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svchost.exe memory leak...

SkyCaptainSkyCaptain IndianaRegistered User regular
edited May 2010 in Moe's Stupid Technology Tavern
http://www.technibble.com/how-to-fix-svchost-using-100-cpu-memory-leak/

Is this legit? If so, can I apply the fix to Vista 64 bit? I am pretty sure I have the problem, since there is a svchost.exe that is up to 170k.

The RPG Bestiary - Dangerous foes and legendary monsters for D&D 4th Edition
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    DedianDedian Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    170k? or is that 170M?

    Plus, page says right there: Windows XP only.

    Dedian on
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    SkyCaptainSkyCaptain IndianaRegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Durr, I'm dumb. Thanks. And it is 170k K actually... so, 170,000 K.

    SkyCaptain on
    The RPG Bestiary - Dangerous foes and legendary monsters for D&D 4th Edition
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    LuvTheMonkeyLuvTheMonkey High Sierra Serenade Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    If you have a rogue service eating memory and want to find it, I would recommend using Process Explorer. In fact I would recommend having it installed at all times. Anyways, it will give you extreme amounts of detail about what's currently running on your system, and will detail what processes a specific svchost.exe instance is hosting. I don't think it can drill down and tell you exactly how much memory each service is using (thought I might be wrong), but it will narrow it down to a single group of services, which should give you a good starting point.

    Edit: a good workaround for splitting each of the services in question onto their own svchost.exe instance can be found here.

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    SkyCaptainSkyCaptain IndianaRegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    I did some googling and turned off SuperFetch. It loads frequently used programs into memory, attempting to predict that you'll be using it soon. I'll try out the Process Explorer tomorrow.

    SkyCaptain on
    The RPG Bestiary - Dangerous foes and legendary monsters for D&D 4th Edition
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    DedianDedian Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Things in memory are faster than things on disk. That's what SuperFetch is doing, and in general it's good to leave it running... though, I think 7 does it better than Vista, but I don't remember where I read that :)

    Dedian on
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    General_WinGeneral_Win Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    SuperFetch is awesome and has nothing to do with svchost.

    General_Win on
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    DedianDedian Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Err... Superfetch runs as a service under SVCHOST...

    Dedian on
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    finalflight89finalflight89 Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Turning off Superfetch is bound to make your computer slower.

    finalflight89 on
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    SkyCaptainSkyCaptain IndianaRegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    The problem with SuperFetch is that it's taking up memory resources with programs I might not even run for days. It's guessing what programs I might run and loads them into memory. My most frequently used programs are often video games that are huge. The only slowness I've noticed is when I first open a program, it may take an additional 20-30 seconds to open. Not a huge deal imo to ensure that the only programs that are in memory are those that I am using.

    SkyCaptain on
    The RPG Bestiary - Dangerous foes and legendary monsters for D&D 4th Edition
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    TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Unused memory is wasted memory. If your system ends up needing more memory, it'll dump SuperFetched stuff you aren't using and fill the space with stuff you are.

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    StormwatcherStormwatcher Blegh BlughRegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Having Superfetch on is a billion times more efficient than having it off. You get no benefit from an empty memory other than looking at the Task Manager monitor and feeling good.

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    General_WinGeneral_Win Registered User regular
    edited May 2010
    Dedian wrote: »
    Err... Superfetch runs as a service under SVCHOST...

    THIS is news.

    General_Win on
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    DedianDedian Registered User regular
    edited May 2010
    What? Svchost is the host process for running services.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svchost

    SuperFetch is a service, whose memory usage will show up as svchost.exe

    Dedian on
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    StormwatcherStormwatcher Blegh BlughRegistered User regular
    edited May 2010
    It's still awesome though

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    SkyCaptainSkyCaptain IndianaRegistered User regular
    edited May 2010
    Tofystedeth wrote: »
    Unused memory is wasted memory. If your system ends up needing more memory, it'll dump SuperFetched stuff you aren't using and fill the space with stuff you are.

    I use programs that take up all the memory anyway and it has to dump the superfetch'd stuff before it can load and open the program I'm using.

    SkyCaptain on
    The RPG Bestiary - Dangerous foes and legendary monsters for D&D 4th Edition
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    StormwatcherStormwatcher Blegh BlughRegistered User regular
    edited May 2010
    SkyCaptain wrote: »
    Tofystedeth wrote: »
    Unused memory is wasted memory. If your system ends up needing more memory, it'll dump SuperFetched stuff you aren't using and fill the space with stuff you are.

    I use programs that take up all the memory anyway and it has to dump the superfetch'd stuff before it can load and open the program I'm using.

    I guess you're agreeing with Tofy then?

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    SkyCaptainSkyCaptain IndianaRegistered User regular
    edited May 2010
    Why let SuperFetch load programs that will have to get dumped anyway to make room for the programs I do use?

    SkyCaptain on
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    finalflight89finalflight89 Registered User regular
    edited May 2010
    If you use those programs often enough, it's probably going to Superfetch those ones.

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    projectmayhemprojectmayhem Registered User regular
    edited May 2010
    This thread makes me want Superfetch.

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    finalflight89finalflight89 Registered User regular
    edited May 2010
    Windows 7 does a lot more cooler things than Superfetch. :P

    finalflight89 on
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    General_WinGeneral_Win Registered User regular
    edited May 2010
    SkyCaptain wrote: »
    Why let SuperFetch load programs that will have to get dumped anyway to make room for the programs I do use?

    It doesn't load random programs into memory, it learns what you use the most and preloads it. If you're constantly using firefox, well its going to prefetch that. If you stop using firefox and switch to chrome, well it will stop prefetching firefox and start prefetching chrome.

    It also has no performance hit AT all. So if you're thinking that it is causing you problems, then your problems lie elsewhere.

    General_Win on
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    Hel975Hel975 Registered User new member
    edited May 2010
    There is another utility that shows processes loaded using scvhost.exe http://www.neuber.com/free/svchost-analyzer/index.html

    By the way, was your problem solve by shutting down SuperFetch?

    Hel975 on
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    SkyCaptainSkyCaptain IndianaRegistered User regular
    edited May 2010
    Yes, it was. I don't have one svchost.exe leeching memory over time and never letting it go. I will probably turn SuperFetch back on and use one of the tools linked to find out which service that uses svchost was the one creating the memory leak and disable that one instead.

    SkyCaptain on
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    DedianDedian Registered User regular
    edited May 2010
    I bet ya a silly goose it was SuperFetch

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    StormwatcherStormwatcher Blegh BlughRegistered User regular
    edited May 2010
    Then it wasn't working right, someone was out of whack

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    AzioAzio Registered User regular
    edited May 2010
    SkyCaptain wrote: »
    Tofystedeth wrote: »
    Unused memory is wasted memory. If your system ends up needing more memory, it'll dump SuperFetched stuff you aren't using and fill the space with stuff you are.

    I use programs that take up all the memory anyway and it has to dump the superfetch'd stuff before it can load and open the program I'm using.
    That is trivial.

    Azio on
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    Mr_RoseMr_Rose 83 Blue Ridge Protects the Holy Registered User regular
    edited May 2010
    Azio wrote: »
    SkyCaptain wrote: »
    Tofystedeth wrote: »
    Unused memory is wasted memory. If your system ends up needing more memory, it'll dump SuperFetched stuff you aren't using and fill the space with stuff you are.

    I use programs that take up all the memory anyway and it has to dump the superfetch'd stuff before it can load and open the program I'm using.
    That is trivial.

    Also, how do you know the superfetched stuff isn't the programs you use? Because that's what superfetch does.

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