Windows 7 memory leaks problem

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TiberiumSoldier

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May 13, 2008
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Hi,
i am experiencing some memory leaks after long uptime (about 6-7 hours),on startup the memory seems to reach 680 max, after i am leaving it idle for 1 night (or less, about 3 hours) the memory usage is on 1.5gb , i tried to turn off Superfetch And prefetch but nothing happens, the memory consuming is still there , the major problem is that it causes my downloads to be corrupted
this thread is my last resort before moving back to XP
system info (if some of you need):
c2q q9400
2gb ram 800mhz dual channel
gigabyte ga-ep45-ud3l
cm690
500w enermax tomahawk
hd4870 vapor x

tempratures:
40c on idle (cpu)
55c on idle (gfx)
 
Are you running 32 or 64bit? My guess is that your antivirus or other automated program kicks in and runs, which consumes all your memory. Unfortunately, it doesn't release this as efficiently as it should with some RAM configurations.
Solution: Reboot, or shut down the computer before long idle periods.
 
Hmm... I shall have to try that.

Myself and my boss both upgraded to Windows 7 and have been using it since the RTM release. Whilst we did not notice it initially, I began to notice a week or two in to usage that the Memory usage would be sitting about level, with or without any special applications running, and then it would decide it was actually using more. I would watch the memory usage slowly double.
Checking all the running applications/services, there was nothing listed as actually taking very much of the RAM... So 1 gig of ram just vanishes.

For example, right now my RAM is sitting at 92% usage - it normally sits about 40-50% with Chrome and Outlook running - all I have running now are the usual, Chrome and Outlook.

It is particularly annoying, I was watching a movie the other night using Windows Media Player ( latest release ) and it peaked at 98% usage and lagged like nothing else... after a while, the RAM usage begins a gentle slope downwards.

Other interesting side effects include : when it peaks it drops connection to my dell usb mouse, occasionally the keyboard as well. I have to pull them out, and plug them back in to reconnect it.

So where is my RAM going?
 



...open the Task Manager, select 'All Users' in the lower left, and look at memory usage. It'll tell you. To investigate a specific item, right click it and in the drop down select ( 'processes' IIRC).
 
Thanks Scotteq! I did, however, check that previously. I went through all the processes looking at both their current usage, and the allocated space, and yet none explained the missing memory. For assuredly, that is what it is, there is no process listed as laying claim to the usage, but I can see and watch the memory usage increase and decrease by 1 gig of RAM.

In search of the missing resources I've tried using other third party tools... Checked it out using the Process Viewer packed with Spybot, and I checked it out using versions of ProcTools.
 
***Further details on the machines in question***
The machines in question (My boss's and mine) are both work PC's, part of the main department intranet.

However - being the IT support guys, we've set up our PC's seperate from the domain. Our Computers are not using remote profiles, and are not controlled by the same updating systems etc. of the rest of the department. We have both done clean installs of Windows 7, and we maintain and manage all subsequent updates to the machine. Both of our profiles are root admin accounts.

My machine is an Optiplex 960 (Standard Dell build), with dual widescreen monitors.

We make large use of network drives - whilst all programs we have installed locally, I have, at any one time, upto 8 network drives mapped. (generally 4/5)

 
I am having the exact same problem! About 1 gig of memory just disappears. I go into task manager and resource monitor and the total used memory does not equal the amount of memory used by each process. I have manually added up the memory used by each process which came out to about 800 mb, which is where the computer runs at start up. However both task manager and resource moniter claim 1.5 gb is being used. I cant figure out where the missing memory goes. Just like the original poster mentioned this problem happens when the computer is left on for extended periods of time. More than once this has completely maxed out my memory to the point that the computer freezes.

 
I have also had a memory leak problem in a 64 bit Windows 7 set-up. Please bear with me as I tell the story.

I have a self built system with an ASUS M3N-H/HDMI motherboard, an AMD Phenom II X4 940 processor, 4GB Corsair DDR2 6400 RAM and a nVidia GeForce 9400 GT Card running Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit. Over the past while I have been having random system crashes, about once every one to two days, with different memory addresses and different offending modules showing up in the crash dumps (often the kernel). I have checked my cooling, upgraded my power supply to a Thermaltake 650W (off the back of a UPS, we get frequent brief power cuts and surges out here) Memchecked and played with the BIOS. I have backed off the overclocking and am still hunting but suspect it is either the CPU or mother board or possibly an incompatibility between them.

Anyhow a couple of times the graphics driver seemed to be at fault and Windows error reporting suggested updating the nVidia drivers which I did a couple of weeks back to the 195.62 version for 64 bit Windows. I didn't pick it at the time but a soon started noticing a slow down in system performance after leaving the machine on overnight. The RAM would be at 93% or so and although functional the system was sluggish and laggy.

I would watch a freshly booted system RAM slowly climb from 32% sometimes adding a percent or two as I watched even though I wasn't doing anything to or with the system. Task Manager for all users showed two to three dozen processes running with Internet Explorer usually the biggest at about 150MB but no more than about 1.5GB of processes in total! I could not work out where the missing RAM was or what process was hogging it.

After searching through the different forums I found this at nVidia forums http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=157234. I decided to try my luck and see if there was a new driver and found that nVidia had released the 196.21 driver very recently. I installed 196.21 with my RAM at 94%. As the installer completed I watched the RAM usage on a desktop gadget drop immediately to 37%! Over a couple of days the system remains stable and there is no apparent memory leak. I am sitting on 54% right now with 6 programs active, desktop gadgets and 10 browser tabs open.

The short answer to this saga was, yep nVidia drivers were a problem again (remember Vista's early days?) but the latest driver 196.21 fixed the problem. My advice, if you have Windows 7 64 bit, upgrade from 195.62 now or skip it entirely.
 
I have a similar memory leak problem on my home build Win7 64bit Home premium system. The longer the system is running (about 10 to 12 hours) the more memory is used up until the system becomes useless and I have to reboot. When I say the system becomes useless I mean new apps won't launch and if I have explorer open and click on a file explorer closes.

It does not matter whether I have one application running or several the memory just gets sucked up by some app I can't identify or Win7 is just using up the memory. It also doesn't matter if I've close all my applications and go into the Task Manager and select each application and select "End Process Tree" the memory is not recovered.

I've updated my drivers, updated FireFox to version 3.6, replaced old hardware with new Win7 ready/compatible versions, and still the problem persist.

The System Build Is As Follows:
Win7 64bit Home Premium
Asus M4A79XTD EVO Motherboard
XFX 5750 1GB Graphics Card
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 2250 Receiver
G.Skill 4GB DDR3 1600 PC3 12800 Ripjaws Gaming Series
Western Digital Cavier 500GB 32MB SATA II Hard Drive
Western Digital Cavier 160GB 16MB PATA Hard Drive
LG 22X Super Multi DVD-RW SATA Burner
Sceptre 24" Monito
 
Update:
Bug squashed but not dead. The leak was better but still occured with a lower level of leak up to 54% then a crash. One crash had a Bug Check 0xA code which lead me here: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/02/microsoft-details-windows-7-memory-leaks-hangs-freezes.ars
I downloaded the Microsoft hotfix from http://support.microsoft.com/hotfix/KBHotfix.aspx?kbnum=979444 and the problem appears to be gone. I now have an up time of 5 days 8 hours and counting. The system seems solid. A multi layered problem indeed.
 
For me the memory leak problem has been solved. When my system crashed several times Win7 Home Premium 64-bit went looking for resolutions and after about three updates my memory leak problems vanished. I've been running the system for several days with memory usages not exceeding 55% with my 4GB system.
 
FIXED THIS FOR MY PC

I've had this problem since I built the PC ages ago and I've tried and tried to fix it, I've replaced my RAM and I've spent hours searching the internet and read multiple posts requiring people to post log files or just have people respond with the helpful "unused RAM is wasted RAM".

My problem was the same. Switch the PC on and slowly it would use more and more memory until evenually after less than 12 hours it crashed. I looked at the task manager, downloaded process explorer, and all the time I couldn't see what was using my RAM. Yet I could sit watching the pagefile increase by one every 5-10 seconds until it was 12000 and the PC could do nothing even with no applications open it was full RAM.

The solution for me was simple

1) Open Task Manager

2) Goto the Process table

3) From the menu bar select View > Select Collumns ...

4) Add "Handles" ad then rank the handles column

Right at the top of the list the culprit .exe stood out a mile with 17000 handles (second highest in list had 3000). I googled that and got a very simple fix. Finding out how to identify the culprrit software was the hard part, which took hours of surfing. For me it was the audiodg.exe which was causing the problems, a piece of software that handles audio enchanements and it was a very simple fix in the audio settings. Here's the link just in case that's a common cause

http://technicallyeasy.net/2009/03/fix-audiodgexe-high-cpu-usage/
 
Using Zukkster's last post(opening Handles Column), i discovered that Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service was the culprit. Taking nearly 1.5 gigs and 4,000+ handles.

To disable it, I did the following:

1. Type “services.msc” in the Windows search box to open Windows 7 Services Microsoft Management Console (MMC).

2. Select “Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service”, right click, and click “Stop” to disable it.

Program restarts when you restart computer, so to disable start-up:

go to MMC again, select and right click “Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service”, in the shortcut menu, click “Properties”. Look for “Startup type” item, select “Disabled” so that this process will be permanently disabled even when users restart the computer.

More detailed info and pics here:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2010/01/27/how-to-disable-windows-7-media-player-network-sharing-service-wmpnetwk/
 

Fantastic advice, bought a new PC from HP and was going around the bend trying to sort out the poor performance. Your fix sorted it big time. Now I have a lightening fast system Cheers.
 


Hi,

I had a similar problem as you were experiencing with Window 7 Ultimate. My desktop was brand new with more than adequate memory and cpu. But within 1 hour of using my desktop, it used to get frozen and unresponsive. On whatever operation I did (like opening the 'Task Manager' etc) gave me a error screen saying " insufficient system resources exists to complete the requested service". I monitored using the Windows gadgets 'All CPU Meter' and found that my RAM usage is soon reaching more than 70 percent, after which Windows 7 is getting frozen. I followed your comments and from the handles column of task manager, found the culprit. I have removed it and ever since my desktop is running properly.

Thanking you,
Das
 
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