98-100% memory use, no process uses more than 25MB

18

5

I am having intermittent issues with my gaming computer. Sometimes, while playing Battlefield 3 (only 2 times the problem has occured), my memory usage goes to 100% of my 16GB machine. I close down BF3 (which is unplayable at this point), open up task manager, and no process uses more than 25MB of memory. Process Explorer shows much the same thing.

The problem disappears aftera reboot.

Any ideas what can be going on here?

Task manager Process explorer Poolmon x86 Poolmon x64

Vegard Larsen

Posted 2013-01-12T16:08:25.730

Reputation: 1 039

Answers

20

You may have a bad driver which leaks pool memory. Start the TasmkMgr and look at the non paged pool usage value. If this is several GB, you need to do the following:

Install the Windows Driver Kit, run poolmon.exe and look which pooltag causes the high memory usage. If you found the tag, open the cmd prompt and run 

findstr /s <Pooltag> *.sys

and look which driver is shown. If it happens while playing games, update the GPU driver. The ATI 12.10 driver is known to cause it. Install the 13.1 WHQL driver to fix it.

magicandre1981

Posted 2013-01-12T16:08:25.730

Reputation: 86 560

I do have the 12.10 ATI driver installed. Upgrading now, hope the problem disappears. – Vegard Larsen – 2013-01-14T17:48:53.733

12.11 beta drivers crash whenever BF3 is started, unfortunately, so rolling back. – Vegard Larsen – 2013-01-16T17:31:06.383

run poolmon and look if the AMD driver is really the cause. – magicandre1981 – 2013-01-16T19:10:18.053

poolmon output added. Seems like MINI is the culprit. Potential matches: arc.sys, atikmdag.sys, crashdmp.sys, diskdump.sys. I am assuming atikmdag.sys is the issue, so I am trying another upgrade of the ATI driver. – Vegard Larsen – 2013-01-19T09:18:19.473

ok, this can be the AMD driver. AMD releaed the 13.1 WHQL driver. Try this one. – magicandre1981 – 2013-01-19T11:33:18.053

@VegardLarsen have you fixed the issue? Did updating the AMD driver fixed it? – magicandre1981 – 2013-09-27T03:50:51.393

Yes, the problem went away after newer drivers appeared. – Vegard Larsen – 2013-09-27T06:59:49.827

ok, this is what I expected. – magicandre1981 – 2013-09-27T18:04:24.577

This problem is back again with 13.11 beta 8 – Pork 'n' Bunny – 2013-11-01T11:11:17.220

@Pork'n'Bunny is it again the MINI tag? – magicandre1981 – 2013-11-01T16:43:46.323

In my case poolmon showed trouble with the Wfpn tag. This is a common issue with the Killer e2200 NIC. The workaround was to disable the NDU service with sc config NDU start=disable at an elevated command prompt (see: http://damjank.blogspot.com/2012/11/windows-8-rtm-memory-leak-ndusys_15.html)

– D Coetzee – 2013-12-31T19:54:26.807

Asked: 2013-01-12T16:08:25.730

Viewed: 48 513 times

Active: 2015-09-03T15:48:20.610