DWM.exe and Next PVR Issues since W10 Anniversary Update

[jwh7]

Good site to figure out what the different renders actually do. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library...2147217396

Thanks for that! Reminds me...I meant to mention that I'm using the EVR renderer with Cyberlink decoders, and I just noticed (as the wife was playing a workout DVD) that with PowerDVD going, DWM.exe uses 900MB. However, it does get released when the application is closed. My decoder setup...

[Barry10]

Even with the new DirectX updates, I still have memory increase which is only released when I reboot. I have pretty much switched to Kodi V17 and it is working very well. Today they released the Beta2 version, and so far so good. No memory increase using Kodi with players or watching TV. They have not fixed the issue of windows display set to 125%, but otherwise it plays and interfaces with NextPvr without any issues.

[2leftfeet]

I have W10 anniversary edition running on 7 desktops, a laptop and tablet - with no DWM.exe memory issues, that is until today. While watching a news show, a message popup appeared stating that the client PC was "out of memory". Sure enough, after checking task manager, DWM.exe turns out to be the culprit.

I tried the DirectX download link recommended above and tried to install it. However, the install process said that my currently installed version was newer than that already installed and the installation was automatically terminated. Like others, the only way to regain use of the memory hogged by DWM, was a re-boot.

[anothernewbie]

... Like others, the only way to regain use of the memory hogged by DWM, was a re-boot.

You can just kill dwm.exe using task manager. On my Win 10 setup, dwm automatically restarts and other than a brief black screen, all open windows are unaffected.

[jwh7]

I tried the DirectX download link recommended above and tried to install it. However, the install process said that my currently installed version was newer than that already installed and the installation was automatically terminated. Like others, the only way to regain use of the memory hogged by DWM, was a re-boot.

Ya, that web installer (besides trying to trojan Bing BS alongside it...) doesn't let you just 'reinstall'. This is the actual full download (DirectX Runtime June 2010) I use: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download...px?id=8109

Also, you don't need to reboot to release the memory for DWM; logout (Sign Out) will suffice.

[2leftfeet]

After more investigation, I have found that the DWM.exe issue is more pervasive than I originally thought. It has infected many, but not all of my W10-Annivsery PC's. Why some, but not others is baffling. I need to analyze what is differences between those PC's having the issue and those that do not.

What I have discovered so far is:
1. the directx re-install provided by jwh7 doesn't seem to fix the issue for me.
2. running npvr in windowed mode dwm.exe's memory use is stable, whereas, running in full screen mode has an immediate impact -
I ran a test in windowed mode for 30 minutes and dwm.exe's memory usage did not budge. Then switched to full screen mode and dwm.ex memory usage jumped over 6X in only 5 minutes (14.0 MB to 93 MB).
3. Like others, no problemo with VLC, in either windowed of full screen mode.
4(Edit). Trocadile's trick of changing renderer VMR7 does work for me as well in full screen mode.

Why would npvr in full screen mode cause DWM.exe to suck up resources, while in windowed mode, not so?

[sub]

Why would npvr in full screen mode cause DWM.exe to suck up resources, while in windowed mode, not so?

I don't know - no idea. It's sounding like some bug in the EVR renderer or something though. VLC probably uses the equivalent of VMR7 for drawing it's frames, so you don't see the problem there.

[Trocadile]

Why would npvr in full screen mode cause DWM.exe to suck up resources, while in windowed mode, not so?

Something I noticed when exploring this issue (before switching to VMR7): in windowed mode, DWM memory use would start rising steadily, then, when I moved the mouse/cursor, it would stabilize and not start going up again until I left the mouse alone for a while. So, if I was working in some other window on a mouse-intensive activity, it would not ever become a problem. Obviously, in full screen mode, this would not apply.

I leave it to smarter people than me to figure out the significance of this.

[2leftfeet]

5. I have also confirmed that neither the Kodi client or HDHomerun VIEW have this issue while running in full screen mode.

6. Googling Microsoft support, I see that others, including Microsoft support have seen DWM.exe memory issues on certain games that are "borderless", i.e. full screen on the anniversary issue. How and if that translates to an actual fix is another story.

7. There appears to be no rhyme or reason why certain PC's exhibit the issue and others not. On all my Intel cpu/mb PC's, the problem exists, on the AMD PC's, some have the issue and others don't. Both new and old video cards exhibit the issue whether nvidia or AMD.

I never had issues like this with W7.

It seems that Microsoft has violated the 2nd law of engineering - it was working, then they fixed it, now we have W10.

[Barry10]

Applications are slaves to operating systems. I set compatibility mode to windows 8 (did not try 7) and it was much faster and smoother, even speeded up channel changes. Have no idea why, to early to tell on the memory issue.

Just bring up windows 10 troubleshooting and under programs select Run programs made for previous versions of windows, selected NextPVr and I set it to windows 8. big improvement for me until something else breaks.

************** Note the compatibility mode change did not fix the DWM memory issue **************

Time to move on!