System 7: System Software Using Excessive RAM

Sometimes my Macintosh shows an unusual amount of RAM (20mb or more) is being used by the system software in the "About this Macintosh" window.

I tried turning on 32 bit addressing in the Memory Control Panel, resetting the PRAM, troubleshooting incompatible extensions, removing all fonts, and even performing a clean install of System Software, but the issue remains. Could there be an issue with the Macintosh hardware?
If the issue you stated persists even after a clean installation, the next step would be to remove all internal or external devices that use non-Apple device drivers from your computer system. These items might include: internal or external hard drives formatted with 3rd party utilities, NuBus cards (for example, accelerator or video cards), or any other non-Apple hardware.

The reason that you should physically remove these items is that all device drivers are ALWAYS loaded at system startup regardless of the designated startup disk. In other words, booting from a Startup Diskette or CD (like Disk Tools) does not eliminate all third party software from the startup sequence if there are still non-Apple items in or attached to the computer. Those devices will continue to load their driver software at startup from any startup disk.

If the issue continues even with all third party devices removed, the next thing to try would be to remove any extra RAM that has been added to your Macintosh. If removing all extra RAM still doesn't resolve the issue, you may have a computer hardware issue that needs service.

For information about how to perform a "clean installation" procedure search with the string, "clean installation".
Published Date: Feb 19, 2012