Windows 10: Windows 10 Non-Page pool memory leak

Hey all,

I've been struggling for a couple days to find the source of this nonpaged pool memory leak on my Win10 Machine.

Here's some screenshots:

Task Manager 1

Task Manager 2

RAMMAP

POOLMON (Sorted for Non-paged and by Byte count)

Things I have tried so far:

• Looking for the 'RA', 'RA', '!RA', '"RA', 'RZ' drivers among "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\*.sys" files
• Removing third party antivirus/endpoint protection software (AVG)
• Installing the newest Network Card Driver from the vendor site (Intel NC v25.3.0.1)
• Running Windows memory diagnostics
• Limiting the nonpaged pool size via the registry
• Turning off the NDU service via the registry
• Disabling unnecessary startup applications
• Booting into Safe mode
• Disabling/unplugging the network card before boot.

None of the above changes have shown any decrease in the nonpaged pool size. Plz halp.

I figure it's probably still a driver problem, but I can't figure out which one it is based on the Tag not matching anything.

Also note that the pool doesn't slowly fill up with network activity or anything like that. By the time windows is responsive from a boot up, it's already up to 8.7 GB consumed.

submitted by /u/Sapiocanis
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:)

 

is this memory leak?

Hello RASHMIRANJAN1,

I'm an independent advisor and hope this would address your questions.

This is not a memory leak. A memory leak happens when a process or program failed to discard utilized memory when it is no longer in use. In that case, you would see a process or program consuming more and more memory over time.

I wouldn't be worried about the paged and non-paged pools as they aren't excessively large in size. The paged pool is used to store handles of kernel objects, so it is normal to have some usage there. And non-paged pool is used by kernel and drivers of the
operating system, so it is also normal for some usage there.

 

High paged pool memory after leaving system on for quite sometime

Oh, I see! Thanks for the clarity!

Pageable memory controlled by memory management...that makes ALOT of sense! Oh well, at least the page pool stops at 1.2gb memory so I still have plenty of ram leftover for multi-tasking purposes. For virtual memory, I left it at system managed on C:/ drive. Otherwise, I'll try to update the network drivers and nvidia drivers. I know Killer Network drivers are highly proneable for memory leaks.

Say, did Intel made an update of Intel Rapid Storage drivers for 4th Gen processors?

 

High paged pool memory after leaving system on for quite sometime

1.2 GB Paged pool does not seem unreasonable for a system with 32 GB RAM. This value is higher for systems with large RAM sizes. In any event it is hardly likely to be the cause of your problem.

The paged and non paged memory pools are used by kernel level components such as drivers and the kernel itself. The paged pool can be paged out at the memory managers discretion while the non paged pool must remain in RAM at all times. Task Manager will not tell you how much of the paged pool is in RAM.

Memory usage in any modern OS is controlled by the system memory manager, always with the goal of maximizing overall system performance. When available memory is plentiful, as is shown in the screenshots, the memory manager will allow processes and other Windows components to use pretty much whatever memory they want without restrictions. But if there is memory pressure it is fully capable of reducing the paged pool usage to a small fraction of it's current value. But it will only do this if needed. Doing it at any other time would serve no useful purpose and would likely impair performance. Note that this is the RAM resident portion of the paged pool, not what is shown in Task Manager which would be unaffected.

High memory usage, even if it is seriously abnormal, will not impair performance unless it causes a shortage. I have seen many Internet articles that get this wrong. It is not unusual for the paged pool to grow over time. Unless there is a memory leak, and there is nothing to suggest that here, this growth will stop.