Question dwm.exe Suddenly Using Excessive Amounts of RAM

Gamefreaknet

Commendable
Mar 29, 2022
348
15
1,685
The past few days I have noticed dwm.exe (desktop window manager) excessively hogging RAM. My setup hasn't changed (1x 27" monitor, 1x 16" monitor - both on 1080p 144hz) and for some reason over time dwm slowly takes up RAM varying from 10GB - 16GB (out of my 32GB).
If I launch a program that requires RAM dwm.exe is using the system will reallocate the RAM to that program but otherwise if I don't do anything it slowly takes more available RAM (rather than the system optimizing this and lowering the usage dwm needs to run properly...)
I rarely have more than 5/6 windows open at once and following an article that referenced older iGPUs having memory leak issues there was a supposed patch for CPUs with iGPUs from 6th gen to 11th gen (my CPU wasn't listed in that list - specs below)
I did also check Intel DSA with no luck
Specs:
i7 8750H w UHD630
RTX 2070MQ
32GB DDR4 3200 (2x16)
3TB Total (Nvme) SSD storage
 
Took me a while to realise it was a laptop. What make/model?

have you run any anti virus scans?
Updated Nvidia drivers? only going to be them if it happens in games/graphically intensive applications
run ddu and clean installed the drivers?


Only thing that DWM.exe talks to is Graphics drivers normally.

do you use the igpu as it shouldn't be running at all if no monitor attached to it.

It doesn't sound like a driver leak because of:
If I launch a program that requires RAM dwm.exe is using the system will reallocate the RAM to that program but otherwise if I don't do anything it slowly takes more available RAM (rather than the system optimizing this and lowering the usage dwm needs to run properly...)
driver leaks don't release ram without restarting PC. They keep it & will keep asking for more until your PC runs out of commits.


Have you run SFC or DISM?
search for powershell
run as admin
copy/paste this command into window:

Repair-WindowsImage -Online -RestoreHealth

and press enter


Then type SFC /scannow

and press enter


Restart PC if SFC fixes any files as some fixes require a restart to be implemented

First command repairs the files SFC uses to clean files, and SFC fixes system files

SFC = System File Checker. First command runs DISM - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/what-is-dism?view=windows-11


you could perhaps trace what uses it but I don't know how often its used per day... it could be too many really - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon
I think you can trace it with above. it being an exe makes me wonder.
 
Last edited: