Windows 7 runs out of memory and becomes unuseable...NOT CHECKDISK

windows-7 memory crash

11,086

Solution 1

this is happing with ALOT of Windows 7 systems and it has to do with the wmpnetwk.exe. my friend streams media to his computers and Xbox. we see that this process uses one core and ALL of the memory and the computer crawls to a stop. Start up in safe mode and turn OFF media sharing. pressing ctrl+shift+esc will bring up the task manager and look if this is indeed the problem. at least this might get you going enough to find another solution if this doesn't help... Good Luck!!!

Solution 2

Run Task Manager before this happens, set it to always-on-top, sort processes by VM Size. (Task Manager automatically sets its own priority as 'high'.) Then wait for the "explosion" to happen.

Solution 3

Use Task Manager to find the guilty program:

Go to the processes tab, then the menu entry of View / Select Columns, put a checkmark next to "Memory - Working Set", and click OK. Back in Processes, click twice this column to sort it by descending order.

Watch this when the problem happens.

Solution 4

After a long search for why ehvid.exe would use all available resources on my Windows 7 64bit machine, the solution for me was removing the thmb directory which was tried due to a suspicion there was a corrupt TVThumb.db

cmd.exe /c "rmdir C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\thmb /s /q"

Unsuccessful attempts included 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7:

ending the process tree
waiting out the ehvid.exe to 'finish'
uninstalling patch kb955519
deleting all files in Recorded TV
deleting folder named something like C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\mcepg#-# and file named something like C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\mcepg#-#.db
installing different codecs

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11,086

Author by

Stephen

Updated on September 17, 2022

Comments

Stephen almost 2 years

My Win7 Pro x64 machine sometimes will begin using all memory and then becomes unuseable. I have 8GB installed, and "normal" is for 2GB or so to be used. Sometimes, I can see in my memory usage graphs (gadget) that it spikes all the way up to 8GB within 30 seconds and then constantly has activity on the HDD as if the problem is still going on. The computer is unuseable at this point and I must reboot.

It doesn't happen often or anything, but it is very annoying. When it has happened, I am using IE8, Chrome, or Firefox...it doesn't seem to matter. Sometimes it does it when no apps are running at all.

My config: Core2Quad Q6600, stock speed Nvidia 780i MSI motherboard, stock speed 8GB Corsair XMS2800, stock speed Nvidia Geforce GTX295, stock speed Soundblaster Xfi Platinum PCI Avermedia Duet dual ATSC/QAM PCIe NEC PCIe USB2 controller (ATI DCT not compatible with 780i) ATI Digital Cable Tuner with SDV box 150GB WD Raptor, 5 other hard drives, LG BD-RE drive

What's always running: Steam, Logitech KB/M tray apps, AVG
davr over 14 years

Quicker way: Press ctrl+alt+delete and click 'start task manager'. Even quicker way: press ctrl+shift+escape
Stephen over 14 years

Task Manager runs, but when it goes into "memory usage explosion" mode nothing works as the HDD is busy writing said explosion to virtual memory for hours and hours.
harrymc over 14 years

The trick is to start Task Manager before this happens, and have it either visible all the time or minimized.
Stephen over 14 years

RAM and page file are 16.5GB together!
UNK over 14 years

Steam isn't that much of a hog. Any more than 1gb of RAM and you won't notice it. OP has a little over 1gb.
Benj over 14 years

Ah, that's a well known system hog. If you google it, you'll find alot of people complaining about how much system resource it uses. I don't suppose this happens when you start recording a program does it?
Stephen over 14 years

No, actually long after a recording has been made and when the TV tuners are not even in use!
Nathan L. over 14 years

Use MSCONFIG to find out what services are running. If you see a particular one you don't reckognize, google it. If it's unneeded for you, tell it not to start.
Stephen over 14 years

It's not that exact process, but it is always one of the ehome processes. If I reboot the machine the problems don't happen...they only happen after 12 hours or so of leaving the machine on. Works for now until MS plugs the leak.
mike over 14 years

so i got the check? .. but no point up?? did it fix the problem? if its not that, then use msconfig.msc to stop the unwanted process.