WoW causing "low amount of memory left" caution when still having ~5GB free memory

[Nerph-]

Hello Computer wise people things!

So the last month, to be precise since the pre patch and expansion, after my PC has been on for a while if I start WoW, either pretty much immediately or after 30 odd minutes, I'll get a Windows caution pop up that I have little memory left and I need to close the following application(s): World of Warcraft. Now when this happens I have about 5GB of ram being unused (so it happens when I hit the 11GB / 16GB mark approx.).

I notice over time, leaving my PC on, RAM usage builds up slowly (I don't leave WoW open, but have other things open like my browser, Skype, µtorrent, Discord), so I'm having to reboot my PC nearly every day to "reset" the RAM usage buildup, so that I can run WoW without having this windows caution pop up. The one time I ignored it, I blue screened after a few minutes (unfortunately I can't remember what the error was).

Anyway, I've ran WoW both with and without addons, and it doesn't seem to change the fact I get this caution when I still have a load of RAM available.

I'm currently running memtest86 to check there is nothing wrong with the RAM itself, but after 2 passes it's yet to show an error.

So, I've come to you lot. What could be causing this? I mean it's not really a pain having to reboot every day, but still I feel it's an error I shouldn't be getting when I have 16GB of ram and 5GB of it not being used...

Let me know if you need any hardware info etc. I'll provide what I can.

[Deleted]

Hello Computer wise people things!

So the last month, to be precise since the pre patch and expansion, after my PC has been on for a while if I start WoW, either pretty much immediately or after 30 odd minutes, I'll get a Windows caution pop up that I have little memory left and I need to close the following application(s): World of Warcraft. Now when this happens I have about 5GB of ram being unused (so it happens when I hit the 11GB / 16GB mark approx.).

I notice over time, leaving my PC on, RAM usage builds up slowly (I don't leave WoW open, but have other things open like my browser, Skype, µtorrent, Discord), so I'm having to reboot my PC nearly every day to "reset" the RAM usage buildup, so that I can run WoW without having this windows caution pop up. The one time I ignored it, I blue screened after a few minutes (unfortunately I can't remember what the error was).

Anyway, I've ran WoW both with and without addons, and it doesn't seem to change the fact I get this caution when I still have a load of RAM available.

I'm currently running memtest86 to check there is nothing wrong with the RAM itself, but after 2 passes it's yet to show an error.

So, I've come to you lot. What could be causing this? I mean it's not really a pain having to reboot every day, but still I feel it's an error I shouldn't be getting when I have 16GB of ram and 5GB of it not being used...

Let me know if you need any hardware info etc. I'll provide what I can.

Are you by any chance running Windows 10? I've noticed ever since a few days before Battlefield 1 came out that my uncompressed memory gets larger and larger when running games. I have a hunch it might be a faulty update by Microsoft suddenly giving me out of memory errors.
Sitting on 16GB's aswell

[Triggered Fridgekin]

If you pop open the task manager does it say what's potentially hogging your memory? Sounds like a good old fashion memory leak.

Are you on Windows 10 and using a motherboard with a Killer network card by chance?

[Nerph-]

Are you by any chance running Windows 10? I've noticed ever since a few days before Battlefield 1 came out that my uncompressed memory gets larger and larger when running games. I have a hunch it might be a faulty update by Microsoft suddenly giving me out of memory errors.
Sitting on 16GB's aswell

Yes I am running Windows 10. 2 days ago I updated to the anniversary update, hoping that would fix it, but no luck it seems. So you're getting out of memory errors too?

I'll do some googling and see if other Windows 10 users are having the same issue and see if there has been a fix posted for it

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If you pop open the task manager does it say what's potentially hogging your memory? Sounds like a good old fashion memory leak.

I looked in the Resource Monitor and noticed Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (mbamservice.exe) using over 400MB's one day, and then 800 the next day. I'm wondering if I should actually be running MBAM while I'm using Kaspersky AV as well. Come to think of it, I started getting these errors not long after I installed Kaspersky AV, if my brain remembers when I installed it right.

[Ringthane]

You should be able to run Malwarebytes and an AV client together - I've done it lots of times. It's possible that something in Kaspersky is conflicting with WoW. Maybe try reinstalling it and see what happens.

[Triggered Fridgekin]

I looked in the Resource Monitor and noticed Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (mbamservice.exe) using over 400MB's one day, and then 800 the next day. I'm wondering if I should actually be running MBAM while I'm using Kaspersky AV as well. Come to think of it, I started getting these errors not long after I installed Kaspersky AV, if my brain remembers when I installed it right.

They shouldn't create issues with each other but if this began at roughly the same time in which you installed KIS then you could either remove or disable it from start up to see if the issue persists.

Other than that, there are several other sources which may cause this. Disabling SuperFetch is usually the first thing I do when I get a new PC since it's usually more trouble than it's worth but I'd wait for someone with more knowledge to weigh in on this before poking around with services.

[Nerph-]

You should be able to run Malwarebytes and an AV client together - I've done it lots of times. It's possible that something in Kaspersky is conflicting with WoW. Maybe try reinstalling it and see what happens.

Alright, I'll give that a shot.

- - - Updated - - -

They shouldn't create issues with each other but if this began at roughly the same time in which you installed KIS then you could either remove or disable it from start up to see if the issue persists.

Other than that, there are several other sources which may cause this. Disabling SuperFetch is usually the first thing I do when I get a new PC since it's usually more trouble than it's worth but I'd wait for someone with more knowledge to weigh in on this before poking around with services.

I'll disable SuperFetch first and see if I get any errors. If I still do, then I'll try removing Kaspersky AV and see if that changes anything.

I'll get back to you all asap with results.

[Deleted]

Yes I am running Windows 10. 2 days ago I updated to the anniversary update, hoping that would fix it, but no luck it seems. So you're getting out of memory errors too?

I'll do some googling and see if other Windows 10 users are having the same issue and see if there has been a fix posted for it

- - - Updated - - -



I looked in the Resource Monitor and noticed Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (mbamservice.exe) using over 400MB's one day, and then 800 the next day. I'm wondering if I should actually be running MBAM while I'm using Kaspersky AV as well. Come to think of it, I started getting these errors not long after I installed Kaspersky AV, if my brain remembers when I installed it right.

I started getting out of memory during Battlefield 1 beta. Battlefield hogging 4-5gb ram and uncompressed sitting at 5-6gb

[Deleted]

What is your paging file size?

IIRC those errors can surface if programs commit memory (taken from RAM plus page file) but haven't used (all of it) it yet. Since the program hasn't touched (some of) the memory it is still backed by the "zero page" and not actual RAM (hence free memory).

However since it could be used any time the whole space is reserved and requests for new memory can't be satisfied because they would exceed RAM+page file.

[Deleted]

as mentioned if there is no pagefile set you will get memory low errors even when you have memory left, then again if some memory leak in program eats all the available memory, I use RAMMAP to check clear all the memory it can (manually) and continue playing programs/games reload what they need back when needed.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Is your page file less than a gigabyte?

[Cows For Life]

It could just be Windows being stupid. IIRC the low memory warning comes up at a set percentage no matter how much absolute memory you have. I think it can be turned off via group policy if you have Windows Pro.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

It could just be Windows being stupid. IIRC the low memory warning comes up at a set percentage no matter how much absolute memory you have. I think it can be turned off via group policy if you have Windows Pro.

It could be, but is usually fixed by extending the size of the page file.

[Thunderball]

Is your page file less than a gigabyte?

IIRC pagefile size when controlled by Windows 10 itself cant go below 3GB.

[Captain Fizz]

No need to run MBAM as a service, unless being silly with advert sites.

Pop into Task manager -> Startup (or even better Autoruns) and disable anything you don't need to run at boot.
Whilst there can disable the Windows Media player update service etc if you don't share music from the PC...

See if your RAM leak stops.
If it does, re-enable "nice to have's" and see if it starts creeping up again.

[Accendor]

What Network drivers are you using?
I had nearly the same problem and it came down to this: https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/co...r_memory_leak/

Baiscally what happens is that you network traffic that lands in your RAM gets not deleted correctly after it was used.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine got the exact same problem. Solved it the same way.

I would suggest you try that, but careful: FIRST download the new driver THEN uninstall the old one ;-)

[Nerph-]

What Network drivers are you using?
I had nearly the same problem and it came down to this: https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/co...r_memory_leak/

Baiscally what happens is that you network traffic that lands in your RAM gets not deleted correctly after it was used.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine got the exact same problem. Solved it the same way.

I would suggest you try that, but careful: FIRST download the new driver THEN uninstall the old one ;-)

Seeing as I have the exact same network driver as the OP of the reddit post, I'm giving this a go first. Let's hope it solves the issue

[Deleted]

I had similar issues with a similar setup (also a killer network card). I just put more RAM in it, and it sorted itself. I was running 8GB, now 16, but it seems you're already running 16. I wish I could be of more help than just saying "Yep, me too". I hope you can fix it.

[Nerph-]

It seems updating the killer network drivers has solved it... for now. PC has been on idle for over 24 hours and is using 6.6GB RAM, before it would have been accumulating up to ~9GB easily.

However, I did notice when playing WoW yesterday that it was using nearly 4.5GB of RAM... I do have 24 addons installed (some UI compilation pack + a few other addons), but has any one else noticed WoW using up so much RAM?

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

It seems updating the killer network drivers has solved it... for now. PC has been on idle for over 24 hours and is using 6.6GB RAM, before it would have been accumulating up to ~9GB easily.

However, I did notice when playing WoW yesterday that it was using nearly 4.5GB of RAM... I do have 24 addons installed (some UI compilation pack + a few other addons), but has any one else noticed WoW using up so much RAM?

It uses about 2.3 GB for me, I don't have many addons though.