1

I have a server 2008 box with 32GB RAM on and i have been investigating why it runs out of memory every 150 ish days. Task manager shows that we are running at 99% memory usage but all the processes dont add up.

When I look in RamMap there is literally millions of the same application showing using 4K RAM. I understand that Windows Caches some settings in RAM after the application closes so that the application can start quickly but my question is why does it have multiple instances of the PID? Surely caching the settings once per application is sufficient? every time the app restarts it creates another process.

Screenshot

The problem was caused by a watchdog monitoring the application twice causing it to start the application twice and make the other crash. Now i just want to understand the bit about the memory allocation and if there is a way to prevent this happening again?

4
  • An example of what exactly you're seeing might be handy.
    – womble
    Aug 21, 2015 at 4:24
  • Unfortunately i don't have the reputation to enable my to upload a picture. Aug 21, 2015 at 5:44
  • post a link to the picture, other users with the reputation can insert the pictures. Aug 21, 2015 at 15:42
  • Ok, I made a link. goo.gl/photos/Es7cTNXb7JTVgNou9 Aug 24, 2015 at 1:02

1 Answer 1

0

What the screenshot shows in RamMap is the plenty of zombie processes. Any such process was terminated but its handle is not closed yet due to a bug. Therefore, Windows keeps an entry for it in memory. The possible culprits are: the parent of a zombie, or some driver.

See also: similar question on superuser, example of issue with a driver from Aladdin Knowledge Systems.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .