Task Manager Not Showing All Processes Using RAM

[swoozie]

Hi, all.

Something on my box is suddenly taking up a lot of RAM,
and I can't seem to track it down using task manager.
It happens when I'm playing a game (Battlefield 2 v1.4, FWIW),
and when I'm in the middle of the game, it starts freezing up
and I manage to exit. The BF2.exe process is gone, but
over a GIG of RAM is in use. The process list's mem usages
don't add up to anywhere near the 1.2GB that's in use then,
and it was something like 400MB before starting the game
(which uses about 700MB itself). I certainly don't see a
process with anything that size either!

FWIW, I also used Process Explorer, but didn't see anything
there either.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
~swooz

 

[Robert Moir]

Hi, all.

Something on my box is suddenly taking up a lot of RAM,
and I can't seem to track it down using task manager.
It happens when I'm playing a game (Battlefield 2 v1.4, FWIW),
and when I'm in the middle of the game, it starts freezing up
and I manage to exit. The BF2.exe process is gone, but
over a GIG of RAM is in use.

How are you determining this? Are you sure you're not looking at the
pagefile instead?

 

[swoozie]

How are you determining this? Are you sure you're not looking at the
pagefile instead?

Thanks for the response, Robert. I'm looking at the default "Mem
Usage"
column under the "Processes" tab in Task Manager. I've selected the
checkbox to show processes from all users.

Thanks,
~swooz

 

[Robert Moir]

Thanks for the response, Robert. I'm looking at the default "Mem
Usage"
column under the "Processes" tab in Task Manager. I've selected the
checkbox to show processes from all users.

So where are you getting 1GB of ram used by a process you can't see from
there?

 

[swoozie]

So where are you getting 1GB of ram used by a process you can't see from
there?

That's my question! No single process is over 22MB in RAM usage,
and eyeballing the list has me roughly calculating a total of 200MB.

~swooz

 

[Alec S.]

Something on my box is suddenly taking up a lot of RAM,
and I can't seem to track it down using task manager.
It happens when I'm playing a game (Battlefield 2 v1.4, FWIW),
and when I'm in the middle of the game, it starts freezing up
and I manage to exit. The BF2.exe process is gone, but
over a GIG of RAM is in use. The process list's mem usages
don't add up to anywhere near the 1.2GB that's in use then,
and it was something like 400MB before starting the game
(which uses about 700MB itself). I certainly don't see a
process with anything that size either!

So you're saying that when you play some games, your system becomes unresponsive, so you quit the game and when you immediately
check the Task Manager, the RAM numbers don't add up right? I take it that you're saying that the total RAM used by the processes
plus the free RAM does not add up to the total RAM you've got, is that it?

When this happens and you check the TM, is the CPU usage at 100%?

What might be happening is that the game is using all that RAM-it's not uncommon at all with today's games, besides,
400MB+700MB=1.1GB like you said. The reason that you're not seeing any processes listed as using it is because the process was
already removed from the Task Manager after you quit the game, but the process of freeing up that RAM has not completed yet. That's
a lot of RAM, and a lot of it is probably in the swap file on disk (which is slow). I'm sure that if you wait a little bit (give it
a few seconds, or a minute), the amount of used RAM would drop once the system is done deallocating the memory it had assigned to
the game.


Let me know if that's not the case.

 

[swoozie]

So you're saying that when you play some games, your system becomes unresponsive, so you quit the game and when you immediately
check the Task Manager, the RAM numbers don't add up right? I take it that you're saying that the total RAM used by the processes
plus the free RAM does not add up to the total RAM you've got, is that it?

When this happens and you check the TM, is the CPU usage at 100%?

What might be happening is that the game is using all that RAM-it's not uncommon at all with today's games, besides,
400MB+700MB=1.1GB like you said. The reason that you're not seeing any processes listed as using it is because the process was
already removed from the Task Manager after you quit the game, but the process of freeing up that RAM has not completed yet. That's
a lot of RAM, and a lot of it is probably in the swap file on disk (which is slow). I'm sure that if you wait a little bit (give it
a few seconds, or a minute), the amount of used RAM would drop once the system is done deallocating the memory it had assigned to
the game.


Let me know if that's not the case.

Hi, Alec, thanks for the feedback. No, it's been over 7 hours now and
no RAM
usage has shrunk. But it *does* seem to be about the size of what it
might've
been during the game. Too bad I can't task switch out of the game to
peek
at the usage. Can a driver or something below the system's application
level take ownership
of an ordinary process through some glitch, then losing its PID and
entry in
the Task Manager? Or maybe the system drops the PID w/o freeing the
memory?
Not all that familiar with WinXP (Pro, SP2) system goings-on. But I've
been using
Task Manager for many years and don't think I've seen anything like
this before.
Thanks for the help!

~swooz

 

[swoozie]

So you're saying that when you play some games, your system becomes unresponsive, so you quit the game and when you immediately
check the Task Manager, the RAM numbers don't add up right? I take it that you're saying that the total RAM used by the processes
plus the free RAM does not add up to the total RAM you've got, is that it?

When this happens and you check the TM, is the CPU usage at 100%?

What might be happening is that the game is using all that RAM-it's not uncommon at all with today's games, besides,
400MB+700MB=1.1GB like you said. The reason that you're not seeing any processes listed as using it is because the process was
already removed from the Task Manager after you quit the game, but the process of freeing up that RAM has not completed yet. That's
a lot of RAM, and a lot of it is probably in the swap file on disk (which is slow). I'm sure that if you wait a little bit (give it
a few seconds, or a minute), the amount of used RAM would drop once the system is done deallocating the memory it had assigned to
the game.


Let me know if that's not the case.

Oh, also...I was saying the the itemized RAM usage of each process
don't
add up to what's in the 'PF Usage' meter in the 'Performance' panel of
TM.
The missing piece is probably the size of what BF2.exe owned when the
game started freezing up (not totally, but stuttering very slowly).

Thanks,
~swooz

 

[Alec S.]

Oh, also...I was saying the the itemized RAM usage of each process don't
add up to what's in the 'PF Usage' meter in the 'Performance' panel of TM.
The missing piece is probably the size of what BF2.exe owned when the
game started freezing up (not totally, but stuttering very slowly).

Select View->Select Columns, then check Virtual Memory Size. Take a look under that column and see if there's anything really big.

 

[Frank]

Hi, all.

Something on my box is suddenly taking up a lot of RAM,
and I can't seem to track it down using task manager.
It happens when I'm playing a game (Battlefield 2 v1.4, FWIW),
and when I'm in the middle of the game, it starts freezing up
and I manage to exit. The BF2.exe process is gone, but
over a GIG of RAM is in use. The process list's mem usages
don't add up to anywhere near the 1.2GB that's in use then,
and it was something like 400MB before starting the game
(which uses about 700MB itself). I certainly don't see a
process with anything that size either!

FWIW, I also used Process Explorer, but didn't see anything
there either.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
~swooz

 

[swoozie]

Select View->Select Columns, then check Virtual Memory Size. Take a look under that column and see if there's anything really big.

Alec, thanks, and that's just what I did. Nothing really big showed
up.
If you're interested (or anybody else), I've pasted some Task Manager
screenshots into a Word doc at:

http://www.rostaman.com/misc/task_manager_screenshots.doc

It's about 1MB in size. There are three images for each of four
situations. The first image is of most of the processes, sorted
descending
on mem usage. The second image is the same list, sorted on Virtual
Memory Size.
The third is of the performance panel, showing the meter.

The four scenarios are:

1. After a game lockup, and before I try to whittle down some
processes.
(Also, not shown, is that the meter showed over 2GB total RAM usage
right
after exiting the game, which simmers down to the 1.27 GB within a
minute
or two. I have 2GB in the system, which explains the
slowdown/lockup. Another
possible hint is that I get some random pixel noise as the first
sign of bad things
to come...hell, I wonder if my problem is the brand new nVidia
driver I installed last week!)

2. After I killed some processes (still has ~1GB being used, which
doesn't seem
to add up).

3. After a reboot and paring off unnecessary processes (only 364MB in
use).

4. After playing the game again until lockup (back to ~1GB).

<scratches head>

Thanks so much for the help!

~swooz

 

[Alec S.]

Another possible hint is that I get some random pixel noise as the first
sign of bad things to come...hell, I wonder if my problem is the brand
new nVidia driver I installed last week!)

2. After I killed some processes (still has ~1GB being used, which
doesn't seem to add up).

3. After a reboot and paring off unnecessary processes (only 364MB in use).

4. After playing the game again until lockup (back to ~1GB).

Can you reliably reproduce the problem over and over again? What's the one task that is necessary to reproduce it? The game? Can
you reproduce it with other games? What might be happening is that the new drivers have a conflict or memory leak. I don't suppose
you frequent any nVidia support boards or forums do you? If it's a problem with the drive/game, there will no doubt be at least a
few others who experience this. It's worth checking.

If it is a driver-game conflict, then you'll need to report it to nVidia to fix. I'm stuck with ATI for the time being, so I can't
help with that part, just the diagnosis steps.

 

[swoozie]

Can you reliably reproduce the problem over and over again? What's the one task that is necessary to reproduce it? The game? Can
you reproduce it with other games? What might be happening is that the new drivers have a conflict or memory leak. I don't suppose
you frequent any nVidia support boards or forums do you? If it's a problem with the drive/game, there will no doubt be at least a
few others who experience this. It's worth checking.

If it is a driver-game conflict, then you'll need to report it to nVidia to fix. I'm stuck with ATI for the time being, so I can't
help with that part, just the diagnosis steps.

Yeah, Alec, I can reproduce it every time, but it's only during
the game, and it starts slowing down from 10-20 minutes into
the game (varies). I haven't tried any other games since this
started happening, but I'll try another tonight. I did check
around nVidia FAQs and BF2 Usenet threads, but I didn't
see anything that sounded like my problem I may post
something.

Thanks for the help!
~swooz

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

I'm looking at the default "Mem Usage"
column under the "Processes" tab in Task Manager. I've selected the
checkbox to show processes from all users.

Does it say what is using the RAM?

Does it happen if you are offline?

I'd suspect malware, perhaps.

Are you using Sony's Connect Player that came with a Sony MP3 player?
That's known to have a buggy tinyhttp.exe process that uses hundreds
of megs of memory. There's also concern about what tinyhttp.exe does;
it's alleged to be a hidden web server.

We've already caught Sony dropping rootkits from "audio CDs" before,
and heard how unrepentent they were were confronted. OTOH, the "web
server" rumour may have come from Googling a tinyhttp.exe that is
indeed a web server, but probably unrelated to the Sonyware.

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

Drugs are usually safe. Inject? (Y/n)

 

[swoozie]

Okay! I played another game and had the same
pixel errors after 10-20 minutes. This time the
whole screen ended up showing a whacky semi-
random pattern and locking up hard! It's obviously
an nVidia problem.

(This started happening around the time I installed
a new major-versioned driver from them -- upgraded to 9.x
from 8.x. I installed the next older 9.x release...still
had problems. I'll try my known-good 8.x in the next
day or two.)

Thanks for the help!

~swooz

 

[Alec S.]

Okay! I played another game and had the same
pixel errors after 10-20 minutes. This time the
whole screen ended up showing a whacky semi-
random pattern and locking up hard! It's obviously
an nVidia problem.

(This started happening around the time I installed
a new major-versioned driver from them -- upgraded to 9.x
from 8.x. I installed the next older 9.x release...still
had problems. I'll try my known-good 8.x in the next
day or two.)

Thanks for the help!

Sure thing. Give the 8.x a shot and see if it stops in which case you know who to bug.

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

"swoozie"

[/QUOTE]

I'm not a fan of "latest and greatest" drivers, especially if they are
still in beta testing.

Agreed. A driver-level leak may be too "low" to show up in TaskMan.

Yeah, Alec, I can reproduce it every time, but it's only during
the game, and it starts slowing down from 10-20 minutes into
the game (varies). I haven't tried any other games since this
started happening, but I'll try another tonight.

If it's only the one game, then it's almost certain to be a fault
within the game itself. This seems to be a very common problem with
commercial games that involve massive and elaborate code, and don't
get feedback from the huge audience a free game would have.

Start with the game's web site, and expect something in the FAQ about
some patch or other that's been released to fix what was erroneously
considered "fit to ship". There's a lot of *that* going about :-/


The other possiblity is damage to your particular game installation,
that may show up ChkDsk/AutoChk ("WinLogin") or av scanner logs. If
the game is a counterfeit or CDR job, it may have been intentionally
trojan'd or accidentally infected by a generic code infector before
the installation disk was written and distributed.


If OTOH it's other games too, then see if there's anything in common
between them - it may be a driver issue that's brought into play only
when a particular part of the feature set is invoked, and thus more
likely to slip through testing and into the wild.

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

Drugs are usually safe. Inject? (Y/n)

 

[swoozie]

Sure thing. Give the 8.x a shot and see if it stops in which case you know who to bug.

Grrrr....It's still doing it after removing a newer driver and
installing my last-known good one.
Maybe I need to use a 'driver cleaner'.
What a drag. One day the PC & peripheral manufs. will get their s**t
together
and make things work right w/o having to pull teeth!

~swooz

 

[Alec S.]

Grrrr....It's still doing it after removing a newer driver and
installing my last-known good one.
Maybe I need to use a 'driver cleaner'.
What a drag. One day the PC & peripheral manufs. will get their s**t
together
and make things work right w/o having to pull teeth!

Yeah, I was doubting how well things would work like that. Installing and uninstalling different versions of drivers is a messy
affair for things like video cards which have lots of files, and more registry settings than there are stars in the sky. A cleaner,
reinstallation, reimaging, or even a restore point is usually best.

 

[swoozie]

Yeah, I was doubting how well things would work like that. Installing and uninstalling different versions of drivers is a messy
affair for things like video cards which have lots of files, and more registry settings than there are stars in the sky. A cleaner,
reinstallation, reimaging, or even a restore point is usually best.

Thanks, Alec. A funny thing is that I'm into a new game now
(Company of Heroes) that allows me to tab out to desktop,
which I do when I see pixelization starts. I tab back in, and
it's cleared up for a few minutes, then back & forth & back & forth...
A temporary workaround, lol.

~swooz