Memory leak during downloads?

[CROSSEYED_JIM]

For the last month or so, trying to download more than one game at a time (or placing downloads in the queue) has resulted in what looks like a serious memory leak on my computer. The first download usually goes fine, and the second starts out that way. By about halfway through, however, the download grinds almost to a halt as my RAM and disk usage shoot to 99 percent. At that point, the computer becomes sluggish and unresponsive, and I usually have to perform a hard reset.

Games, programs, apps, etc., all run without issue. Downloads on other services (Origin, UPlay, etc.) also work with no problem. I'm confident it's a software issue, not a hardware problem.

I've never had any issues like this with Steam over the many years I've had it. It's a pretty frustrating problem. Is there a fix for this? Is anyone else having the same issue?

System Specs:
i5 4690K @ stock
GTX 970 FTW
8 GB RAM
250 GB SSD (OS and some games/programs)
1 TB 7,200 RPM physical HDD (a few programs, games, music, movies, etc.)
Windows 10

[Pes]

Having the same Issue right now, downloading a huge amount of games, so I left it run overnight. It keeps crashing after running out of memory (16 gb). Quite annoying.

[CROSSEYED_JIM]

Originally posted by Pesmerga:

Having the same Issue right now, downloading a huge amount of games, so I left it run overnight. It keeps crashing after running out of memory (16 gb). Quite annoying.

Glad it's not just me, though I have yet to find a fix for it. Even completely uninstalling and reinstalling Steam on a different hard drive didn't do the trick.

Are you on Windows 10?

[The Giving One]

What motherboard are you using here ? This is a custom build or an OEM ? If an OEM, can you post the exact model and manufacturer, please ?

[CROSSEYED_JIM]

Custom. MSI Z97-G45 Gaming. Again, no issues with other programs/games. Specs are in the first post.

[The Giving One]

According to this...

http://us.msi.com/product/motherboard/Z97-G45-GAMING.html#hero-specification

it only supports Windows 7 and 8 and 8.1.


• Supports 3-Way AMD CrossFire™ Technology*
• Supports 2-Way NVIDIA® SLI™ Technology
* Supports Windows 7 and Windows 8/ 8.1.

So where did you get the drivers from if you upgraded to W10 ?

[CROSSEYED_JIM]

Board updates itself as far as I know. Comes with auto-update software. Haven't needed to flash the BIOS. Of course that list doesn't mention Windows 10--the board was out ages before the OS launched. I bought it before Windows 10 launched. MS is not going to lock out nearly every system in the world, which means they likely have a lot of driver crossover between operating systems.

Again, I've played hundreds of hours on this setup in a number of games with Windows 10. No issues whatsoever outside of this.

[The Giving One]

Sorry, as I am not saying drivers are your problem, but any OS needs the proper drivers to function and function well in some cases.

So lets say you do a full format and decide to reinstall W10. Where are you going to download the drivers from in that case ?

[CROSSEYED_JIM]

MSI offers W10 drivers for this board on their site. I assume mine auto-updated during the OS install. http://us.msi.com/product/motherboard/support/Z87-G45-GAMING.html#down-driver

[CROSSEYED_JIM]

Sorry, accidentally copied wrong link. Here's the right one. Check the drop down. http://us.msi.com/product/motherboard/support/Z97-G45-GAMING.html#down-driver

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by Crosseyed_Jim:

MSI offers W10 drivers for this board on their site. I assume mine auto-updated during the OS install. http://us.msi.com/product/motherboard/support/Z97-G45-GAMING.html#down-driver

Ok, well done. But you "assume" ??? That leads to suspicion that they need to be updated, in my humble opinion.

Never let Windows update your drivers unless you have no other choice whatsoever. Always download updated drivers from the manufacturer's website, in this case the one you have linked here above.

I can offer one more possiblity here at this point, but in my case it was concerning my version of W7. My superfetch was not starting automatically on boot and I had to manually set that in process monitor for some reason. I was getting memory error messages, too. After that, all was well again.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-performance/superfetch-should-i-disable-or-enable/c7254be5-119b-4484-b28e-dfd0fd0dd17e?auth=1

[Johnny Cash]

Originally posted by Crosseyed_Jim:

By about halfway through, however, the download grinds almost to a halt as my RAM and disk usage shoot to 99 percent. At that point, the computer becomes sluggish and unresponsive, and I usually have to perform a hard reset.

That does sound like a hardware failure to me. Have you run checkdisk on your drives yet?

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/disk-error-checking-windows-8

[The Giving One]

Also, consider the bitcoin miner issue that we see here on rare occasions. Just passing that possibility on here to try to help you.

http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/35221584425122691/

[CROSSEYED_JIM]

Credit where credit is due. Despite my obstinance, The Giving One's solution of downloading all the relevant drivers from the MSI site appears to have solved the issue. I've now downloaded ~100 GB with no system slowdown and RAM usage hovering stably at 1.8 GB.

Thanks for the help, sir. I hope someone else finds this thread helpful if/when they run into the same problem.

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by Crosseyed_Jim:

Thanks for the help, sir. I hope someone else finds this thread helpful if/when they run into the same problem.

You are quite welcome and I am very happy that you got it fixed up there. Thanks for posting back to let the community know what you did to solve it. Good luck to you always.

[aqua]

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