Memory usage doesn't add up in Windows 10












5














Every few days of uptime the memory usage of my PC increases without any obvious reason. Here is a typical memory usage reading after 4 days of uptime:



74% memory usage



However, I've tried to trace the offending application causing any potential memory leaks. Task Manager lists the highest app usage from Google Chrome (with only ~200MB usage):



Task manager processes



Closing other apps still leaves 62% mysteriously in use:



62% memory usage after closing apps



Meanwhile, poolmon.exe shows CM16 and Proc tags are listed using high amounts of memory in the Paged and Nonpaged pools, respectively:



poolmon usage display



Strangely, restarting the PC clears up memory usage, but shutting down and starting up doesn't. I assume this is due to the "fast startup" feature, but I'm not sure why it would affect memory usage.



If it matters, I am also using CleanMem as I assumed it would help alleviate any memory leak problems.



Given these, how could I pinpoint what is causing high memory usage in my system?



UPDATE: I tried to run xperf to view stack traces on the pool tags, as suggested in a comment, but I am not sure what to make of what I have found:



xperf/WPA screenshot of CM31 and Proc tags



UPDATE: Here is the ETL file of the above screenshot










share|improve this question
























  • I still get ~62% memory usage even without any apps open: Screenshot
    – InstilledBee
    Nov 18 '17 at 7:43










  • Antivirus shows more memory usage. It does need more RAM.
    – Biswapriyo
    Nov 18 '17 at 8:43










  • @Biswa I am not sure what you mean with needing more RAM? My PC has 8GB installed.
    – InstilledBee
    Nov 18 '17 at 8:53










  • use xperf/WPA to analyze the usage of CM16 and Proc tag
    – magicandre1981
    Nov 18 '17 at 17:28






  • 1




    next time please notify me with @ myusername. the proc usage in this trace was done by synergyd.exe and syntool.exe. So maybe more commandline tools run all time in background (scheduled tasks). Toke usage comes from all programs doing user permission thinks (Tokens API like ntoskrnl.exe!SepDuplicateToken). Look if the issue is still relevant after updating to 1709, you use Win10 1703.
    – magicandre1981
    Feb 7 '18 at 16:35
















5














Every few days of uptime the memory usage of my PC increases without any obvious reason. Here is a typical memory usage reading after 4 days of uptime:



74% memory usage



However, I've tried to trace the offending application causing any potential memory leaks. Task Manager lists the highest app usage from Google Chrome (with only ~200MB usage):



Task manager processes



Closing other apps still leaves 62% mysteriously in use:



62% memory usage after closing apps



Meanwhile, poolmon.exe shows CM16 and Proc tags are listed using high amounts of memory in the Paged and Nonpaged pools, respectively:



poolmon usage display



Strangely, restarting the PC clears up memory usage, but shutting down and starting up doesn't. I assume this is due to the "fast startup" feature, but I'm not sure why it would affect memory usage.



If it matters, I am also using CleanMem as I assumed it would help alleviate any memory leak problems.



Given these, how could I pinpoint what is causing high memory usage in my system?



UPDATE: I tried to run xperf to view stack traces on the pool tags, as suggested in a comment, but I am not sure what to make of what I have found:



xperf/WPA screenshot of CM31 and Proc tags



UPDATE: Here is the ETL file of the above screenshot










share|improve this question
























  • I still get ~62% memory usage even without any apps open: Screenshot
    – InstilledBee
    Nov 18 '17 at 7:43










  • Antivirus shows more memory usage. It does need more RAM.
    – Biswapriyo
    Nov 18 '17 at 8:43










  • @Biswa I am not sure what you mean with needing more RAM? My PC has 8GB installed.
    – InstilledBee
    Nov 18 '17 at 8:53










  • use xperf/WPA to analyze the usage of CM16 and Proc tag
    – magicandre1981
    Nov 18 '17 at 17:28






  • 1




    next time please notify me with @ myusername. the proc usage in this trace was done by synergyd.exe and syntool.exe. So maybe more commandline tools run all time in background (scheduled tasks). Toke usage comes from all programs doing user permission thinks (Tokens API like ntoskrnl.exe!SepDuplicateToken). Look if the issue is still relevant after updating to 1709, you use Win10 1703.
    – magicandre1981
    Feb 7 '18 at 16:35














5












5








5


2





Every few days of uptime the memory usage of my PC increases without any obvious reason. Here is a typical memory usage reading after 4 days of uptime:



74% memory usage



However, I've tried to trace the offending application causing any potential memory leaks. Task Manager lists the highest app usage from Google Chrome (with only ~200MB usage):



Task manager processes



Closing other apps still leaves 62% mysteriously in use:



62% memory usage after closing apps



Meanwhile, poolmon.exe shows CM16 and Proc tags are listed using high amounts of memory in the Paged and Nonpaged pools, respectively:



poolmon usage display



Strangely, restarting the PC clears up memory usage, but shutting down and starting up doesn't. I assume this is due to the "fast startup" feature, but I'm not sure why it would affect memory usage.



If it matters, I am also using CleanMem as I assumed it would help alleviate any memory leak problems.



Given these, how could I pinpoint what is causing high memory usage in my system?



UPDATE: I tried to run xperf to view stack traces on the pool tags, as suggested in a comment, but I am not sure what to make of what I have found:



xperf/WPA screenshot of CM31 and Proc tags



UPDATE: Here is the ETL file of the above screenshot










share|improve this question















Every few days of uptime the memory usage of my PC increases without any obvious reason. Here is a typical memory usage reading after 4 days of uptime:



74% memory usage



However, I've tried to trace the offending application causing any potential memory leaks. Task Manager lists the highest app usage from Google Chrome (with only ~200MB usage):



Task manager processes



Closing other apps still leaves 62% mysteriously in use:



62% memory usage after closing apps



Meanwhile, poolmon.exe shows CM16 and Proc tags are listed using high amounts of memory in the Paged and Nonpaged pools, respectively:



poolmon usage display



Strangely, restarting the PC clears up memory usage, but shutting down and starting up doesn't. I assume this is due to the "fast startup" feature, but I'm not sure why it would affect memory usage.



If it matters, I am also using CleanMem as I assumed it would help alleviate any memory leak problems.



Given these, how could I pinpoint what is causing high memory usage in my system?



UPDATE: I tried to run xperf to view stack traces on the pool tags, as suggested in a comment, but I am not sure what to make of what I have found:



xperf/WPA screenshot of CM31 and Proc tags



UPDATE: Here is the ETL file of the above screenshot







windows-10 memory performance






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited Nov 25 '17 at 11:42

























asked Nov 18 '17 at 6:32









InstilledBee

316




316












  • I still get ~62% memory usage even without any apps open: Screenshot
    – InstilledBee
    Nov 18 '17 at 7:43










  • Antivirus shows more memory usage. It does need more RAM.
    – Biswapriyo
    Nov 18 '17 at 8:43










  • @Biswa I am not sure what you mean with needing more RAM? My PC has 8GB installed.
    – InstilledBee
    Nov 18 '17 at 8:53










  • use xperf/WPA to analyze the usage of CM16 and Proc tag
    – magicandre1981
    Nov 18 '17 at 17:28






  • 1




    next time please notify me with @ myusername. the proc usage in this trace was done by synergyd.exe and syntool.exe. So maybe more commandline tools run all time in background (scheduled tasks). Toke usage comes from all programs doing user permission thinks (Tokens API like ntoskrnl.exe!SepDuplicateToken). Look if the issue is still relevant after updating to 1709, you use Win10 1703.
    – magicandre1981
    Feb 7 '18 at 16:35


















  • I still get ~62% memory usage even without any apps open: Screenshot
    – InstilledBee
    Nov 18 '17 at 7:43










  • Antivirus shows more memory usage. It does need more RAM.
    – Biswapriyo
    Nov 18 '17 at 8:43










  • @Biswa I am not sure what you mean with needing more RAM? My PC has 8GB installed.
    – InstilledBee
    Nov 18 '17 at 8:53










  • use xperf/WPA to analyze the usage of CM16 and Proc tag
    – magicandre1981
    Nov 18 '17 at 17:28






  • 1




    next time please notify me with @ myusername. the proc usage in this trace was done by synergyd.exe and syntool.exe. So maybe more commandline tools run all time in background (scheduled tasks). Toke usage comes from all programs doing user permission thinks (Tokens API like ntoskrnl.exe!SepDuplicateToken). Look if the issue is still relevant after updating to 1709, you use Win10 1703.
    – magicandre1981
    Feb 7 '18 at 16:35
















I still get ~62% memory usage even without any apps open: Screenshot
– InstilledBee
Nov 18 '17 at 7:43




I still get ~62% memory usage even without any apps open: Screenshot
– InstilledBee
Nov 18 '17 at 7:43












Antivirus shows more memory usage. It does need more RAM.
– Biswapriyo
Nov 18 '17 at 8:43




Antivirus shows more memory usage. It does need more RAM.
– Biswapriyo
Nov 18 '17 at 8:43












@Biswa I am not sure what you mean with needing more RAM? My PC has 8GB installed.
– InstilledBee
Nov 18 '17 at 8:53




@Biswa I am not sure what you mean with needing more RAM? My PC has 8GB installed.
– InstilledBee
Nov 18 '17 at 8:53












use xperf/WPA to analyze the usage of CM16 and Proc tag
– magicandre1981
Nov 18 '17 at 17:28




use xperf/WPA to analyze the usage of CM16 and Proc tag
– magicandre1981
Nov 18 '17 at 17:28




1




1




next time please notify me with @ myusername. the proc usage in this trace was done by synergyd.exe and syntool.exe. So maybe more commandline tools run all time in background (scheduled tasks). Toke usage comes from all programs doing user permission thinks (Tokens API like ntoskrnl.exe!SepDuplicateToken). Look if the issue is still relevant after updating to 1709, you use Win10 1703.
– magicandre1981
Feb 7 '18 at 16:35




next time please notify me with @ myusername. the proc usage in this trace was done by synergyd.exe and syntool.exe. So maybe more commandline tools run all time in background (scheduled tasks). Toke usage comes from all programs doing user permission thinks (Tokens API like ntoskrnl.exe!SepDuplicateToken). Look if the issue is still relevant after updating to 1709, you use Win10 1703.
– magicandre1981
Feb 7 '18 at 16:35










1 Answer
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From the CleanMem about page:



"The memory is pushed to the system cache, not the page file. The system cache is still in memory. And a program can call back what it needs instantly"



AKA, running "CleanMem" just hides memory behind the system in the cache, so you don't see it being used.



Generally, any kind of "memory management" tool in Windows is a bad idea.



Why? Because especially in an OS as complicated as Windows 10, using some "tweak" to try to get more memory is probably just going to make the existing memory management algorithms get confused. Windows has extremely advanced built-in memory management, compression, caching, and prediction. Don't mess with it. Need to free memory? Use Firefox instead of Chrome.



Also, check out the SysInternalsSuite tool procexp.exe. It is a lot easier to read than xperf:



SysinternalSuiteProcmon.exe



Another process you may not see using memory would be if you have Hyper-V installed and are running any virtual machines within it.






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    1 Answer
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    From the CleanMem about page:



    "The memory is pushed to the system cache, not the page file. The system cache is still in memory. And a program can call back what it needs instantly"



    AKA, running "CleanMem" just hides memory behind the system in the cache, so you don't see it being used.



    Generally, any kind of "memory management" tool in Windows is a bad idea.



    Why? Because especially in an OS as complicated as Windows 10, using some "tweak" to try to get more memory is probably just going to make the existing memory management algorithms get confused. Windows has extremely advanced built-in memory management, compression, caching, and prediction. Don't mess with it. Need to free memory? Use Firefox instead of Chrome.



    Also, check out the SysInternalsSuite tool procexp.exe. It is a lot easier to read than xperf:



    SysinternalSuiteProcmon.exe



    Another process you may not see using memory would be if you have Hyper-V installed and are running any virtual machines within it.






    share|improve this answer


























      0














      From the CleanMem about page:



      "The memory is pushed to the system cache, not the page file. The system cache is still in memory. And a program can call back what it needs instantly"



      AKA, running "CleanMem" just hides memory behind the system in the cache, so you don't see it being used.



      Generally, any kind of "memory management" tool in Windows is a bad idea.



      Why? Because especially in an OS as complicated as Windows 10, using some "tweak" to try to get more memory is probably just going to make the existing memory management algorithms get confused. Windows has extremely advanced built-in memory management, compression, caching, and prediction. Don't mess with it. Need to free memory? Use Firefox instead of Chrome.



      Also, check out the SysInternalsSuite tool procexp.exe. It is a lot easier to read than xperf:



      SysinternalSuiteProcmon.exe



      Another process you may not see using memory would be if you have Hyper-V installed and are running any virtual machines within it.






      share|improve this answer
























        0












        0








        0






        From the CleanMem about page:



        "The memory is pushed to the system cache, not the page file. The system cache is still in memory. And a program can call back what it needs instantly"



        AKA, running "CleanMem" just hides memory behind the system in the cache, so you don't see it being used.



        Generally, any kind of "memory management" tool in Windows is a bad idea.



        Why? Because especially in an OS as complicated as Windows 10, using some "tweak" to try to get more memory is probably just going to make the existing memory management algorithms get confused. Windows has extremely advanced built-in memory management, compression, caching, and prediction. Don't mess with it. Need to free memory? Use Firefox instead of Chrome.



        Also, check out the SysInternalsSuite tool procexp.exe. It is a lot easier to read than xperf:



        SysinternalSuiteProcmon.exe



        Another process you may not see using memory would be if you have Hyper-V installed and are running any virtual machines within it.






        share|improve this answer












        From the CleanMem about page:



        "The memory is pushed to the system cache, not the page file. The system cache is still in memory. And a program can call back what it needs instantly"



        AKA, running "CleanMem" just hides memory behind the system in the cache, so you don't see it being used.



        Generally, any kind of "memory management" tool in Windows is a bad idea.



        Why? Because especially in an OS as complicated as Windows 10, using some "tweak" to try to get more memory is probably just going to make the existing memory management algorithms get confused. Windows has extremely advanced built-in memory management, compression, caching, and prediction. Don't mess with it. Need to free memory? Use Firefox instead of Chrome.



        Also, check out the SysInternalsSuite tool procexp.exe. It is a lot easier to read than xperf:



        SysinternalSuiteProcmon.exe



        Another process you may not see using memory would be if you have Hyper-V installed and are running any virtual machines within it.







        share|improve this answer












        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer










        answered Dec 12 '18 at 6:48









        Nate Cartwright

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