System and compressed memory using significant disk usage.

[The1stJewPrez]

So a few weeks ago my computer has started to have a task in task manager called "system and compressed memory" which ramps up disk usage to close to or even 100%. This happens while even no applications are open. I've read up on the current update to Windows 10 (kb3147458) causing lots of issues but didn't find anyone talking about this particular issue. I have don't all things I could find from numerous threads including shutting off super fetch, turning of specific notifications for cortana etc., changing min and max pagefile, and many others and non seem to fix the issue. I have been running Windows 10 for a long time now and have had no issues until recently. I am at a loss on what to do and have considered possibly updating bios and other steps but if anyone has been able to fix a similar issue and can help it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Colif]

Started? system and compressed memory been there the entire time you had win 10, though it was originally just called system.

It job is to speed up loading times of the programs you run the most, so when its sitting there using 100% in idle, it is moving files around so they load faster. It stops as soon as you move mouse as it also doesn't want to slow you down if you want to use pc. It also speeds up boot by doing same thing, making sure the boot programs are organised to load super fast.

Don't stop it, stopping it slows down your pc in the long run.

 

[SkyNetRising]

it is moving files around so they load faster.

Are you sure about this?
On SSD this would actually be really bad thing to do.

From what I read from this article
http://superuser.com/questions/952141/windows-10-system-process-taking-massive-amounts-of-ram
system and compressed memory process is about memory management and writing only into page file.

So - if lot of disk activity from system&compressed memory process is occuring, then perhaps system may benefit from more ram.

 

[Colif]

I am sure i read it somewhere. I will have to check...

I got it mixed up with Prefetch... I have to remember i am wrong about another thing now... it doesn't move files, it just moves little things that tell the pc what to load when the program is started.

 

[William Henrickson]

It's the fancy new Page File isn't it?

You need RAM, give your SSD a break on those writes.

 

[Colif]

In a way, it replaces the pagefile, since most people have more ram than they need. Win 10 seldom uses the actual page file now, its faster to use ram. My pc has 2gb cached right now, and 12gfb free, I doubt I ever use my page file

 

[The1stJewPrez]

Thanks for letting me know Colin, it is much appreciated. However, I am aware of what the program is "supposed" to do and why it has been implemented into Windows 10 but even in the early stages of my use with Windows 10 my disk was never above 20-30% even while playing a game, listening to music, and having search engines open. Now however, because of this program my computer is becoming increasingly slow to start up and runs like shit in general even with no apps open. Unless it is bugged I just don't see how this "feature" is benefiting me by bricking my laptop. I suppose it's also worth mentioning that I have 8gb of ram and I have no intention of adding more as this should be plenty for any tasks I have planned. Also have no SSD as its a 3 year old laptop that is still stock.

 

[SkyNetRising]

You should check health of your hard drive.
You can do it with hdtune.

 

[Colif]

Bios update might help too, check you have latest chipset drivers and SATA - easiest way is run a program like Driver Booster to see what you missing.

 

[The1stJewPrez]

As a new development I stumbled across this page, http://superuser.com/questions/949244/windows-10-high-memory-usage-unknown-reason , and I believe the issue may be a memory leak. I will test the way of remedying this later tonight and will update.

 

[The1stJewPrez]

So I now believe I have a memory leak. I went through poolmon.exe to find the culprit and its tag is EtwB. I've searched high and low to find the driver that needs to be updated for this to be fixed. Any thoughts?

 

[Colif]

look at this thread: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2006251/win-permament-100-memory.html ,particularly johbl post.. wonder if i get him in here if i add blue screen to tags

 

[Colif]

alas you probably cannot use system restore to fix it as its turned off in win 10, but it gives you a name to ETwb, its windows tracing... https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa363668?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg697147.aspx

 

[The1stJewPrez]

So would the b in etwb stand for buffer maybe? I read this thread earlier and was kindof confused because it didn't seem like they were able to fix it.

 

[Colif]

the fix was to roll back to some time before it happened, so.. yes, not a real fix we can use. Its not really helpful except it says what ETw means. I not sure about the b

still trying to work out what is using etw to create this usage. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj714799.aspx

and what etw actually is: https://aroundtuitblog.wordpress.com/2014/10/24/a-look-at-etw-part-1/

 

[The1stJewPrez]

I have a screenshot of my poolmon.exe showing bytes and whatnot. Don't know if it would be useful to you and don't know how to post a picture to the thread

 

[Colif]

I am a little out of my depth, but i will keep trying...

You can share a link via a cloud service, can even save it to onedrive and then right click link, select share and then right click chat and onedrive will let you paste link direct in here.

the fastest way to fix this is similar to what he did but not as painless, do a reset of windows 10. You can keep files/settings but you lose all your applications and need to reinstall them... and no guarantee this doesn't start again, but most people who reset don't get same problem back again.

 

[Colif]

did you try johns advice:

i think you have some event tracing going on
start a admin command prompt
use the logman.exe tool to see what logs are running and stop the ones you want

logman.exe query -ets
to show the list
then the
logman.exe stop "yourtestname" -ets

though i wouldn't know which ones are at fault

suppose you tried this already: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6pA97s28i4

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/robertsmith/2012/02/07/analyzing-storage-performance-using-the-windows-performance-analysis-toolkit-wpt/