dwm.exe Memory Usage - Windows 10 16299.192 - Anyone else?

By xendrome
in Microsoft (Windows)

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Grand Master

xendrome

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So I started to notice my system was getting sluggish while playing videos or in chrome. Then the UI became sluggish. I checked taskmgr and it was showing dwm.exe  using over 3GB of ram. Rebooting solved it.. back down to like 30MB.

 

Now this morning I am noticing it begin to creep back up, currently at 350MB. My specs are fine, i7-8800k, 32GB ram, GTX 1080 Ti.

 

I am guessing it's one of the latest Windows 10 Cumulative updates or the Nvidia Driver 390.65.

 

Can you guys check your usage and report back if your system has been up a few days or you are running similar hardware or same drivers?

Veteran

+Biscuits Brown MVC

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I'm on a 4790K, 32gig and a 780Ti (Nvidia drivers are still at 388.13). System's been on for days and have had many chrome tabs open as well a few you-tubes over those days. dwm.exe is taking 22.8Mb right now.  Windows updates are all up to date so the big difference may be the interaction between your Nvidia drivers and Win 10. 

Grand Master

Jim K Global Moderator

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Haven't noticed anything unusual ... been up around 3 days w/ various gaming/videos/Photoshop.  dwm is current around 25mb ... seen it up to around 32mb.  Have the latest 10 updates ... and running 390.65.

 

You might be able to use SysInternals VMMap to track down exactly what is causing your dwm to have such high memory usage (maybe an "out of whack/leaking" .dll module that dwm has loaded?)  /shurg

Grand Master

DevTech

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  On 20/01/2018 at 13:48, xendrome said:

So I started to notice my system was getting sluggish while playing videos or in chrome. Then the UI became sluggish. I checked taskmgr and it was showing dwm.exe  using over 3GB of ram. Rebooting solved it.. back down to like 30MB.

 

Now this morning I am noticing it begin to creep back up, currently at 350MB. My specs are fine, i7-8800k, 32GB ram, GTX 1080 Ti.

 

I am guessing it's one of the latest Windows 10 Cumulative updates or the Nvidia Driver 390.65.

 

Can you guys check your usage and report back if your system has been up a few days or you are running similar hardware or same drivers?

Expand  

You could try monitoring various Handle limits in task manager. There is a hard coded Handle limit that some apps exceed.

 

Are you running any unusual applications. Some older ones had a style of coding based on using way too many (virtual/hidden) Windows, usually from C++/MFC days...

 

Grand Master

xendrome

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  On 21/01/2018 at 23:11, Jim K said:

You might be able to use SysInternals VMMap to track down exactly what is causing your dwm to have such high memory usage (maybe an "out of whack/leaking" .dll module that dwm has loaded?)  /shurg

Expand  

Going to check this out.

  On 22/01/2018 at 07:56, DevTech said:

You could try monitoring various Handle limits in task manager. There is a hard coded Handle limit that some apps exceed.

 

Are you running any unusual applications. Some older ones had a style of coding based on using way too many (virtual/hidden) Windows, usually from C++/MFC days...

 

Expand  

Let me check the handles, and no no older apps, Chrome, Steam, UPlay, Remote Desktop, etc.

Chrome Hardware Accel is turned on, right now I am sitting at 398MB used by DWM. It was like 40 yesterday afternoon. Just brought the system out of sleep from overnight. Closed all apps, it never goes down.

Grand Master

xendrome

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Here is DWM.exe at 398mb - https://imgur.com/a/zBxMN

And DWM after and end process and it restarted - https://imgur.com/a/ozhsk

 

Lots of "Private Data" chunks on the first one, but not much detail.

 

785 handles right now on a restart of DWM.exe, will monitor it

 

Grand Master

jnelsoninjax

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My DWM.EXE is using 37mbs, system has been up for days and this is with an Nvidia 1080 GTX with the latest drivers (390.65) and also Firefox running as well, hope this helps you!

Grand Master

xendrome

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37MB used yesterday, put the system to sleep mode lastnight, woke it up just now, 185MB used.. going to put it to sleep right now and wake it up again.

 

EDIT: not much change there, might have to be in sleep for awhile.

Edited by xendrome
Grand Master

Steven P. Administrators

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SNAG-0000.png

 

Nvidia driver 388.13 here with GeForce GTX 1050Ti DWM barely hitting 20mb memory use, but I rebooted after 24 days an hour ago.

 

I don't update my Nvidia drivers often since they are prone to be buggy upon release!

Grand Master

DevTech

Posted
Posted
  On 30/01/2018 at 00:08, xendrome said:

Rolled back to 388.x Nvidia drivers.. was fine at 39MB.. Just put the system to sleep for 30 minutes, came back, woke it up... 395MB on dwm.exe :/

Expand  

so for now, let's rule out NVIDIA driver.

 

DWM has been around since Vista and there appears to be ongoing but not common oddities over the years. I have a vague memory of doing battle with it in Vista or 7 days...

 

Things to consider

 

1. not a device driver issue but instead some other third party's improper usage of device driver.

 

2. Malware, Spyware etc or even legitimate utils doing a "system hook"

 

3. Software you installed with the motherboard or GPU card that mucks with too much internals

 

 

 

Things to try:

 

1. sfc /scannow

 

2. full virus scan

 

3. temp disable anything possible in Autoruns

 

4. check Windows Event Log

 

5. stop using Edge or I.E. fo a while

 

6. stop using Chrome for a while

 

7. Disable Chromes setting "run system draining crap in background so we can spy on you better" (in Settings-->Advanced)

 

 

Grand Master

xendrome

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  • Author
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Disabled and closed all 3rd party apps, put the system to sleep at 20MB, woke it up this morning. 202MB dwm.exe - totally out of ideas now.

 

EDIT: Flashed the BIOS back to 1.30 from 1.40 for the ASRock Tachi z370, which contained the meltdown/spectre fix (and was pulled). Lets see if that does it. at 17MB usage right now.

Edited by xendrome
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+Sledge Subscriber²

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Do you also have an onboard GPU? Try disabling in device manager or in the bios.

 

You mention this shows when you resume from sleep. Does this also occur on a cold boot?

 

Trying to rule out the above as have had issue with both previously.

Grand Master

xendrome

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  On 01/02/2018 at 12:32, Sledge said:

Do you also have an onboard GPU? Try disabling in device manager or in the bios.

 

You mention this shows when you resume from sleep. Does this also occur on a cold boot?

 

Trying to rule out the above as have had issue with both previously.

Expand  

iGPU is disabled, using a 1080 Ti, and only notice it after it's on for awhile or in sleep. Cold boot clears it.. then it starts to creep up again.

Grand Master

Steven P. Administrators

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  On 02/02/2018 at 12:30, xendrome said:

Well looks like it was the Spectre/Meltdown BIOS for my board that was pulled like all the other OEM/MB builders. Rolled it back to 1.30 and so far no problems.

Expand  

SNAG-0003.png

 

LOL I will not be getting a BIOS update I guess, the last one was in 2012 or 2013 (Asus H87-Plus).

  • 3 weeks later...
Grand Master

remixedcat

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the disk usage on win 10 is insane I just got a nice rugged w10 tab and this makes me hate it. ugh. 30GB storage and barely anything on it and it's only 2.21GB free

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