Question Running out of memory all of the sudden

[xalcer13]

Since the past weeks my pc is been constantly having memory issues when it didn't had them before. A month ago I could have over 100 tabs in Chrome open, watching videos or a streaming in the background, with Discord open in a call while playing resource heavy games without a single memory problem. Now with a few tabs in Chrome if I open a game that never gave me problems before, crashes one or both of them.

I've checked the memory in task manager and it barely gets higher than 44%, so at first I thought it could be a virus but every single scan says the pc is clean. The second option could be that is getting way hotter here, but that would turn off the pc instead of just crashing the programs. The pc haven't got any hit, so the hardware should be fine.

I really have no idea why is it happening or what to do anymore to fix it. I've been playing the game without problems for a whole year and now all of the sudden every time I want to play is a ticking bomb until it crashes.

Specs:

OS: Windows 10 Pro
Processor: i5-9600k
RAM: 16 GB
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
Motherboard: Z390 AORUS PRO-CF

 

[SkyNetRising]

Can you show screenshot from your virtual memory settings?

How to change virtual memory size on Windows 10

If your PC runs low on virtual memory, you can adjust the size using Settings and Command Prompt.

www.windowscentral.com

(upload to imgur.com and post link)

 

[xalcer13]

Here it is (sorry is not in english):

 

[hotaru.hino]

When it appears you've run out of memory, open Task Manager, go to the Performance tab, and then the Memory page. Take a screenshot of that.

 

[xalcer13]

The drop is where the game crashed. Sometimes the game itself redirects me to the game's own official support page about memory problems.

 

[hotaru.hino]

The drop is where the game crashed. Sometimes the game itself redirects me to the game's own official support page about memory problems.

What's the memory usage after a reboot and letting the PC idle for 5 minutes?

 

[Colif]

Here it is (sorry is not in english):

what drive is Z drive?

move the page file onto C drive, not running on an ssd is dumb if you have the choice.

what game causes the memory error?

3gb page file, means commits are limited to 19gb max. WIndows cannot give programs any more resources once it hits commit limit.

You might be better adding more space to page file, it might fix. Could also be a memory leak. these are mostly caused by drivers.

 

[ubuysa]

Based on that memory page screen shot you are not running out of memory. The Confirmada (Commit) numbers there 11.8 and 18.8GB indicate that you have spare virtual memory. The 11.8GB is the maxium virtual memory that you were using at the time of the screenshot, that's way less than the 16GB of real memory (RAM) you have installed. The 18.8GB is the maximum virtual storage your system can support (RAM size + paging file size).

What out of memory error message are you seeing? Please post a screenshot of one or two. Do they only occur in specific apps/games?

 

[xalcer13]

What's the memory usage after a reboot and letting the PC idle for 5 minutes?

what drive is Z drive?

move the page file onto C drive, not running on an ssd is dumb if you have the choice.

Z drive is an HDD drive, C is a small sdd I have for the OS and most essential programs.

what game causes the memory error?

Any resource heavy game causes, but the one I've seen it the most is in Warframe.

Could also be a memory leak. these are mostly caused by drivers.

I updated the GPU drivers but it still happens.

What out of memory error message are you seeing? Please post a screenshot of one or two. Do they only occur in specific apps/games?

I don't really get a memory error message. Chrome crashes the tabs telling they couldn't load (Will try to get some screenshots of what the page says exactly), Discord straight up breaks and I have to shut it down from task manager. Warframe sometimes redirects me to this support page: https://www.warframe.com/en/memory

 

[Colif]

memory leaks can be any driver. Its rare its the GPU drivers, more often LAN drivers.

does the amount of memory used grow over the time PC is on? Since a restart clears it, could be a memory leak.

try running crystaldiskinfo (blue icons) on all your drives, just check health - https://crystalmark.info/en/

support page just says to let windows run page file allocation. Since you restricted it to only 2935, if PC needs more it can't have anymore. I would let Windows run Page file and see if it stops the errors.

 

[xalcer13]

does the amount of memory used grow over the time PC is on? Since a restart clears it, could be a memory leak.

It seems to be stable. It says that Chrome eats a lot of memory, but when I close it the performance in the taskmanager barely changes. Probably will need to change to a different browser sometime.

try running crystaldiskinfo (blue icons) on all your drives, just check health - https://crystalmark.info/en/

All three show up as "Good".

support page just says to let windows run page file allocation. Since you restricted it to only 2935, if PC needs more it can't have anymore. I would let Windows run Page file and see if it stops the errors.

It was set like that by default when the crashes started and I changed it. I activated it again and when trying to force the error it didn't crash, so that's a good start. What I saw was the CPU going all the way up to 100% though.

 

[xalcer13]

Got two more crashes today, one pretty big. I was editing an image and when I changed the resolution the entire computer went black. I could see the mouse but nothing else and when pressing buttons an error sound triggered. Had to restart the computer by unplugging it. I seriously don't know what to do anymore beside formating the pc and reinstalling everything.

 

[ubuysa]

Sorry for the delay in replying. From this display (at this moment in time ) you weren't even close to running out of memory. I would click Options > Always on top in that Task Manager display and watch the two numbers under Confirmada (Commited).

The left hand number (6.0GB above) is the total amount of virtual storage that Windows is using at this moment. The right hand number (18.8GB) is the maxium amount of virtual storage that Windows can ever allocate (it's max RAM + current paging file size) - if Windows tries to exceed this you will have an out of memory problem (and a BSOD).

As long as that left hand number is less than the 16GB of RAM you have installed (real memory) you're not running out of memory. If it's ever larger than 16GB you will get performance problems, because you'll be paging, but as long as it's less than the right hand number you're not out of memory

I don't really get a memory error message. Chrome crashes the tabs telling they couldn't load (Will try to get some screenshots of what the page says exactly), Discord straight up breaks and I have to shut it down from task manager. Warframe sometimes redirects me to this support page: https://www.warframe.com/en/memory

What makes you think you're running out of memory then? There are many things that can cause crashes.

It would be useful for you to export and upload your system and applications logs...

1. Enter the command eventvwr into the Run command box. The Event Viewer will open.

2. Locate the Windows Logs folder in the left hand pane and expand it by clicking on the arrow (>) to the left of it.

3. Right-click on the Application entry and select 'Save all events as...'. Choose a folder anywhere that suits you and a filename of 'Application' (an .evtx suffix will be added automatically).

4. Right-click on the System entry and select 'Save all events as...'. Choose a folder anywhere that suits you and a filename of 'System' (an .evtx suffix will be added automatically).

5. Zip the Application.evtx and System.evtx files together and upload the zip file here.

 

[xalcer13]

Sorry for the delay in replying. From this display (at this moment in time ) you weren't even close to running out of memory. I would click Options > Always on top in that Task Manager display and watch the two numbers under Confirmada (Commited).

The left hand number (6.0GB above) is the total amount of virtual storage that Windows is using at this moment. The right hand number (18.8GB) is the maxium amount of virtual storage that Windows can ever allocate (it's max RAM + current paging file size) - if Windows tries to exceed this you will have an out of memory problem (and a BSOD).

As long as that left hand number is less than the 16GB of RAM you have installed (real memory) you're not running out of memory. If it's ever larger than 16GB you will get performance problems, because you'll be paging, but as long as it's less than the right hand number you're not out of memory

I'll try to get a screenshot when the crash happens with the taskmanager open.

What makes you think you're running out of memory then? There are many things that can cause crashes.

It would be useful for you to export and upload your system and applications logs...

1. Enter the command eventvwr into the Run command box. The Event Viewer will open.

2. Locate the Windows Logs folder in the left hand pane and expand it by clicking on the arrow (>) to the left of it.

3. Right-click on the Application entry and select 'Save all events as...'. Choose a folder anywhere that suits you and a filename of 'Application' (an .evtx suffix will be added automatically).

4. Right-click on the System entry and select 'Save all events as...'. Choose a folder anywhere that suits you and a filename of 'System' (an .evtx suffix will be added automatically).

5. Zip the Application.evtx and System.evtx files together and upload the zip file here.

I thought it was a memory problem because the game sent me to a support page about how to fix them, and also because everytime I checked the memory usage was pretty high. It could be something else, but that was the most likely reason a the moment.

Here are the logs: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aNI-ioeHvbSZDCWbRyfAL75BKnsinNSz/view?usp=share_link

 

[ubuysa]

In your Application logs I do see application error messages for dwm.exe (the Desktop Windows Manager) with an exception code of 0xC00001AD, and that is indeed a STATUS_FATAL_MEMORY_EXHAUSTION exception. Here's an example...

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Application Error
Date:          27/04/2023 02:29:18
Event ID:      1000
Task Category: Application Crashing Events
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      Airo
Description:
Faulting application name: dwm.exe, version: 10.0.19041.746, time stamp: 0x6be51595
Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 10.0.19041.2788, time stamp: 0x62e593d6
Exception code: 0xc00001ad
Fault offset: 0x0000000000117cd2
Faulting process ID: 0x3dd0
Faulting application start time: 0x01d9788e9acbae25
Faulting application path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\dwm.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\KERNELBASE.dll
Report ID: ebf2dd72-1937-4ce1-9a0d-1e85f63458a7
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

It's important to realise that 'memory' means different things. To Windows 'memory' is all the virtual memory in the system (RAM + paging file), but to an application (or a driver) 'memory' is the size of the heap - the area of memory that it has allocated for it's private use. Applications (and drivers) can ask Windows to increase their heap allocation, and as long as there is enough spare virtual storage Windows will generally authorise it.

However, if the application or driver misuses its heap allocation, or a request for an enlarged heap, it's entirely possible to see the 0xC00001AD exception, not because Windows has run out of memory but because the application or driver has screwed up. I don't see anything in the system log that would suggest that Windows has been running out of memory.

I think the clue here is that most of the 0xC00001AD exceptions I've seen in your log are for dwm.exe, and that makes me think that the graphics driver may be at fault here. Check whether there is a graphics driver update available. Since this all started about a month ago, perhaps you had a graphics driver update at that time that is misbehaving? If you're on the latest driver version try rolling back to the two previous versions (one at a time of course). Be sure to use DDU to remove one driver before installing another.

 

[kerberos_20]

i did quick look at your event logs

Disk 3 has been surprise removed.

this error pops up frequently, it can be due to drive having strokes (timeouts)
is your pagefile on this drive? check drive number in disk management

I think the clue here is that most of the 0xC00001AD exceptions

those happens if you run out of virtual ram

 

[ubuysa]

Disk 3 could well be a USB drive.

0xC00001AD does mean a virtual memory allocation failure, but that could well be because the driver screwed up the allocation request (asking for 128GB of memory for example). It doesn't automatically mean that virtual memory is exhausted.

 

[Colif]

So he is running out of commits. Has that application error happened since letting windows manage page file? You can run out of memory and have free ram.

I expect Driver verifier would identify which driver is to blame, or we can just wait if you can't did it from any dumps.
follow the steps as it can lead to boot loops, blame MIcrosoft for making a test that breaks their own software - https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/driver-verifier-instructions.3686888/

 

[ubuysa]

Agreed, let's wait for Driver Verifier and see what that throws up.

 

[xalcer13]

I think I found the problem: my pc is a quantum computer.

When I use it normally it will crash every day, but if I set task manager to monitorize everything with Driver Verifier active trying to force the crash, it wont happen, no matter what. I tried to force it really hard: Chrome with over 500 tabs open, the game in the same place that usually crashes, Photoshop with images in huge resolutions, and even opening another heavy game at the same time that requires ten minutes to actually load. Both memory and CPU were at 100% without any crash or blue screen from verifier.

The only weird thing that happened was that I went to the bathroom for a sec and when I came back the pc had turned off by itself. Couldn't find any DMP file, so I doubt it was a blue screen from verifier.

 

[ubuysa]

If Driver Verifier isn't failing anybthird-party drivers then your problem is most likely hardware.

 

[xalcer13]

Unless the heat broke something, the case hasn't been touched at all so the chances of a hardware problems are low. The guide of Verifier says to keep it running for 36 hours if it doesn't crash, so I'll try that.

 

[Colif]

Just because hardware always worked before, doesn't discount it from blame. Half the problems on this forum happened "suddenly" so it could be something broke. I would check all the hardware and make sure

OS: Windows 10 Pro
Processor: i5-9600k
RAM: 16 GB
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
Motherboard: Z390 AORUS PRO-CF

run this on CPU - https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/15951/19792/intel-processor-diagnostic-tool.html?

Try running memtest86 on each of your ram sticks, one stick at a time, up to 4 passes. Only error count you want is 0, any higher could be cause of the BSOD. Remove/replace ram sticks with errors. Memtest is created as a bootable USB so that you don’t need windows to run it

you checked drives... so I won't list them

No real tests for GPU or Motherboard. WIth GPU you run benchmarks and see if you crash. With motherboard, you check everything else and then use a process of elimination to reach a conclusion

What PSU do you have?

 

[ubuysa]

Unless the heat broke something, the case hasn't been touched at all so the chances of a hardware problems are low.

There are four possible causes for any BSOD:

1. User mis-operation
2. A bad/wrong/missing third party driver
3. A hardware failure
4. A failure in Windows

It is a basic law of BSOD dump analysis that option 4 is so unlikely as to be impossible.
It's not easy for a user to cause a BSOD, except for the keyboard caused BSOD which is easy to debug(!)
Most BSODs are caused by bad/wrong/missing third party drivers (that's why we select all those in Driver Verifier).
A hardware failure is very difficult to identify from a memory dump. Generally, if there are no third party drivers called by the failing thread, then it's most likely to be hardware.

Hardware does fail, and usually in the most inconvenient way and at the most inconvenient time. Unfortunately it doesn't always fail cleanly - intermittent hardware faults are the hardest to diagnose.

 

[Colif]

intermittent hardware faults are the hardest to diagnose.

I had a dying mouse, it took 6 months to identify cause. Given problem pointed at GPU being to blame, it took me giving PC to a repair shop for testing to identify cause - no problems for days, plug in mouse... start again.