BUG: dwm.exe uses memory leakage with Intel HD Graphics 630

[Cody]

Hi,

dwm.exe (Desktop-Window Manager) uses high memory with Intel Intel HD Graphics 630. This problem has been reported before:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/desktop-windows-manager-dwm-memory-leakage-in/c2968fb0-ee26-4483-9f08-dfa19149cd24

https://www.reddit.com/r/windows/comments/iqttw5/windows_10_dwmexe_high_ram_usage/g4umzyn/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Here's a screenshot of my dwm ram usage after 2 hours (1.6 GB):

Please, this bug is already known for 3-4 months, and I do not want to reinstall a 2019 driver...

[Temsyze]

Weird... Perhaps I did something other than what I described, and together it gave a positive result. But the memory leak stopped exactly after disabling the quick start (for the second day I have been watching).

[fernandogomez]

Test it. Maybe this is the solution for your computer, and that's great! In fact, I can say from my own experience that the problem happens less often, but it's still there. Sometimes it happens after using the computer for many hours, and the only way to stop it is by restarting the computer.

[HKlum]

@Temsyze This was debated already countless times before on this thread months ago. Fast start, HIBERNATE AND STANDBY (mostly) trigger this issue over time. Fast start is a type of hibernate. So if you dont use hibernate and/or standby in between and have fast start deactivated, this issue wont happen (often). It still happens sometimes, mostly because of some lower standby state the CPU can enter even without going hibernate or standby.

[Temsyze]

At least it might help a little. In my case, the problem is completely solved, as can be the case with others who will do the same. I DIDN'T GUARANTEE A 100% SOLUTION!!

[HKlum]

@Temsyze No. You didnt.

[Temsyze]

Personally, it worked for me.

[Rzymianin]

Disabling fast startup and hibernation helped, I wrote about it a long time ago in this thread.
Only occasionally, when the laptop does nothing, the leakage increases sometimes, but very rarely.
The strange situation is after the latest update to version 21H1, because I no longer have the option of restarting fast startup and hibernation at all.
There are no longer these options in the system at all ...

[Sharknadoo]

Hello everyone! I'm also having issues with dwm.exe 

I don't know exactly when it started (I performed a clean install of Windows in March this year and I believe everything was still fine), however I didn't use this laptop for more than 2 months. A few days ago, I performed a clean install of Windows again, this time using 21H1 and downloaded the ''Intel Driver & Support Assistant'' tool like I usually do to install the latest Intel updates and that's when I noticed the abnormal behavior of the Windows Desktop Manager (dwm.exe). When I turn on the laptop, it only uses a tiny bit of ram (~70MB), but it increases over time to a whopping 1GB+ (and I haven't used this laptop for more than 3/4 hours straight so I don't know how much worse it can get). Like I said, all my Intel drivers are up to date, as well as Windows and GPU drivers (Nvidia). 

I'm hoping Intel can fix this as soon as possible. 

Cheers!

[ainthe]

I have this problem too.

I have personally let it run past 16 GB RAM...  on 64 GB.

I also notice that the problem only occurs for me when DWM spawns a child process, meaning the suffix is DWM-2 or higher.

Win10 will manage the memory correctly if it is DWM-1. 

The annoyance is I need to check Details in Task Manager as soon as Win10 starts because if it starts with a User name DWM-2 or higher, I will need to reboot one time to get it back to  DWM-1 or it will start eating up RAM and never let go.

[MaxHugen]

Sounds like this bug has been known about for almost ONE YEAR!

Considering how many people appear to have the same problem, it's hard to believe that Intel are even looking into this?

[vitalyplatoff]

Hi Cody! Really funny

Today I have 6 GB of DWM.................. What really happens!

It's intel fault. Because i have 10 years old Intel Core 2 Duo WITHOUT intel Graphics - And Windows 10 Pro on it - NO MEMORY LEAKS ALWAYS.......... Hope this task will be resolved.

[ainthe]

From this Intel article, it looks Intel believes it is a Window problem and they want Microsoft to fix the issue:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000058381/graphics/graphics-for-8th-generation-intel-processors.html

[Bryce_Intel]

Hey folks, as you see from my Dev's notes below, DWM leaks were said to be addressed in later versions of OS. Has anyone tried 21382 or later or Win11 and checked if the leak is still present? We're already sharing dump analysis with Microsoft and waiting for response, but if anyone has already tried or can try with a later OS build as specified, it would be really useful data if the leak is still there or not.

.:Bryce:.

__________

Bryce, both the uploaded GFlags dumps are captured on OS version 20H2. MSFT claims to have fixed DWM memory leaks in 21337 and 21382 OS versions. Escalating to Microsoft to review the indicated areas in the dumps relating to dwm and see if they're aware and if these have already been addressed, transitioning bug to MS Team.

[HKlum]

@Bryce_Intel Enough... is enough. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! We have already TOLD months ago, several times on this thread, that NONE of the dev builds fixed this: https://www.reddit.com/r/windowsinsiders/comments/nelydj/build_21382_dwm_memory_leak_worse_than_ever/

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Stalling after stalling after stalling after stalling. Intel is a multi billion $$$ company, and this issue is the WORSE BIGGEST issue since over a YEAR NOW. Intel has to put 100 people on this from their HQ in the USA. Make this THEIR TOP PRIORITY TO FIX.

So Intel is AGAIN playing PING PONG, now saying it mostly was fixed in 21382 . NO. IT WASNT.

First you want us to make dump files, where it is INTELs JOB, NOT OURS. INTELs JOB. This issue is EASY TO REPRODUCE.

Then you want us after months later to install this and that version, which is totally irrelevant. Then again months later, you want us to flag it with dev tools, where it is INTELS JOB to investigate this and it would be EASY and DOABLE in a few days by Intel to get their own dump files. And now again weeks later the answer is naah not our problem, it was fixed already by MS in a dev build. NO IT WASNT.

It is INTELS JOB not ours, to get someone at MS at the phone or video conference, discuss this issue and FIX it together.

This problem was reported countless times over the time period of last year to MS, with NO RESULT.

We also had people on here who were on >= 21382  and said it was NOT FIXED.

[LKRT]

Hello Bryce, I'm on Windows 11 build 21996.1 and the leak persists. I have also found 100% reproduction of the leak (or a new leak) on a Microsoft Surface Pro 2017 with the i5-7200U (UHD 620). Screen auto-rotate by rotating the device appears to increase wdm.exe memory usage by 200-350 MB each time, no exceptions so far. This will go up and expand into the page file until wdm.exe crashes and restarts.

I have also found higher-than-usual memory usage outside of this case, mainly by opening and closing some windows, but I haven't seen it go above ~350MB yet, although I've only been able to play around with this build for a couple of hours. It does seem to recover to about 120MB slowly after closing the windows, though.

The driver version is 27.20.100.8682.

[NewDriversPlz]

Hey@Bryce_Intel 

I'm on a company-managed machine and they'd prefer not to apply preview builds. I'll let you know if that changes. Sorry 😞

[Cody]

I watched this topic monthly if there are news... I think Intel takes it serious, and rants are not helpful imo. This is a heap problem as far I remember, and those are incredible hard to fix.

I hope that Intel found in the meanwhile  a computer where this bug is reproduceable. Reading all the posts here, it happens to many people, and at least one employee at intel should have the problem, too.

As I previously posted v.27.20.100.8476 is the last version that did not have this bug, and the next release, 27.20.100.8587 has it. If I were an employee at Intel, I would systematically test the 116 drivers inbetween on a computer that has this bug. Then, as soon I know in which version this bug first occured, I would look at the changelog and error/try which code change caused this bug. But this would just be my approach.

@intel: if you don't have a computer with this bug, I think many users here would assist helping you if you offer the intermediate drivers... like start with 27.20.100.8525 if it has it we continue with 8500, if not with 8550. This way we'd find the culprit update in no-time. You can look in the update log and give us e.g., a test version.

Sure, also the microsoft side could try to bypass this problem by recoding the dwm but don't count on them. DWM seems to be a very old part of windows and if they tinker on one place, this memory leak might be fixed but dozens of bugs may occur on another side. I think it is a intel driver problem.

Personally I gave up seeing a fix and simply roll-back the driver to 27.20.100.8476 whenever it is updated 😄

[Gabriela_Intel]

Hey everyone! Gabriela here taking over for Bryce. This was turned over to our MS Team who are continuing analysis and are better positioned to share and coop with MS on findings. The new Dev reviewed all the dumps provided so far and did find some anomalies in one of the older dumps that were provided (the largest dump) but GFlags weren't enabled by then for that dump. The Dev mentioned it would be great to get a larger dump like this with GFlags so they can use the diagnostics and dig deeper.

If anyone could, please enable GFlags then let it get to ~2GB dump (doesn't have to be that high, just over a gig at least). If you can run this on 21382+ that would be even more meaningful though not entirely necessary. With the latest driver 100.9466 please.

Getting this dump would really help development out!

Copying Bryce's previous instructions on how to enable Gflags below:

1. GFlags is included in the Debugging Tools for Windows 10 (WinDbg). Once installed, run gflags from command line. Open CMD and navigate to the gflags.exe tool path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Debuggers\x64, then select "Run as administrator".
2. In the UI, enter dwm.exe as the Image name.
3. Check the boxes – Enable heap tail checking, Enable heap tagging, Create user mode stack trace database and Apply the settings.
4. Restart the computer.
5. Reproduce the scenario and let dwm.exe accumulate memory close to 2 GB.
6. Right click on Desktop Windows Manager in the Task Manger and select “Create Dump File"

Please upload the dump and confirm which driver and OS version you captured it with.

___________

First, it's a known issue that dwm does keep things in memory -- one of it's jobs is to cache things.

Looking at one of the dumps, it's got large allocations, but only 7 of them.  I don't think this is a real repro.

Similarly, the "dwm_40_meg" dump from the user has only a few allocations of any given size.

The only questionable dump is the user-provided "dwm_1_gig" dump.  It has many many allocations of size 0x1D0.  Unfortunately no diagnostics were enabled on this dump.  Will look at it further.

[sandtechnology]

Happy to hear that MS Team working on this issue, I manged to reproduce this with gflag enabled on latest intel driver (100.9466) and Windows Pro 21H1 (OS Build 19043.1052), got 8071MB dump for dwm.exe, after compressed by 7-zip I got  404MB 7z file, hopefully this file will help debugging: https://mega.nz/file/ZhIFTYzZ#a15iQtpXTXx73yK6XNWogBegm_jrfXb91yOreH2HBHE

[HKlum]

@sandtechnology Erm WHERE was SAID MSFT is WORKING on this!? Theyre NOT.

[MrX1980]

Hello @Gabriela_Intel ,

I have already uploaded a ~1GB gflags enabled dump file (higher was not yet possible for me) with Win10 DEV Build 21390 and driver 30.0.100.9670.
See my post here:

https://community.intel.com/t5/Graphics/BUG-dwm-exe-uses-memory-leakage-with-Intel-HD-Graphics-630/m-p/1290996#M98172

Regards,

MrX1980