Windows Manager causing System to take 100% ram

[Souchy]

Hi, what happens is in the screenshot :

Sometimes the Windows Manager doesn't take as much ram, but whenever this happens, obviously my whole system becomes extremely laggy and the only temporal fix I've found is to kill the Windows Manager task. This seems to reset it and clear the ram it takes in system, but it comes back every 1-2 days and I usually like keep my PC on for months at once so I'd like a permanent solution.

Why is this happening ?

This is my setup https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/yfNzvn, been running smooth for about 3 years and this problem has only been a thing in the past 2-3 months.

 

[Colif]

Have you changed your page file size at all?

system process handles memory management so its ironic its eating it all as well.
Have you run an anti virus scan and/or malwarebytes?

See if this can show any more info
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 = actual ram usage
Working set = Ram + page file usage

This page shows what all the colours and headings mean, link at bottom of it shows how to use it to find problems. You can right click headers and run an av scan from within the program.

 

[Souchy]

Have you changed your page file size at all?

system process handles memory management so its ironic its eating it all as well.
Have you run an anti virus scan and/or malwarebytes?

See if this can show any more info
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 = actual ram usage
Working set = Ram + page file usage

This page shows what all the colours and headings mean, link at bottom of it shows how to use it to find problems. You can right click headers and run an av scan from within the program.

Sorry I've been very occupied.
I tried to investigate using Process explorer but to no avail, it says "error opening process" and has no child process.
Made an album of what I got from it https://imgur.com/a/qAc63TW? with the first picture being after I resetted it while the other pictures are before.

edit: actually just realized tree view wasn't activated, but the problem isn't occuring right now and its tree only contains this : winlogon.exe > (fontdrvhost.exe | dwm.exe).

 

[Colif]

it might be a memory leak on a driver. What are specs of PC? What motherboard do you have? Have you got latest Graphics card drivers?

fontdrvhost = Usermode Font Driver Host, part of windows.
dwm.exe - Desktop windows manager

Desktop Window Manager (dwm.exe) is a compositing window manager that renders all those pretty effects in Windows: transparent windows, live taskbar thumbnails, Flip3D, and even high resolution monitor support.

Instead of applications drawing their displays directly to your screen, applications write the picture of their window to a specific place in memory. Windows then creates one “composite” view of all the windows on the screen before sending it to your monitor. Because Windows is compositing and displaying the contents of each window, it can add effects like transparency and window animations when layering the windows for display.

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/what-is-dwmexe-and-why-is-it-running/

 

[Souchy]

My specs are in the first post, I linked my build on pcpartpicker.

My drivers weren't behind too much in updates (didn't have 18.5.1 and 18.6.1), but I updated them through the AMD Radeon software after your post.

 

[Colif]

Did the driver update change the usage at all? I guess you have to wait.

Sorry about missing link, I must have been blind.

no need to apologise about not being able to answer, its your thread, I am not going anywhere

 

[Souchy]

It is still happening

 

[Colif]

Did you run Process explorer as admin? that might be why you got the error. when you start it, right click the icon and choose more... Run as Admin

I can open its properties in Process explorer but you see half as much as you do with admin rights.

The threads tab probably best for your purposes, it might get us closer to why.

 

[Souchy]

Ok,
Right now it's running smoothly, I'll check back next time it happens

 

[Souchy]

I have 16gb ram so idk how it gets to 17gb, I guess it includes the pagefile

 

[Colif]

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

It usually occupies 50-100 MB of memory and around 2-3%CPU – but it all depends on your system. Is a large number of windows and animated processes are open, it will use more memory, and thus consequently slow down the system or cause freezes.

Run the Performance Troubleshooter. Open an elevated Command Prompt, type the following and hit Enter:

msdt.exe /id PerformanceDiagnostic

This troubleshooter helps the user adjust settings to improve operating system speed and performance. If this does not help, you may need to troubleshoot Windows performance issues.

https://www.thewindowsclub.com/desktop-window-manager-dwm-exe

try link in quote as well.

I still think its a driver leak, just trying to work out which. GPU is the obvious one but you updated those. You could try this and see if it makes any difference - http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2767677/perform-clean-install-video-card-drivers.html
Try updating LAN drivers - http://www.realtek.com.tw/Downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&Langid=1&Level=5&PFid=5&PNid=13

see if the asnwer here helps - https://superuser.com/questions/949244/windows-10-high-memory-usage-unknown-reason