Persistent RAM Issue - Memory Leak?

[glenn0524]

1. Hi everyone, I am experiencing a persistent issue with my computer's RAM usage that I have been unable to resolve. The 32GB of RAM is in place; however, I have noticed over time that usage goes gradually to around 98-99%, effectively locking usage to about 31.9GB. This actually does impact my system in several ways, making it lock up and generally operationally slower. System details

   • RAM: 32GB
   • Operating System: [Windows 11 23H2, Latest Version as on 15th February 2024]
   • System Type: [64 Bit, AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Processor]

   Steps performed for troubleshooting:

   1. RAMMap Analysis: Surprisingly, the excessive memory usage observed is not explained by any one process or the sum of processes. Every tab in RAMMap was examined in detail, but none exhibits usage anywhere near 31.9GB as reported, or sums to that magnitude.

   2. Resource Monitor: The Resource Monitor depicts that the memory shown as "In Use" is consistently around 30000MB, that is really high. However, the standby memory is in its normal limits.

   3. Follow-up tests: I tried a scan for malware, which showed I had no malware; I have also tried things like running the Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool, which reboots my PC and loads it into a tool where it checks your RAM for issues. This is also a freshly built PC and it has been happening since I built it. All drivers are up to date, and I have a limited amount of programs installed as I have already tried reinstalling windows.
   4. The problem is increasing gradually over time and it does not occur right after the system restart.
   5. There is no any specific application or process that appears to be the perpetrator via all the tools that I have been using to monitor memory usage.
   6. This problem persists even under minimal load when few applications are running.

[Eigenvektor]

Does sound like a memory leak. If it's not visible in the usual tools, it's either a memory leak on a lower level of the OS, or a memory leak in a driver. Could you maybe post screenshots from RAMMap so we have a chance to have a look at them as well?

[Cyberwolf]

what brand of ram are you using?

[glenn0524]

On 2/15/2024 at 6:17 PM, Cyberwolf said:

what brand of ram are you using?

VENGEANCE® RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 DRAM 6200MT/s CL32 Memory Kit — Black

[glenn0524]

On 2/15/2024 at 5:40 PM, Eigenvektor said:

Does sound like a memory leak. If it's not visible in the usual tools, it's either a memory leak on a lower level of the OS, or a memory leak in a driver. Could you maybe post screenshots from RAMMap so we have a chance to have a look at them as well?

[Mark Kaine]

A)

 

install ISLC, read the instructions, if that doesn't help

 

B)

 

install windows 10

 

 

https://www.wagnardsoft.com/ISLCw

 

 

[Mark Kaine]

32 minutes ago, glenn0524 said:

VENGEANCE® RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 DRAM 6200MT/s CL32 Memory Kit — Black

Could you also post a screen of your startup tab (in full) please?

[Mark Kaine]

On 2/15/2024 at 5:51 PM, glenn0524 said:

However, the standby memory is in its normal limits.

well, obviously not possible with the high usage...

 

also reserved is obscenely high. 

 

this is what this should look like:

 

 

On 2/15/2024 at 5:51 PM, glenn0524 said:

The problem is increasing gradually over time

really your best bet is ISLC.

 

btw while it looks like a windows issue,  this is really likely a BIOS issue, so buying a completely different motherboard (with known to be good BIOS) is another option. 

 

 

On 2/15/2024 at 5:51 PM, glenn0524 said:

the excessive memory usage observed is not explained by any one process or the sum of processes.

while this is normal behavior,  it would still be of interest to know *what* processes use the most RAM.

 

 

 

 

 

[Mark Kaine]

On 2/15/2024 at 6:40 PM, Eigenvektor said:

Does sound like a memory leak. If it's not visible in the usual tools, it's either a memory leak on a lower level of the OS, or a memory leak in a driver. Could you maybe post screenshots from RAMMap so we have a chance to have a look at them as well?

well it clearly is visible...

 

maybe they have page file turned off? o.o

[glenn0524]

6 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

A)

 

install ISLC, read the instructions, if that doesn't help

 

B)

 

install windows 10

 

 

https://www.wagnardsoft.com/ISLCw

 

 

Installing windows 10 won't be viable, I'm relying on a lot of software that is only windows 11 compatible, such as Arc and business related tools.

I used ISLC to clean my standby memory, and it just turned to Free memory, which left me about 2GB to spare, however it ended up turning back into standby memory.

[glenn0524]

6 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

Could you also post a screen of your startup tab (in full) please?

[glenn0524]

6 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

while this is normal behavior,  it would still be of interest to know *what* processes use the most RAM

[glenn0524]

6 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

maybe they have page file turned off? o.o

This is my page file settings I believe

[glenn0524]

+ while having 29GB ram "In Use" in Resource Monitor on my PC with no apps actually using anywhere near that much, it says "Unused" as 10GB on RAMMAP.

[glenn0524]

7 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

A)

 

install ISLC, read the instructions, if that doesn't help

 

B)

 

install windows 10

 

 

https://www.wagnardsoft.com/ISLCw

 

 

 

I did this too. It did nothing in terms of affecting my RAM apart from decreasing my standby by a little bit.

[Eigenvektor]

Can you switch RAMMap to File Details and sort by size? If there's nothing visible, I think you'll have to dig deeper: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/debugger/finding-a-memory-leak

 

You can try using PoolMon to find a memory leak at the kernel level: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/debugger/using-poolmon-to-find-a-kernel-mode-memory-leak

[Mark Kaine]

13 hours ago, glenn0524 said:

 

I did this too. It did nothing in terms of affecting my RAM apart from decreasing my standby by a little bit.

i mean it looks like you tried a lot... its still weird to me ISLC doesn't help, while it usually only mitigates the issue the effects should be rather large.

 

as for setting it up,  sorry not watching a random yt video... its described on the website,  its very easy to do... but again if you did that then its very strange ot didn't help.

 

other thing, again, you have to realize you have almost 1GB "reserved" that hints at a very fundamental issue,  i would recommend replacing the mobo for a *different* one, perhaps also the RAM. 

[StDragon]

You sure you're not running some virtualization platform with VMs in the background? Hyper-V VM consumption for example isn't listed under Details of Task Manager, however Task Manger will show total consumed under Performance.

[glenn0524]

11 hours ago, Eigenvektor said:

Can you switch RAMMap to File Details and sort by size? If there's nothing visible, I think you'll have to dig deeper: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/debugger/finding-a-memory-leak

 

Nothing visible pops up there. Highest is 300MB as Spotify.

Also trying the windows mem debugger, however that'll take a while.

Poolmon also found nothing related to a memory leak.. everything that is being used just adds up to however much RAM I'm actually using, so it says 11GB is being used and it never shows the "missing" or "in use" RAM.

 

[glenn0524]

4 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

i mean it looks like you tried a lot... its still weird to me ISLC doesn't help, while it usually only mitigates the issue the effects should be rather large.

 

as for setting it up,  sorry not watching a random yt video... its described on the website,  its very easy to do... but again if you did that then its very strange ot didn't help.

 

other thing, again, you have to realize you have almost 1GB "reserved" that hints at a very fundamental issue,  i would recommend replacing the mobo for a *different* one, perhaps also the RAM. 

I just got the B650E-F, I won't want to buy a whole new one, seems like a waste. Probably can see what I can do with warranty. Same for RAM.

[glenn0524]

2 hours ago, StDragon said:

You sure you're not running some virtualization platform with VMs in the background? Hyper-V VM consumption for example isn't listed under Details of Task Manager, however Task Manger will show total consumed under Performance.

Yes I have one hyper-v virtual machine, and I already limited it to 6GB ram. Plus it is off and the last checkpoint was a couple of days ago, which the memory leak is still happening now. 

[StDragon]

Check the kernel usage with Process Explorer.

(procexp64.exe) --> View --> System Information --> Memory tab --> Kernel Memory (Nonpaged)

If there's a memory leak in Kernel space, it's probably a buggy driver (use PoolMon as suggested by Eigenvektor)

[glenn0524]

Unsure if this is relevant, but my "Pool nonpaged bytes" seem to be 100 at all times in performance monitor.

[glenn0524]

5 hours ago, StDragon said:

Check the kernel usage with Process Explorer.

(procexp64.exe) --> View --> System Information --> Memory tab --> Kernel Memory (Nonpaged)

If there's a memory leak in Kernel space, it's probably a buggy driver (use PoolMon as suggested by Eigenvektor)

no clue what to look for here, but here's the screenshot of my kernel memory.

[StDragon]

Doublecheck with PoolMon
 

If you're not able to find anything, then if it was me, I would be backing up my data and obliterate the drive out of concern of rootkit malware.
 

Here's a link on DISKPART CLEAN which you can run from a bootable USB install of Windows and invoke the CLI to run it. Hopefully you don't have to take drastic measures...