Help fixing a memory leak (Resource monitor pics included)

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BSOdemise

Commendable
Jun 11, 2016
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I'm experiencing a memory leak, it happens everytime I use this computer, from the moment I turn it on.

Pictures of Task Manager: Processes, Performance and Resource Monitor in here:
https://imgur.com/a/PbGVNtW


Can anyone please help me fix this? I assume its the reason my computer works slower than it should under pressure.


Computer Specs:
CPU: Intel Ivy Bridge Core i5 3470 Socket 1155 6MB 3.2Ghz Tray
GPU: Gigabyte GTX670 2GB GDDR5 WindForce OC
Motherboard: Gigabyte H61M-S2V-B3
Ram: 8Gb KINGSTON KIT ( 4G X2) Hyper-X BLUE
Hard Drive: Seagate 1TB, 3.5", SATA3, Barracuda 7200.14
 
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Chrome spawns another copy of itself with every tab you open. This is to prevent the situation where a script in one tab crashes, and all your other open tabs disappear along with it. The damage is instead limited to a single tab. So its memory footprint can grow pretty large as you open more tabs.

Unfortunately, Chrome has had a multi-year bug where the memory taken up by a tab isn't always completely released when you close the tab (a memory leak). That results in the amount of memory it uses gradually increasing. The only fix is to completely close Chrome. Depending on how you've got it set up, this may simply require closing every Chrome window, or may require you to manually kill it in task manager. The amount of free RAM you have and the RAM taken up by different tabs will determine how often you have to do this.

The sites you open up in your tabs will influence the amount of RAM the tab takes. I just checked my Chrome use and it's got 25 processes (I've only got 2 tabs opened currently, but have been running Chrome continuously for a couple days now), but only takes about 500 MB. If you browse a site which uses a lot of RAM, the Chrome memory leak can result in that memory not being released after you leave the site. Which may explain your situation with Chrome having just 17 processes but using nearly 2 GB of RAM. If you can figure out which site is causing the problem, you can try to be more judicious about when you visit that site. Maybe even visit it using a different browser. (Firefox and IE had similar memory leak bugs, but running it in a different browser means you can close the browser completely when you're done, freeing up the leaked memory.)

All that said, your Chrome instance is only taking up less than 2 GB of RAM. Your Task Manager shot is showing you're at 6.4 GB of RAM used out of 8 GB. If this is after a reboot with no programs running, then something else is eating up your RAM, not Chrome. In your first picture, click on where it says "80% Memory" in Task manager. That will sort the processes by the amount of RAM they're using (you may need to click it a second time to sort it highest-first instead of lowest-first).
 
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The issue is not the ~2gb that Chrome takes but the other ~4gb that something takes out.

Both taken with no software open:
http://prntscr.com/jtkq0q - Resource Monitor and Performance in Task Manager
(note that I sorted everything by the memory it takes)

http://prntscr.com/jtkrk3 - a picture of Processes in Task manager


Edit: Another picture of Users in Task Manager which is very odd: http://prntscr.com/jtlnt0

My user which is absolutely the only one uses only 2gb, and yet on performance it shows that 6.5gb is used!



No, above there are pictures with no software open


I am really worried that I do, how do I fix this if this is the problem? (I tried running anti virus before though)



Above there are pictures in which I sorted by ram used, also note that chrome is not the problem.


Have a great day guys, I really hope we get to the bottom of this problem and fix it :)
 
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CPU: Intel Ivy Bridge Core i5 3470 Socket 1155 6MB 3.2Ghz Tray
GPU: Gigabyte GTX670 2GB GDDR5 WindForce OC
Motherboard: Gigabyte H61M-S2V-B3
Ram: 8Gb KINGSTON KIT ( 4G X2) Hyper-X BLUE
Hard Drive: Seagate 1TB, 3.5", SATA3, Barracuda 7200.14

Where can I find my Killer LAN network card drivers?
Are you sure this will solve the issue?
I updated my motherboard drivers if thats the same thing
 
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If you take a look at those screenshots that you posted you'll notice that the non-paged memory pool is very high. This is almost always the result of a memory leak in a driver. 99% of the time the culprit is a Killer LAN network card running the generic Windows drivers. This is a known issue.

However, it seems like you're in the 1% here, and not the good 1%. You seem to have a memory leak in the kernel somewhere but I have no idea what it is.

The only thing that I can recommend is going through all of your drivers systematically and making sure that they're up to date.
 
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I have my GPU driver and the Motherboard drivers up to date, also key board mouse and headset drivers are updated.

Should I update the Bios?

What can I do man? I really want to fix this issue

Would formatting the computer (only the C drive with Windows) help?

 
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No need to format... yet.

Kernel memory leaks are difficult to diagnose because they're not easily attributed to a user process. User processes are auditable via Task Manager, not so with the kernel. Fortunately there's a tool similar to Task Manager for the Windows Kernel. Unfortunately, this tool no longer ships with Windows. Fortunately, it's easily downloaded.

Download the Windows Driver Kit from the link below and install

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/download-the-wdk

You do not need to install Visual Studio, just the driver kit. Once you have it installed, run poolmon.exe in a command line with the /b and /p parameters

In other words, open a command prompt in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Tools\x64" as Administrator in the folder containing poolmon.exe and run "poolmon.exe /b /p". Post a screenshot, the culprit should be at the top.

Alternatively, navigate to the folder in explorer and shift-right-click->"Open powershell window here" and type "poolmon.exe /p /b"
 
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I installed the Driver Kit.
This is what happens when I do what you said:
http://prntscr.com/juia4t

Also here is a picture of what happens when I open Poolmon.exe by clicking on it
http://prntscr.com/juibdj

How do I proceed from here?

Edit: I tried to improvise a little bit maybe it would help:
I closed most programs (chrome and such)
I opened Poolmon.exe by right clicking it and picking 'Run as Administrator', then pressed b and then pressed p and I took a picture of it.
Here it is: http://prntscr.com/juit2z


Also thank you very much for all of your help, I really appreciate it man :)
 
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Apologies, Powershell search path is a bit goofy. Type "./poolmon.exe -b -p" instead
 
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I opened it with not much programs open (no chrome or steam), waited 1 minute and here is the result:
https://imgur.com/a/iJtmkYN


Edit: Here's an update, how it looks right now: https://imgur.com/a/wsNAUEv

Edit*: btw I got my SSD, and I plan on installing windows on it and using solely it in the upcoming days, should I update the bios on the way?

And in case I have some sort of a virus thats eating up my memory, can it hurt or infect the new SSD?
Should I wait and not use the SSD yet?


 
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Nothing stands out yet, it looks like you recently rebooted your computer. In one of the previous posts your non-paged memory pool was at 2.5GiB which is enormous. If this continues to creep up, it indicates a memory leak in the kernel. Wait for a bit until this climbs and do the same thing again.

EDIT: out of curiosity, are you running any Razor software such as Razor Cortex?
 
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Not using any Razor hardware or software

Here are pictures from today (working on the new SSD, not using the old HDD)

https://imgur.com/a/Bx2xzBo

1.Both pictures taken at the same time with no programs open, I have total of 8 gb ram, how does my computer use 2gb on idle? also the memory the processes take do not add up..


2.Also should I update my bios?

When my non-paged memory pool will get high I'd send a poolmon pictrure again.
 
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1. 2GiB on idle is not unusual. The total amount of memory used is not merely the sum of the memory allocated to each process; kernel memory needs to be included as well.

2. Yes, always.
 
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Is there any way to see if the memory adds up? (kernel+processes)
 
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Since I've been using the new hard disk (an SSD, I use it alone without the old hard drive) everything is great (computer runs fast, games don't run on 1 fps and hitch mega hard, things don't take minutes to load)

Is there any danger in connecting back the old hard disk? (the one the I had the issues with)
Might it infect the SSD with its issues?
 
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