Win7 64 memory leak for recent releases?

[Friday Siamendes]

A freeze-up pattern started about a month ago, in which SL freezes up the entire system completely and a hard restart is required. There is no warning - I'm running at a decent fps and suddenly everything halts, even system sound.

I have encountered this in several current viewers (latest S2, Kirsten and Phoenix), and only when running SL. The complete freeze suggests mem depletion. I have tried disabling VBO, shadows, and running at mid quality, all to no avail. This did not happen when I first upgraded my system in early May, and did not happenwith my previous AMD system running Win7 64 and the same gpu.

I have gone thru recent Forum entries on crashes and freezes, but didn't recognize this specific pattern - does it sound like a current JIRA, and is there any indication of a Win7 problem specific to recent viewer releases? Any perspectives would be appreciated! Thanks.

Win7 Home Prem 64 bit

Sandy Bridge i7 2600k 3.4Ghz

8 GB RAM

Radeon 5770 w 1.2GB vram

 

[Alazarin Mondrian]

I think your problem may be elsewhere. I run Win-7 64-bit with no problems whatsoever on 2 computers and they can all run multiple SL viewers with mid-range and/or low-end graphics cards. One computer gave me sudden crash 'n' reboots after I upgraded its' graphics card. After much troubleshooting it turned out that the fan on the graphics card heatsink was stuck. A little bit of tweaking, reseating and aligning of cables, etc., solved that problem.

As in your case it was an issue that only manifested itself while running SL. Why? Because SL is brutal on your graphics card and makes it work like a dog resulting in it getting very hot. This little utility will show you what's happening under the bonnet: GPU-Z. It might be worth checking your graphics card: make sure its' fan is working properly and that it's not choked up with dust bunnies or that a cable inside your computer case has jammed itself between the fan blades.

FWIW the computers I run SL on are:

1] Intel Q6600 2.4 gHz, 4gB RAM, Nvidia GT440 w/1gB RAM, Win7 Ultimate 64-bit:

Can run 2 instances of SL easily so long as shadows are disabled. Used frequently to run SL, Cubase 5 and Edcast audio stream encoder simltaneously. Rock Solid.

 

2] Dell Dimension 8400, Intel P4-HT 630 3.0gHz, 2gB RAM, Nvidia GT220 w/512mB RAM, Win7 Ultimate 64-bit.

Can run 2 instances of SL 24/7 at 'medium' settings. Previously able to do the same with an Nvidia 8400GS w/256mB RAM!

 

I have other computers that I use for SL but they're low-end and run Win-XP so aren't relevant for this discussion.

[Crubo Carver]

Thanks I'll try that utility - my gpu probably COULD use a cleaning

[Friday Siamendes]

*screams* 

I have run several sessions using GPU-Z and it's baffling - the bipolar puter.

SL at high, 1920X1080,ran firestorm for an hour (once i disabled beta lighting and shadows). GPU load < 50%, CPU temps < 60c, fan 2000 rpm tops (< 50% capacity) even recording with fraps barely bumped the indicators.

Ran Blue Mars over an hour, high settings, 100% load, temps @ 70C, fan 60% @ 2500rpm, fraps also no problem.

Next evening: Same backgrounds running, same spacenav, same GPU indicators as above - and Firestorm freezes system in 10 min, Blue Mars freezes with Fraps - like a different computer!!!

GPU test a great idea - but that doesn't appear to be the problem. Other ideas would be most appreciated! Thanks!

[Scout Schwager]

I have been getting crashes with a Win-7 64 bit, on a brand new computer.

CPU: Intel® Core i7 CPU         960  @ 3.20GHz (3200.01 MHz)
Memory: 18423 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit Service Pack 1 (Build 7601)
Graphics Card Vendor: ATI Technologies Inc.
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series

I've been watching Task Manager more carefully, and Firestorm launches at a little over 400,000 k memory, and typicaly climbs to over 1,000,000 K in memory. Thats when it will usually crash.

Keeping graphics at the mid settings seems to help. Also a clean boot of the pc helps. It will crash more often if I have it at the higher graphics settings, and have re-started the viewer multiple times without a reboot.

[JJames Alter]

is your win7 fully updated? sp1?? im having problems too but not like your problems..

[Friday Siamendes]

Good observations - I updated Windows, still no solution, but then I updated my fraps (video recording) and the major hard drive spikes that were bringing me down went away.

I appreciate the help on learning windows resource monitor, gpu-z and other important tools. Now, as usual, I will return to keeping-my-fingers-crossed-for-the-next-crisis mode!