I'm having a major memory leak issue on my PC that doesn't seem to get better on its own. Even when I'm running minimal programs, the Task Manager shows that my memory usage is over 90%, and the non-paged pool is taking up more than 15GB out of my total 64GB. This memory leak happens suddenly, causing a failure that leaves me unable to free up memory afterwards, regardless of the usual fixes like messing with compressed memory.
I've done some digging and used PoolmonX to track down the tags linked to the files causing this problem. The tags I found are "Etwr" and "EtwD", which lead me to these files:
1. System32/win32kbase.sys
2. System32/win32kfull.sys
3. WinSxS/amd64_microsoft-windows-win32kbase_31bf3856ad364e35_10.0.22621.5185_none_8e8409d9e2351d58/win32kbase.sys
4. WinSxS/amd64_microsoft-windows-win32kbase_31bf3856ad364e35_10.0.22621.5262_none_8e777db1e23eb9b8/win32kbase.sys
5. WinSxS/amd64_microsoft-windows-win32k_31bf3856ad364e35_10.0.22621.5185_none_99013dcc15fe8a89/win32kfull.sys
6. WinSxS/amd64_microsoft-windows-win32k_31bf3856ad364e35_10.0.22621.5262_none_98f4b1a4160826e9/win32kfull.sys
I've read that tampering with WinSxS can result in bricking my PC, so that's a big no-no for me. I've already run DISM and SFC, but they didn't return any issues. Just so you know, my build consists of an Intel 13900K processor, 64GB of 5600 RAM, a 4090 GPU (ROG Strix), and a ROG Z790 Maximus HERO motherboard. My BIOS is up to date, and I'm not seeing any updates in Windows Update. On a separate note, I've been having trouble with USB drives not being recognized by my PC—no driver found. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
1 Answer
Hey! Sounds like a frustrating situation. Since those "Etw" tags relate to event tracing, it's worth considering that underlying drivers could be the cause of your memory leak. Make sure to check for updates on drivers like the Intel Rapid Storage Technology, which is often linked to these issues. Also, don’t forget to update your graphics and LAN drivers as they can contribute too. Sometimes anti-virus software can cause memory issues as well, so keeping that updated is important as well!
Thanks for the tips! Could you tell me how to specifically update the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver? Since my PC can't recognize USB drives, the Windows Update isn't helping. Any other way to get that driver updated?