RAM is completely cleared anytime you restart your computer. To fix a memory leak all you have to do is restart the computer. That will clear the memory, return it all to Windows, and it can start reallocated it (hopefully correctly) from there. Whatever program caused the memory leak may cause it again in the future.
Sometimes it happens with programs, but not all that much. When you close a program some background stuff gets left running. The next time you go to use the program the program acts "wonky" (That's a technical term).
I have an rtx 3060- with 12 GB of ram-- cost me $300 abotu 10 months ago. More ram on a vido card is always better. My personal preference is to use Nvidia based cards.
thank you gentlemen for helping me with my issue. I got on a chat with a real person, thanks for the "agent" hint, and I think my problem has been resolved. It seems the issue was when I selected the preference "allow floating documents in the advanced mode" and then tried to resize a layer that is when the thumbnail went blank. The support person opened the Layers Panel Options box and unchecked "entire document" and then checked "layer bounds". I have tried to recreate the issue several times since doing that and it seems to work just fine now....happy little thumbnail in the layers panel. Once again I really appreciate your assistance. Thanks