[SOLVED] Memory leaks in game causing things to freeze and SSD usage is 100% ?

[OUTBURSTPAL]

So ever since a couple of weeks ago I suddenly started getting freezes in games when trying to load into for example a map or a cutscene. It could be re created at the same point, so it’s not always intermittent, but it can be. When it freezes, my SSD usage goes to 100% but appears to be doing nothing. RAM stays normal. Technically the system is still responsive as I can move my cursor, but most applications will freeze up and I cannot restart unless I hard reset. Smells like a memory leak to me. But why does it only happen in games? Never in anything else? I have reinstalled the OS (not a complete fresh install, just a simple reinstall without getting rid of anything) and that didn’t fix it. This will happen on games installed on either one of my two SSDs, so it’s not the drive that’s the issue. This is definitely not a hardware issue right? Would a complete reinstall of the OS, and everything fix this? Here is a video example of what happens.

 

[drivinfast247]

Please list all PC specs.

How full is SSD?

Where did you get the games from?

 

[OUTBURSTPAL]

Please list all PC specs.

How full is SSD?

Where did you get the games from?

I9 10850K
Aorus Waterforce WB RTX 3090
Asrock z490 Aqua Mobo
32gb 3600mhz RAM
1x Samsung 970 Evo plus M.2 ssd 1tb
1x Samsung 970 Evo plus M.2 ssd 500gb
Corsair RM1000x PSU

SSDs are no where near full, and the games are on Steam.

 

[falcon291]

If a drive seems to work a hundred percent, it means there is something wrong with that drive.

Run CrystalDiskInfo and check SMART values of your drives.

Remove all drives in your system but OS drive, and check if the problem persists.

Then connect only the other M2 drive, install the operating system, and check if the problem persists.

I am not of course a hundred percent sure, but I think something is wrong with your OS drive.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

When the SSD is reading 100% don’t just use task manager open up the resource monitor and take a look at what’s going on on the drive, the memory and the CPU

I have experienced this before and I had to format my hard drive and reinstall windows clean and it went away. I’m not telling you to do that but that may be your only recourse if nothing else works

If you do a clean install of windows by formatting the drive and reinstalling cleanly and the problem still persists than you most likely have hardware issues

 

[Colif]

i don't think its a memory leak, not if its not eating ram. Most of them caused by drivers and they can't run anywhere apart from ram

Could use Process Explorer instead of resource monitor or task manager though have to download it
Download Process explorer and run it as admin (it comes from Microsoft so its safe)

the default view is tree structure meaning like your task manager screen, it will show what processes are under each service, but unlike task manager, it shows the ram usage of each part so you can see what is eating your ram

Private bytes = Ram + page file usage
Working set = actual ram usage

This page shows what all the colours and headings mean, link at bottom of it shows how to use it to find problems.

if you download it, there are charts in the top row. click on one and choose memory,
If its a memory leak it would show on here
if its drivers, the Driver WS in bottom left of screen will be massive, I have seen it where the number is so long it pushes the header off the screen

you can click on the header column and click Add columns and choose Disk tab, I would add reads/writes to the columns so you can see what is hitting it hardest.

download and run Magician on the drives, run diagnostics on both - https://semiconductor.samsung.com/consumer-storage/support/tools/

 

[OUTBURSTPAL]

When the SSD is reading 100% don’t just use task manager open up the resource monitor and take a look at what’s going on on the drive, the memory and the CPU

I have experienced this before and I had to format my hard drive and reinstall windows clean and it went away. I’m not telling you to do that but that may be your only recourse if nothing else works

If you do a clean install of windows by formatting the drive and reinstalling cleanly and the problem still persists than you most likely have hardware issues

Did it only happen in games for you too, or it happened when doing anything ?

 

[OUTBURSTPAL]

When the SSD is reading 100% don’t just use task manager open up the resource monitor and take a look at what’s going on on the drive, the memory and the CPU

I have experienced this before and I had to format my hard drive and reinstall windows clean and it went away. I’m not telling you to do that but that may be your only recourse if nothing else works

If you do a clean install of windows by formatting the drive and reinstalling cleanly and the problem still persists than you most likely have hardware issues

Fully wiping my SSD and fresh installing Windows didn’t help. Now I’m lost. Please anyone help me.

 

[falcon291]

Remove your OS drive, and install Windows to the other M2 drive.

If it runs fine, then the problem is your OS drive. And I believe it will be so.

 

[OUTBURSTPAL]

Remove your OS drive, and install Windows to the other M2 drive.

If it runs fine, then the problem is your OS drive. And I believe it will be so.

There is no other hardware that would cause this right? Other than a failing SSD? If it’s my OS SSD that could be the problem, why does the usage on the non OS SSD still go to 100 when running a game installed on it?

 

[falcon291]

You wrote that you have 2 SSDs. One of these SSDs is the source of the problem. So you must connect only one of them and see if it repeats.

 

[OUTBURSTPAL]

You wrote that you have 2 SSDs. One of these SSDs is the source of the problem. So you must connect only one of them and see if it repeats.

So one NVME SSD can make the other fail?

 

[falcon291]

You wrote that you have 2 SSDs. One of these SSDs is the source of the problem. So you must connect only one of them and see if it repeats.

100 % disk usage is a sign of failing disk. I would bet money on that. But there is no way to be sure.

 

[OUTBURSTPAL]

100 % disk usage is a sign of failing disk. I would bet money on that. But there is no way to be sure.

But either one of them can go to 100% if I’m running a game on that drive

 

[Dragos Manea]

100 % disk usage is a sign of failing disk. I would bet money on that. But there is no way to be sure.

You did not see ram usage, you did not see VRAM usage and you jumped to conclusion that is the SSD at fault because you had some similar experience, you jump to conclusions to fast, analyze, think then point at the culprit, you made a persone format a ssd in vain, stop jumping to conclusions,
@OUTBURSTPAL , follow Colif advice, start digging a a bit for the culprit, show us some statistics, memory usage, vram usage, cpu usage, disk usage etc.

 

[OUTBURSTPAL]

You did not see ram usage, you did not see VRAM usage and you jumped to conclusion that is the SSD at fault because you had some similar experience, you jump to conclusions to fast, analyze, think then point at the culprit, you made a persone format a ssd in vain, stop jumping to conclusions,
@OUTBURSTPAL , follow Colif advice, start digging a a bit for the culprit, show us some statistics, memory usage, vram usage, cpu usage, disk usage etc.

Hear me out: here is why I am convinced it is something with steam. I can edit and render videos for hours on end with Premiere Pro and after effects, work in Unreal Engine 4, etc flawlessly, but then when trying to load into a game map: bam. It’s quiet clear this isn’t a hardware issue right? Considering rendering videos in premiere pro is putting a lot more strain on my components than trying to load into a game map. I am in denial that there is something wrong with my hardware. Can anyone agree this is weird?

 

[Satan-IR]

As said above, the drives doing 100% and system freezing might have various reasons.

When it comes to Steam games, have you tried to 'verify the integrity of game files' through Steam? Library > Said Game > Manage cog/wheel > Properties > Local Files > Verify the integrity of game files.

It won't hurt to try and see if any of the games have corrupt files. If that's the case it will be a starting point to, as said above, dig deeper and see what might cause files going corrupt.

Also might not be a bad idea to run "sfc /scannow" (without quotes) from an elevated Command Prompt.

 

[Colif]

is it 100% in safe mode?

Have you run Asrock App store to check you have newest drivers?
https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z490 AQUA/Specification.asp#Download

are you using the Samsung NVME drivers? here under drivers - https://semiconductor.samsung.com/consumer-storage/support/tools/
while there, grab magician if you haven't already and run scans... never know, could be both drives.

 

[OUTBURSTPAL]

is it 100% in safe mode?

Have you run Asrock App store to check you have newest drivers?
https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z490 AQUA/Specification.asp#Download

are you using the Samsung NVME drivers? here under drivers - https://semiconductor.samsung.com/consumer-storage/support/tools/
while there, grab magician if you haven't already and run scans... never know, could be both drives.

Yes, all drivers everything is latest

 

[OUTBURSTPAL]

i don't think its a memory leak, not if its not eating ram. Most of them caused by drivers and they can't run anywhere apart from ram

Could use Process Explorer instead of resource monitor or task manager though have to download it
Download Process explorer and run it as admin (it comes from Microsoft so its safe)

the default view is tree structure meaning like your task manager screen, it will show what processes are under each service, but unlike task manager, it shows the ram usage of each part so you can see what is eating your ram

Private bytes = Ram + page file usage
Working set = actual ram usage

This page shows what all the colours and headings mean, link at bottom of it shows how to use it to find problems.

if you download it, there are charts in the top row. click on one and choose memory,
If its a memory leak it would show on here
if its drivers, the Driver WS in bottom left of screen will be massive, I have seen it where the number is so long it pushes the header off the screen

you can click on the header column and click Add columns and choose Disk tab, I would add reads/writes to the columns so you can see what is hitting it hardest.

download and run Magician on the drives, run diagnostics on both - https://semiconductor.samsung.com/consumer-storage/support/tools/

Here is what my process explorer looks like when the game freezes. It appears that now even the textures aren’t loading in 100% and don’t load in. I can’t even get past the sign in screen. It’s like the issue has gotten worse since last night. But yet, I can render videos on premiere pro for hours without an issue. (This issue happens on MOST games but at different times, so it’s not that particular game. But then some games it doesn’t happen at all. Why is it only some games? Even if I reinstall 10x, try on different drives, still freezes. What if I were to run the game on an external drive? If it runs fine on it, would that prove that it is one of the internal SSDs? Thought I’d add, it seems that the issue is worse when the game is installed on my 2nd SSD than the main OS one. Another edit: okay, so for the first time I was actually able to end the game task via task manager. BUT, for some odd reason, although it appeared the game wasn’t running visually, it was still running in the background, and was still consuming the disk usage therefore making the system act strange, although everything seemed okay, but I still couldn’t restart other than a hard reset. But, after “exiting” the game, my two SSDs strangely disappeared from task manager, not showing them at all. Very strange isn’t it? Yet again, can render videos on premiere pro putting all components under extreme stress for hours with no issue.

 

[johnbl]

do run microsoft process explorer, https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer
run it as adminstrator and find system process, double click, go to the threads tab and see what thead it eatting up all of the cpu time.
it removes the guessing. I have see storage controllers do this, I have seen the local search engine that searches the drive do this. Each has a different fix. I have seen bugs in drive firmware, memory problems failing to compress data correctly can do this also.

some of the firmware problems can be fixed if you boot into bios and allow the drive firmware clean up the drive for a while. firmware kicks in after 5 minutes of idle time.
then after the cleanup, you can install firmware updates.

if the problem is in the storage controller driver, you would just update the driver.
if the problem was in the search engine, you stop the service and clear the database and restart the service.

solution depends on the cause of the disk usage.

video was too small for me to read

 

[OUTBURSTPAL]

do run microsoft process explorer, https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer
run it as adminstrator and find system process, double click, go to the threads tab and see what thead it eatting up all of the cpu time.
it removes the guessing. I have see storage controllers do this, I have seen the local search engine that searches the drive do this. Each has a different fix. I have seen bugs in drive firmware, memory problems failing to compress data correctly can do this also.

some of the firmware problems can be fixed if you boot into bios and allow the drive firmware clean up the drive for a while. firmware kicks in after 5 minutes of idle time.
then after the cleanup, you can install firmware updates.

if the problem is in the storage controller driver, you would just update the driver.
if the problem was in the search engine, you stop the service and clear the database and restart the service.

solution depends on the cause of the disk usage.

video was too small for me to read

I’m not quite sure I understand what you’re saying about the threads. I updated the drive firmware and drivers, and also updated windows. Didn’t help. Also I thought I’d mention, not sure if this matters, but the audio of the game still plays whilst it freezes. It also seems a lot of textures are failing to load in 100%. Definitely and issue with things in game not loading and causing the drive to work 100%. Also I take back what i said about being able to use Adobe premiere pro with no issue, it appears that it will now freeze also. It seems like the issue has gotten worse over 2 weeks. It seemed like it was fixed for a week, then it came back. Please anyone help, I really need to use my PC to edit my grandfather’s 90th birthday video, but now it appears I can’t even do that. I’m really starting to bawl my eyes out now.

 

[Colif]

run it as adminstrator and find system process, double click, go to the threads tab and see what thead it eatting up all of the cpu time.

I’m not quite sure I understand what you’re saying about the threads.

click on the process header and sort alphabetically makes it easier to find System process
above is screenshot of me following John's steps.
Google search the sys file name that is using most CPU at time. Most of the ones in mine I don't recognise are part of my AV.

 

[johnbl]

I’m not quite sure I understand what you’re saying about the threads. I updated the drive firmware and drivers, and also updated windows. Didn’t help. Also I thought I’d mention, not sure if this matters, but the audio of the game still plays whilst it freezes. It also seems a lot of textures are failing to load in 100%. Definitely and issue with things in game not loading and causing the drive to work 100%. Also I take back what i said about being able to use Adobe premiere pro with no issue, it appears that it will now freeze also. It seems like the issue has gotten worse over 2 weeks. It seemed like it was fixed for a week, then it came back. Please anyone help, I really need to use my PC to edit my grandfather’s 90th birthday video, but now it appears I can’t even do that. I’m really starting to bawl my eyes out now.

you have to leave the process explorer running, then when the problem occurs, find the process that is taking up the time and look at the threads. At this point you can suspend the process and take a look at the stack and see what it is doing.

 

[johnbl]

I’m not quite sure I understand what you’re saying about the threads. I updated the drive firmware and drivers, and also updated windows. Didn’t help. Also I thought I’d mention, not sure if this matters, but the audio of the game still plays whilst it freezes. It also seems a lot of textures are failing to load in 100%. Definitely and issue with things in game not loading and causing the drive to work 100%. Also I take back what i said about being able to use Adobe premiere pro with no issue, it appears that it will now freeze also. It seems like the issue has gotten worse over 2 weeks. It seemed like it was fixed for a week, then it came back. Please anyone help, I really need to use my PC to edit my grandfather’s 90th birthday video, but now it appears I can’t even do that. I’m really starting to bawl my eyes out now.

you might also go and turn off all audio sources that do not have a speaker connected to them. Some audio devices will respond to signals meant for other audio devices. for example if you do not get sound to your monitor via hdmi cable you can turn off the gpu sound driver. or if you do not use the motherboard sound then you can disable the motherboard device in BIOS. you can disable devices in windows control panel device manager.