Memory Leak: Insufficient System Resources

[rlsj]

My practice is to turn off the machine at bedtime and reboot it every morning, so that it gets a fresh start every day. I upgraded to Windows-7 from -XP about a month ago, applied all available updates and thought it the right move until recently. Now after the machine runs several hours, when I try to invoke another program, I get, usually with reference to the invoking filename from Windows Explorer,

"Insufficient System Resources exist to complete the requested service"

It does allow the Windows Task Manager to start, after several seconds of black screen, where I see three things of interest:
1. Display resolution shrinks to 640x480
2. Memory utilization is above 3.9 GB (out of 4)
3. The program, iexplore.exe, keeps thrashing in and out every few seconds.

Another item of interest that begins shortly after system boot is the cursor on the display. Instead of the normal arrowhead pointing up at an angle of about 110 degrees, I see the arrowhead plus an hour-glass just beside it. The hour-glass is blinking on and off at a rate of several times per second. This behavior is more or less continual. When the hour-glass goes away, the next invocation gets the insufficient resource message.

Gentlemen, this is clearly what, thirty years ago on UNIX, we used to call a "memory leak" -- in this case, as atrocious as any I ever saw. Rebooting the machine, starting only the Windows Task Manager and watching the memory utilization, I see it rising at an estimated rate of a quarter gigabyte per minute -- with nothing else running!

Looking at how long this problem has been outstanding in this forum and the many times and many systems for which it has been reported without resolution, I abandon hope of a fix. Two things are clear:
1. Memory leaks are without question deficiencies in the OS, so it's a Microsoft software problem
2. Instead of fixing it, Microsoft wants you to buy Windows-8 -- as if that's any encouragement!

XP has its problems but at least it will run all day without rebooting. My recourse is obvious.
Thank you for your attention.

--rlsj

 

[barnabas1969]

I've been using Windows 7 for several years and have never seen any evidence that the os has a memory leak. I have had some apps that had one, but not Windows itself.

 

[barnabas1969]

I should also mention that I only boot my laptop once a week because of forced updates from my employer that require a reboot, and my desktop at home often runs for months at a time.

 

[rlsj]

Barnabas1969, I can see how you reach your conclusion. But an application running out of memory: i.e., trying to reach memory out of the address range, is a different problem and would not prevent the OS from starting other programs.

As to your second post, congratulations on your good luck!

--rlsj

 

[barnabas1969]

When an application has a memory leak, it will fill all available memory. At some point, it will be impossible to start other apps. Eventually, the offending application will hang/crash.

 

[rlsj]

barnabas1969 wrote:
"When an application has a memory leak, it will fill all available memory..."

Whatever RAM is available, yes, then the OS assigns virtual memory -- swapping from real RAM into and out of disk, what Microsoft calls its "Page file" -- up to the limits of the addressing scheme, which in a 32-bit system like mine is 4 GB. At the end of the address range the application fails, the OS unassigns all its memory, terminates it and lets other programs run. I refer to a properly coded OS of course.

Please recall my reported observation of the steady rise in memory utilization even with no application invoked since reboot except the Windows Task Manager. This cannot be an application failure.

This is a Microsoft bug in Windows-7, probably in the system task controller, which in most systems is responsible for memory clean-up.

--rlsj

 

[Dsprague]

Now here is the problem with your theory that windows 7 simply has a memory leak, I have a system that will run for weeks on end and will never ever in the time I have used it (going on three years now) run out of memory, it too has four gigs of ram. Nor have I ever seen anything but third party software cause this kind of behavior. Now you say that nothing else is running but I implore you to take a look at this tutorial to ensure that nothing is running at start up except for the absolutely necessary programs (i.e antivirus).

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ation-conflicts-performing-clean-startup.html

If you find that nothing is running and there is still a memory problem, I would recommend replacing your anti-virus with something more lightweight like Microsoft Security Essentials.

Again if you find that there are still memory problems try working through the following tutorial for general trouble shooting:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/220165-troubleshooting-steps-windows-7-a.html

Last, and hopefully it does not come to this try doing a clean install, this tutorial should get you a perfect install:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html

 

[barnabas1969]

barnabas1969 wrote:
"When an application has a memory leak, it will fill all available memory..."

Whatever RAM is available, yes, then the OS assigns virtual memory -- swapping from real RAM into and out of disk, what Microsoft calls its "Page file" -- up to the limits of the addressing scheme, which in a 32-bit system like mine is 4 GB. At the end of the address range the application fails, the OS unassigns all its memory, terminates it and lets other programs run. I refer to a properly coded OS of course.

Please recall my reported observation of the steady rise in memory utilization even with no application invoked since reboot except the Windows Task Manager. This cannot be an application failure.

This is a Microsoft bug in Windows-7, probably in the system task controller, which in most systems is responsible for memory clean-up.

--rlsj

Yep, you're correct... it will fill up the page file too... and at that point, you won't be able to start a new app. You're point?

 

[rlsj]

Sigh. The page file -- Virtual Memory -- on my system is over 12 GB. No single application could fill that up, because no application can access more than the logical maximum memory address, which on a 32-bit system is 4 GB (the hardware address registers are 32 bits wide; 2^32=4G). The OS can, in effect, because it maintains a complex table of correspondence between page file disk chunks and the address chunks in separate applications. Besides, no application that I've installed could use anywhere near 4 GB, and none of them is new since Windows-XP, which had no memory leak.

As to your good fortune without resource errors in Windows-7, you obviously have different hardware-software combinations than I. Program bugs appear only for certain sequences of events, which depend on those differences.

As to DSprague's recommendation of a clean install, this began as a clean install, followed by application of all updates, followed by installing the same applications from -XP. With no other difference, how could a new OS install be effective?

Thank you, but I know how to recover from this debacle.

--rlsj

 

[Dsprague]

so what your saying is you are running outdated programs that were designed for an 11 year old operating system and expecting them to operate at optimal conditions on an operating system that they were never designed to run on? also earlier you claimed it could not possibly be an application problem when you just stated that different programs react differently depending on what operating system they are running on. further more if you were aware that these programs were causing instability within the opperating system whay would you not :

A. seek to find updated versions of these programs

B. downgrade to an operating system that they were designed to run on

C. contact the company that manufactures the software to report the problem

D. come here to complain about a problem you obviously have no faith in our technical ability to help you solve then lash out at our users when they try to help you

 

[LMiller7]

1. Memory leaks are without question deficiencies in the OS, so it's a Microsoft software problem

Almost certainly No.

It would be very rare for system software to be responsible for a memory leak in a released product. Almost always it will be due to an application, driver, or malware. Even when the leak is in a process belonging to the OS the cause is usually external.

A memory leak will not necessarily fill all of RAM. The leak is actually in the process private virtual address space, not RAM. This may produce high RAM usage but that is just a side effect. In fact, the process with the memory leak may not even have high RAM usage. Explaining that is not simple and I won't even try.

 

[rlsj]

DSprague: I performed a "Clean Startup" as recommended in your posting. It showed four arbitrary (non-Windows) applications being started, which I disabled. Unfortunately it didn't help. Upon restart the same issues reappeared: the blinking hour-glass and the steadily rising memory utilization seen under Windows Task Manager.

I believe those two issues are related. Some program -- dare I say "iexplore.exe?" -- is starting and terminating again and again but the OS does not reclaim its memory upon termination.

--rlsj

 

[DavidE]

Do you run any Registry cleaners, PC Optimization programs, tune-up utilities, etc?
Many people use those tools with Win 7 the same way they used them in prior versions of Windows.
With Win 7 these tools can often do more harm than good.

 

[rlsj]

so what your saying is you are running outdated programs that were designed for an 11 year old operating system and expecting them to operate at optimal conditions on an operating system that they were never designed to run on? ... f you were aware that these programs were causing instability within the opperating system whay would you not :

...

B. downgrade to an operating system that they were designed to run on

...

D. come here to complain about a problem you obviously have no faith in our technical ability to help you solve then lash out at our users when they try to help you

"to operate at optimal conditions?" I do expect them to run at least one day! I am not aware that "these programs" are causing instability. Quite the contrary!

Your Point B is well taken.

As far as I could tell -- admittedly without reading every response to every similar thread -- this forum has been unable to solve this problem. And if you think my comments constitute "lashing out," then you obviously have never followed the Usenet discussion groups.

My motive in coming here was to register my dissatisfaction and furnish details in case someone at Microsoft is paying attention. It is useless and expensive to the claimant to approach Microsoft itself.

--rlsj

 

[rlsj]

Do you run any Registry cleaners, PC Optimization programs, tune-up utilities, etc? ...

In a word, no. I have never found one of those programs to be valuable other than to the people who sell them.

As I reported earlier, I disabled all the arbitrary startup programs. The failure still occurred, even though only Microsoft software was running.

--rlsj

 

[x BlueRobot]

With 4GB of RAM, and a 32-bit operating system, the physical memory is divided into 2GB for Kernel Mode and 2GB for User Mode, although the User-Mode address space can be expanded to 3GB.

Windows 7 isn't the cause of a memory leak.

Run Driver Verifier to scan for any corrupted drivers which may be causing problems, this program works by running various stress tests on drivers, in order to produce a BSOD which will locate the driver; run for least 24 hours:

• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/101379-driver-verifier-enable-disable.html

   Information

Additional Help - http://www.sevenforums.com/crash-lo...-driver-verifier-identify-issues-drivers.html

 

[DavidE]

I upgraded to Windows-7 from -XP about a month ago, applied all available updates and thought it the right move until recently.

That sounds like it was working ok, until recently.
Do you know what you changed or did just before the problem started?
Do you have a Backup Image or Restore Point from before the problem started?
Have you checked for malware as suggested?

 

[stormy13]

3. The program, iexplore.exe, keeps thrashing in and out every few seconds.

Do you even have Internet Explorer running at the time, seeing as that is what that process is. If not then as others have said, you need to start looking at something other than Windows as the problem. Even if it is, it is still likely coming from something else.

 

[barnabas1969]

The OP obviously knows more than everyone here on this site, all of the engineers at Microsoft, and everyone on the planet. Obviously, all of the millions of people who run Windows 7 every day must be wrong, and the OP is right. Why can't you see that?

 

[Layback Bear]

rlsj specs.
Antivirus None
-----------------
Besides outdated programs you could be infected.