Memory Usage Goes Up Gradually (Memory Leak)

[raya2]

Memory Usage Goes Up Gradually (Memory Leak)

 

When I starting the Windows (in the first few hours) everything is normal But after 1 day or 2 (sooner or later) the amount of available memory gradually goes down and the physical memory usage increasing. This increasing, continues until the memory usage reaches near the 88% and at that point , there isn't any memory available to operate any software . Also when memory reaches that point, I can't access any drive in the HDD; because everytime I want to open any folder, the following error appears :

 

c:\ is not accessible.

Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service

 

At this point, I even can't shutdown or restart Windows normally; I must restart windows manually by pressing the restart button. after restart, everything goes to normal again; but this problem appears again and again ... (I had to restart Windows every 1 or 2 days)

 

here is the screenshots of processes and performance tabs in the Task Manager (at 88% memory usage)

You can see that there is no software(application) that uses this amount of memory :

 

http://photoserve.nl/images/508161.jpg

 

http://photoserve.nl/images/154212.jpg

 

http://photoserve.nl/images/777083.jpg

 

http://photoserve.nl/images/786204.jpg

 

my system :

------------------------

OS : Windows 7 Ultimate x86

Cpu : Intel P4 3.0GHz

Vga : nVidia 6600

MB : Gigabyte GA-8I915G Duo

PSU : Corsair 750W

RAM : 2GB DDR-400 Transcend

(I have these memories for 2 years)

 

Physical Memory: 2000 mb

Paging File: 2000 mb

Virtual Memory: 6000 mb

 

 

I already did the following actions but unfortunately none of them helped me :

 

0- using some optimizing and freeing softwares like (Memory Booster Gold - RAM Saver Pro - CleanMem)

 

1- Scanning my computer with antivirus and antispywares

 

2- Changing antivirus software

 

3- Updating windows with all updates available via Windows Update

 

4- Updating drivers of all hardwares

 

5- Downloading and installing the following hotfixes that are related to memory leak :

The memory of the nonpaged pool may leak when you enable IPsec on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7

A memory leak issue occurs in the Windows Management Instrumentation service on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7

FIX: A memory leak may occur when you use the Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects Library in Windows Vista, in Windows 7, in Windows Server 2008, or in Windows Server 2008 R2

A memory leak occurs when an ADO Recordset object calls the UpdateBatch method

A nonpaged pool memory leak occurs when you use a WFP callout driver in Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, or in Windows Server 2008 R2

 

6- Using CClenaer for clearing everything and using memtest86+ for finding any possible error in memory

 

And here is screenshot from Process Explore (from Sysinternals Suite) at 90% memory usage :

 

http://photoserve.nl/images/8885391.jpg

 

So is there anything that I can do to solve this problem ? any solution ? hotfixe ? trick ? suggestion ? anything ? ...

[ZeroHour]

I would try running "Windows Memory Diagnostic" just to make sure they dimms are not faulty.

Do you have a creative soundcard (notice x-fi there)?

[raya2]

I would try running "Windows Memory Diagnostic" just to make sure they dimms are not faulty.

Do you have a creative soundcard (notice x-fi there)?

 

ok - I'll try Windows Memory Diagnostic as soon as possible and will report back

 

yes - I have creative x-fi xtreme music sound card

[finbar3]

I might sound silly but csrss.exe is a process which is registered as a trojan called Nimda.E but then again i might be wroung

[ZeroHour]

I do know creatives latest drivers (esp if its an older card) have been really really bad. I have gone to integrated due to my many issues with my x-fi under vista/7 so possibly try disabling that in case thats the driver with a a leak.

[raya2]

I might sound silly but csrss.exe is a process which is registered as a trojan called Nimda.E but then again i might be wroung

 

no - it is not a trojan - because it is located in Windows\System32 directory

 

I do know creatives latest drivers (esp if its an older card) have been really really bad. I have gone to integrated due to my many issues with my x-fi under vista/7 so possibly try disabling that in case thats the driver with a a leak.

 

I have the latest drivers for my sound card ; but I have this driver for more than 3 months but this problem (memory leaking) started two weeks ago

 

what do you mean disabling it ? you mean remove my sound card from motherboard ?

 

"Windows Memory Diagnostic"

 

And about "Windows Memory Diagnostic" :

I used it but it didn't find any error ( I also used memtest86+ (that it is more advanced) but it didn't find errors too )

Edited May 25, 2010 by raya2

[ZeroHour]

Try disabling it in Device manager first I suppose and reboot and see. I just know creative drivers are pretty nasty.

[raya2]

ok - I'll do and report as soon as possible

[raya2]

Disabling Creative didn't help

[_Adam_]

Try running msconfig.exe and disable all non-MS services and all startup programs. Run for a while and see if the memory leak exists. If it does and you have not been running apps like crazy it could be a driver issue. Chances are it will not be there and this will be your benchmark. Slowly re-add services and startup programs and test for the leak. I usually just add services first then once I am happy the fault is not there I add a few startup programs at a time. This will help you isolate the faulty program and give you a chance to update/remove it.

[CtrlAltDel]

I'd keep uninstalling drivers and monitor it as I go. You'd want to make sure you have the means to reinstall the drivers before you remove them though

Those Wacom tablet drivers look like they're using a few MB's...

If the issue doesnt happen in safe mode then you'll know for sure that its something 3rd party that the computer is loading up thats doing it.

[raya2]

Try running msconfig.exe and disable all non-MS services and all startup programs. Run for a while and see if the memory leak exists. If it does and you have not been running apps like crazy it could be a driver issue. Chances are it will not be there and this will be your benchmark. Slowly re-add services and startup programs and test for the leak. I usually just add services first then once I am happy the fault is not there I add a few startup programs at a time. This will help you isolate the faulty program and give you a chance to update/remove it.

 

I did it before - I disabled any services that can be disabled one by one but problem did'nt solved

and avast antivirus is the only software that is in the startup section

 

I'd keep uninstalling drivers and monitor it as I go. You'd want to make sure you have the means to reinstall the drivers before you remove them though

Those Wacom tablet drivers look like they're using a few MB's...

If the issue doesnt happen in safe mode then you'll know for sure that its something 3rd party that the computer is loading up thats doing it.

 

I tried creative and a4tech (mouse) drivers and it seems I must try uninstalling others (nvidia and wacom ...)

[Geoff]

Error message on a blue screen on a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2: "STOP: 0x0000000A"

 

Perhaps?

[Belittled]

Hi there, when i first installed windows 7 a couple months back i also had this issue!

 

At the time i was using a Creative Soundblaster Audigy SE 7.1.

Anyway after browsing numerous forums i found the fix and since then i have had no issues what so ever.

What you do is this,

 

1. Right click speakericon in bottom right of the taskbar. Select "Playback Devices".

2. Left click "Speakers/Creative SB X-Fi/Default Device" then click Properties.

3. Click on the Sound Blaster tab, And tick the "Disable Sound Blaster Enhancements" box.

 

Sourced from: social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itproperf/thread/e28a135e-a167-46cb-bc4b-bf432b826d9a

Let me know how it goes Couldn't link due to first time post which is understandable

[raya2]

Error message on a blue screen on a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2: "STOP: 0x0000000A"

 

Perhaps?

 

thanks - but in this 3 or 4 weeks that I have this problem , only one time I saw the blue screen

Edited June 9, 2010 by raya2

[raya2]

Hi there, when i first installed windows 7 a couple months back i also had this issue!

 

At the time i was using a Creative Soundblaster Audigy SE 7.1.

Anyway after browsing numerous forums i found the fix and since then i have had no issues what so ever.

What you do is this,

 

1. Right click speakericon in bottom right of the taskbar. Select "Playback Devices".

2. Left click "Speakers/Creative SB X-Fi/Default Device" then click Properties.

3. Click on the Sound Blaster tab, And tick the "Disable Sound Blaster Enhancements" box.

 

Sourced from: social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itproperf/thread/e28a135e-a167-46cb-bc4b-bf432b826d9a

Let me know how it goes Couldn't link due to first time post which is understandable

 

thank you - I'll give it a try and inform you if it helps

[raya2]

First : Every time I launch TuneUp Utilities 2010 , It shows me the following error about deleted prefetch folder :

 

http://photoserve.nl/images/91483Tuneup.jpg

 

Second - I found something important related to my problem:

 

Each time I use my hard drives (copying, cutting, writing, downloading files on any of my 3 hard disks) , the speed of memory leak , increasing.(the memory usage goes up more quickly)

It seems that the source of my problem is related to H.D.Ds.

I already defragged all of my hard disks but it didn't help.

Any other solution ?

[Geoff]

Ok this smells like a driver issue. Are your drivers up to date? Also, are you using any sort of RAID (particularly 'hardware' based, a la softraid)?

[raya2]

yes - all of my drivers are up to date

I don't use raid for my hards but I installed the via raid driver 3 months ago at the first day of installing win7

[PiqueABoo]

I haven't spent any time with Win7 as opposed to 2K8R2 yet but that NonPaged figure of 1460MB definitely looks like the problem.

 

Finding the cause is the tricky bit. PoolMon (which I think you have to get from the Windows Driver Kit for 7.0 ws or svr) can sometimes help a little in that it will tell you which memory tag is responsible, but getting from that to the actually culprit hasn't ever been easy or indeed possible for me... it can be rocket science-ish.

 

NonPaged pool leaks have been rare for me compared to Paged pool leaks. Only time I've seen one it was some dodgy printer monitoring s/w that only ran, and steadily leaked, when someone was logged on.

[raya2]

I already used that poolmon.exe too (here is the screenshots at 88% memory usage) :

 

storage.to - Download

[raya2]

OK - At last I found the cause of this problem and fixed it.

A file named multikey.sys in the (windows\system32\driver) folder made the memory leaks and after deleting it , everything went back to normal.

(I used the poolmon.exe software to found this file (with poolmon.exe /c parameter))

 

Thanks to everyone helped me here

[Geoff]

Googling the file name would suggest the offending driver is a trojan too?