[BUG] Memory Leak: Steam and audiodg.exe

[Melody]

This audiodg.exe problem has been discussed with Microsoft, now another Windows Insider User reported the same issue again, so they ended up to the conclusion that this is a problem with Steam, so I'm reporting it here as well. The only thing in common all the users have, is that they have Steam running in the background when this problem occurs. People without Steam running in the background are not experiencing this issue.

ISSUE
When Steam is open for many hours, the Microsoft process audiodg.exe experiences a Memory Leak due to Steam probably not properly releasing audio resources.

OS
Microsoft Windows 10 build 17017.rs_prerelease.171010-1400
Microsoft Windows 10 build 17017.rs_prerelease.171010-1000
Microsoft Windows 10 build 16299.19
Microsoft Windows 10 build 16299.15
Other OSes untested

STEPS
• Keep Steam open for some hours.

RESULTS
• The Windows process audiodg.exe experiences a memory leak.
• The Windows process audiodg.exe will experience high CPU utilization when trying to play audio files.
Screenshot from a Windows Insider user: https://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=ca67b7dc-46df-4ed2-8e6e-e7bddb8a53a3
• Whenever the user closes Steam, audiodg.exe turns back to around ~20 MB of memory usage and low CPU usage.

EXPECTED
Nothing wrong to occur.

ADDITIONAL INFO / PERSONAL OBSERVATION
Every time a Steam sound plays, memory usage of audiodg.exe slightly increases.

WORKAROUND
Disable Steam sounds: go to Steam -> Settings -> Friends and disable all the sounds. This way, you won't hear any sounds when people send you text messages, but also audiodg.exe won't experience the Memory Leak.

[Melody]

henryg の投稿を引用：

No update yet, sorry - I have some other personal things to attend to outside of work, so it may be a few days before I can build a new test system and really dig into this.

Ok, thanks for caring. Keep me updated, my sister is experiencing the same problem on her computer.

[Melody]

Any updates on this? Been 5 days.

[2point4]

Melody~ の投稿を引用：

Any updates on this? Been 5 days.

5 days...rofl.

[Melody]

2point4 の投稿を引用：

Melody~ の投稿を引用：

Any updates on this? Been 5 days.

5 days...rofl.

Well... 5 days since last update from the dev.

[Melody]

Is this still being watched and/or considered?

[henryg]

Still on my list. It might be another week before I can take another pass at it, I’m currently working on a different issue.

[[ScrN]Dr. Jan Itor]

im not kinda sure if thats the same problem but in the latest beta there is a memory leak using the not working Music Player. I posted a short video and a screenshot here http://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/discussions/1/1483235412199030278/

[Melody]

ScrNThe Janitor の投稿を引用：

im not kinda sure if thats the same problem but in the latest beta there is a memory leak using the not working Music Player. I posted a short video and a screenshot here http://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/discussions/1/1483235412199030278/

Probably. I noticed time ago a little memory leak when trying henryg's fix and playing sounds using his fix. His fix will probably work now, I'll try soon.

[Colpus]

Hey there. Sorry if has been already fixed, but I've recently noticed the same thing and just now I noticed that when I closed my Steam process, the audiodg.exe memory usage dropped down to 20MB as well. I think it's exactly the same thing. The only difference is that I'm using W7 and I really don't know for how long this has been happening. I just noticed it yesterday and tried fixing it by changing some drivers, but it didn't help.

Another thing I noticed as well is that when this process is already using A LOT of RAM(IIRC it was around 400~450MB), you can't play any videos from the Browser and even Video Players like VLC. When testing it with Windows Media Player it instantly gives an error message saying that the "Computer needs more memory" or something like this. I can't test it right now to see exactly what the message is because the .exe is not consuming TONS of RAM and I won't be able to use my computer for a few days, but I'll be glad to help with what I can to solve this issue, if not solved already and I'm missing something.

[Melody]

Colpus の投稿を引用：

Hey there. Sorry if has been already fixed, but I've recently noticed the same thing and just now I noticed that when I closed my Steam process, the audiodg.exe memory usage dropped down to 20MB as well. I think it's exactly the same thing. The only difference is that I'm using W7 and I really don't know for how long this has been happening. I just noticed it yesterday and tried fixing it by changing some drivers, but it didn't help.

Another thing I noticed as well is that when this process is already using A LOT of RAM(IIRC it was around 400~450MB), you can't play any videos from the Browser and even Video Players like VLC. When testing it with Windows Media Player it instantly gives an error message saying that the "Computer needs more memory" or something like this. I can't test it right now to see exactly what the message is because the .exe is not consuming TONS of RAM and I won't be able to use my computer for a few days, but I'll be glad to help with what I can to solve this issue, if not solved already and I'm missing something.

Hi, this way always works (unfortunately, this will require you to disable Steam sounds):
1) Go to Steam settings and mute ALL sounds: ie. disable all sounds in the "Friends" tab, "In-game" tab, etcetera.
2) Mute the Steam process in Windows's mixer (shouldn't make any difference, but still, do it just to be sure).
3) You DON'T need to mute the Steam WebHelper process. It won't cause any memory leak.

Last resort if you really need sound: Try buying a dedicated sound card (ie. Sound Blaster) or try with Windows 10 Enterprise (I'll explain the last thing later).

It looks like this is related to the entire system and not just to the audio card: in the same system, with both fully updated Windows 10 build 16299 and Windows 10 LTSB 2016, I've tried 3 different audio cards:
1) Integrated Realtek audio card, with both Microsoft's drivers and Realtek's drivers.
2) Logitech's Surround Audio Device, with both Microsoft's drivers and Logitech's drivers.
3) Sound Blaster Z with Creative's Audio Drivers.
All options didn't make any difference.
Instead, on an i7-3537U laptop with latest Windows 10 build 16299 I've tried using both Realtek's audio drivers and Microsoft's audio drivers, though the memory leak is still present.

Then, I've tried on a Z3735F system with Intel SST audio card, FX-4300 system with Realtek audio card and i7-3770 system with Realtek audio card, all of them with Windows 10 build 16299 and the problem is NOT happening at all.

Now here, since I've got an Enterprise agreement with Microsoft, I've recently formatted my main system in which I had tried the 3 audio cards and installed Windows 10 Enterprise. Now the memory leak is not happening anymore for some magic reason.

[SanokKule]

I have this issue too, when i click outside of beta window audiodg memory usage increases by 20mb and by closing steam it drops down to 4.4mb.
Also it seems that changing wallpapers in Wallpaper Engine increases memory usage by around 10-50mb per change.

[Melody]

/u/SanokKule の投稿を引用：

I have this issue too, when i click outside of beta window audiodg memory usage increases by 20mb and by closing steam it drops down to 4.4mb.
Also it seems that changing wallpapers in Wallpaper Engine increases memory usage by around 10-50mb per change.

Still not fixed in latest Steam release? Good thing my sounds are still disabled.

[hexaae]

Not only this mem leak issue... Steam notification sounds in background seem also to cause random crash issues when you have extra audio enhancements like Nahimic 3D audio, involving AUDIODG.EXE crashes generated by NAHIMICV3apo.dll... e.g.:

Descrizione
Percorso dell'applicazione che ha generato l'errore: C:\Windows\System32\audiodg.exe

Firma del problema
Nome evento problema: APPCRASH
Nome applicazione: AUDIODG.EXE
Versione applicazione: 10.0.17763.348
Timestamp applicazione: a0a39b52
Nome modulo con errori: NAHIMICV3apo.dll
Versione modulo con errori: 10.0.10011.16384
Timestamp modulo con errori: 595e4369
Codice eccezione: c0000005
Offset eccezione: 0000000000379f91
Versione SO: 10.0.17763.2.0.0.768.101
ID impostazioni locali: 1040
Informazioni aggiuntive 1: 1719
Ulteriori informazioni 2: 171906201cee33643617b65633af2a8b
Ulteriori informazioni 3: 4351
Ulteriori informazioni 4: 435129bf1cb69277ef6da28be34d3011

This is a plague for all players with a gaming laptop, where such audio enhancements are very common for all brands (ASUS, MSI, CLEVO, Alienware etc.).

NOTICE: If you disable Steam sound notifications (or don't run Steam at all) the audiodg.exe crash caused by nahimicv3apo.dll (at least once a day) will disappear.

[Melody]

hexaae の投稿を引用：

Not only this mem leak issue... Steam notification sounds in background seem also to cause random crash issues when you have extra audio enhancements like Nahimic 3D audio, involving AUDIODG.EXE crashes generated by NAHIMICV3apo.dll... e.g.:

Descrizione
Percorso dell'applicazione che ha generato l'errore: C:\Windows\System32\audiodg.exe

Firma del problema
Nome evento problema: APPCRASH
Nome applicazione: AUDIODG.EXE
Versione applicazione: 10.0.17763.348
Timestamp applicazione: a0a39b52
Nome modulo con errori: NAHIMICV3apo.dll
Versione modulo con errori: 10.0.10011.16384
Timestamp modulo con errori: 595e4369
Codice eccezione: c0000005
Offset eccezione: 0000000000379f91
Versione SO: 10.0.17763.2.0.0.768.101
ID impostazioni locali: 1040
Informazioni aggiuntive 1: 1719
Ulteriori informazioni 2: 171906201cee33643617b65633af2a8b
Ulteriori informazioni 3: 4351
Ulteriori informazioni 4: 435129bf1cb69277ef6da28be34d3011

This is a plague for all players with a gaming laptop, where such audio enhancements are very common for all brands (ASUS, MSI, CLEVO, Alienware etc.).
NOTICE: If you disable Steam sound notifications (or don't run Steam at all) the audiodg.exe crash caused by nahimicv3apo.dll (at least once a day) will disappear.

I ended up disabling ALL Steam sounds completely long time ago, fixed all my issues. I still keep disabling them on all my systems.

[hexaae]

Memory leaks, audiodg.exe crashes... Can't see what Steam devs are waiting for to fix it properly. And for sure it happens with Steam only, of course.