Memory Prob!

[digitalKing]

hi guys im in a fix hr n wud b glad if u cud help
i have a Dell inspiron E1505 which was running fine until a few days ago....
the problem is that i have pretty high virtual memory usage.....
the CPU usage shown in Taskmanager is 5% around while the virtual memory usage is continously climbing. It starts with around 400MB goes up to 1GB on an idle system
as in there is no memory hungry application that i can identify other than Firefox, Spybot S & R resident scanner.
basically nothing much is running but the memory usage keeps increasing.
I have the taskmaneger opened hr right now and i can see in the Performance tab under Totals :
Handles :keeps on increasing
Threads: decreases
Processes : constant at 50

also i dont know if it helps but i cant shut down the system properly as in it closes all aplications and processes but dont get the " logging off windows " sign or anything else it just gets stuck with nothing open but the destop wallpaper. I have to manully press the shut down button.

I have tried scanning the PC with avast(updated) but it doesnt show anything.
any help wud b apprecitated!

[amitash]

if ur under vista then memory usage on idle is like 300mb-500mb...but its strange it keeps increasing...try using a different AV like nod32 or kaspersky...
OR
go to run(Windows key+r)>type msconfig>clikc on the startup tab>click disable all>reboot.
now observe the memory usage..if it stopped increasing all the time enable ur applications in msconfig one by one untill u find the culprit..if problem still persists then scan scan scan

[digitalKing]

Thanx man.... hav win XP servisce pack 2
tried wht u said enabled only essential services....
now have to exactly pinpoint the problem service

[amitash]

glad to help...post the culprit here for everyones benefit