I've been experiencing a peculiar memory leak issue on my Windows 11 machine. With 32GB of RAM, I noticed that even when I leave my PC turned on without running any applications, the RAM usage keeps growing steadily. The Task Manager shows that the paged pool memory does not decrease and can reach 3 to 4GB over time. I used Poolmon to investigate further, but I'm confused about what the "Key" pool tag means because when I search the System32/drivers directory, I see an overwhelming list of .sys files. I've already reinstalled my GPU drivers, suspecting that may be a culprit, but couldn't pinpoint the problem. I'm also wondering if malware might be playing a role. Ultimately, I'm looking for insights or advice on how to handle this issue.
4 Answers
It's completely normal for that paged pool to grow over time, especially if it's just a few GB out of your total 32GB. Just keep an eye on it, and if it gets close to maxing out, consider using tools like RamMap to monitor it better.
The Key tag likely relates to the registry, and if it's leaking, it means something might be opening registry elements without closing them properly. Have you tried using RAMMap to check which processes are using the most paged pool? If it’s a driver issue, you might have to update or uninstall specific drivers to solve this.
Just a heads-up: if you plan to tweak anything in your BIOS or disk setup, make sure you backup important data first. Changes can sometimes lead to unexpected data loss.
Have you checked the Handles column in the Task Manager? Sometimes there are specific applications or services that are holding onto a lot of handles and causing the leak. It can give you a clearer picture of what's happening.
That's great to hear! My paged pool hasn't grown since I disabled it. Thanks for the tip!
I noticed that too! The AMD User Experience Program was the one with a constantly increasing number of handles. Disabling it helped get rid of that Key Tag in Poolmon.