurrent virus problem

A virus eating all your memory? Seems weird. Are you sure it's not simply a memory leak in one application? There are very very few viruses on Ubuntu, and unless your computer is connected directly to the Internet (no router), it's quite hard to attack it from the outside.

As you know your memory is getting full, can you check which process is doing that? (in the system monitor)

Hi :)

The system monitor does not show any process that is using that much memory, and the problem occurs even when no applications are running.

As soon as the computer starts up, RAM usage is already close to maximum and the SWAP file starts increasing, by about 100MB every minute, until the computer is useless.

This is why I am wondering whether someone is installing a process somewhere "behind the scenes"?

Hi :)

The system monitor does not show any process that is using that much memory, and the problem occurs even when no applications are running.

As soon as the computer starts up, RAM usage is already close to maximum and the SWAP file starts increasing, by about 100MB every minute, until the computer is useless.

This is why I am wondering whether someone is installing a process somewhere "behind the scenes"?

 the last time you posted about a virus , the virus was one that attacks routers . is this correct ? how is your internet provider ? is it a desktop or laptop ? do you use wireless or hardwire ?

Ouch, never heard anything like that.
How much Ram do you have ?
And I think the process should appear in one of the tools...
If you install htop (run this in a terminal: "sudo apt-get install htop"), run it (open a terminal, type htop), sort the processes by memory (press F6, down arrow, enter, it should select "MEM" as the sort criteria), do you see anything eating all your memory ?

 shut down disconnect internet then restart and check system monitor see what it says .

Are you running Ubuntu only or are you running
dual boot with windows as one of your OS?

Like Greg advised that the virus could be in your
wireless!!!

I connect to the internet using a router, only using a cable. The wireless connection on the router is permanently switched off, so it is unlikely to be coming through there.

I am only running Ubuntu, nothing else. As if I would use Windows........... :-)

I have 1GB of RAM and the SWAP file is 2.7GB. Usually when the system has started up and no apps are running, the memory usage is about 270MB, which is nice. Even with several apps open, the memory usage never goes past about 600MB.

The problem occurs without being connected to the internet. It happens when the computer starts up.

However, at the moment the problem is gone because I have re-installed Ubuntu. I have found that re-installation gets rid of the problem. This is obviously not so convenient, but it works.

So I have decided on the following course of action. I will install htop, and next time the problem occurs I will check on what is using all the memory.

Thank-you all!

now that you have done a reinstall go to synaptic package manager and remove remote desktop access and remote desktop viewer .

after you remove remote access , install firestarter fire wall from software center .

After some weeks have passed there has been only one recurrence of the problem, which mysteriously went away without re-installation. It looks like it was a bug in the operating system after all. Many thanks for your assistance!

Thanks GREG T., that solved my question.