Windows 7 Memory Leak

[Marjask]

I've found this a persistent problem: whenever I'm playing a game, it'll run fine for a period of time, then all of a sudden, I'll have what I can only call audio buzzing (due to the audio of a same clip re-triggering itself so many times as the game tries to get back to its feet), the frames begin to jitter between the last one or two, and by the time the game crashes, Windows 7 has decided to allocate a random extra 40 percent of my memory to something that it doesn't even account for.

Memory leak, anyone?

I'm running Windows 7, 64 bit edition. This is a problem I've had for a long time; I sent my graphics card in, and they said it was fine, so I can only blame either a bug in the OS, or bad memory.

Any ideas? So far, the only remedy I've found is to restart the computer. Or, for a temporary fix, open the task manager before the program crashes.

 

[dustin_ds3000]

a Memory leak would be the games problem not the OS not unless its happening on all games you play

 

[Marjask]

It's happening on all games.

 

[gbhall]

You may be right, it could be bad memory. It could also be overheating (of memory or video card or cpu). You can test for some conditions. You could for instance download a memory tester e.g. memtest86 and run it for a few hours. You could install temperature monitoring software which will stay 'on top' and watch the various temps while you play games.

 

[Marjask]

Ran tests; it's not overheating. Does that leave only memory, or could it be Windows 7's fault?

 

[gbhall]

I think memory, or perhaps other hardware fault (sound for instance, or even HDD). Windows 7 is not a very likely suspect, because it would probably not always be games associated with the problem in that case.

What exactly do you mean by open task manager to apply a 'temporary fix'. Do you just kill the app or what?

Check for new drivers for absolutely everything (motherboard, sound, video) Don't forget the bios. You may get a clue if you open task manager, sort the CPU usage column, and leave it until the problem happens, What is then using the CPU most?

 

[Marjask]

I know it seems odd, but if I catch it just as the game freezes, and I press Ctrl + Alt + Del, and then click "Task Manager", it opens up the task manager, and seemingly gives my computer just enough reprieve to recover the game, and it won't crash the program.